Since the official groundbreaking ceremony on Oct. 18,
construction on new Sobrato High School has been progressing fairly
steadily, though there have been some delays, said Planning
Principal Rich Knapp, who has been on the site almost daily.
Since the official groundbreaking ceremony on Oct. 18, construction on new Sobrato High School has been progressing fairly steadily, though there have been some delays, said Planning Principal Rich Knapp, who has been on the site almost daily.
“The building pads have been completed, and now they are ready to finish placing the utility corridor,” he said.
Knapp said one side of the site’s corridor is completed, and crews are waiting for the state to approve removal of a house before they can complete the other side.
The rough grading on the school’s athletic fields is completed; the wiring and irrigation for the fields can’t be put in until the final grading is done.
“The utilities have been stubbed up to the fields, but they need to do another pass (with the grader) before they are finished,” Knapp said. “We now have approval that all toxins have been removed, and by toxins I mean fertilizer.”
Once the grading and the second utility corridor are complete, “then they are ready to start the foundation,” he said.
District officials have more “prep” work to do as well before the project can be completed.
The family of Ann Sobrato donated land to the school district to build the high school on, but the city of San Jose claimed the property was in the green belt area and filed a lawsuit against the district and the city of Morgan Hill challenging the decision to locate the high school there.
The site is just north of Morgan Hill on approximately 124 acres on the east side of Monterey Road, north of Burnett Avenue.
The district has exercised eminent domain in acquiring two main parcels necessary for the school, the Shintani property and the Miyasaka property, both located north of Burnett Avenue, between Monterey Road and Highway 101, south of the Sobrato site. Eminent domain was also used to acquire the Reggiardo property.
Eminent domain is a legal procedure whereby a government agency can acquire private property for the “greater public good.” A judge or jury decides the value of the property after appraisals are made.
Several more properties must be acquired by the district in order to meet the conditions of the supplemental Environmental Impact Report (EIR).
The district is still negotiating the purchase of West parcel, the Irish Construction parcel and the City of Morgan Hill parcel, all of which are needed to widen Burnett Avenue, as required by the supplemental EIR.