March 11, 2005

Coyote Valley Specific Plan community meeting previews EIR, offers public commentary

By Shari Kaplan
Staff Writer

Despite rainy weather on the first two Coyote Valley Specific Plan (CVSP) community meeting dates of 2005, held on Jan. 6 and March 3, more than 100 people braved the elements to attend.

Coyote Valley homeowners, some who also own agricultural land, joined residents of Morgan Hill and South San Jose, areas that border the southern and northern ends of the valley. Members of environmental and educational organizations, and people just plain curious about the proposed plans for this large-scale urban development, also attended.

The January meeting provided an overview of the conceptual land use plan and design concepts, while the March meeting offered an opportunity “to discuss the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) process for the Coyote Valley Specific Plan.” Additionally, the March meeting’s agenda identified reasonable alternatives to the ‘proposed project’ to be considered by the City Council for inclusion in the EIR.

Joe Horwedel, CVSP EIR team deputy director, led the March meeting with assistance from Susan Walsh, CVSP project team member and San Jose senior planner.

Slideshow and EIR details
Horwedel narrated a slideshow, which provided background information on the California Environmental Quality Act and the requirements and contents of the EIRs that the Act mandates.

Those contents include a project description, an existing physical environmental setting, significant environmental impacts (direct and indirect, short- and long-term, cumulative and unavoidable), mitigation measures, project alternatives, growth-inducing impacts and significant unavoidable impacts.

“It’s a very lengthy, complicated process—the highest level of environmental review,” Horwedel said of the EIR, on which he said his five-member team expects to be working for at least another year.

This spring, he explained, the EIR Public Review Process gets underway. It began this month with early consultation meetings. Later this spring comes the CVSP’s public “notice of preparation,” followed by “public scoping” of various valley attributes.

September 2005 is the tentative month a draft EIR will be available for public comment, according to Horwedel, with January 2006 set for the release of the first EIR amendment and February 2006 the first San Jose Planning Commission EIR hearing.

March 2006 is the earliest the San Jose City Council is scheduled to hear the project. In between now and then, the EIR Team, the Project Team and the interdisciplinary Coyote Valley Specific Plan Task Force will hold many meetings, and give the public many opportunities to share feedback. The public did just that on March 3, bringing up a wide variety of topics.

Public commentary
Robert “Bob” Benich, a Morgan Hill planning commissioner, was among the first to speak. “The schedule that you just put up seems to be very aggressive. I think that if you’re going to publish a draft EIR of that magnitude in only six months, I think you’re really pushing the schedule,” said Benich, who wished the EIR team good luck in this venture before moving on to his second statement.

“Contrary to what Mayor Gonzales has stated about most of the traffic coming from the north, I think that is not very accurate. It seems to me most of the traffic is going to be coming from the south—San Benito County, Gilroy, San Martin [and] Morgan Hill,” he continued.

“I hope the traffic report and the consultant that you choose to do the traffic report will specifically address the traffic that’s going to be coming from the south, because that’s where the people can afford to live. They’re not going to be coming from the north.”

George Thomas, a Morgan Hill resident and lifelong Santa Clara County resident, also shared dual concerns, the first of which echoed Benich.

“I agree with what was just said. Before the freeway was widened here recently, all the streets in Morgan Hill were clogged, starting at 5:30 in the morning, mostly by people from Hollister, Los Banos, Greenfield and Santa Cruz, and that’s only been alleviated a little bit. It’s already been backing up in the mornings at this section without Coyote Valley even being considered. So, I think your roads need to be examined all the way to Los Banos—and improved,” Thomas said.

“The second thing, it seems to me, is that this project should be in downtown San Jose, which is almost a ghost town. You have the infrastructure, and the environment would be least effected out here, including air qualify and transportation—if you locate it where you already have the infrastructure,” he added.

Morgan Hill Unified School District Board of Trustees President Shelley Thomas revisited an educational issue. She said the district is concerned about the number of acres available for building schools, which is already less than she feels it should be. She said the district is concerned about the effect a populous Coyote Valley might have on the quality and quantity of schools available to students in the area.

Environmental impacts?
Another attendee brought up water-related concerns, citing that the South County area doesn’t have enough reservoirs, and those that do exist aren’t in optimum condition. She wondered where a sufficient supply of water would come from to serve the proposed Coyote Valley development, especially since during drought years, it’s been difficult enough watering the cities that already exist. Horwedel said that the EIR Team and local water districts are looking into the issue.

Sarah Muller, who did not state her city of residence, asked several questions. One related to whether the EIR team would consider some of the points mentioned in “Getting It Right: Preventing Sprawl in Coyote Valley,” a comprehensive document relating to environmental impacts published last year by the nonprofit Greenbelt Alliance.

“We haven’t decided yet whether that is going to be a full-blown alternative in the EIR or whether we’ll take the defining characteristics of that plan and integrate it in,” Horwedel replied, referring to “Getting It Right.”

Virginia Holtz, a member of the League of Women Voters of San Jose-Santa Clara, said the League is concerned that the Habitat Conservation Plan has not yet been completed. She stressed that it should be an integral part of the Coyote Valley EIR, and that the EIR should not be completed without it.

Horwedel, explaining that the HCP is part of the Endangered Species Act, said that habitat and endangered species issues are not being overlooked by the City of San Jose. The city is meeting and working, in various degrees, with the Valley Transit Authority, the county of Santa Clara, the Santa Clara Valley Water District, the California Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Gloria Chun Hoo, a member of the Friends of the Coyote Valley Greenbelt, turned in an official letter from her organization, which she requested be reviewed by the CVSP Task Force. She also highlighted five issues from the letter:
• Examine both the positive and negative impact of re-routing streams and waterways, including the relocation of existing habitats and the creation of new ones.
• What is the relationship of a cross-valley aqueduct with PG&E transmission lines?
• Determine increased traffic and necessary roadway improvements.
• What are the potential negative impacts between the mid-valley urban reserve and the southern greenbelt, how can the greenbelt be protected and is it possible for some agricultural opportunities to remain?
• The EIR should not include any greenbelt land use alternatives that would allow any further planned development in that area.

Legal challenge
Almaden Valley residents Bob Hughes and Bob Boydston spoke in tandem. Hughes said his neighborhood has been wading through similar civic and environmental issues relating to the sports playing fields to be built on McKean Road.

“My recommendation to you folks is the only way to challenge an environmental impact report if you don’t like it, which I’m sure many of you have many objections to, is mobilize legal resources, because you’re heading for a lawsuit,” he said.

Boydston is concerned for the welfare of Almaden Expressway. He questioned whether it would be able to handle the increased traffic generated by Coyote Valley, especially since parts of it are already below standard.

The connection Boydston refers to is a “backdoor” one, where Almaden Expressway becomes Almaden Road, from which McKean Road can be taken through the hills and around Calero Reservoir until it reaches Bailey Avenue, which in turn runs through the southern portion of Coyote.

About the CVSP

The Coyote Valley Specific Plan is considered a prerequisite to development in the Coyote Valley Urban Reserve, located in South San Jose south of Metcalf Road between two portions of the San Jose Greenbelt. Santa Teresa Boulevard and Monterey Highway run through the region. The Coyote Valley Urban Reserve is situated between the North Coyote Campus Industrial Area and the Coyote Greenbelt to the south.

The planned urban community is projected to span approximately three miles from north to south and two miles east to west and create a minimum of 25,000 homes and 50,000 jobs. Housing will include single-family residences, condo complexes and lofts. Approximately 20 percent of housing will be reserved for “deed-restricted, below-market-rate units.”

Other attributes of the community include retail and commercial businesses of all kinds, playing fields, parks, trails, a focal point lake and recreational water features, fire stations, schools, community gathering places, libraries and houses of worship.

The Task Force’s vision is to make Coyote Valley a place where people can live, work, play and go to school predominantly by walking, bicycling or taking public transit. Consultants estimate the planned urban development’s infrastructure costs at more than $1 billion, but consider the concept as financially feasible due to the expected revenue generated from businesses and from the sale and rental of residences, along with the estimated contributions from outside financing sources.

The next regular CVSP Task Force meetings are set for March 14 and April 11 at 5:30 p.m. Both take place at 151 W. Mission St. in downtown San Jose. This spring, the Task Force is expected to present its third progress report to the San Jose City Council. The next community meeting is tentatively scheduled for May 31 at 7 p.m. at the Coyote Creek Golf Club.

The Coyote Valley Specific Plan Web site, www.sanjoseca.gov/coyotevalley, posts detailed agendas and PowerPoint slideshows several days before all Task Force and community meetings. A full library of past meetings’ and progress reports’ agendas, summaries, slideshows and other support materials are also available online. Those without Internet access can request that select documents be faxed or mailed to them by calling (408) 277-4576.