September 16, 2004

No news is good news

AVCA meeting with Kitty Monahan sheds no significant information on
proposed development of McAbee entrance of Quicksilver Park

By Jeanne C. Lewis
Staff Writer

Kitty Monahan, president of the New Almaden Quicksilver County Park Association [NAQCPA] and past commissioner of the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department, discussed the proposed development of the McAbee area of the Quicksilver Park to a standing-room only group of interested residents at last Monday night’s Almaden Valley Community Association [AVCA] meeting. Monahan reported that the three parcels totaling 147.6 acres have not been sold by the Pierce family.

“The Parks Department and the Pierce family are still in negotiations right now,” Monahan said at the AVCA. “There is no new information than what was told to you at the Whispering Pines neighborhood meeting in June. So there is nothing much to tell you.”

The acres are sectioned off in three separate parcels: a 9-acre parcel, a 24.85- and, the largest, 113.75-acre piece. Monahan remarked that Mark Frederick, planning manager for Parks and Recreation, said that the 9-acre parcel is in negotiations with a developer and the Pierce family, but is not sold. The proposed subdividing would build 27 to 29 single-family upscale residences. Mike Boulland, NAQCPA member, presented photographs on a computer of the proposed development sites.

Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department is interested in purchasing the other two parcels and have been in discussion with the Pierce family for 10 years. A master plan was drawn up in1998 including a parking lot for 75 cars.

The nearest cross street to the McAbee entrance is Whispering Pines with some of the interested residents in attendance at the AVCA meeting. Their current and future concerns are the lack of parking on their street for automobiles driven by hikers using the park, the noise and a preference for the proposed 75 space parking area being farther away from Whispering Pines Drive.

“When the neighborhood met we did not want the parking to be right in the neighborhood,” Sharon Armstrong, an original owner on Whispering Pines Drive, said.

“We would prefer it to be more inside the park [than at the entrance].”

Monahan assured the group that there will be more discussion about the development and the residents would be included. When and if the transaction is complete with the Parks Department and the Pierce family, a consultant would be hired and there would be “many, many” citizen meetings held for planning the park and voicing their concerns.

“I would like to go on the record as saying that I would like to leave everything the way it is,” Roger Henson, another homeowner on Whispering Pines commented. “And not change anything.”