When it’s finally completed 20 or 40 years from now, the Coyote
Valley community being planned north of Morgan Hill will include
several sports fields, two high schools, roads, parks and open
space around the town’s lake center.
SOUTH SAN JOSE
When it’s finally completed 20 or 40 years from now, the Coyote Valley community being planned north of Morgan Hill will include several sports fields, two high schools, roads, parks and open space around the town’s lake center.
That’s according to a refined project plan endorsed Monday evening by the majority of the 19-member Coyote Valley Specific Plan Task Force, which is overseeing the development of the 3,500 acres of land that will eventually include at least 25,000 homes, 75,000 residents and 50,000 jobs.
Task force members such as Santa Clara County Supervisor Don Gage and San Jose City council members Nancy Pyle and Forrest Williams, voted to accept the new concept which was recommended by city planners Salifu Yakubu and Susan Walsh as well as consultants.
“These refinements address design improvements and appropriate Environmental Impact Report comments as well as public input,” Yakubu said. “We have created an identity in physical form, and we want to remain true to that physical form. We want to maintain to the specific plan and council’s vision and inputs.”
The plan calls for ball fields, originally planned around the Laguna Seca area of Coyote Valley, to be relocated to the greenbelt, next to ball fields south of Palm Avenue.
The re-alignment of in-valley transit, improvements to land use on the east side of Monterey Road, an additional 20-acre satellite high school and the incorporation of entitled streets, or roads privately owned, were among the refinements recommended by the planning team.
Most of the recommendations made sense to Gage. However, the longtime South County politician pointed out that the proposed re-alignment of Coyote Valley Boulevard north of Bailey Avenue and planned parkways or large gateway roads will not help the traffic congestion anticipated by the EIR.
Last year, San Jose released the environmental review of the project, which was met with criticism and concerns from many housing, traffic and open space organizations that will be impacted by development.
“There is no physical thing we can do to keep the flow of traffic going in and out of the valley,” Gage said, in a pessimistic tone. “It’ll take an hour to get from Morgan Hill to South San Jose. You can’t increase Santa Teresa Road or Highway 101, maybe adding two lanes at the most. It’ll be a nightmare getting people into the valley from the southern end.”
Task force members spent a major part of the meeting questioning whether the stakeholders who hold entitlements around the proposed area of the lake will adhere to the proposed recommendations.
Yakubu assured the task force that his team has been in contact with stakeholders to discuss the concepts.
“The jobs, housing, lake and all the things we want are there, we still need to deal with entitlements,” Williams said. “We are not giving up, we are just tweaking and reshaping some smaller issues. The (developmental) triggers set by the city council are there, they are the general plan. We have to adhere to that.”
Williams was referring to conditions set by the San Jose City Council which will require job creation before development occurs in the mini city.
The task force will continue to sort out the plan’s financial feasibility as well as analyze comments on a potential wildlife corridor before it takes its recommendations to the San Jose City Council in March.
