December 4, 2008

County, city seeking parking solution on Whispering Pines

By Carol Rosen
Editor

The city and county have been looking into various solutions to ease parking problems on Whispering Pines, a residential area near the McAbee entrance to Almaden Quick-silver Park.

There have been periodic meetings between neighbors and staff members from Supervisor Don Gage’s office and City Councilmember Nancy Pyle’s office about the parking problems in the neighborhood. The two government offices are partnering to help find a solution.

“Nothing new is going on as of right now and nothing is going to happen overnight,” said John Gibbs, chief of staff to Gage, “although the county and the city are looking at a couple of solutions” that will eliminate the impacted parking problem. He noted that the county continues to look at various access points.

Pyle’s office, for the past couple of years, has received a number of calls from neighbors concerned about the situation, said Kathy Suther-land, Pyle’s chief of staff. “We are trying to ensure that all the residents know who to contact and that we are directing them to the correct person. We want to make sure that all of their voices are heard,” she added.

The most desirable solution, at this point, is probably for the county to establish a parking lot off McAbee,” Gibbs said. This particular solution would use parkland—possibly going far into the park—to build the lot “and we would not have to acquire property or easements. An alternative would be to access land off Whispering Pines, but this would involve requiring easements and/or purchasing property that currently belongs to San Jose Water.”

“There are multiple solutions to the problem,” said Sutherland, “but studies have to be done before any decision is made.”

Gibbs doesn’t expect a solution to pop up any time soon. First, he agrees with Sutherland that studies need to be done to determine the feasibility from engineering and environmental impacts. Once those studies are completed, the solution needs to be put before the community. “There has to be ample opportunity for the community to weigh in at every step,” he said.

He expects that the solution will include permit parking in the area to eliminate park visitors from parking on the local streets. Gibbs said he doesn’t expect a decision to be made before the new year, and that could be well into the first part of the year. Whatever the solution, it won’t happen for at least a year, and more likely it will be two to three years before any parking solution is completed.

Whole Foods delay
Residents anxiously awaiting the opening of the new Whole Foods grocery store near the corner of Blossom Hill Road and Almaden Expressway will have to wait a bit longer for the store to open.

Several people have contacted the Times asking why no work is currently being done on the new store. Initially the store was to be 70,000 square feet, but the owners have decided to lower the square footage down to 50,000 square feet, requiring a redesign of the building.

Architects are currently designing the smaller footprint so construction is being pushed back to accommodate the new designs. Sutherland said they now expect the store to open in the fall of 2010.