The downside of building a suburb for 80,000 people in Coyote
Valley includes more traffic and smog for South County
residents.
Morgan Hill – The downside of building a suburb for 80,000 people in Coyote Valley includes more traffic and smog for South County residents.
But the plus side for Morgan Hill could be many more shoppers living within driving distance of the city’s retail hubs.
Gilroy, too, could benefit from the shopping dollars, as the garlic capital pursues an aggressive schedule to approve a 100-acre-plus mall within the next three years.
But then there’s smog. Bad air already plagues the region – San Martin violated federal standards for ozone levels seven times in 2006 – and the impact of constructing a city the size of Mountain View is, clearly, hazy.
Weighing the pros and cons of plans to bring 25,000 homes and 50,000 jobs north of Morgan Hill and west of U.S. 101 is now in the hands of the public. The long-awaited $2 million Coyote Valley environmental impact report, paid by developers, was released April 2. It’s now being circulated for public comment. Morgan Hill and Gilroy are gearing up to review and critique the lengthy document and comment on the entire project from head to toe.
The objective is to “think big” while also addressing acute traffic problems and other issues raised in the EIR.
“There are trade-offs,” said Morgan Hill Community Development Director Kathy Molloy Previsich said, adding the city is preparing to hold a May 30 Coyote Valley workshop before the regularly scheduled city council meeting. “The point is, we are not only commenting on the EIR, but on the whole (Coyote Valley) Specific Plan. We’re looking at what’s best for Morgan Hill.”
Bill Faus, Gilroy’s planning manager, said his office has been fielding requests for copies of the EIR on disc. Faus said Gilroy is developing a process by which to review and comment on the document.
The EIR finds 90 significant impacts, including traffic jams at Monterey Road and Old Monterey Road, Monterey Road and San Martin Avenue and Monterey Road and Masten Avenue.
While San Jose planners offer ideas to soften the jams like new turning lanes, the draft EIR basically sees heavy freeway traffic as a “significant unavoidable impact” of the Coyote Valley build-out.
Significant noise and air-quality impacts would also result from Coyote Valley construction. Trucks hauling soil, sand and other loose materials would contribute to poor air quality – and the proposed project would exceed the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s safety standards. According to the regional agency, San Martin already had the second-highest peak reading and the third highest average reading for ozone levels in 2006.
“Any development causes air-quality issues, but the sheer density of this one is a concern,” said Joe Mueller of Morgan Hill, a member of the South County Joint Planning Advisory Committee, which focussed it’s meeting last week on Coyote Valley.
Supervisor Don Gage, chair of the committee and a member of the Coyote Valley Task Force, a 20-person group helping to develop the Coyote Valley vision, said traffic, water supply and sewage treatment are likely to affect South County residents the most. New sewer lines would need to be constructed, he said, adding to the growing expense of the project. The initial infrastructure for phase one of the Coyote Valley project is now projected to be $2 billion.
San Jose planners are also reacting to the EIR. Darryl Boyd, the city’s principal planner, said he and his co-workers are refining the Coyote Valley plan based on information coming out of the EIR. For instance, planners originally envisioned baseball fields near the corner of Santa Theresa Road and Bailey Avenue, but the Santa Clara Valley Water District wants to keep the land open for ground-water management.
There’s also the matter of finding agreeable locations for two high schools that would be part of the Morgan Hill Unified School District. Original plans to located the schools next to each other drew criticism from district officials.
Boyd said planners have some degree of flexibility to change the original land-use plan without negating the EIR.
“We can move some of the pieces around,” Boyd said, “to minimize the environmental impact.”
The EIR will also give San Jose officials a better idea of the cost estimates associated with Coyote Valley. Retooled financial estimates, based on the various mitigations for environmental impacts, are expected in August.
While San Jose planners have expanded the public comment period on the EIR to June 29 from June 1, there’s no word on how long it will take for them to respond.
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE
Build-out of Coyote Valley is important because its 7,000 acres are San Jose’s last bastion of open space. Its economic and environmental impacts on the city of San Jose and surrounding areas could be drastic.
