A View from 90 E. Second Street
The Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce recently gave feedback on San Jose’s Coyote Valley’s Draft Environmental Impact Report, which highlights impacts on existing roads and parks.
Despite requests by South County agencies, adequate details addressing this issue are not provided in the report.
With the report identifying more than 90 significant impacts, and at least 20 that cannot be mitigated, air quality is perhaps one of the most important concerns of all. Our air quality is critical to both the short and long-term health of every living being within our region and makes it a critical issue to be addressed in the report in more depth than what is currently included. Relevant to this concern and something to consider is re-planning mass transit routes between businesses, Caltrain, schools, local retail, event centers and housing, which could eliminate the need for non-fixed pathway vehicles such as busses. Mass transit solutions other than surface transportation should be considered, due to the need to maximize use of land area.
The chamber is especially concerned with the phasing of the project, as we believe it is a key attribute to mitigating the effects of impacts on Morgan Hill. The report does not define development phases for Coyote Valley. Thus, the incremental impacts that will result from that phasing are unknown, and that makes it difficult for its neighbors to the south to foresee them. Phasing as it impacts the economic viability of infrastructure, as well as the evolving impacts during progression to full build-out, is also not addressed. The chamber agrees with the City of Morgan Hill that phasing and implementation plans necessary to adequately assess impacts are either missing or incomplete.
In addition, there is also concern about water supply. There is a genuine concern regarding where fresh drinkable water would come from and how it is to be delivered. Another concern is where storm and rainwater accumulation is to be released, and are there specific guidelines as to treatment of this water before it is sent to the Bay via Coyote Creek. The proposed pond would be one way of capturing runoff, but how is this water to be treated? Will there be circulation within this pond to keep it from being stagnant? How clean must this water be before it is released into Coyote Creek? And are there any plans to filter this water and reuse it for non-potable uses such as irrigation? The chamber, again, supports the City of Morgan Hill’s concerns regarding the report’s water supply section and agrees that section should be revised to include a description of the proposed project’s water supply and address all of our concerns regarding water and the Coyote Valley project.
The chamber recommends the report be revised to address our concerns and re-circulated. While the chamber sees the potential of a positive economic impact on Morgan Hill and South County, in general, the major South County concerns, along with phasing of development and the inadequacy of mitigation measures are the reasons the chamber reached this conclusion.
Finally, the chamber would also stress the need for as much inclusion as possible in the continuation of this extremely important decision-making process. While it is our understanding that outreach has been made, and many conversations have taken place, including countless task force and stakeholders meetings, there needs to be an even more extensive effort made to include everyone who will both suffer and gain from this project now, while it is being planned. Twenty, 30, 40 or 50 years from today will be too late to say, “I’m sorry.”
Dan Ehrler has been serving as the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce executive director for two years and has been the chief executive officer for various chamber of commerce organizations in California for more than 20 years. Contact him at de*****@********ll.org or at (408) 779-9444.
