The Loma Prietan
July/August 2001
Housing Pressures in Coyote & Almaden Valleys
by Dale F. Mead
Cisco Systems’ proposed industrial development in Coyote Valley casts a huge housing shadow, not only on the communities south of Santa Clara County that have launched lawsuits to stop it, but as far away as California’s Central Valley, from which some Silicon Valley workers commute daily. How San Jose deals with the region’s housing shortage will define whether the city moves in the direction of sustainable growth or environmentally destructive suburban sprawl.
Currently, the San Jose General Plan designates two “reserves” to deal with the housing demand that might occur if the Cisco campus—and other office development in Coyote Valley—is ever built.
These areas are called the mid-Coyote Urban Reserve and the Almaden Valley Urban Reserve. Both areas contain substantial acreage slated for future housing if certain growth triggers are met.
Almaden Valley
In the smaller Almaden Valley, residents and conservation groups have merged into a resistance movement. The Almaden Valley Community Association (AVCA) was among those who joined with local environmental organizations speaking out at a news conference in the hills of southern Almaden Valley. What the City Council “planned” when it defined the reserves and triggers in the General Plan nearly 20 years ago, however, can only be described as sprawl: Single-family dwellings generating more traffic and air pollution and requiring more services of the sort that have drained city coffers for decades. It was a municipal deficit that sparked municipal plans in the early 1980s to expand San Jose’s tax base by accelerating industrial growth while provisionally adding housing.
A national Sierra Club study published last year has shown how cities often spend more on servicing newly developed areas than they gain in increased tax revenue.
Coyote Valley
In Coyote Valley, the plan calls for 25,000 to 30,000 homes on 1,700 acres, or roughly 16 homes per acre. This would clearly be an infrastructure burden but with at least some level of moderate density. The development of the Coyote Urban Reserve, which is near Highway 101 and the CalTrain rail line, would create development pressures throughout the greenbelt.
Southern Almaden Valley is pegged for a more high-priced future—high for homebuyers and for the city. Isolated by a ridge, the 1,000 acres would hold 2,000 executive homes, requiring extensive, expensive infrastructure and overwhelming already crowded schools. Also, such a development would not be served by mass transit and therefore would require a major highway splitting the hilly habitat.
That prospect brought representatives of AVCA, the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society and Greenbelt Alliance, and supported by the Loma Prieta Chapter, to the scene to voice their opposition through the media on April 23.
Environmentalists Oppose City Mayor
Four months after San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales’ Home Production task force advised forging specific plans for housing in the two reserves, the environmental community argued that any home development in Almaden Valley would contradict the city’s commitment to “smart growth” and “neighborhoods first.”
A spokesperson for Mayor Ron Gonzales, however, pointed out that the Chapter had cited the potential for housing in the Coyote Valley reserve as possible mitigation for the Cisco project. But the spokesperson failed to recognize that the housing mitigation idea was only if the Cisco campus ever got built, something the Sierra Club and Audubon Society adamantly oppose because that project is inherently sprawl-inducing.
“There may be a lot of definitions for ‘smart growth,’ but this as dumb as growth gets,” reiterated Craig Breon, Executive Director of the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society to the Loma Prietan regarding the group’s position on Almaden Valley. “What’s intended to go there is very low-density housing. The land in Almaden Valley would be wasted on luxury homes. They will not help the need for affordable housing.”
“We remain opposed to development of either reserve,” he says, “and to the really damaging roadway that would have to go between the two over Santa Teresa Ridge. It’s an incredibly valuable habitat for endangered and threatened species, including the bay checkerspot butterfly and red-legged frog. It’s also valuable as open space. A major road going though it would fracture the important habitats up there. It also would induce further development in the hills by providing increased access.”
Autumn Bernstein, South Bay Field Representative for Greenbelt Alliance, echoed the same stand. “Nothing about Almaden Valley would ever make it smart growth,” she said. “It could only be sprawl, and it would cost the city millions of dollars to build infrastructure. Then there would be long-term costs when they have to maintain sewers and roads.”
Bernstein termed some of the triggers “highly technical” and others “so esoteric that they can be fudged one way or another,” implying that they may not be the safeguards they appear to be.
Although Bernstein did not say so, the possibility that San Jose could “fudge figures” to rationalize actions is far from remote. It projected that the prospective Cisco work force would take advantage of the “reverse commute,” and claimed that 80 percent of employees would drive south to work and therefore have minimal impact on highway traffic congestion south of the campus. The claim is so dubious that cities to the south have targeted it in lawsuits challenging the Cisco project. The one trigger that is “not esoteric,” Bernstein added, was for 5,000 jobs to be generated in the valley. “With the Cisco project being approved, they’re getting close,” she said.
Infrastructure Impact
Bob Boydston, AVCA president, expressed fears that more housing in Almaden Valley would impact already overburdened schools, traffic and essential services. Fire
officials have expressed concern about their ability to respond to fires over the existing
roadways. One condition of building in the Almaden Valley reserve is that the level of municipal services with new homes can not be less than in 1993.
“But it already is less,” Boydston said, and no new infrastructure is planned for the area.
“What we would like to see happen is no more development out there because the infrastructure can’t support it.”
In fact, he doubted that trigger conditions would ever be met. More likely, the city could lower its standards, and “I don’t expect to see that happen because our [City Council] representative, Pat Dando, is against lowering triggers.”
Tim Frank, chair of the Sierra Club’s national “Challenge to Sprawl” campaign, acknowledged that housing must go somewhere to accommodate Cisco’s 20,000-worker complex, if it’s ever built. He argued that denser housing in adjoining Coyote Valley and none in the Almaden reserve makes more sense than developing both. If growth ever occurs in Coyote Valley, “development [in Coyote] should be mixed use,” he added. “The housing should be mixed income and should be more dense.”
He was encouraged that environmentalists and affordable housing groups are working together toward mixed housing projects to alleviate the housing needs in and around San Jose.
Infill Housing Alternative
Breon and Bernstein reaffirmed that the best-case scenario would be for sprawl development to be averted altogether by locating Cisco downtown near a future Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) line and building infill housing along that same line. “That would be cheaper for people in the region, would provide more affordable housing, and would be a lot better in terms of traffic, air pollution and land use.” Breon said.
David Vossbrink, speaking for the Mayor, indicated that Gonzales declared his support for smart growth and anticipated a number of reports from the Planning Department to encourage development of infill housing. “We still have a strong interest in planning housing as infill to save money on infrastructure,” he said. However, the department is also reviewing the task force recommendations to begin planning for development of the reserves before the triggers are met, and will submit its report later this year, Vossbrink added.
Dan Kalb, Director of the Loma Prieta Chapter, added, “Development in either the Coyote and Almaden valleys would be sprawl.” He agreed with the idea that, before seriously considering sprawl to the south, San Jose should revitalize its existing urban area where mass transit can and should be expanded.