The largest remaining piece of property connected to San Jose’s agricultural history as the “Valley of Heart’s Delight” began a new chapter on Monday with the finalizing of a $93 million deal to purchase 937 aces in Coyote Valley, a rural expanse of farmland and open space on Silicon Valley’s southern edges.
The close of escrow ends development battles dating back 35 years and started a new chapter on a public process to help shape the property’s future uses.
“We can reconnect people to this natural landscape and create something that is truly novel in the Bay Area,” said Matt Freeman, assistant general manager of the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority, a government agency based in San Jose. “We hope it will serve as a model in the region and the state — protecting and restoring nature, but also improving the quality of life and improving flood protection.”
The open space authority on Monday unveiled a website to solicit input from members of the public to share their experiences and memories of Coyote Valley by filling out an online questionnaire, and also listing what uses they’d like to see on the property in the years ahead. The questionnaire is at: https://news.openspaceauthority.org/coyotevalleystories
The information will be used in a planning process that will include online meetings, community forums and other events, ending in a plan for the property by 2023, with changes like trails, wildlife habitat restoration and flood control built in phases, starting in 2024, Freeman said.
North Coyote Valley, which runs down the western edge of Highway 101 and abuts Bailey Avenue, forms a key connection that allows wildlife, from mountain lions to deer, to move from the Diablo Range to the Santa Cruz Mountains, scientists say. The properties in the deal, left undeveloped, also will be used to provide natural flood protection for downtown San Jose, so that when Coyote Creek is flooding, as it did in 2017, causing $100 million in damage, its waters can be spread over the open area instead of rushing downtown into neighborhoods.
“The conservation and restoration of Coyote Valley is a long-term effort with long-term positive impacts for all who live here,” said Walter Moore, president of the Peninsula Open Space Trust, a nonprofit group based in Palo Alto.
In the 1980s, Apple eyed Coyote Valley as a place to build its world headquarters. In the 1990s, Cisco Systems tried to build a massive campus there. Both were fought by environmental groups, who said the area — currently used by farmers and wildlife — should be left in its natural state.
After years of negotiations a deal was announced in November. Under the agreement, the city of San Jose agreed to pay $46 million, and the Peninsula Open Space Trust agreed to contribute $42 million to complete the purchase from leading Silicon Valley developers Brandenburg Properties and the Sobrato Organization. The Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority agreed to contribute $5 million.
On Friday, escrow closed on the last of three properties in the deal, 235 acres that Sobrato sold for $16 million. Funding came from parks and water bonds approved by California voters — $10 million from the state Wildlife Conservation Board, $5 million from the State Coastal Conservancy — along with $1 million from the Peninsula Open Space Trust.
The city of San Jose’s contribution came from Measure T, a $650 million bond measure approved by San Jose voters last November to upgrade emergency services, pave roads, build bridges, and improve flood control. That measure, which passed with 71 percent support, included up to $50 million to preserve Coyote Valley.
Of all 937 acres, San Jose will retain ownership of 296 acres, and the rest will go eventually to the open space authority, which operates public open space preserves on both sides of Coyote Valley. The agency had begun docent tours on the site, but those have been curtailed temporarily due to the coronavirus pandemic.
