We’re excited to report that San Jose has dropped a potential plan that could have greatly increased the amount of development along Monterey Road in Coyote Valley. Development in this area could have severely harmed the entire Coyote Valley landscape, since Coyote Creek, which runs alongside Monterey Road, is the most important wildlife corridor through the valley. Kudos to the San Jose City Council for protecting Coyote Valley, and kudos to all of you who emailed the city council at our request to ask them to avoid development on Monterey Road. Speaking up really works!
Coyote Valley’s Monterey Corridor: The Wrong Place for Development
The San Jose City Council voted in November 2021 to change the General Plan land use designation and zoning in North Coyote Valley to open space and agriculture, protecting Coyote Valley from industrial development. However, at that same meeting, the Council also asked Planning staff to conduct a study about potentially allowing new commercial and recreational development along the Monterey Road corridor through Coyote Valley. Last summer, Green Foothills and our partners published a report outlining the problems that such development would create, and we have been working to convince the city not to build in that area.
The city’s “Coyote Valley Monterey Corridor Study” was a flawed idea from the start. The list of potential uses in the study ranged from beer gardens to battery storage facilities to conference centers. However, nearly the entire study area is outside the city’s Urban Service Area, meaning that city services like water, sewer, police and fire protection, and garbage collection can’t be provided to the Monterey Corridor parcels. Furthermore, the largest parcels in the study area are outside the city’s Urban Growth Boundary, meaning they must remain permanently rural in character.
Development along Monterey Road could have severely harmed Coyote Valley’s wildlife and habitat. The wildlife linkage through Coyote Valley depends on animals being able to move along Coyote Creek, since the tree-lined creek corridor provides safe passage and cover for species such as mountain lions, bobcats, and deer, as well as live-in habitat for many species of birds and small animals. All of the Monterey Corridor Study parcels are sandwiched in between Monterey Road and Coyote Creek, meaning that increased development on those parcels would have caused noise, nighttime lighting, and other disturbances from human activity in the creek corridor. These human-caused impacts create stress and health problems for wildlife.
In addition, Monterey Road is a roadkill hotspot. More animals are struck by vehicles and killed on this road than on Highway 101. Increased development on Monterey Road would have brought even more traffic and would have blocked movement pathways between the road and Coyote Creek, making it even more hazardous for wildlife.
San Jose City Council Votes to Drop Monterey Corridor Study
In June, the San Jose City Council, facing a significantly reduced budget for the coming year, needed to choose which plans and projects the city would prioritize going forward. City staff recommended dropping the Monterey Corridor Study, in part because of the intense opposition from the environmental community. The City Council voted to approve the staff recommendation to end the Monterey Corridor Study and reallocate the funding to other, more critical areas.
Thank you to everyone who responded to our action alerts and contacted the City Council to ask them to avoid development in the Monterey Road corridor. Your voices were heard!
Although the Monterey Corridor Study has been terminated and its funding reallocated, a plan for new development along Monterey Road through Coyote Valley could still return someday. The Monterey Road landowners are likely to continue to push the city to change the agricultural zoning on their property to allow all types of development. We will remain vigilant to ensure that Coyote Valley’s fragile wildlife linkage is not harmed by development in this sensitive area.