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Home Resource Center In the News Home Greenbelt Alliance in the News |
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Greenbelt Alliance In the News
August 22, 2003 Task force reconvenes on Coyote Valley issue The rural area in South San Jose would include a new corporate campus for Cisco BY RADHIKA KAUSHIKEnvironmentalists fear cookie-cutter sprawl threatens the 6,800-acre open space of the picturesque Coyote Valley on San Jose's southern edge. So, last week the Coyote Valley Specific Plan Task Force met for the first time after a six month hiatus to address the issues of unfettered sprawl and urban planning. The Greenbelt Alliance, a Bay Area land conservation and urban planning nonprofit organization, recently released its report "Getting it Right: Preventing Sprawl in the Coyote Valley." The plan integrates urban development and preserves productive farmland in Coyote Valley. The city's independent task force, headed up by San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales, appears to have welcomed such a framework, based on principles of integrating affordable housing, shopping and jobs in urban planning. The 20-member task force, hand-picked by Gonzales, includes developers and at least two people with environmental backgrounds, but no transportation experts. Last week, the task force merely reviewed the work plan for the fall. However, their return to the planning table after six months signals a renewed effort to study and investigate issues surrounding the development of Coyote Valley. "We're now beginning to collect highly technical information regarding the existing conditions in Coyote Valley [including] biology, hydrology, geology, traffic studies, infrastructure and land use. This will help us understand the existing situation in Coyote Valley and identify the potential challenges for development," says Laurel Prevetti, San Jose's deputy director of planning service. However, Prevetti warns that "it is way too early to be talking about specific projects. The plan [outlined by the task force] is expected to be considered by the city by December 2005." The cost of task force implementations will eventually be borne by property owners in the area. And the task itself is enormous. "This is an exciting opportunity to plan a new community from ground up. This is the next frontier of San Jose and it will take us awhile to develop it," says David Vossbrink, communications director for the mayor's office. Environmental groups, such as the Sierra Club and Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society, question the balance of such task force discussions presumably because the make-up of the task force is weighted toward development, environmentalists charge. "The [task force] will continue to have meetings and allow very good debate and discussion, but very little will come out of it. And that's because development interests are so closely aligned together," says Craig Breon, executive director for the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society. "The Greenbelt Alliance has done great work [in outlining it's vision for Coyote Valley], but [the task force] will not take it seriously enough." However, Jessica Fitchen, South Bay field representative for Greenbelt Alliance, believes it isn't enough to simply oppose all development. "What's done is done," says Fitchen, referring to the controversy surrounding the selection of the task force members. "Since we can't stop developers from going in there to develop the area, we might as well have a plan laid out for them to follow."
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