Many worry San Jose is not leaving enough money to compensate
for loss of agriculture
San Jose – San Jose officials have put a $1.6 billion price tag on the estimated cost of turning Coyote Valley into a city the size of Gilroy and Morgan Hill combined. But even though that’s “billion” with a “b,” some citizens attending Monday night’s Coyote Valley Task Force meeting in San Jose feared the real price could be even higher.
Environmentalists in particular worry the city isn’t leaving enough money to fund needed conservation measures to ease the loss of wetlands, oak woodlands and agricultural lands.
Craige Edgerton, CEO of the Silicon Valley Land Conservancy and one of the 20 task force members, questioned the city’s $6.7 million estimate for easing the loss of habitat. More funds would be needed to protect similar habitat elsewhere as land values soar during Coyote Valley’s projected 40-year-plus build-out, Edgerton said.
San Jose principal planner Sal Yakubu defended the cost estimates, but acknowledged after the meeting the estimated $24 million for agricultural mitigation could be “a bit low.”
“There are a number of people who thought the cost of the agricultural mitigation was on the low side,” Yakubu said. “Of course, we will continue vetting these numbers” with a city working group and the Coyote Valley technical advisory committee.
Task force member Melissa Hippard, director of the Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter, asked how city officials could peg the costs of environmental mitigation before completing a widely criticized draft environmental impact report.
“I don’t know how you can estimate the costs of mitigation on an EIR that’s not done yet,” Hippard commented during a presentation by San Jose planners Monday.
San Jose officials are in the process of revising a draft environmental study that drew an extraordinary level of interest from federal, state and local agencies when it was first circulated last spring.
More than 1,300 pages of comments from about 80 agencies were submitted on the initial draft, asking for additional analysis and changes.
The agencies included the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the California Department of Fish and Game, the California Attorney General’s Office, the county of Santa Clara and the cities of Gilroy and Morgan Hill.
The task force, appointed by the San Jose City Council in 2002 to help guide the Coyote Valley planning process, is now examining the costs and phasing of development for the long-debated San Jose suburb that would be built north of Morgan Hill.
It’s a topic of interest not only to landowners wanting to develop some 300 parcels on 3,400 acres, but also to environmentalists and politicians who are leery of the loss of peaceful natural habitat and the challenges of more auto traffic, smog and urban sprawl.
Many who criticized the initial draft – including Gilroy and Morgan Hill officials – faulted the EIR for not illustrating the likely timing of potential impacts, such as increased traffic on South County streets.
Therefore, San Jose officials are now looking to the task force to make phasing recommendations to enable completion of the revised environmental plan, which is now expected to be released next summer or fall.
As for the $1.6 billion estimated cost of building schools, parks, sewers, storm drains, police and fire stations, freeway interchanges and other urban fixtures for an eventual population of up to 80,000 people, San Jose planners stand behind the preliminary numbers generated by economic consultants.
However, the city’s consultants told the task force a whole host of variables may affect the final figures, such as future input from Caltransº on major road and freeway improvements.
Additionally, because Coyote Valley’s development could take 40 years, eventually resulting in a suburb of 50,000 jobs and 25,000 housing units, it is hard to say how construction costs will change.
Yakubu attempted to reassure the task force the urbanization figures include contingencies, and developers would not likely ask the city for a revised EIR in the future that requires weaker environmental mitigation measures.
Kerry Williams, president of Coyote Housing Group, a collaboration of property owners funding the planning process, said she’s comfortable with the cost estimates and believes Coyote Valley could be a model for thoughtful development.
“This project has been very carefully planned with a strong environmental approach,” Williams said. “The most important thing is the plan will pay for itself, and be a model for a sustainable community.”
As the discussions on phasing and initial cost estimates continue in the coming months, the task force Monday asked city officials to return with more information on developing housing and industry at the same time. San Jose’s existing building prerequisites require 5,000 jobs to be developed in Coyote Valley before housing can be built.
Last summer, the San Jose City Council directed officials to continue Coyote Valley plans based upon those pre-existing conditions.
Meanwhile, San Jose is conducting its general plan review, a process that could lead to new development “triggers” by 2009, when the Coyote Valley plans are expected to be finalized.
Next up for the task force will be to refine the financial feasibility figures introduced on Monday and update an early fiscal impact analysis that shows Coyote Valley generating $60 million a year for San Jose at build out.
