Alternative plan one of five worldwide winners
Gilroy – An alternative plan to San Jose’s Coyote Valley Specific Plan has been honored with a 2005 Charter Award by the Congress for the New Urbanism.
“Getting it Right: Preventing Sprawl in Coyote Valley,” was one of five plans honored for benefiting communities through urban design. The other award winners are projects in Virginia, China, Australia and India.
“This is a tremendous opportunity for San Jose,” Greenbelt Alliance Executive Director Tom Steinbach said. “San Jose’s leaders can use “Getting it Right” as a tool to make Coyote Valley a national model of good planning.”
San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales and his planning staff envision Coyote Valley as a transit and pedestrian friendly town of 25,000 homes, 50,000 jobs and 80,000 residents highlighted by a man-made lake and new parkway. City officials say they will develop their plans over the next 20 or 30 years, but the mayor recently suggested expediting residential development in the area.
Greenbelt representatives say the lake and parkway are expensive, unnecessary features that could be financially ruinous to the city. Their plan calls for slower, measured growth and stronger environmental protections for the 6,800 acres on the city’s southeastern edge.
It also includes funding mechanisms for affordable housing and community health clinics.
San Jose planners are currently studying “Getting it Right” as they begin work on Coyote Valley’s environmental impact report, which should be completed later this year.
“The San Jose city council has said that Coyote Valley should represent a smart-growth community by being an urban, pedestrian-friendly mixed-use community,” said Michele Beasley, South Bay field representative for the alliance. “You would think, then, that it would be completely logical to include Getting it Right as an alternative in the EIR given that the purpose of the specific plan process is to design a community based on smart-growth principles.”
The Congress for New Urbanism is a Chicago organization that champions walkable, mixed-use cities as alternatives to urban sprawl. According to its Web site, its planning honors are bestowed by a jury that considers how “plans and projects respond to and integrate with their environment and, consequently, how they improve the human experience of blocks, neighborhoods, and regions.”
The next meeting of the Coyote Valley Specific Plan task force is Monday, June 20, at 5:30pm, 151 W. Mission St., San Jose.
