News
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Sign up for Email Updates
CGF In the News
Press Inquiries
Past Articles
Calendar

Huge sports complex threatens rural Almaden Valley
Groups sue San Jose for pushing through project
by Brian Schmidt and Kathy Switky

The South Almaden Valley Rural Alliance (SAVRA) and Committee for Green Foothills have sued the City of San Jose in an effort to stop piecemeal development of one of the city's last rural open space.

The suit alleges that the City's actions to approve the McKean Road Sports Complex in Almaden Valley are illegal because they pave the way for urban use in this rural area without consideration of the overall impacts or regional planning.

The massive sports complex would replace 35 acres of working farmland with a dozen athletic fields, support structures and a parking lot for 500 cars.

Location, location, location: wrong, wrong, wrong
CGF and area residents believe that the rural Almaden Valley is not an appropriate place for this urban-level project. The City's own Planning Commission recognized this, and recommended by a 5-2 vote that the City deny the project.

The City Council, however, gave in to developer interests and voted to allow the complex, threatening an end to the area's rural character. Their approval of the project threatens to initiate unplanned, step-by-step development of this area - a sure recipe for sprawl.

San Jose's decision skirts requirement for land use planning
San Jose's General Plan states it will eventually annex and develop the Almaden Valley area, but only as part of an overall plan for the area, and only when growth pressures on the City require development.

The City acknowledges it can't develop the valley now, but is trying to get around limits on development by allowing "certain limited, interim recreational uses."

In order to allow permanent uses on this land, which is outside city limits, San Jose would need to annex the land, develop a land-use plan, and conduct extensive public review, all of which it failed to do.

By calling this huge sports complex an "interim" use and amending the city's General Plan, the City Council is sneaking around the entire land use planning process and opening the door for development of Alameda Valley. They approved this project in December despite the strong recommendation of the City's own Planning Commission to deny it.

Process violates state environmental law
In addition, the City gave approval to this project despite its inadequate Environmental Impact Report (EIR), a violation of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). In the EIR, the City ignores or downplays impacts to water quality that could cause wells on working farms to dry up, ignores impacts to pedestrians and bicyclists that will inevitably use the roads, neglects alternative locations for athletic fields, and disregards the project's role of "locking in" unplanned development that might not otherwise happen.

Legal challenge asks City to reverse decision
With law firm Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLP, Committee for Green Foothills and SAVRA filed suit in January after months of urging the City of San Jose to conduct sound long-term planning before approving piecemeal development of Almaden Valley. The suit will proceed over coming months unless San Jose reverses its approval of the General Plan changes.