A Stucco-Covered Spur Trail?

August 14th, 2009 → 9:33 am @ WGx

WG’s own “Save Our Trails” group has uncovered a plot to cover-up part of the WG Spur Trail with a canopy on a privately-purchased part of the trail.

The trail in question is the abandoned railroad right-of-way that runs between Kelly Park and Willow Glen, previously operated by the Union Pacific Rail Road as the “Willow Glen Spur.” In 2001, UPRR halted operations on the line, and it has been actively trying to sell the ground underneath the hoped-for trail. Since the City does not have the budget to purchase the land, the railroad has been selling it piecemeal.

San Jose’s “Greenprint” parks general plan imagines a new Three Creeks Trail as a pedestrian and bike trail that runs along the railroad from Riverside Drive in WG all the way to Happy Hollow and Kelly Park, ultimately connecting the trails along Coyote Creek, Guadalupe River, and Los Gatos Creek.

But the “Save our Trails” group reports that the trail is under threat from development on a site east of Almaden Expressway:

On Wednesday July 8th 2009, the San Jose Planning Department approved the erection of a canopy by Stucco Supply Company, which has purchased a portion of the former railway line. This would effectively block the trail right-of-way. …

The appeal will be heard on Wednesday, August 26, 2009 at 6:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers at San Jose City Hall. The more people who can come to the meeting and/or write letters, the better.

The group is rallying support, starting with a meeting this Saturday, August 15, at 10:00 am, in the Garden Theater’s second floor conference room.

One segment of the right-of-way has already been purchased and developed in WG, but developer Pinn Brothers actually built portions of the trail for public access as part of the Falcon Place home sites.

From SJ Permits: Site Development Permit to construct a canopy, approximately 10,000 square feet, to cover an existing outdoor storage area in a corporation yard on a 4.47 gross acre site

There is significant concern that any new structure built by the Stucco Supply Company over the trail will effectively eliminate this trail from ever being completed.

In addition to Saturday’s meeting, Save Our Trails is inviting the public to attend the Planning Commission hearing on August 26 and to write letters in support of maintaining the vision of the Three Creeks Trail.

Tags: Alma, Almaden, garden, Garden Theater

3 Comments → “A Stucco-Covered Spur Trail?”

Larry Ames

5 months ago

California State Assemblymember Jim Beall
past Santa Clara County Supervisor Blanca Alvarado
Santa Clara County Supervisor Ken Yeager
Santa Clara County Supervisor George Shirakawa
Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation Director Lisa Killough
Santa Clara Open Space Authority Boardmember Garnetta Annable
Guadalupe River Parks & Gardens Executive Director Leslee Hamilton
Save Our Trails Chair Taisia McMahon
Willow Glen Neighborhood Association President Ed Rast
Alma Neighborhood Association Treasurer Rosa Pereida

Subject: the Dream of the Three Creeks Trail

Dear Esteemed Friends,

I write to enlist your support in a last-ditch effort to preserve the dream of “the Three Creeks Trail”, a bicycle / pedestrian trail and greenway / linear park along the Right-Of-Way of the abandoned Willow Glen railroad Spur. On August 26th, the San Jose Planning Commission will hear our appeal to overturn the Planning Director’s approval for the construction a structure that would dash the dream and sever the trail, as indicated by the orange blob on the enclosed map. While it might still be feasible to have a trail on just the Willow Glen portion of the ROW, it would no longer be possible to connect the trails of the Three Creeks – the Los Gatos, the Guadalupe, and the Coyote – in the urban center of San Jose as envisioned in “the Greenprint”, San Jose’s park strategic plan.

Forgive me if I sound dire. For nine years now I’ve worked with you, and with City Staff and the community, on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a cross-valley trail in the heart of the city. Such a trail would tie neighborhoods together into walkable communities and connect them to parks, and would connect new and established employment centers to the transportation node at the Tamien Light-Rail/CalTrain Station. It would honor the City’s agricultural past, following the rail line that once served the valley’s canneries, crossing over a historic trestle to connect the History Museum at Kelley Park to the historic cannery sites of Willow Glen. The trail would also connect a “National Recreation Trail” – the Bay Area Ridge Trail (along the Coyote) – to the likewise nationally honored Guadalupe River Trail, and together with the also-honored San Francisco Bay Trail would form a wonderful trail loop in the heart of San Jose .

The threat to the eastern half of the trail, the section that would connect the Guadalupe to the Coyote, is the Planning Director’s approval last month of permit H09-009 for the construction of a 10,000 square-foot “structure” by the Stucco Supply Company at 1601 Little Orchard Street. It is this decision we hope to overturn with our August 26th appeal, because it will be impossible to route a trail in the region east of Almaden Expressway with this building in place.

I do not fault the Stucco Supply Company: it is the City of San Jose that should have acted back in 2001 to preserve the easement when the rail-line was first abandoned. City Staff should have sought an easement two years ago when the Stucco Supply Co. acquired the ROW and sought permission (permit H06-032) to pave it over for vehicle storage, over the objections of community members and a number of you. And now the City has approved the immediate construction of this building (without even knowing the size and shape of the structure!), despite the trail designation in the Greenprint and General Plan, and despite pleas for even just a couple month delay while a number of us work to form a non-profit trust fund to seek funding and to work with the Stucco Supply Co. to acquire an easement.

A trail between fence-lines along an industrial site is not ideal, but with appropriate landscaping (potted plants?) and safety measures (e.g., alarmed break-away gates), it could be made safe and reasonably pretty. (Also, it could be made to double as the fire truck access required for the Stucco Supply Co. site.) The main point is that a short trail easement would provide continuity, connecting to much longer stretches where the trail could meander within a 60′?wide greenway.

The City is instead proposing to construct a bike lane along Alma Avenue as an alternative to this linear park and trail. Alma is a very busy thoroughfare with negligible room: adding a bike lane will require removal of one or two traffic lanes which will significantly aggravate the traffic congestion (by the City’s modeling, down to Levels-of-Service “E” and “F” in places). And, regardless of the traffic, such a bike lane is a very poor substitute for the much-needed open-space greenway that the Three Creeks Trail would provide this underserved region of the City.

The City is worried about job-loss, but a trail easement, even 30′ wide, from the Stucco Supply Co.’s driveway and storage yard would still leave a roadway that is wider than the nearby street, and more storage area than they’ve had for decades. The trail would provide for improved alternative transportation to this site and also to nearby to-be-developed industrial sites / employment centers, providing an off-road connection from the Tamien Light-Rail/CalTrain Station to all the new commercial developments in the area. And the trail would enhance the workplace environment of these new businesses, which can then be designed to embrace the trail with employee lunch patios and office windows facing the trail.

And the trail would also connect communities, providing open-space greenways for the established neighborhoods and new high-density developments in an underserved district of San Jose, and connecting them to nearby shops, parks, and transportation.

I am asking that you to write a letter in support of the appeal to the Planning Commission before the 26th. Mail it to:

Planning Commission, c/o Sylvia Do
200 East Santa Clara St . , 3rd Floor Tower
San Jose , CA 95113

or email it to Sylvia.Do@SanJoseCA.gov. Be sure to reference Planning Appeal H09-009. For technical details (e.g., maps, a virtual tour of the trail alignment, an analysis of trail intersections and crossings, etc.), please visit my website at http://www.L-Ames.com. And if you can come out to speak on the 26th, that would be fantastic! If I can answer any questions, please call me at 408/742?1798.

If this appeal is successful, then we will begin the challenge of negotiations and fund-raising to acquire the trail easement and to build the trail; if the appeal is unsuccessful, it will mark the end of the dream of an interconnected network of trails in San Jose .

Please don’t let the dream die!

Larry Ames, trail advocate.

cc: U.S. Congressional Representative Zoe Lofgren
U.S. Congressional Representative Mike Honda
San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed
San Jose City Manager Debra Figone
Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services Director Albert Balagso
Planning Director Joe Horwedel
San Jose Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio
San Jose Councilmember Madison Nguyen
Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition Executive Director Corinne Winter
San Jose Mercury Newspaper Editor Barbara Marshman
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