On October 17, an over-capacity crowd filled the meeting room and spilled over into an adjacent room at the Southside Community Center for a community scoping meeting called by San Jose City staff to discuss the Panattoni project being proposed in Coyote Valley. City planners and representatives of the Panattoni company described the project and the review process under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Many residents came to ask questions and speak about the project’s potential to impact wildlife habitat and wildlife corridors, increase traffic and air pollution, and destroy open space. Some people asked the city to simply deny the project without going any further with the review process.

If you missed this meeting but would still like to ask questions or submit comments to the City of San Jose about this project, you can do that by emailing David Keyon, Environmental Planner, at: [email protected].

What To Expect Under The CEQA Process

The city will be preparing an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Panattoni project. The October 17 meeting was a “scoping” meeting, at which the city invites the public to comment on what the scope of the EIR should be and which particular environmental impacts should be studied. The scoping period will end on November 8; however, the public may still submit comments on the project itself (as separate from the EIR process) at any time.

Once the EIR is released, the public will again have the opportunity to comment on the CEQA process, this time with regard to the EIR and whether it has adequately analyzed all the environmental impacts of the project. According to city staff at the scoping meeting, the draft EIR will probably come out sometime around mid-year 2017. Then will come hearings in front of the Planning Commission and City Council. We will be monitoring this process and will keep you informed when there are opportunities to submit comments or to speak at a hearing.

Thanks for caring about open space in Coyote Valley!