South Valley residents have another champion in the fight for a
voice in San Jose
’s plans to develop Coyote Valley.
South Valley residents have another champion in the fight for a voice in San Jose’s plans to develop Coyote Valley.
Local Realtor, Rebecca van Dahlen, was appointed last week by the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors, to a seat on the Technical Advisory Committee, a subcommittee of the Coyote Valley Specific Plan Task Force.
Van Dahlen said she was looking forward to her first TAC meeting Thursday, July 29, from 3:30-5 p.m. at San Jose City Hall. Last week she spoke to the Morgan Hill School District board about the urgency to have its wishes considered before plans are set in concrete.
“The district had better get on the ball to make its requirements known,” van Dahlen said.
MHSD, which includes Coyote Valley and north to Bernal Road in south San Jose, would need to build as many as 10 new schools of all levels and has found that planners are considering multi-story schools with playgrounds on top and on small lots, not at all the vision the board has for the largely rural district.
Though the effect of the development’s 80,000 new residents, 50,000 jobs and 25,000 homes on Morgan Hill and its school district is expected to be great, the main task force only has two members representing even part of South Valley.
County Supervisor Don Gage’s job covers Coyote Valley down to Gilroy; former school board trustee Russ Danielson lives in San Jose and owns a business in Morgan Hill.
After van Dahlen said the plans would effectively be set by July 29, trustee Shellé Thomas said she would write a more forceful letter to San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales outlining the district’s requirements concerning school size and funding.
“We must make sure to write down what we want and what we do not want,” Thomas said.
Board President George Panos had written a letter on May 4 to Gonzales before a South Valley group of officials, including Superintendent Carolyn McKennan, went to visit him. The letter asked for a seat on the task force.
Panos said at the board meeting that Gonzales received the delegation graciously and offered to listen to their concerns but did not offer a seat on the task force.
On June 1 McKennan sent a letter to Sal Yakubu, the chief planner, detailing the student numbers expected from the proposed housing units and said sites recommended were not acceptable.
McKennan said Monday that in her role as a member of the Technical Advisory Committee, she attended a meeting of the committee Thursday, during which members representing what would make up the infrastructure of the development talked about requirements and concerns.
“The site plans are important, as is the funding,” she said. “I expressed that no matter who will be responsible for the schools, whether our district or its own district or another, the source of funding for the schools is vitally important.”
In what would be a major hurdle for Coyote Valley planners, the district has been investigating whether or not to cut Coyote Valley out of the MHSD, forcing it to form its own district. However, the facts and figures on which the board could make an informed decision will not be ready for at least 60 days, McKennan said.
“We don’t want to burden the Morgan Hill community with Coyote Valley school costs,” McKennan said. “We must do something before the facts are ready.”
She had been unsuccessful in finding out how Evergreen School District schools were funded. Evergreen is a successful planned community which is being used as a partial model for Coyote Valley.
Van Dahlen said she will certainly take Morgan Hill’s concerns with her to TAC meetings; McKennan is also a member of the TAC.
The upcoming meeting will look over results from the last public workshop, also including regulatory feasibility, ecological sustainability, cost versus value, inertia – how does it start?, developability – how does it grow?, risk, social equity – in jobs and housing – accessible health care and the valley’s contribution to the San Jose area.
Traffic will be a major item at the July 29 meeting, van Dahlen said, both in the valley and in the surrounding areas, plus a healthy life style, walkability and an equitable spread of costs and benefits, all to be covered in an hour and a half meeting.
