October 19, 2007

Community turns out to discuss San Jose’s future

Groups present ideas to task force, consultants

By Carol Rosen
Editor

About 250 people crowded into city council chambers on Saturday, Oct. 13 to discuss their vision for San Jose’s future. In fact, one man came all the way from Geneva, Switzerland.

Members of MIG Consulting Group (Moore, Iacofano, Goltsman Inc.) list the 30 groups’ reasons why they like San Jose, the city’s key issues, opportunities and priorities and what will make San Jose a great city 20 to 30 years from now. Photo by Carol Rosen

After a short address from Mayor Chuck Reed and an explanation of the visioning purpose and outcomes, the people divided into 30 groups including several each for those speaking Spanish, Vietnamese and Cantonese as well as English. There were also a couple of groups consisting of young people: teens and college students.

The groups took nearly two hours to discuss what they liked best about San Jose, what they decreed as key citywide issues along with the opportunities and priorities that should be addressed over the next 20 to 30 years. And, finally what they thought will make San Jose great in the future.

The meeting is part of Phase I of the city’s Envision San Jose 2040, which will update the General Plan. The Community Visioning Workshop is one of several meetings that will be held to present the citizen’s view of what the city will look like. The 37-member task force will use the data to guide them in determining the general plan update.

The first and current phase of the project is to identify issues and the vision, analyze existing conditions, develop alternatives and evaluate selections. That phase is scheduled to last through September 2008. The second phase, from September 2008 through January 2009, will set goals and policies, develop and refine those goals and policies, draft the general plan, draft the environmental impact report, do a final review and take it to the city council for adoption.

The task force went through the same exercise, said Stan Ketchum, from San Jose’s Planning Department, to brainstorm and identify the important issues to consider. He expects to hold up to four other community workshops to see what residents expect in the way of where and how much new growth the city can see; analyze and determine where the growth should occur; and discuss questions about transportation.

As for Saturday’s workshop, Ketchum said, “I think it met all our expectations. It was everything we hoped for. We were all pleased with the turnout and with the diversity of the audience and the entire presentation, we even had a group speaking Mandarin.”

When the 30 groups returned to the council chambers each had copies of the three lists they had developed. Many of these were quite extensive, but most included some of the same items.

One of the items that appeared on most, if not all, of the lists discussing what the groups liked best is San Jose’s diversity, its multi-cultural atmosphere, A large number also cited open space, the mixture of farmland, parks and trails. Others added the availability of quality services, the economy, safety, responsible government, climate, educational services such as the library system, the trend toward improving the environment and turning the city green as well as pocket communities that provide the best of both worlds—living in a small community in a big city.

The list for issues, opportunities and concerns the city officials need to pay attention to was even longer. Many of these took elements from the best of San Jose and expanded them for the future. For example, a number of the groups cited the various communities making up the city as being one of the best things about living here. For the second topic, they broadened that issue to include tying in all the neighborhoods for a No Neighborhood Left Behind scenario and alternate methods of transportation.

Task force co-chair and Councilmember Sam Liccardo greets the more than 250 community members attending the Community Visioning Workshop. Photos by Carol Rosen

Other issues and opportunities included public safety, traffic, fiscal stability, natural resource management, maintaining historical elements and history, expanding the city center, affordable housing, small business affordability and commercial space for small businesses, cultural identity preservation, health care infrastructure—a downtown hospital for example, extending library hours with a volunteer force, universal WiFi across the city, safety and cleanliness of schools and less overcrowding of schools, more online resources and more trees and parks.

There also were a large number of different answers to the final segment, making San Jose a great city 20 to 30 years from now. That list includes more tourist attractions, event promotions, museums and cultural events, more public gathering places, sustaining and producing more energy than is needed, urbanization, strong education system partnering with business, state-of-art transportation system, strengthening neighborhoods and agricultural lands, day care for all jobs, a central park and expansion of current parks, strong existing communities and shorter work hours.

Once consulting firm Moore, Iacofano, Goltsman Inc. prepares a summary of the data, the task force will combine it with the ideas it has come up with to prepare its vision statement and a guide to the general plan update.

Ketchum expects at least three to five more community workshops and meetings to help the task force examine and depict its final goal. While no others have yet been scheduled, he expects the next one to take place after the first of the year.