October 22, 2004

Coyote Valley Task Force discusses development

25,000 new homes, 50,000 new jobs

By Shari Kaplan
Staff Writer

Every month the Evergreen Visioning Project task force agonizes over the optimal amount, type and location of housing to recommend for the last remaining major parcels of land in Evergreen. Should it be 5,000, 6,000 or 7,000 more new homes? Apartments, condos or single family homes? What are the trade-offs?

Yet perhaps unbeknownst to many in Evergreen, our neighbors just to the south of us in San Jose’s District 2 are going through a similar process, with much higher stakes.

The 20-member Coyote Valley Specific Plan (CVSP) Task Force first met in September 2000. Now it meets monthly to discuss the CVSP, considered a prerequisite to the development of 7,000 acres in Coyote Valley, much of which is undeveloped land.

Coyote Valley is projected to eventually generate an almost unfathomable 50,000 new jobs and 25,000 new homes for renters and buyers, including lofts, condominiums and single-family abodes. Twenty percent will be reserved as affordable housing, according to a city mandate.

Morgan Hill roughly borders the CVSP area to the south, Tulare Hill to the north, Highway 101 and foothills to the east and hills to the west.

The area in consideration is further broken down into three portions: the North Coyote Valley Campus Industrial Area (1,400 acres), the mid-Coyote Urban Reserve (2,000 acres) and the South Coyote Valley Greenbelt (3,600 acres).

Council approves progress report
The planned urban community is envisioned as a place where people can live, work, play and go to school predominantly by walking, bicycling or taking public transit. Consultants project the development will cost between $600 and $800 million, not including costs related to services such as public safety, schools or parks.

At this month’s Oct. 4 meeting, San Jose District 2 City Councilmember Forrest Williams, who co-chairs the task force with Mayor Ron Gonzales, announced that the task force had presented its Coyote Valley Specific Plan Progress Report to the San Jose City Council during the council’s regular Sept. 21 session.

The report carried two recommendations: first that the council accept the draft version of a composite framework that identifies potential infrastructure elements for the proposed Coyote Valley community; and second, the reaffirmation of the council’s direction on the preparation of the CVSP. Williams said the council gave its approval and that “they’re consistent with the parameters” of the progress report.

Coyote Valley Area

Land use issues
The meeting then moved into an information exchange about Coyote Valley land use issues that task force members felt should be officially discussed at the upcoming Nov. 8 meeting. Issues include:

- How much acreage is needed to accommodate the 50,000 jobs the development is proposed to generate?

- Would a smaller lake or no lake at all be more cost-effective than the one proposed large, focal-point lake?

- How much would Coyote Valley’s various residential, retail and recreational attributes be within “walking distance” of each other?

- Would there be revenue-generating features like golf courses and community gardens?

- In the adjacent hillsides, would public trails be overused and, if so, what effect would that have on their rural character?

- What if retail and residential rent is so high that fewer renters move in than expected?

- Will enough space be available for community services such as daycare and other programs for children, senior citizens and the disabled?

- What will become of the property along the east side of Monterey Highway that was annexed to San Jose in 1958 but has yet to be developed as promised?

Land use plan options
Next on the Oct. 4 agenda, Doug Dahlin presented a slide show on land use plan options and approaches. Dahlin is president and founder of the Dahlin Group, an architectural planning firm and a lead member—along with KenKay Associates—of the CVSP’s consultant team.

The presentation reported a summary of current land use principals and assumptions. These included the appropriate buffering space between the Metcalf Power Plant and residential land, maintaining the Coyote Hamlet area as a unique historic neighborhood and maintaining a distinct rural break between San Jose and Morgan Hill.

Other principals and assumptions included in the presentation were the need to maintain existing industry-driven work opportunities; preserve, protect and transition around existing neighborhoods; and achieve the greatest intensity and mix of uses (commercial, residential and recreational) at the community’s core.

Task force members discussed various options relating to a number of topics. These included thoroughfare diagrams of the roles Highway 101, Monterey Highway, Santa Teresa Boulevard and Bailey Road will play in the CVSP, in addition to public transit options.

They also explored neighborhood-building principals, building heights and parking structure (at, above or below ground) formats as well as the placement of large retailers and playing fields in or out of the Coyote Greenbelt. The idea of one large high school or two smaller ones also came up. The task force did not reach any agreement, which was permissible, given that no action has to be taken at this point.

Public comment section
Topics arising from the public comment period focused on a number of fears expressed by Coyote Valley landowners. Some fear property loss or depreciation, others, the lack of a specific plan for the inclusion of houses of worship.

The Coyote Valley Alliance for Smart Planning expressed concerns that the task force is not including enough provisions for the area (including the Coyote Greenbelt) south of Palm Avenue.

The Committee for Green Foothills is worried that wildlife migration patterns may be damaged if wildlife corridors are destroyed or altered. The also expressed concern that the community’s proposed lake may become a stagnant pond in overly dry summers or part of a flood plain if Anderson Reservoir overflows as it has in the past during very wet winters.

“Incomplete” on Greenbelt Alliance’s report card
Although no members of the Greenbelt Alliance spoke at the Oct. 4 meeting as they have during previous meetings, the group sent the task force a “report card” with the other Oct. 4 support materials on the CVSP Web site.

The plan thus far earned disappointing grades from the Greenbelt Alliance, a Bay Area-based nonprofit whose mission is to protect open space and promote livable communities. Its 16-page “Getting It Right? A Report Card on the Coyote Valley Specific Plan Process” focused on two major concerns.

First, the Greenbelt Alliance felt seven key issues in the planning process have not received adequate attention, earning the task force a grade of “Incomplete.”

Second, in six areas where the alliance did find enough information to conduct evaluations, it issued only Cs and Ds, with the prediction that the CVSP is likely to cause too much pollution and urban sprawl unless these six issues and areas are addressed or improved, respectively.

A copy of the report card is available on the CVSP meeting information page at www.sanjoseca.gov/coyotevalley/info.html.

The last Coyote Valley Specific Plan Task Force meetings for 2004 will be Nov. 8 and Dec. 13. Both take place at 151 W. Mission St., Room 202 and run from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The public is welcome.

Detailed agendas for each meeting are available online a few days before each meeting. Past agendas, PowerPoint presentations and other support materials are also available online.

For more information, visit www.sanjoseca.gov/coyotevalley/index.html on the Internet or call (408) 277-4576.