Monday, January 02, 2006
Sierra Club attempts to extort $100 million from San Jose developers
The Sierra Club wants San Jose developers to pony up $100 million for land acquisition to "compensate" for the loss of "prime agricultural land" if they develop Coyote Valley. When San Jose drew its urban-growth boundary in 1974, Coyote Valley was declared an "urban reserve" to be included within the boundary as soon as it was needed. Now, more than thirty years later, the idea of developing the valley is still controversial.
Since the urban-growth boundary has never been expanded since 1974, San Jose has some of the most unaffordable urban land in the nation. An acre of residential land typically sells for $1 to $3 million, while developers have paid as much as $8 million for an acre of commercial or industrial land.
From 1950 to 1970, San Jose developers were easily able to build housing, employment centers, and other services for 42,000 new residents in the urban area each year. Today, the growth boundary combined with an onerous planning process has made it next to impossible to meet demand, which is one reason why San Jose has gone from being the fastest growing urban area in America to one of the slowest.
Opening Coyote Valley to development is too little, too late to solve this problem. The valley includes just 3,500 acres, on which developers hope to build 26,000 homes plus 13 million square feet (that's 300 acres right there, not including the parking needed to support this space) of office and industrial space, not to mention roads and parks. Yet the city's planning process remains so difficult that construction cannot possibly begin before 2007.
The Sierra Club's demand for "compensation" is just one more monkey wrench in the plans. According to the print version of the article (but left out of the on-line version), at least some members of the Club are not happy with this demand, which they called "extortion." As farm land, the 3,500 acres in Coyote Valley is not worth anywhere near $100 million, so it is likely that the Sierra Club just picked this number out of its hat. Besides, according to the 2000 census (link goes to Excel data file showing urban populations and land area by state), 94 percent of the people in California live on just 5 percent of the state's land, so it is not like the state is running out of farm land or any kind of land except land available for urban development.
Since the urban-growth boundary has never been expanded since 1974, San Jose has some of the most unaffordable urban land in the nation. An acre of residential land typically sells for $1 to $3 million, while developers have paid as much as $8 million for an acre of commercial or industrial land.
From 1950 to 1970, San Jose developers were easily able to build housing, employment centers, and other services for 42,000 new residents in the urban area each year. Today, the growth boundary combined with an onerous planning process has made it next to impossible to meet demand, which is one reason why San Jose has gone from being the fastest growing urban area in America to one of the slowest.
Opening Coyote Valley to development is too little, too late to solve this problem. The valley includes just 3,500 acres, on which developers hope to build 26,000 homes plus 13 million square feet (that's 300 acres right there, not including the parking needed to support this space) of office and industrial space, not to mention roads and parks. Yet the city's planning process remains so difficult that construction cannot possibly begin before 2007.
The Sierra Club's demand for "compensation" is just one more monkey wrench in the plans. According to the print version of the article (but left out of the on-line version), at least some members of the Club are not happy with this demand, which they called "extortion." As farm land, the 3,500 acres in Coyote Valley is not worth anywhere near $100 million, so it is likely that the Sierra Club just picked this number out of its hat. Besides, according to the 2000 census (link goes to Excel data file showing urban populations and land area by state), 94 percent of the people in California live on just 5 percent of the state's land, so it is not like the state is running out of farm land or any kind of land except land available for urban development.
Comments:
Post a Comment
