Let’s celebrate a win for Community Planning in San Jose! On November 19th, the San Jose City Council unanimously approved four urban village plans developed for the Five Wounds/Brookwood Terrace neighborhoods. Below is a letter of thanks from Terry Christensen, founding Executive Director of CommUniverCity who first spearheaded our Urban Villages work:
Dear Five Wounds Village Task Force and Friends of Five Wounds Trail,
Congratulations to ALL! This morning just after midnight (!!) our village plans–including the trail–were UNANIMOUSLY approved by the San Jose City Council. We are the FIRST of up to 70 urban village plans in the Envision 2040 General Plan to be approved.
Councilman Sam Liccardo led the charge with vocal support from Mayor Reed; Councilman Campos co-signed their memo in support of the plans. Special thanks to Paul Pereira in Sam’s office for all his work and support for this project over many years.
15 community supporters, including residents, the CommUniverCity team and friends from Save Our Trail and the Greenbelt Alliance, were present (although we didn’t all make it to the early morning conclusion of the meeting).
Our community leaders Davide Vieira, Imelda Rodriguez and Bob Van Cleef spoke eloquently in support of the plan — making clear what a long effort it has been and how much community participation it involved as well as thanking our elected officials, the planning department staff, SJSU students, the Health Trust and allied community groups for their support.
We expected some opposition, but in the end there was none, although the representative of one developer expressed concern about the requirements for retail in some projects.
So what happens next? The planners will work out the financing of the villages–including necessary infrastructure, the Five Wounds Trail, etc.
Then we await actual development. The Roosevelt Park Village (Coyote Creek to 101 along E. Santa Clara Street) and the Little Portugal Village (Alum Rock from 101 to King Road) are expected to develop sooner. The Five Wounds and 24th Street Villages (from Julian down to William Street) will not develop until BART is built to Five Wounds. OF course we’re hoping to develop at least part of the Five Wounds Trail sooner.
We have a small Watchdog Committee that will be on call and on alert as development projects come forward and we’ll be in touch again when they do. Thanks to everyone for supporting this project and for all your hard work over the years.
In community,
Terry Christensen
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