the Coyote Alamitos-Canal
The Santa Teresa Hills and the Coyote-Alamitos Canal
from Century Oaks Park by Cottle Road
Introduction
The Santa Teresa Hills and the Coyote-Alamitos Canal
from Century Oaks Park by Cottle Road
Introduction
Coyote Alamitos Canal 
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The Silicon Valley is the technology capital of the world. Every
day, hundreds of thousands of highly skilled workers in the Valley's many
high-tech companies create products and innovations that change the world.
These innovations have fueled the tremendous growth of jobs and companies
in the Valley, making it one of the most prosperous regions in the world.
However, all of this growth has come at a price.The fast pace and relentless
competition of the high-tech world has created stressful job environments
for the workers. While the jobs have benefitted the workers economically,
they have put a strain on their mental and physical well-being. Ironically,
one of the best cures to these maladies - parks and trails - are threatened
by this progress. The Santa Teresa Hills form one of the southern borders of Silicon
Valley. They stretch from the rural Coyote Valley to the upscale suburban
Almaden Valley, reaching their high-point at Santa Teresa Park's Coyote Peak..
The mostly undeveloped hills are an oasis of open space in densely-populated
and highly-developed South San Jose. Nearly 1700 acres belongs to Santa
Teresa County Park, but most of the rest of the hills are in private hands. With the increasing population and proposed future developments in the Santa Teresa area, providing adequate recreation is becoming more important than ever. City parks are great for small children and youth sports leagues, but for people looking to get some exercise and fresh air by running, walking, or biking,.recreational trails are better. They provide more variety of scenery and provide longer distances to cover. They are also much safer to travel on than city streets, where often-fatal accidents with cars are a too-common occurrence. These trails tend to be used by people of all ages, from parents walking with their children, to workers going out for a lunchtime jog, to elderly couples going out for a stroll. Santa Teresa Park has miles of great trails, but they are often steep, so not everyone is physically capable of enjoying them. However, there is a flat trail route in the Santa Teresa Hills that is potentially one of the best in the Bay Area. It is several miles long, easily-accessible, almost perfectly level, wide, and has an excellent surface for running and biking. There is just one problem: It is not a public trail. Public access is forbidden. This is the levee road along the Coyote-Alamitos Canal. This Website has pictures of the canal route and information about it. It also discusses why this route is so important and what needs to be done to make it a public trail. Click on the buttons to the left to take a virtual photo tour of the Coyote-Alamitos Canal Route and the Santa Teresa Hills and find out more information about them. The other buttons link to related sites. The biking and hiking pages have examples of other open space areas and recreational trails. The "Future Hopes" link is to an early page I did on the Santa Teresa Hills and the Coyote-Alamitos Canal. Check out the links below for other information. News
On Christmas Eve, 1999, a Santa Teresa resident's dog was shot by a rancher in the Santa Teresa Hills near Snell Avenue. (See here for more information.) This incident precipitated community meetings and discussions that eventually resulted in the formation of the Santa Teresa Foothills Neighborhood Association. Their first community-wide meeting was held at Santa Teresa High School auditorium on 10/25/00. The organization's goals are to preserve the foothills and open the Coyote-Alamitos Canal as a recreational trail. At the meeting, which filled the majority of the auditorium, the following news was reported:
Spring 2003 Update:On April 23, 2003, the city held a community meeting at Sakamoto School discussing the latest findings by the environmental consultant, Amphion Environmental, they hired to study the trail. The room was packed. The audience was roughly equally divided between those who were for and against the trail. The consultants discussed their findings on converting the Coyote-Alamitos Canal into a public trail, as well as some alternatives. The alternatives included routing the trail higher along the hillside, below the canal, and along city streets. The problems they found with the canal itself were that there would be significant costs involved because the canal was not continuous, ran through environmentally sensitive and unstable areas, and the land was privately owned. The property owners had easement agreements with the Water District, but only for maintenance purposes. In order to make the canal levee road a public trail, these agreements would have to be re-written. Councilman Forrest Williams, who was in attendance, categorically stated that he would not ask for the use of eminent domain to secure the land for the trail. (Councilwoman Pat Dando, who was not able to attend the meeting but sent a representative, has written articles in the past criticizing the use of eminent domain and stating her personal objection to it.)The other alternatives studied by the consultants had advantages and disadvantages. The route below the trail, along city-owned property, looked impractical. The land was too steep in places, and a cutting a trail into the hill could undermine the structural integrity of the canal, which the city is not allowed to do. It would also route a trail even closer to homes, which could raise even stronger objections from abutters. The street route was probably included just for completeness. It was regarded almost as a joke by the audience, since it would mean virtually no change to the current situation. Because of the cost and legal issues, the consultants did not recommend building a trail on the canal on the north end. However, another alternative presented was to concentrate on the section of the trail along the canal between Coyote Creek and Santa Teresa Park. This had broader support and was more feasible. It would also have the advantage of connecting to the Coyote Creek Trail. It did have some engineering challenges in crossing Santa Teresa Blvd., parts of Tulare Hill, and Monterey Highway. There were also some alternatives mentioned in routing the trail along the south side of Tulare Hill and crossing Monterey Highway at Bailey. Trails in this area may also be linked to developments in North Coyote Valley, like the Metcalf Energy Center and Cisco project. The hillside/hilltop alternative trail was almost universally supported. The hills are laced with ranch and PGE access roads that could be used as trails. The problem is that it would involve going through private property. The property in question is a priority preservation target for the Santa Clara County Open Space Authority, so there may be some future possibilities here. When a poll was taken later in the evening, the only other issue that was almost unanimously supported, by proponents and opponents of the trail alike, was the goal of preserving open space in the Santa Teresa Hills. Forrest Williams encouraged the audience to voice their support to the Open Space District for preserving the hills. This is county land, so it would not likely be under city jurisdiction. It would have limited neighborhood access, so if a park were built in the hills, it would be more of a regional park, like Santa Teresa County Park, than a neighborhood park. Hillside trails would provide recreational access for hikers, mountain bikers, and equestrians, but not for the handicapped, the elderly, people with baby strollers, roller skaters, etc., who use flat trails, like the Alamitos Creek and Coyote Creek Trails. The San Jose City Council will be studying the consultants' recommendation and will vote on what actions to take. The city is in a budget crisis, like most of the state, so is not likely to take on any expensive projects, at least in the near future. The bottom line (my opinion): the trail along the canal at the north end is not likely to happen anytime soon. This is because of the legal and financial issues of the city's lack of ownership of the trail route and the political backlash from the abutters who are against the trail. The trail link between the Coyote Creek Trail and Santa Teresa Park along the canal is more likely once funds are available. The problems there are more financial, environmental, and engineering problems of the type that have been overcome in the past. Trails through the hillsides may be the most likely since they are widely supported by the community, have the support of the Open Space Authority, and have a visible and popular example in Santa Teresa County Park. Links
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