May 8, 2009
Berryessa Sun
By Ian Bauer
Councilman Kansen Chu is riled. Last week, Berryessa's representative
on the San Jose City Council claimed he was both upset and
surprised over a recent announcement by the Santa Clara Valley
Transportation Authority to end the planned Bay Area Rapid
Transit extension line in Berryessa instead of at a planned
BART station in downtown San Jose and beyond to Santa Clara.
"It's going to turn Berryessa into one big parking lot,"
Chu said, adding the surrounding residential neighborhood's
quality of life will be ruined by increased car traffic, noise
and trash.
In late February, VTA announced that due to the downward
economy the transit agency faced a projected operating deficit
of nearly $80 million over the next two years. Besides talk
of VTA rate hikes and service cuts, the transit agency also
declared that its proposed $6.1-billion, 16.1-mile extension
from Fremont to downtown San Jose and Santa Clara will wind
up at a terminus in Berryessa. VTA suggested the estimated
cost to reach Berryessa at the site of the San Jose Flea Market
at 1590 Berryessa Road would come with a less expensive, $2.1-billion
price tag.
News that VTA's line would fall short of its planned route
also came after voters in November approved Measure B, which
would enact a 30-year sales tax increase proposed to generate
$22 million annually toward BART's maintenance and operation.
According to Chu, VTA's announcement that it would stop BART
at Berryessa was disclosed only after the decision to do so
was made.
"My office was never informed," he added.
And even though a station was planned for Berryessa, Chu
said none of three prior community meetings VTA held over
the BART project were held in Berryessa. Chu now wants San
Jose City Council to take action.
"I'm hoping that (the city) will push for the complete
line, that's the first choice," he said.
Chu is urging the council to conduct further study into the
matter, perhaps looking at alternate BART station sites beyond
Berryessa in other parts of San Jose such as Alum Rock a previously
proposed station.
"(Alum Rock) is not a real high density area,"
Chu said, noting the more residential nature of Berryessa.
In an April 20 memorandum to the council's rules and open
government committee, Chu explained that the city should oppose
VTA's decision to end BART in Berryessa.
"Historically, when the discussions around bringing
BART to the Berryessa neighborhood began more than a decade
ago, many residents in the Berryessa community were opposed
to the project," Chu's memo reads. "The residents
since have supported the BART line going through their neighborhoods
to downtown San Jose because they have been assured that the
impacts will be minimal due to proposed mitigations to reduce
noise. In public discussions in the past 10 years, the proposal
for the end terminus in Berryessa was never presented to the
residents."
In the memo, Chu further explained that voters' passage of
Measure B gave the public the impression that the BART extension
would go through downtown San Jose.
"Piecemeal of the end terminus to Berryessa is not and
was not the intention of the City of San Jose voters who wanted
to see the BART train to connect through downtown San Jose,"
the memo reads. "It does not make sense for BART to stop
at Berryessa because it's a bedroom community with many existing
traffic issues such as the U.S. 101/Taylor Street interchange,
improvements to the U.S. 101/Oakland Road interchange, and
the widening of Berryessa Road that will only be exasperated
if it is turned into the final stop for BART."
The council's rules and open government committee was set
on Wednesday to review Chu's request.
Following a meeting with Chu last week, VTA officials announced
that a fourth community meeting would be held May 6 at the
Berryessa Branch Library.
Bernice Alaniz, the VTA's deputy director of marketing and
communications, said Wednesday's meeting as well as an extended
public comment period up to Friday, May 15 would allow greater
public input over the BART project, including the terminus
point at Berryessa.
"That will give Berryessa residents and concerned citizens
the opportunity to comment," she said.
Alaniz said the funding needed to complete the line from
Fremont to Milpitas and then to Berryessa and beyond would
come in phases.
"So I think that VTA is committed to building the entire
16.1-mile line, but in phases," she said.
But she added part of VTA's project includes finishing a
federally mandated draft environmental impact statement for
the BART project.
She said the statement will be submitted to the Federal Transit
Administration to approve further funding about $750 million
toward the BART project.
Saying that FTA's final review is set for completion by January,
Alaniz added Measure B monies would not be collected until
VTA receives that $750 million from the federal government.
VTA states those wishing to add comments to the draft environmental
impact statement regarding the BART to San Jose project may
first visit www.VTA.org and e-mail comments to svrt.nepa@vta.org.
Comments can also be mailed to Tom Fitzwater, VTA environmental
programs and resource manager, 3331 N. First St., Building
B, San Jose, Calif. 95134-1927. Comments may also be faxed
to VTA at 321-5787.
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