MORGAN HILL
– Upset with being excluded from a task force studying the
future development of the Coyote Valley, Morgan Hill officials are
asking for their neighbor’s help in sending a message to San Jose
Mayor Ron Gonzales.
MORGAN HILL – Upset with being excluded from a task force studying the future development of the Coyote Valley, Morgan Hill officials are asking for their neighbor’s help in sending a message to San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales.
They are asking representatives from Gilroy, San Martin, Gavilan Community College and the school district to form a South Valley Task Force to look at what will be constructed in Coyote Valley and how it will affect the South Valley.
Councilmembers said Gonzales has turned a deaf ear to repeated requests for South Valley representation. He has not replied to a formal letter in three weeks. The letter was the second request for a bigger Morgan Hill role in Coyote Valley development, a project expected to have huge effects on the South Valley area.
Instead of waiting for a reply, councilmembers decided to form a task force beginning in 2006.
Councilman Steve Tate asked that the Coyote Valley issue be added to the agenda because he wanted to explore avenues for inclusion in the planning beyond just attending public meetings as members of the audience.
“They’re not doing anything illegal by excluding us,” Tate said, “but this has tremendous impacts on us in traffic, air quality and on and on; all those will potentially impact us down the road and they might be avoided if they are considered up front.”
The impact on a school district struggling to balance their budget will also be significant. Morgan Hill School District boundaries extend to Bernal Road, north of the valley’s edge and planners expect to need at least eight elementary, two middle and one new high school.
But, nothing will happen without planning, and San Jose will rely on “trigger points” before moving ahead.
Those triggers include a finished detailed specific plan, 5,000 new jobs in the north Coyote campus industrial area and a balanced city budget with a five-year projection of revenue exceeding expenses and city service levels.
The only South Valley representatives on the San Jose task force are County Supervisor Don Gage and Russ Danielson, who was appointed during his short term as a school district trustee. Gage lives in Gilroy but represents far more than South Valley; Danielson lives in San Jose but owns a Morgan Hill business.
Rebecca Tolentino of the city’s community development department (planning) and Superintendent of Schools Carolyn McKennan sit on a Technical Advisory Committee.
Council does not consider this enough voices at the table.
Not only are councilmembers worried about the effects the development will have on Morgan Hill; residents are beginning to get the picture, too.
Morgan Hill resident Jim Arthur told the council he doesn’t think South Valley residents really understand the size of the planned expansion.
“This will affect us here every day; it will only affect San Jose residents on weekends when they go to the retail malls,” he said. “We have to get the word out.”
Once the task force meets and studies the available data it would forward its recommendations on to the main San Jose task force, said Councilman Larry Carr.
“Then we can bring the South Valley voice to the table,” Carr said.
The next Coyote Valley Specific Plan Task Force meets Monday, May 10, at 151 W. Mission St. San Jose in Room 202 A from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. www.ci.san-jose.ca.us/coyotevalley or 227-4576.
