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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
June 2003 Greenbelt Alliance Outlines Plan for Preventing Sprawl in Coyote Valley
California BylineThe high-tech industry slowdown obsoletes the current plans to develop the rural 6,800-acre Coyote Valley between south San Jose and north Morgan Hill in three separate industrial, residential and greenbelt sections, states the San Francisco-based Greenbelt Alliance in its ''Getting It Right: Preventing Sprawl in Coyote Valley'' report, telling officials and developers that if they really must take the valley for the projected 50,000 jobs, 25,000 housing units and 80,000 residents, they should at least implement New Urbanist and Smart Growth principles of mixed-use, high-density and pedestrian-friendly development. The report, notes Gilroy Dispatch writer Jonathan Jeisel, envisions a neo-traditional town center of high-rises with offices and housing atop ground- floor retail stores; transit-oriented neighborhoods with fully mixed uses and services to reduce car dependency; an average density of 28 units per acre, at least 20 percent of them affordable for low-income residents, but dispersed across the area to promote inclusiveness; an 860-acre network of regional, community and neighborhood parkland, including hillside ''view corridors;'' almost 3,000 acres of protected agricultural land; and 3,300 acres in the valley's south permanently preserved as a greenbelt buffer for Morgan Hill. Since San Jose has already issued land-use permits for an industrial campus in the valley's northern third, it would likely have to renegotiate the development deals, the writer observes, finding at least one developer ready to do so. Sobrato Development Corp. chairman John Sobrato likes the idea of developing the northern 1,100 acres for mixed uses and suggests the same for the adjacent 500-600 acres. Morgan Hill Mayor Dennis Kennedy lauds the report for its thoughtful model of smart growth, hoping San Jose will implement the ideas and also scale development down somewhat. -- Gilroy Dispatch 6/4/2003 ### |
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