Coyote Valley Specific Plan

 

 

Last week in our Environmental Planning class we had two speakers talked about the Coyote Valley Specific Plan and some of its green strategies.  Some of the green features currently in the plan include district parking, shared schools and parks, greenbelt strategy to provide non-urban buffer between San Jose and Morgan Hill, and a self-funding transportation system.

Although all of these green features may be good ideas, the question in mind is whether they will work in making Coyote Valley a sustainable community.  I think that the district parking (shared parking) strategy will work because other cities have implemented that strategy.  As for the strategy of shared school and parks, I think that it would work as long as it was made known that schools have a priority during the day over the park for P.E. classes and recess.  However, when school is out for the day everyone can have access to the park and parts of the schools. The greenbelt strategy would definitely provide a buffer between cities that would definitely prevent anymore growth between cities.  Last but not the least the self-funding transportation system is still to be seen if it would work because the landowners would be the ones paying for it.  Moreover, transportation systems are not cheap and require ongoing maintenance which is very expensive.

Although the Coyote Valley Specific Plan is just now being put together, it will be  many years before the plan can be implemented.  However, I would be interested to see what Coyote Valley will look like when the plan is fully implemented.