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Greenbelt Alliance In the News
June 6, 2003
A plan for Coyote
Editorial
Byline
Imagine a city built from scratch correcting the many mistakes in California's
development past.
Jobs close to housing, shopping and mass transit within walking distance,
high-density development surrounded by open space. No sprawl anywhere.
The idea is not that far-fetched. The Greenbelt Alliance has come up with
such a plan for Coyote Valley. If development must occur on San Jose's
last tract of farmland, the alliance argues that it should environmentally
responsible.
In other words, the most high-tech city in the nation should not rely
on antiquated planning concepts for an area being watched by the nation.
The alliance began work on the design project a year ago after San Jose
Mayor Ron Gonzalez, friend to developers, excluded the group from a task
force planning Coyote's future. That there is time to plan at all is due
to the slump in the tech sector, which caused Cisco Systems to delay its
20,000-person campus in the north end of the valley. That move would have
triggered housing development as well.
Coyote's 6,800 acres are a blank slate. The Greenbelt Alliance takes for
granted that development will occur there sooner or later. On Tuesday
it released its aptly named report: Getting It Right, Preventing Sprawl
in the Coyote Valley.
Ultimately, San Jose expects 50,000 jobs in Coyote Valley, 20,000 houses
and apartments, 16.7 million square feet of office space and a population
of 80,000 - the size of Morgan Hill and Gilroy combined. San Jose's current
plan for development puts jobs in the north and housing in the south,
which the alliance report says continues the community's reliance on the
automobile.
Greenbelt Alliance's vision for Coyote Valley counts on rapid bus, light
rail, Caltrain and even BART to ease San Jose's automobile traffic. Under
the proposal, nobody in urban Coyote Valley would be more than 15 walking
minutes from public transportation. High-rise and high-density housing
would preserve open space. Jobs and housing would mix.
The Greenbelt Alliance should be commended for striving to make our communities
more livable, for working to preserve the green hills and open space that
increase the quality of our lives.
The plan might have flaws, but it corrects many more. We hope that the
planners in charge of Coyote's future - and ours - will consider its concepts
seriously.
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