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.Century Neighborhood Association

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SHADY OAKS SPORTS PARK

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NEIGHBORS

Background: 

San Jose Bond Measure P which passed in November 2000 allotted 1.2 billion dollars for improving/building city facilities commensurate with city size.  Buried within the bond measure was Shady Oaks Sports Park.   Its purpose was to alleviate the sports park/soccer field shortage in San Jose.   The park was specified to be located in the ~50 acres of undeveloped land between Coyote Road, Coyote Creek, Silver Creek Road, and Shady Oaks Park.  The bond measure specified only that the park have 6 soccer fields (of unspecified size), and implied that there be  no night lights.   

This project will have a major impact on our community.

Status:  

The City of San Jose is moving forward to plan the Shady Oaks Sports Park.  The city utilizing consultant Royston Hanamoto Alley & Abey (RHAA) is currently gathering input via community meetings from our neighborhood residents, other San Jose residents and interested parties.   Project issues such as layout, number of soccer fields, parking, traffic patterns, sightlines, club house facilities, noise, safety, environmental concerns, benefits to our community are in the process of being integrated into the final design. 

***UPDATE***

Summary of the August 7, 2002 Community Workshop - brief notes.

A meeting was held between the City of San Jose, neighborhood residents and other interested parties regarding the Shady Oaks Sports Park design.  The purpose of this meeting was to review the task force designs, gather community input on new and unresolved issues, and to inform the community on overall progress.  (A task force group of approximately 40 people met twice previously to develop park designs which addressed specific issues.  Our Century Neighborhood Association was represented.) 

Jim Norman of the San Jose Parks Department began the meeting by discussing plans for an additional soccer sports park located in the Singleton(sp) site.  The Singleton(sp) site is larger in acreage than Shady Oaks thus more design flexibility is possible.  The soccer  players - in particular adult soccer players - were urged to join the Singleton(sp) task force which is ~3 months behind the Shady Oaks Sports Park development.

Manuela King of RHAA (consultants) then reviewed several possible general park designs developed from the task force inputs.  Major variables included the width of the buffer zone between Coyote Road and the soccer fields, number of soccer fields, and type/size of soccer fields.  She then compared the Shady Oaks form factor to other local sports parks such as Twin Creeks.

BUFFER ZONES

Coyote Creek is required to have a 100' buffer zone.

There are also plans for a buffer zone along Coyote Road with options ranging from 60' - 150'(??).   Jim Norman implied that a fence will be positioned somewhere along the buffer zone to discourage soccer related vehicles from parking along Coyote Road and walking across the buffer zone into the soccer field area.  Will we be staring at a fence?  He wanted the sports park accessible to local residents by foot, thus did not want the sports park accessible only through the parking entrance.  He also stated that anyone could walk, drive or park north on Coyote Road and access the sports park from the north side. 

PARKING

Parking will NOT be in this designated park land, but rather across Coyote Creek.  The city identified several possible sites, but this is an open issue.

While the external parking area will be helpful, no solutions were offered to ease neighbors' concerns about increased parking alongside Coyote Road.  

The issue of  parking lot gridlock was raised since vehicles will enter and exit through only one parking lot entrance.  

NUMBER/TYPE OF SOCCER FIELDS

Options: 

                     6 fields for under age 12

                     4 fields for under age 12, and 2 fields for under age 10(?)

                     4 fields for under age 12 and 2 baseball fields

Note, the original bond measure specified that the park have 6  soccer fields (of unspecified size) and implied that there be no night lights.

Adult soccer players rallied for adult soccer fields.  RHAA will integrate an adult soccer field into a design option.  Jim Norman again urged these folks to join the  Singleton(sp) sports park focus group to better address their needs for adult soccer. 

OTHER ITEMS

Other buildings (restrooms, maintenance building) were overlaid onto the design options.  And, many alternatives were suggested for the multiuse areas of the sports park such as tennis courts, etc.  But these are secondary concerns at this time.

Jim Norman stated that soccer playing time will be supervised.

Forrest Williams, councilman, attended this meeting.

Further community meetings will be held. 

Summary of Other Meetings:

On February 13, 2002, the City of San Jose held its first public workshop.  A large vocal majority inundated RHAA and the City of San Jose with major concerns regarding noise, traffic, parking, and visual blight for starters.  A few others rallied for a large soccer complex for youth and adults.  A summary of this meeting provided by RHAA can be downloaded from  shady-020717.pdf   <<< (Acrobat Reader, 18 pages)

On February 26, our Century Neighborhood Association held a planning meeting at the Southside Community Center.  The purpose of this meeting was to form a consensus to take to the city's next community meeting on the Shady Oaks proposal.  Thank you all for your participation.  Detailed meeting minutes (022602) are listed here.

Four Focus Group meetings were then held by the City of San Jose  in March and April 2002  addressing specific interests: 

On May 9, 2002, the City of San Jose hosted a Community Workshop to review the results from the aforementioned five city sponsored meetings.  In this meeting, a 62 page report published by RHAA was distributed to the attendees and detailed the results.  (The first 18 pages summarizing the 2/13/02 meeting can be downloaded above.)

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Two task force meetings between city parks department representatives, our  neighbors and other interested parties have been held to further develop the sports park design. 

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For more information, contact: 

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