As Ann Sobrato High School students struggle to get their
stadium campaign to be taken seriously, the city of San Jose is
studying a 15-field soccer complex on 70 acres adjacent to
Sobrato’s football field.
As Ann Sobrato High School students struggle to get their stadium campaign to be taken seriously, the city of San Jose is studying a 15-field soccer complex on 70 acres adjacent to Sobrato’s football field.
Sobrato students, led by senior Vicky Perry, have collected more than 900 signatures from students and community members who support a stadium built on Sobrato’s football field. Now, Sobrato players hold home games at rival Live Oak High School’s Richert Field. Sobrato’s field is in San Jose city limits, and in the Coyote Valley Greenbelt, to boot. Only the Sobrato campus and back parking lot are within Morgan Hill’s city limits. San Jose Planning Manager Joseph Horwedel said an environmental review on the soccer complex project would be completed in 2010.
Visitors could access the complex from Monterey Highway or Burnett Avenue, through Sobrato, according to a 2007 Notice of Preparation. For the complex to work, the city would have to rezone the land from agricultural to public park and open space while retaining the Coyote Valley Greenbelt. The project proposes a complex containing up to 15 soccer fields, parking, portable concession trailers and restrooms. An entry building, tournament offices, and storage facilities would be in modular buildings. Anticipated environmental effects include traffic, air quality, noise and vibration, other “significant unavoidable impacts” and “significant irreversible environmental changes.”
Still, Perry was not too pleased to hear about a proposed soccer complex next to the football field where she and her peers are trying to get a stadium built.
“We’ve been going and talking to people about the football stadium and we keep hearing they don’t want to build on it because it’s the greenbelt. And they’re talking about building a full complex. Whether there’s lights or not, it’s super frustrating. It just doesn’t add up and doesn’t make sense,” Perry said.
Horwedel was quick to mention the settlement agreement reached between San Jose and Morgan Hill Unified School District that precludes a football stadium just south of the proposed site for the soccer complex. The agreement resulted from a lawsuit brought against the district for proposing to build Sobrato on San Jose land that was in the Coyote Valley Greenbelt.
“As part of the original settlement, (Morgan Hill Unified) agreed to not build major facilities, to not have lighted fields or utilities brought into the greenbelt,” Horwedel said.
The settlement agreement also granted the city of San Jose the remaining balance of the Sobrato property that is now being considered for the soccer complex, east of Monterey Highway and north of the city of Morgan Hill boundary.
Horwedel said his staff doesn’t support lighting for either soccer or football fields in the greenbelt.
“That level of intensity starts making it an urban use,” he said. “Essentially, it’s a policy decision. If we say yes to doing that – a soccer field or football field – what does that mean to the rest of the property inside the greenbelt? Would they be open to development?”
San Jose Councilman Ash Kalra, who represents the district where the proposed soccer complex and Sobrato are located, doesn’t support development in the greenbelt. Even if the city of San Jose were on board, Morgan Hill’s Board of Education would have to find the funding to build a stadium. Lights alone cost $30,000 each.
Horwedel said while the Monterey Highway site has gotten a lot of attention in the past, the city is in varying stages of study of a few other locations for the soccer complex as well. One of these is near the Mineta San Jose International Airport. The San Jose Earthquakes will build a soccer stadium in the airport’s vicinity, and Horwedel said a soccer complex near it would make sense and be much more central for San Jose’s taxpayers.
Morgan Hill Mayor Steve Tate is both an advocate for Sobrato’s football stadium and the placement of San Jose’s soccer complex next to it.
“That would be good for people. The demand for the (Outdoor Sports Center) is huge,” Tate said, referring to the Outdoor Sports Center, where about 10 fields are ready for multiple game play, including soccer. “Having more playing fields anywhere is good, in my opinion. The demand is so great (from) the kids,” Tate said.
