The city of San Jose is currently accepting comments on the environmental analysis of the proposed Heritage Oaks cemetery in the hills above Coyote Valley. This sprawling project would cut off the top of the ridgeline, block wildlife movement, and impact scenic views from Coyote Valley’s nature preserves. Please use the form below to email the city of San Jose by March 4 and tell them not to allow this cemetery to harm Coyote Valley’s wildlife and scenic views!
What’s Happening
The Heritage Oaks Memorial Park is a proposal for a massive cemetery that would sprawl over 100+ acres of Coyote Valley’s hillsides – an area larger than 77 football fields. This project would include a crematory, eight mausoleums, a two-mile network of paved roads, and a 124-space parking lot. The developer intends to carve up the ridgeline, excavating the hilltops and using the soil to fill in the gullies, and then install 75 acres of non-native turf grass – which would then require 98 million gallons of irrigation water each year. A three-mile-long recycled water pipeline would need to be constructed through Coyote Valley to provide this irrigation water.
When fully constructed, the cemetery is expected to accommodate 150,000 ground burial plots and 150,000 spaces for cremation burials. The number of cremations is expected to reach 3,000 per year by the tenth year of operation. Crematories, because of the air quality impacts, are normally only allowed in heavy industrial districts, not on open space hillside areas.
When this cemetery was first proposed in 2014, Green Foothills and other environmental groups strenuously objected to this destructive project, but the city approved it over our opposition. The project was then paused for years, but now the developer has applied for a permit to move forward with construction. However, much has changed in the years since 2014. Thousands of acres of land surrounding the cemetery are now protected open space, and wildlife studies have provided new data about the importance of this site as a wildlife linkage. The project itself has also changed since 2014, adding a crematory and a three-mile recycled water pipeline through Coyote Valley, which were not part of the 2014 proposal.
Because of these changes, the city has conducted additional environmental analysis (called a Supplemental Environmental Impact Report or SEIR). The SEIR provides an opportunity for members of the public to send comments to the city about the environmental impacts of the cemetery. The deadline to submit comments is Wednesday, March 4.
Why It Matters
The proposed Heritage Oaks cemetery site is located directly in the path of Coyote Valley’s wildlife linkage. Coyote Valley provides one of only two pathways for animals to migrate from the Santa Cruz Mountains to the Diablo Range and back, and this project would obstruct that pathway with multiple mausoleums, a crematory, and a network of paved roads. Over 100 acres of hillsides would be bulldozed in order to cut off the top of the ridgeline, and the natural grassland and oak savannah – which provides habitat for at-risk species like mountain lions, golden eagles, California tiger salamanders, and native bumblebees – would be replaced with non-native turf grass.
Because the cemetery would sit on top of the ridgeline, it would be clearly visible from nearby nature preserves such as the Coyote Valley Open Space Preserve and the Máyyan ‘Ooyákma preserve on Coyote Ridge. Scenic views from the trails in these preserves would feature this massive cemetery on top of the hills instead of the native landscape there now.
What You Can Do
Please use the form below to email the city of San Jose by March 4 and tell them not to allow this cemetery to harm Coyote Valley!