Feb 19, 2004

“This park is about passive use, scenery, and spirituality, and a place just to enjoy peace and quiet,”—Denelle Fedor.

Cathedral Oaks open space park
Community meetings bring about positive results

By Lorraine Gabbert
Staff Writer

Wildflowers, grasslands, and trees will soon be planted along the hillside at the Falcon Knoll and Falcon Ridge area, bringing the natural beauty of an open space park to the Cathedral Oaks neighborhood. At a recent community meeting at Williams Elementary School Wednesday evening, members of the community expressed both their concerns and contentment with the project’s design.

Residents have been working closely with the city of San Jose to stabilize the slope while preserving a passive park setting, and are delighted to have Vice Mayor Pat Dando’s office, and Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services Associate Landscape Architect Marybeth Carter on their side. Concerned with erosion and safety issues, Vice Mayor Pat Dando had set aside about $100,000 for this project.

Resident Rosie MacFarlane is pleased with the response of the city and the Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services Department. “I think it’s great,” said MacFarlane. “We need a park that is natural and passive (visual open space, without trails or roads). I think the neighborhood is getting what we want.”

Neighbor Tracy Tuinn agrees. “They’re open to listening to what we wanted and creating a plan we can give our comments on,” she asserts. “This will make it prettier, for one thing, and maintain the hillside. At the previous meeting they had talked about making signage and a parking lot, which we didn’t want.” As a result of that meeting, no signage or vehicle traffic is currently planned for the open space.

“The site was dedicated to the city by Shapell Country View Estate Development to meet their parkland dedication ordinance requirements,” said Denelle Fedor, legislative assistant to Vice Mayor Pat Dando. “The deed was given in June of 1995 for the property of 16.8 acres and the park was to remain a natural hillside area with some passive open space park usage open to the public.”

“This is a success story,” stated Tracey Chiappe. “I approached the city about four years ago regarding [requiring] some vegetation on the hill. Landscape Maintenance Manager Todd Capurso agreed to come out and look at the site, and he did the plantings of the oak trees for us and purchased 375 feet of hose. We’ve actually hauled the hoses for three years from each of our houses up the hill and watered the trees.” Unfortunately, without regular irrigation, and further planting, this solution wasn’t enough to stop the impact of erosion on the slope. “Over time, we’ve lost a few of the trees, and the hill’s starting to erode,” observed Chiappe. “We’ve been out there with shovels. The end result [of these meetings] is that everyone is satisfied.”

According to Fedor, the purpose of the meeting was to follow up on concerns raised at the previous meeting, and to let everyone know exactly what is going to be happening at the park. “We will have flowers and wild types of landscaping to correct the erosion problem that will not require regular care,” Fedor added. Also in attendance were Project Design Geologist Julias Moriarity, from ENGEO, Inc., and City Geologist Mike Shimamoto.

Standing before two easels displaying photographs of the picturesque hillside she envisions, landscape architect Marybeth Carter shared her view. “The elements here are landscaping, irrigation, and perhaps a low wall to catch debris at the bottom of the slope,” she said. We followed up with the geologist in the conceptual review of the project, and we have a go-ahead to irrigate the slope. Our proposal is a native grass and wildflower seed mixture with jute mesh initially to protect it. We’re going to irrigate it for two to three years to establish the roots of the grass and flowers. After the first growing season, the green grass will cover the jute fiber. We don’t see the wooden wall as a permanent feature in the landscape. The part for discussion tonight is whether visually you want this wall, which may not be necessary.

“Most of the big rocks have come down from that hill already,” mentioned one neighbor. “I think it would be a problem with [attracting] the kids,” commented another. Carter called for a vote by the residents on whether they would want the wall to be constructed, and the residents decided against it.

“Regarding the trees, the dead ones will be removed, and we will create more natural clumpings and irrigate them,” Carter noted. In answer to a question as to whether more mature trees would be planted, Carter explained that smaller trees actually grow and thrive better than larger ones do. “Whenever we can, we prefer to plant smaller trees,” she said. “What we’ve found is that when you plant larger trees, they do look better, but in two or three years, the smaller trees have caught up to the larger trees but the larger trees will just stand there in shock.”

No walking path is proposed for the park. “The intent of this parcel is to preserve it as open space,” Carter stressed.

“This park is about passive use, scenery, and spirituality, and a place just to enjoy peace and quiet,” added Fedor.

The grass mix Carter recommends will grow to about 12 inches high, resembling meadow grass. “The problem probably was that the grass wasn’t quite established previously, but we’re going to establish the root structure with the jute mesh,” she ensured.

Carter briefly outlined the next steps in the process. “What we’re going to do is prepare the plans, issue a general service contract, and by the summer begin,” she said. “First we’ll put in the water meter and water connections, then trenching for the irrigation pipes, and begin stapling and staking the mat. Next, we will run irrigation tests to make sure the water spreads evenly.”

“We want to get in and get out with minimal construction time,” Fedor noted.

“The time trucks would be driving in there would be four weeks most likely, and six at the most,” Carter assured the community.

Fedor was appreciative of the residents’ response to the design presentation meeting. “The community is very happy to have such a large piece of land that will remain a passive, open space, and what’s so nice is that the community as a whole agrees,” she said. “Sometimes when you have developments, there can be a divergence of opinions. Someone even mentioned that he didn’t live on the street, and he really wanted to make sure that the people who did were the ones who voted, and it just shows that people want the best for their neighbors.”

A follow-up letter defining the construction schedule will be sent to neighbors shortly, and further community meetings may be scheduled to update residents on the project’s progress, and to provide contact information to answer any of the residents’ questions. Completion is expected by October 2004.