Working draft due sometime in August
Morgan Hill – The long-awaited policy guide for developing Coyote Valley is missing-in-action after San Jose planners delayed their distribution on Monday until August.
The delay was a surprise for members of the Coyote Valley Specific Plan Task Force, who arrived at their meeting June 12 expecting to take home copies of the working draft. Instead, they were treated to a slide show presentation of land-use schemes.
San Jose Senior Planner Susan Walsh said the draft’s delay is needed to allow more time for editing the massive plan. But she added the extra wait shouldn’t be too frustrating to curious stakeholders, inasmuch as the city availed working drafts of a related – and more lengthy – Planning Areas Appendix to the public Monday. The appendix, available at www.sanjoseca.gov/coyotevalley, gives textual and visual detail of how land would be used in 12 geographical regions of Coyote Valley.
“It would have been too much information at one time,” Walsh said, alluding to the hundreds of pages contained in each document. “It’s better to send out this appendix first.”
Taskforce member Pat Dando said she wasn’t sure why the plan has been delayed. But she said reading the appendix alone would take up much of her time over the next three months.
“I think it will take the summer to decipher this,” said Dando, president of the San Jose/Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce and a former San Jose City councilwoman.
Developing the Coyote Valley Specific Plan has been a long and complicated process. The 20-plus member taskforce was appointed by the San Jose City Council in August 2002 to guide the preparation of a comprehensive plan for the future of Coyote Valley, containing some 6,900 acres between the metropolis and Morgan Hill. The region is the city’s last frontier, so to speak, of largely undeveloped land. It includes 3,500 acres in greenbelt lands that would remain untouched.
The purpose of the comprehensive plan is to make development feasible for hundreds of property owners in Coyote Valley. For more than 30 years, the valley has been classified as an urban reserve to allow San Jose to maximize its interior infrastructure.
Now, as the city looks to develop to the south, a preliminary economic study released in April shows Coyote Valley’s property taxes would be a cash cow for San Jose. However, Santa Clara County Supervisor Don Gage, a task force member, has raised some concern over the report’s rosy outlook on housing prices. If the market declines, he’s pointed out, surplus tax revenues could dry up.
The economic report will help inform how quickly development is phased. In any case, Walsh said, it could take 30-50 years for the valley to be built-out.
With this in mind, Loma Prieta Sierra Club director and task forcemember Melissa Hippard doesn’t mind waiting two more months for a working draft of the specific plan.
“This is about absorbing growth. It’s very important they take their time and get it right,” Hippard said.
The environmentalist said she hopes to focus attention on green issues including the health of Coyote Valley’s water table, which she thinks could be prone to pollution if development isn’t carefully monitored.
Added Hippard: “We have a lot more work to do.”
Coyote Valley Meeting
June 21, 6:30-8:30pm
Almaden Community Center
6445 Camden Ave., San Jose
Specific Plan: The public is invited to an overview of the Coyote Valley Specific Plan, including background on the plan’s development over the past four years. A working draft is due out in August from the San Jose Planning Department. City staff will be on hand to entertain questions.
Tony Burchyns covers Morgan Hill and Santa Clara County for The Times. Reach him at (408) 779-4106 ext. 201 or tb*******@mo*************.com.
