Text Box: Willow Glen
Neighborhood Association

P. O. Box 7706,

San Jose CA 95150

408/294-WGNA

www.WGNA.net

 

                                                                                               

 

January 8, 2010 

 

 

To:       Honorable Mayor and Council Members

            City of San Jose

            200 East Santa Clara Street

            San Jose, California 95113

Subj:    High Speed Rail EIR Process

Re:       Keeping an Underground Alterative in the EIR process going forward

            Providing a full, open and objective evaluation of this viable alternative

 

 

Dear Honorable Mayor and Council,

 

The Planning and Land Use Committee of the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association support High Speed Rail (HSR) and appreciate the City’s years of hard work to influence its alignment through San Jose and Diridon Station.

The City Council has very little time to step up and speak for a fair and open EIR/EIS CEQA process on an issue that will shape San Jose for the next 100 years.

The door is closing fast and only a fraction of the relevant information and research has been heard or made public. 

Keeping an underground option in this next phase of the alternative alignment (AA) EIR/EIS CEQA process is essential if San Jose and its generations to follow are respect the outcome of this process.

Background

On December 3rd, 2009, a preliminary draft of the final alignment alternatives was presented to the HSR Board. 

That draft presented by the HSR San Jose-to-Merced Project team recommended dismissal of any further consideration of an underground alternative removing any opportunity for an open exploration of the full cost and benefits of this option.

The HSR Project Team dismissed underground through San Jose;

            -- with few words and little-to-no supportive data;

            -- providing no opportunity to examine or challenge supporting assumptions;

            -- and with no public discussion or process to bring the community along.

 

 

Example:

HSR’s statement that underground is “6 times base case” appears founded on construction costs alone and does not include;  1) other HSR related costs, and 2) important cost to be born by the City of San Jose.

Other HSR related costs such as but not limited to the following::

•          Land acquisition

•          Eminent domain process

•          Relocation process and time delays

•          Construction mitigation for ongoing…

–         Light,  Noise,  Vibration

–         Traffic access loss,  Disruption

•          Aesthetics… design conflict costs

•          Risk of social justice lawsuits

Costs to the City of San Jose such as but not limited to the following:

•          Elevated station cost for more than “plain vanilla” shell

•          Loss of land-use opportunity, RDA and private

•          Reduced downtown business due to separation

•          Lower property value adjacent to ROW, e.g. Plant 51

•          Graffiti abatement and control

•          Blight risk to isolated / divided neighborhoods

•          Difficulty attracting future investors next to structures

•          Impact to high-tech image as HSR crawls in at 45 mph

To dismiss underground with NO further consideration, examination or public review when the final outcome will impact the City and residents for generations to come seems inconsistent with a fair, open and full examination spirit of the EIR/EIS CEQA process.

Request:

We respectfully ask City of San Jose to:

  1. Urge HSRA to include and fully analyze and optimize an underground alignment in the EIR.  Work with key elected state officials to encourage HSRA.
  2. Hire an independent geologist and tunnel construction expert to analyze feasibility and costs of an optimized underground alignment
  3. Develop an analysis of the relative economic impact of above ground  vs. underground: construction through 30 years out.

We thank you for the hard work and dedication to bring HSR to San Jose.  We look forward to supporting the Council and Staff in finding the best possible HSR alignment and enabling the Diridon transit hub to develop its full potential as a magnet for future economic growth.

 

Sincerely,

// Richard Zappelli //

 

Chair, Planning and Land Use Committee                                   Approved by:

Willow Glen Neighborhood Association                                      WGNA Board of Directors

                                                                                                President:  Save Our Trails

 

 

cc:        Han Larsen,  Interim Dir. Department of Transportation

            Joe Horwedel,  Dir. Planning, Building and Code Enforcement

            Office of the City Clerk, San Jose, CA cityclerk@sanjoseca.gov