What is the desired vision for new development on the Pleasant Hills Golf Course site in East San Jose? According to a city survey, creation of new parks and open space is by far the top priority for the nearby community. Green Foothills is working with the city and the community to ensure that this vision becomes reality.

Community Feedback Shows Overwhelming Support For Parks and Open Space

When development at the former Pleasant Hills Golf Course site was first suggested, Green Foothills urged the city to require a strong community engagement process to ensure that residents would have a voice in what happens on that site. When community members are given the chance to weigh in on what a project should look like, the result is often a better project that the public is more likely to support.

Now the results of the city’s outreach process are available, showing that parks and open space are a top priority for the nearby community, ranking at 73% – nearly three times as high as the next most preferred priority.

Source: https://pleasanthillsvision.org/wp-content/uploads/PHGC_Workshop-2_Presenation_lr_2-compressed-2.pdf

Pleasant Hills Golf Course Creates a Unique Opportunity For Urban Green Space

At 115 acres (about the size of 90 football fields), this is the biggest contiguous new development that San Jose has seen in decades. Because the golf course is currently undeveloped green space, this is a rare opportunity for San Jose to create significant amounts of new publicly accessible urban parks, natural habitat, and open space that can improve climate resilience, biodiversity, and recreational opportunities for the entire city.

In October 2023, Green Foothills joined with 15 other nonprofit organizations to submit a joint letter to the City Council with a list of guiding principles for development on this site. These included abundant housing (including affordable housing), jobs and community gathering space, a mix of transportation options, climate-resilient design, and significant amounts of publicly accessible parkland and green space. The groups that signed this letter have diverse missions and include housing, transportation, environmental, and community-based organizations, but we are all aligned on this vision.

As this process moves forward, we will continue to work to ensure that the vision of the community and of our nonprofit partners is fulfilled, so that the Pleasant Hills Golf Course site can bring multiple benefits to the entire community.