River Oaks Neighborhood Association

The River Oaks Neighboorhood Association is dedicated to preserving and improving the quality of life along River Oaks Parkway in North San Jose, California.

Looking to contact us? Email info@ro-na.org.

2011 Board Meeting Mintues

Other Years

Current Year
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006

11/2/2011

River Oaks Neighborhood Association Board Meeting

Wednesday November 2, 2011

7:00pm @ Premier Pizza, River Oaks

Present: Jean, Mike, Laura, Laura Rasay (resident), Sheila Ngo (District 4)

Agenda items:

Sheila is putting together a meeting with Essex to address RONA's concerns. Monday, Nov 21st, 7pm, at Novellus' Auditorium. We will flyer mailboxes to help get the word out.
Mike met with Tom Armstrong of HMH Engineering regarding 401/405 ROP.
- This is the lot to the west of Parkside. Irvine has bought the property. This is the location rumored to be "affordable" units. Tom says it's "not all affordable".
- HMH does design work for Irvine. They're reaching out to Parkside residents to improve their design. Mike is going to organize a committee of Parkside residents who live along the border to discuss with HMH. For more information, contact bertram@ro-na.org. The board pre-approves use of RONA funds to provide a meeting space and snacks for about 24 people.
- Current preliminary design: 438 units on the 8.1 acre site, 4 stories of residential over 2 stories of parking, one of the parking stories is underground. The streetscape largely remains the same as it is now,: the large redwoods, current driveways, and the greenery patch next to Parkside&ROP corner are all kept.
- They will obey the 45-degree-angle setback requirement from the NSJ Urban Design guidelines.
- However, in the NSJ policy, there aren't 438 unallocated housing units. So they have to wait for someone to release some. (They think the BRE site at the ROP&Zanker corner is going to release theirs, since they didn't start in time for the affordable-housing waiver.) If they do get allocation, construction will start once the Crescent/Sony project is finished. So they're looking at plans finalized May 2012 and construction start December 2012.
- Mike has copies of the current preliminary plan. RONA board looked them over, they look somewhat reasonable at first glance. It looks like the Urban Design guidelines are helping. There were some ideas on how to further reduce height on Parkside border, as well as how to interface to riparian corridor. Mike mentioned they believe street disruption for construction should be less than at Crescent site.
- Also some talk about the levee access regarding 401/405 ROP. Sheila mentioned that the water district is reluctant to modify levees. RONA's opinion is that if NSJ policy is to have a walkable neighborhood, the levee trails are a huge part of that. City needs to encourage access not ignore it. HMH says they need to have emergency vehicle access along riparian side of property, however they want to make it walkable and nice.
Some other news gleaned from talking to Tom:
- The east corner of Cisco Way and ROP has a long-term commercial lease. They probably won't be selling for a while.
- The deal that Cisco was trying to make to trade residential zoning along Baypointe Parkway for their commercial zoning along Cisco Way fell through.
- The city is sitting on $77 million in parks money. It's using the interest from this money for the General Fund. There should be plenty of money to build the Essex park!
Mike also had some updates about Essex:
- New name, "Epic Residential"?
- There is a 2.6 acre park. It's a triangle along the riparian corridor. We asked Sheila to follow up on the parks plan for this, since no-one got back to us after the NSJ Taskforce Meeting in September.
- It will be 3 buildings. The first 2 are in Phase 1 and are shorter, woodframe; these are the buildings closer to ROP and are being constructed now. The last one is a steel-frame high-rise (aka more than 6 stories), and they're putting it in Phase 2 because steel prices are too high right now to build.
- Why can't we work out a park-maintenance deal for Essex like we did for Irvine? Well apparently the PDO funds their development paid is not enough to both build the park and maintain it.
Sheila announces that District 4 is doing a Donation Drive to collect clothing, household goods, e-waste, etc to assist the needy. Flyer here.
Next RONA meeting 12/7 normal time & place.

10/5/2011

River Oaks Neighborhood Association Board Meeting

Wednesday October 5, 2011

7:00pm @ Premier Pizza, River Oaks

Present: Jean, Mike, Laura, Tam Truong (resident), Laura Rasay (resident), Julie Payne (Retail Real Estate Manager, Shea Properties)

Agenda items:

Mike and Jean attended the NSJ Taskforce meeting Sept 19th. See Laura's extensive notes for the details. The most awesome news: the Sony/Irvine 5-acre park will be completed December 2013!
PG&E is doing "hydrostatic test T-24" at two locations just north of Tasman Drive. This is a test to prove that the natural gas pipeline is safe. Our supply of gas will be rerouted for the duration of the test. The testing will start Sept 19th, and service will be restored to normal Oct 23rd. Here is the letter from PG&E and the map of the sites where the testing will occur.
Fairfield has released some conceptual drawings for their Baypointe projects: first picture, second picture, and third picture.
The installation of storm sewers along ROP has left some ugly temporary patches, like this one. This will be fully restored to the original before construction is finished.
Contact information for some of the local construction projects:
- Storm/sewers/roads: Tom Armstrong of HMH Corp, (408)487-2200
- Irvine/Sony construction: Jason Fong, Irvine Co, (949)720-5564
Brainstormed with Julie some ideas for improving the Elan retail center
Need Essex status update. Mike and Jean to follow up. Especially park status, construction dates, pictures of proposed buildings, and traffic mitigation plans. Will also ask Kansen Chu's office to organize a neighborhood meeting, since it was required but was never held.
Councilmember Kansen Chu invites all residents to a Haunted House in honor of Halloween. Flyer here.
Construction noise bothering you before 7am or after 7pm? Call City of San Jose, Code Enforcement (408) 535-7770.
Next meeting Nov 2nd.

9/14/2011

River Oaks Neighborhood Association Board Meeting

Wednesday September 14, 2011

7:00pm @ Premier Pizza, River Oaks

Present: Jean, Mike

Laura was not at this meeting, minutes are incomplete.

Agenda items:

Welcome back RONA board! Things have been quiet after Measure A failed.
Fundings for new parks (eg Crescent Park)
The city will discuss this in the upcoming taskforce meeting.
Discuss Mike's questions from 12/2/2010.
Put out flyers for NSJ Taskforce Meeting September 19.
Cindy Smith is wanting to get the River Oaks Shuttle (ROP to VTA) going again. Thinking of getting Essex and @First added to the route.
Construction issues: dump trucks shouldn't be travelling on ROP. Streetlights are "falling down." Construction dirt on the roads, need more streetsweepers. Complaints sent to city and have been addressed. Will try to get direct contacts for construction sights to improve complaint response time.
Next meeting Oct 5th.

1/17/2011

River Oaks Neighborhood Association Board Meeting

Monday January 17, 2011

7:00pm @ Premier Pizza, River Oaks

Present: Jean, Mike, Laura, Erik, Erik Schoennauer (developer), Brad ? (developer)

Agenda item: Meet with developers to hear their side of the story.

Mike summarized RONA's current position and agenda for the meeting as: RONA sees a need for NSJ schools now and in the future. What is your philosophy? What are the developers offering now, and why do you think that's sufficient?
Points raised by Mr. Schoennauer:
- If the developments don't get built, neither do the schools, parks, etc.
- School district is "gambling" with this Mello Roos.
- Developers don't feel like School District is willing or interested in negotiating.
- Believe a K-8 school is good for their investment.
- Agree that 900 student K-8 is sufficient for the 5000 units.
- Claim that school district is trying to fix capacity issues elsewhere in the system by overbuilding in NSJ. "138 students from overcrowded Don Callejon." Would like the burden of that overcapacity to be placed on the developers in city of Santa Clara who are generating it. Claim that recent developments in Santa Clara are only paying $6000 per unit. Feel this is unfair. Would like school district to look at other pots of money for capacity issues.
- Believe an acceptable K-8 school for 900 students can be built for $40 million. Had some comparison data for other schools built after 2000 in Northern California. Close example is the Don Callejon K-8 in Rivermark, 900 students, built in 2006 on 7.5 acres for $26.4 million.
- They believe they are offering a fair price for a K-8 school at $8000 per unit for 5000 units (which is total of $40 million).
- They note it's an accelerated payment schedule compared to the Mello Roos. Also note that the School District wants to build the school by 2014.
- Believe the Mello Roos will cause many housing projects to be cancelled or deferred until better economic times.
- The proposed high school cost of $200 million would make it one of the most expensive high schools built in the USA. Is this use of the money appropriate?
- Overbuilding capacity can lead to insolvency and debt in the school district. Example: Modesto.
A bit more back-and-forth conversation:
- Q: What is current offer?
  Most recent offer from developers is $9000 per unit if SCUSD takes the offer today and the Mello Roos passes; and $5000 per unit if SCUSD takes the offer and the Mello Roos fails. If the SCUSD does not take the offer and the Mello Roos fails, the developers will only pay $3000 per unit. This includes slightly more units than the original (units that aren't approved but are in consideration by developers.) Note that if developers cut a deal with the SCUSD, they are essentially exempt from the Mello Roos.
- Q: What is the student generation rate for North Park?
  A: When NP was built, the district estimated that the 2700 apartment units would generate 400 kids. Using the generation rates being applied to NSJ, that estimate would be 200 kids. Actual population attending Orchard Elementary is about 65 kids.
- Q: The city is estimating $55 million to build K-8. Why do they need an extra $40 million?
  A: They haven't done their research on construction costs. They are overestimating. They are trying to get approval for the worst case scenario. They have over-estimated student-generation rates. They want to build a "high-end" school.
- Q: Where did you get your numbers for $40 million estimate? What do those numbers include? Do they include "soft costs" (eg desks, whiteboards, computers, etc)?
  A: We will get you more detail on the estimates.
RONA board would like to see more financial details from both sides. Overall consensus is that developers raised a few good points and that we need more information to make a decision.
RONA mentioned that we will be holding a community meeting on the Mello Roos and offered the developers a chance to present their arguments to the community fairly.

1/10/2011

River Oaks Neighborhood Association Board Meeting

Monday January 10, 2011

7:00pm @ Premier Pizza, River Oaks

Present: Jean, Mike, Laura, Erik, Roger Barnes (SCUSD), Steve Stavis (SCUSD)

Agenda item: Action plans for the upcoming Mello Roos vote.

Details about the proposed schools, in no particular order:
- Cisco wants to keep the Alviso property that the city had originally proposed as a highschool. Instead they are willing to buy the northernmost 20 acres of Agnews and allow the school district to purchase the southern 55 acres for an "educational complex" of a K-8 and a high school.
- Mentioned in passing, the Agnews site would be cheaper to operate.
- The generation plant on the northern edge of Cisco & Tasman (the steam-generator) has an underground fuel tank. Laws prevent the SCUSD from building a school within 1/4 mile of such a tank. This works out perfectly if Cisco takes the northern 20 acres of Agnews.
- Also, if the state sells the Agnews property, it is required to clean up any environmental contaminants on the site.
- SCUSC is going to have to demolish the buildings on the Agnews campus: they are not up to earthquake codes for schools in California, nor are they economically or programatically feasable to use for a school (most of the rooms are too small). The SCUSD is working with the local historical preservation societies to try to come up with an architectural and landscape design that evokes some of the same elements as the original Agnews historical buildings.
- SCUSD is planning an "educational complex" that will include playgrounds and buildings that can be used by the community when they are not in use by the school.
- The Agnews Watertower is already a historic landmark and cannot be torn down. The school district cannot build anything within a 150-foot radius of the tower. They're planning on landscaping the area prettily and making it a miniature community park.
- The high school will likely be of an "urban" design, i.e. multistoried. The final full build-out (in 10+ years) would be 1600 students. Construction would have to start in 7-8 years.
- The K-8 school would be another 1100 students. Construction would start in about 3 years.
- There would have to be at least 1 more K-5 school feeding to cover the final build-out of North San Jose beyond what's being proposed for the Agnews site.
- Both schools will be closed-campus for lunch.
Details about the current negotiations with developers:
- Developers are currently trying to claim they are "offering more". But... more than what, exactly?
- If the SCUSD did nothing, they would recieve $2.97 per square foot in developer fees; or approximately $3000/unit.
- The school district estimates it will cost at least $50 million to build a single K-8 school, and another $200 million to build the high school. (Note that these costs are in today's dollars and today's job market.) That, plus the other required schools, and paying off $20 million of the Measure H bond, means the actual cost per unit is something like $18000.
- The original deal between SCUSD, the city of San Jose, and the developers in the original Phase I approval of North San JOse was:
  - Developers agree to provide $6000 per unit
  - city pays $75 million (which was worth about $7500 per unit)
  - city provides 8 acres for a high school in Alviso
  which comes out to about $135 million worth of value. The SCUSD originally was going to make up the remaining $65 million with a bond when the population levels required building another school.
- Then, when the economy crashed: the city backed out of their end of the deal, and the developers folded.
- A few developers survived the crash, consisting of a proposed 4800 units. Last year they offered a deal of $6000 per unit. Obviously the cost of building the schools hasn't gone down... so SCUSD said "no".
- SCUSD ran the numbers again, and cut out the Measure H repayment, the later K-5 school 20 years down the road, and came up with a minimum of $11000 per unit for those developers as a counteroffer. SCUSD says it really can't go lower.
- Developers then upped to $8000 per unit.
- Most recent offer from developers is $9000 per unit if SCUSD takes the offer today and the Mello Roos passes; and $5000 per unit if SCUSD takes the offer and the Mello Roos fails.
- SCUSD countered with $11000 per unit if they agree before January 31, 2011; or $13000 per unit if they agree after January 31 but before the Mello Roos election ends on March 8th.
Our city council member, Kansen Chu, is siding with the developers.
Also note that the recent Governor state budget proposal may cause the state to confiscate the Redevelopment Agency (RDA) funds. The Mr. Barnes and Mr. Stavis were not sure how that would affect the SCUSD tax revenue.
Roger shared some anecdotes from the Don Callejon elementary school in Rivermark. The area the school covered was forced to shrink because it was oversubscribed. The school no longer covers the Miraval condominium complex. The anecdote:
- $800,000 units have lost $100,000 in value due to this change
- Rental price for units have dropped $200/month due to this change
Roger is going to look for more hard data for those in our community who want information on how a local school will affect our property values.
Action Planning:
- Ballots will arrive in the mail for registered voters on February 7th.
- The mail-in ballots are due on March 8th
- The Mello-Roos will pass 2/3 of the returned votes are "Yes"
- SCUSD is putting together an informative newsletter that should also arrive on February 7th
- RONA will distribute information via email & website
- RONA will email out a 2-week reminder for returning the ballots
- RONA will go door-to-door around River Oaks.
  - The week of February 7th to 13th.
  - RONA to organize this
  - Roger will help on training and handouts
- RONA will organize a community meeting, on the 5th-6th, midday, most likely seating area by Hobee's. Roger may help getting audio equipment.
- Roger will get RONA a registered voter list so we can target our door-to-door efforts.
- RONA will put up signage. One sign to announce the community meeting. One sign to remind people to vote
Roger to get RONA the proposed draft layout, as well as other details.


HOME NEWS CALENDAR PROJECTS COMMUNITY ABOUT RONA

The River Oaks Neighboorhood Association is dedicated to preserving and improving the quality of life along River Oaks Parkway in North San Jose, California. Looking to contact us? Email info@ro-na.org.	2011 Board Meeting Mintues Other Years Current Year 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 11/2/2011 River Oaks Neighborhood Association Board Meeting Wednesday November 2, 2011 7:00pm @ Premier Pizza, River Oaks Present: Jean, Mike, Laura, Laura Rasay (resident), Sheila Ngo (District 4) Agenda items: Sheila is putting together a meeting with Essex to address RONA's concerns. Monday, Nov 21st, 7pm, at Novellus' Auditorium. We will flyer mailboxes to help get the word out. Mike met with Tom Armstrong of HMH Engineering regarding 401/405 ROP. This is the lot to the west of Parkside. Irvine has bought the property. This is the location rumored to be "affordable" units. Tom says it's "not all affordable". HMH does design work for Irvine. They're reaching out to Parkside residents to improve their design. Mike is going to organize a committee of Parkside residents who live along the border to discuss with HMH. For more information, contact bertram@ro-na.org. The board pre-approves use of RONA funds to provide a meeting space and snacks for about 24 people. Current preliminary design: 438 units on the 8.1 acre site, 4 stories of residential over 2 stories of parking, one of the parking stories is underground. The streetscape largely remains the same as it is now,: the large redwoods, current driveways, and the greenery patch next to Parkside&ROP corner are all kept. They will obey the 45-degree-angle setback requirement from the NSJ Urban Design guidelines. However, in the NSJ policy, there aren't 438 unallocated housing units. So they have to wait for someone to release some. (They think the BRE site at the ROP&Zanker corner is going to release theirs, since they didn't start in time for the affordable-housing waiver.) If they do get allocation, construction will start once the Crescent/Sony project is finished. So they're looking at plans finalized May 2012 and construction start December 2012. Mike has copies of the current preliminary plan. RONA board looked them over, they look somewhat reasonable at first glance. It looks like the Urban Design guidelines are helping. There were some ideas on how to further reduce height on Parkside border, as well as how to interface to riparian corridor. Mike mentioned they believe street disruption for construction should be less than at Crescent site. Also some talk about the levee access regarding 401/405 ROP. Sheila mentioned that the water district is reluctant to modify levees. RONA's opinion is that if NSJ policy is to have a walkable neighborhood, the levee trails are a huge part of that. City needs to encourage access not ignore it. HMH says they need to have emergency vehicle access along riparian side of property, however they want to make it walkable and nice. Some other news gleaned from talking to Tom: The east corner of Cisco Way and ROP has a long-term commercial lease. They probably won't be selling for a while. The deal that Cisco was trying to make to trade residential zoning along Baypointe Parkway for their commercial zoning along Cisco Way fell through. The city is sitting on $77 million in parks money. It's using the interest from this money for the General Fund. There should be plenty of money to build the Essex park! Mike also had some updates about Essex: New name, "Epic Residential"? There is a 2.6 acre park. It's a triangle along the riparian corridor. We asked Sheila to follow up on the parks plan for this, since no-one got back to us after the NSJ Taskforce Meeting in September. It will be 3 buildings. The first 2 are in Phase 1 and are shorter, woodframe; these are the buildings closer to ROP and are being constructed now. The last one is a steel-frame high-rise (aka more than 6 stories), and they're putting it in Phase 2 because steel prices are too high right now to build. Why can't we work out a park-maintenance deal for Essex like we did for Irvine? Well apparently the PDO funds their development paid is not enough to both build the park and maintain it. Sheila announces that District 4 is doing a Donation Drive to collect clothing, household goods, e-waste, etc to assist the needy. Flyer here. Next RONA meeting 12/7 normal time & place. 10/5/2011 River Oaks Neighborhood Association Board Meeting Wednesday October 5, 2011 7:00pm @ Premier Pizza, River Oaks Present: Jean, Mike, Laura, Tam Truong (resident), Laura Rasay (resident), Julie Payne (Retail Real Estate Manager, Shea Properties) Agenda items: Mike and Jean attended the NSJ Taskforce meeting Sept 19th. See Laura's extensive notes for the details. The most awesome news: the Sony/Irvine 5-acre park will be completed December 2013! PG&E is doing "hydrostatic test T-24" at two locations just north of Tasman Drive. This is a test to prove that the natural gas pipeline is safe. Our supply of gas will be rerouted for the duration of the test. The testing will start Sept 19th, and service will be restored to normal Oct 23rd. Here is the letter from PG&E and the map of the sites where the testing will occur. Fairfield has released some conceptual drawings for their Baypointe projects: first picture, second picture, and third picture. The installation of storm sewers along ROP has left some ugly temporary patches, like this one. This will be fully restored to the original before construction is finished. Contact information for some of the local construction projects: Storm/sewers/roads: Tom Armstrong of HMH Corp, (408)487-2200 Irvine/Sony construction: Jason Fong, Irvine Co, (949)720-5564 Brainstormed with Julie some ideas for improving the Elan retail center Need Essex status update. Mike and Jean to follow up. Especially park status, construction dates, pictures of proposed buildings, and traffic mitigation plans. Will also ask Kansen Chu's office to organize a neighborhood meeting, since it was required but was never held. Councilmember Kansen Chu invites all residents to a Haunted House in honor of Halloween. Flyer here. Construction noise bothering you before 7am or after 7pm? Call City of San Jose, Code Enforcement (408) 535-7770. Next meeting Nov 2nd. 9/14/2011 River Oaks Neighborhood Association Board Meeting Wednesday September 14, 2011 7:00pm @ Premier Pizza, River Oaks Present: Jean, Mike Laura was not at this meeting, minutes are incomplete. Agenda items: Welcome back RONA board! Things have been quiet after Measure A failed. Fundings for new parks (eg Crescent Park) The city will discuss this in the upcoming taskforce meeting. Discuss Mike's questions from 12/2/2010. Put out flyers for NSJ Taskforce Meeting September 19. Cindy Smith is wanting to get the River Oaks Shuttle (ROP to VTA) going again. Thinking of getting Essex and @First added to the route. Construction issues: dump trucks shouldn't be travelling on ROP. Streetlights are "falling down." Construction dirt on the roads, need more streetsweepers. Complaints sent to city and have been addressed. Will try to get direct contacts for construction sights to improve complaint response time. Next meeting Oct 5th. 1/17/2011 River Oaks Neighborhood Association Board Meeting Monday January 17, 2011 7:00pm @ Premier Pizza, River Oaks Present: Jean, Mike, Laura, Erik, Erik Schoennauer (developer), Brad ? (developer) Agenda item: Meet with developers to hear their side of the story. Mike summarized RONA's current position and agenda for the meeting as: RONA sees a need for NSJ schools now and in the future. What is your philosophy? What are the developers offering now, and why do you think that's sufficient? Points raised by Mr. Schoennauer: If the developments don't get built, neither do the schools, parks, etc. School district is "gambling" with this Mello Roos. Developers don't feel like School District is willing or interested in negotiating. Believe a K-8 school is good for their investment. Agree that 900 student K-8 is sufficient for the 5000 units. Claim that school district is trying to fix capacity issues elsewhere in the system by overbuilding in NSJ. "138 students from overcrowded Don Callejon." Would like the burden of that overcapacity to be placed on the developers in city of Santa Clara who are generating it. Claim that recent developments in Santa Clara are only paying $6000 per unit. Feel this is unfair. Would like school district to look at other pots of money for capacity issues. Believe an acceptable K-8 school for 900 students can be built for $40 million. Had some comparison data for other schools built after 2000 in Northern California. Close example is the Don Callejon K-8 in Rivermark, 900 students, built in 2006 on 7.5 acres for $26.4 million. They believe they are offering a fair price for a K-8 school at $8000 per unit for 5000 units (which is total of $40 million). They note it's an accelerated payment schedule compared to the Mello Roos. Also note that the School District wants to build the school by 2014. Believe the Mello Roos will cause many housing projects to be cancelled or deferred until better economic times. The proposed high school cost of $200 million would make it one of the most expensive high schools built in the USA. Is this use of the money appropriate? Overbuilding capacity can lead to insolvency and debt in the school district. Example: Modesto. A bit more back-and-forth conversation: Q: What is current offer? Most recent offer from developers is $9000 per unit if SCUSD takes the offer today and the Mello Roos passes; and $5000 per unit if SCUSD takes the offer and the Mello Roos fails. If the SCUSD does not take the offer and the Mello Roos fails, the developers will only pay $3000 per unit. This includes slightly more units than the original (units that aren't approved but are in consideration by developers.) Note that if developers cut a deal with the SCUSD, they are essentially exempt from the Mello Roos. Q: What is the student generation rate for North Park? A: When NP was built, the district estimated that the 2700 apartment units would generate 400 kids. Using the generation rates being applied to NSJ, that estimate would be 200 kids. Actual population attending Orchard Elementary is about 65 kids. Q: The city is estimating $55 million to build K-8. Why do they need an extra $40 million? A: They haven't done their research on construction costs. They are overestimating. They are trying to get approval for the worst case scenario. They have over-estimated student-generation rates. They want to build a "high-end" school. Q: Where did you get your numbers for $40 million estimate? What do those numbers include? Do they include "soft costs" (eg desks, whiteboards, computers, etc)? A: We will get you more detail on the estimates. RONA board would like to see more financial details from both sides. Overall consensus is that developers raised a few good points and that we need more information to make a decision. RONA mentioned that we will be holding a community meeting on the Mello Roos and offered the developers a chance to present their arguments to the community fairly. 1/10/2011 River Oaks Neighborhood Association Board Meeting Monday January 10, 2011 7:00pm @ Premier Pizza, River Oaks Present: Jean, Mike, Laura, Erik, Roger Barnes (SCUSD), Steve Stavis (SCUSD) Agenda item: Action plans for the upcoming Mello Roos vote. Details about the proposed schools, in no particular order: Cisco wants to keep the Alviso property that the city had originally proposed as a highschool. Instead they are willing to buy the northernmost 20 acres of Agnews and allow the school district to purchase the southern 55 acres for an "educational complex" of a K-8 and a high school. Mentioned in passing, the Agnews site would be cheaper to operate. The generation plant on the northern edge of Cisco & Tasman (the steam-generator) has an underground fuel tank. Laws prevent the SCUSD from building a school within 1/4 mile of such a tank. This works out perfectly if Cisco takes the northern 20 acres of Agnews. Also, if the state sells the Agnews property, it is required to clean up any environmental contaminants on the site. SCUSC is going to have to demolish the buildings on the Agnews campus: they are not up to earthquake codes for schools in California, nor are they economically or programatically feasable to use for a school (most of the rooms are too small). The SCUSD is working with the local historical preservation societies to try to come up with an architectural and landscape design that evokes some of the same elements as the original Agnews historical buildings. SCUSD is planning an "educational complex" that will include playgrounds and buildings that can be used by the community when they are not in use by the school. The Agnews Watertower is already a historic landmark and cannot be torn down. The school district cannot build anything within a 150-foot radius of the tower. They're planning on landscaping the area prettily and making it a miniature community park. The high school will likely be of an "urban" design, i.e. multistoried. The final full build-out (in 10+ years) would be 1600 students. Construction would have to start in 7-8 years. The K-8 school would be another 1100 students. Construction would start in about 3 years. There would have to be at least 1 more K-5 school feeding to cover the final build-out of North San Jose beyond what's being proposed for the Agnews site. Both schools will be closed-campus for lunch. Details about the current negotiations with developers: Developers are currently trying to claim they are "offering more". But... more than what, exactly? If the SCUSD did nothing, they would recieve $2.97 per square foot in developer fees; or approximately $3000/unit. The school district estimates it will cost at least $50 million to build a single K-8 school, and another $200 million to build the high school. (Note that these costs are in today's dollars and today's job market.) That, plus the other required schools, and paying off $20 million of the Measure H bond, means the actual cost per unit is something like $18000. The original deal between SCUSD, the city of San Jose, and the developers in the original Phase I approval of North San JOse was: Developers agree to provide $6000 per unit city pays $75 million (which was worth about $7500 per unit) city provides 8 acres for a high school in Alviso which comes out to about $135 million worth of value. The SCUSD originally was going to make up the remaining $65 million with a bond when the population levels required building another school. Then, when the economy crashed: the city backed out of their end of the deal, and the developers folded. A few developers survived the crash, consisting of a proposed 4800 units. Last year they offered a deal of $6000 per unit. Obviously the cost of building the schools hasn't gone down... so SCUSD said "no". SCUSD ran the numbers again, and cut out the Measure H repayment, the later K-5 school 20 years down the road, and came up with a minimum of $11000 per unit for those developers as a counteroffer. SCUSD says it really can't go lower. Developers then upped to $8000 per unit. Most recent offer from developers is $9000 per unit if SCUSD takes the offer today and the Mello Roos passes; and $5000 per unit if SCUSD takes the offer and the Mello Roos fails. SCUSD countered with $11000 per unit if they agree before January 31, 2011; or $13000 per unit if they agree after January 31 but before the Mello Roos election ends on March 8th. Our city council member, Kansen Chu, is siding with the developers. Also note that the recent Governor state budget proposal may cause the state to confiscate the Redevelopment Agency (RDA) funds. The Mr. Barnes and Mr. Stavis were not sure how that would affect the SCUSD tax revenue. Roger shared some anecdotes from the Don Callejon elementary school in Rivermark. The area the school covered was forced to shrink because it was oversubscribed. The school no longer covers the Miraval condominium complex. The anecdote: $800,000 units have lost $100,000 in value due to this change Rental price for units have dropped $200/month due to this change Roger is going to look for more hard data for those in our community who want information on how a local school will affect our property values. Action Planning: Ballots will arrive in the mail for registered voters on February 7th. The mail-in ballots are due on March 8th The Mello-Roos will pass 2/3 of the returned votes are "Yes" SCUSD is putting together an informative newsletter that should also arrive on February 7th RONA will distribute information via email & website RONA will email out a 2-week reminder for returning the ballots RONA will go door-to-door around River Oaks. The week of February 7th to 13th. RONA to organize this Roger will help on training and handouts RONA will organize a community meeting, on the 5th-6th, midday, most likely seating area by Hobee's. Roger may help getting audio equipment. Roger will get RONA a registered voter list so we can target our door-to-door efforts. RONA will put up signage. One sign to announce the community meeting. One sign to remind people to vote Roger to get RONA the proposed draft layout, as well as other details.