0651 | Thursday, December 14, 2006

News

City says no to 684-acre development adjacent to urban reserve

By Eli Segall

The San Jose City Council recently put a nail in the coffin of a proposed 684-acre development adjacent to the South Almaden Valley Urban Reserve.

During an appeal hearing on Dec. 5, members unanimously said no to a proposal to subdivide the land into 16 40-acre plots, upholding San Jose planning director Joseph Horwedel's denial.

Councilwoman Nancy Pyle called the development proposal inconsistent with San Jose's long-term growth strategy and requested the city conduct a growth assessment of the area that the council could use to determine if new restraints, including a possible building moratorium, are needed to protect the open space area.

Part of Pyle's recommendation includes conducting a parcel-by-parcel analysis to examine current ownership, existing building permits, existing uses and allowable development under current regulations within the South Almaden Valley Urban Reserve.

Pyle said she is worried the reserve could one day succumb to piecemeal development and wants the city to gain a better understanding of its patchwork of building permits and regulations. The site, a mix of open hillside and agricultural grazing, lies just north of the South Almaden Valley Urban Reserve, a 1,000-acre stretch of low-density hillside.

Applicant and property owner Tom deRegt of Monterey-based Rancho San Vicente Associates reiterated his position at the meeting that the proposal conforms with San Jose's general plan and is consistent with the land's zoning designation as non-urban hillside.

While the designation of non-urban hillside allows some residential development, the area is outside of the city's urban service area and a new infrastructure would have to be built, including roads, sewers, storm drains and electrical utilities. The city deemed this process far too expensive.

"[The project] would encourage more costly development at the edge of the city," according to a report by Horwedel, which included nearly two dozen objections to the project.

The developer proposed that each lot have its own water well and septic tank, but the city insisted the start-up costs were too high.

City staff said the project could also adversely impact nearby Almaden-Calero Canal.

At the meeting, deRegt questioned why the city never requested an environmental report to determine the project's possible impact on the environment.

The city is not required to conduct a California Environmental Quality Act assessment on proposed developments, according to city staff.

"They wanted to deny this and they did," said Joan Gallo, a former San Jose city attorney whose law firm, Hopkins and Carley, represents deRegt.