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Greenbelt Alliance In the News

September 20, 2004

LAND-USE GROUP SAYS MUCH MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE

Coyote Valley outline knocked

The area's leading land conservation group is giving unsatisfactory marks to the Coyote Valley planning effort, charging that many key issues haven't received enough attention and others are headed in the wrong direction.

The San Jose City Council will consider the plan's first progress report at its meeting Tuesday after a presentation that outlines four defining elements: an artificial lake at the town center; a free transit system on a fixed guideway; a relocated Fisher Creek; and a vehicle parkway that would loop through the valley.

The most ambitious planning effort in the city's history is being done by a 20-member task force guided by the city planning staff and a consultant team headed by the Dahlin Group and KenKay Associates. The task force has been meeting for months to determine how 7,000 acres of mostly rural land in the southern reaches of San Jose should be transformed into a city of about 75,000 people.

While acknowledging that the planning is in the early stages, the Greenbelt Alliance issued a report card this week giving parts of the draft plan C's, D's and incompletes.

"There's so much work that could be done to make it look like a better plan," said Kyle Simpson, the group's South Bay program coordinator. "This is a very important time in the process."

Laurel Prevetti, a deputy planning director for the city, said she was disappointed in getting the group's report card.

"They are expecting us to be further along in our process than we really are," she said. "A lot of things are incomplete because we're still in the process of developing the plan. I'm a little disappointed that they aren't working with us."

The group's 16-page analysis compares the Coyote Valley draft plan to its own standards -- outlined in "Getting It Right," a document released in June 2003 -- along with the city council's standards spelled out in a vision statement of 15 expected outcomes.

The non-profit agency gave the draft a grade of incomplete, saying it would not reduce dependency on cars, protect open space or promote agriculture. It also said the plan would not guarantee that 20 percent of Coyote Valley housing will be affordable and ensure that financing is available for such community facilities as health clinics and child care centers.

It gave grades of C or D to other areas, warning that developing a plan based on these ideas would lead to sprawl. The alliance believes the plan would segregate housing and jobs, build roads that would divide neighborhoods and discourage walking, and create an expensive transit system that might not meet demands.

Prevetti said she believes that in some cases the alliance is "jumping to conclusions that are not supported by evidence given at community meetings."

Tuesday's presentation and discussion will focus on the four key design elements, said Prevetti, who also cautioned that some may prove to be too costly or impractical after further study. "We still have a lot of work ahead of us."

IF YOU'RE INTERESTED

The San Jose City Council will discuss the Coyote Valley plan at its evening session, which begins at 7 p.m. in the council chambers at City Hall, 801 N. First St. More information can be found at www.sanjoseca.gov/planning or www.greenbelt.org.
Contact Janice Rombeck at jrombeck@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5944.

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