December 7, 2006

City Council votes against Almaden development

Tackles overpayment of military leave payments for city employees

By Carol Rosen
Staff Writer

The San Jose City Council began its Tuesday, Dec. 5 meeting at 10 a.m. instead of 1:30 p.m. due to an unusually lengthy agenda.

Among the more important agenda items was an administrative hearing to consider an appeal of Planning Director Joe Horwedel’s decision denying a Tentative Map Permit to Rancho San Vicente, LLC that is trying to build 16 homes on 41 acre-lots in Almaden Valley.

Other interesting discussions included the bungled military leave payouts for city employees and how to ensure fewer problems with overpayment as well as a draft ordinance providing the “grounds and procedures” for removing City Council members from office.

Tentative map denial
Rancho San Vincente, LLC submitted a Tentative Map Permit application to the city on June 7. The firm wanted to subdivide two parcels of land in Almaden Valley—500 feet east of Almaden Road and 500 feet west of McKean Road and roughly 648 acres—into single-family homes. The plan was to put 16 homes on a little more than 41 acres each. The developer planned to put in their own sewer and water.

The planning department denied the application on the basis that the site has been designated a “Non-Urban Hillside” beyond the Greenline/Urban Growth Boundary and the Urban Service Area. Located in a geologic hazards zone, the two parcels, on steep hillside terrain, are currently not developed. The land around the parcels is being used for undeveloped county parks, grazing, open space and rural residential use.

Planning denied the Tentative Map Proposal on Aug. 24 after informing Rancho San Vincente that the “proposed project was inconsistent” with the city’s general plan and after meeting with its representatives.

Nearly a month later, Tom Armstrong, a company representative, submitted an appeal of Horwedel’s decision “based on the grounds that it is an abuse of discretion due to the fact that your department did not process our subdivision application or the Environmental Clearance application and the findings upon which you based your denial have no basis in fact or law.”

Four members of the public spoke out at Tuesday night’s meeting. Joan Gallo, Armstrong and the firm’s managing director, Tom Dureck, said that the application meets all applicable laws. The development would not mar the green space, Dureck added, because the lots are so large.

“We didn’t purchase the land with the intent to develop two homes or no homes.” The permit denial “is tantamount to taking our land from us. We pay taxes like everyone else,” said Dureck, “and the city should apply the same rules to us.”

However, the City Council appeared to agree more with the final speaker, Michelle Beasley from the Greenbelt Alliance. She said allowing development in the area would be “clearly alarming” and likely would “lead to further development.” She characterized housing developed on the area’s steep hillsides as “parcelization,” and “full-blown suburban sprawl.”

After calling the proposed development “piecemeal,” District 10 City Councilwoman Nancy Pyle recommended that the council uphold Horwedel’s denial of the Tentative Map proposal. She also asked that the staff conduct a growth assessment of the South Almaden Valley Urban Reserve.

Citing the fact that the land is “beyond the Greenline/Urban Growth Boundary,” and because it doesn’t “conform to several major strategies, goals and related policies of the San Jose 2020 General Plan,” she noted that the denial should be upheld.

“Currently the city is in the planning process for Coyote Valley. This potential development may have major impacts to District 10. It would be premature to allow piece-meal development before we understand the impacts from Coyote Valley,” she wrote in a memo distributed to the council.

During the discussion, Mayor Ron Gonzales recalled the issue coming up during his first campaign in 1998. He noted that he “made a commitment that I would not open any development on the Almaden Green Reserve. I’ve been waiting for this vote for eight years. I was sure it would happen during the first six months of my term, but it did finally happen at my second to last City Council meeting,” he said.

The vote passed unanimously.

“I don’t see how they could take any other position,” said Pyle after the meeting. “We need the open space; we need sports fields for the kids. We need to stop development or put a moratorium on it. This area needs to be considered a reserve and we need to be judicious about what’s left of it.”

However, Gallo, who represents Rancho San Vicente, said after the vote, “the next step for the applicant is to go to court. I feel the denial is absolutely wrongful. Having more than 40-acre estates nestled in the hillside is not sprawl. These are very large estates that will not be very visible from the valley floor.”

Military overpayments
Although there are only about nine San Jose employees that were overpaid while serving in the military in Iraq and/or Afghanistan, the ensuing financial hardships paint a painful picture for those employees and their families. In fact, the complex payroll issue has left one of San Jose’s finest with a $52,000 bill.

The huge overpayment belongs to a reservist who initially was sent to Iraq for six months. The soldier was kept longer and actually was redeployed for a period of 34 months without any respite. When he finally came home he was presented with a $52,000 bill for overpayment and given several options for repayment. The San Jose motorcycle cop was shocked and said he was totally unprepared for such news.

The other amounts, according to City Hall staffers, are not nearly as high, probably less than $10,000 each, but still a lot of money to come up with all at once.

Part of the problem, according to the discussion during the morning session of the Dec. 5 meeting, has to do with the number of people involved or the staff that is not involved in dealing with these matters. Apparently, the Human Resources Department has had little to do with the problem, while too many other departments are involved. In addition, there are problems with vacation pay and retirement creating an impossible headache for one reservist/police officer.

A memo, which turned into a recommendation presented by Vice Mayor Cindy Chavez, suggested that staff devise a method of improving communications with employees that must go on active duty. It further asked the staff to develop and implement different procedures “to expedite the military supplemental pay reconciliation process “ in a fair and equitable manner that doesn’t result in hardship for the families of the employees.

It also suggested that staff update and reconcile the information monthly. Council members agreed that soldiers in the field are too busy and should not have to worry about how they are being paid back home. Chavez asked the staff to report back to the City Council with a plan as soon as possible, although that probably won’t happen until after the New Year.

Rules for removal
City Attorney Rick Doyle presented a draft outlining the grounds and procedures for removing council members from office. The 14-page draft follows the vote council members took last month defining and describing the various procedures the council must follow in removing a fellow member for only the “most egregious and serious offenses.”

Passage of the draft was same with nine members for and Gonzales and District 7 Councilwoman Madison Nguyen against. Nguyen reiterated her position that only those who voted the council member into office should be able to recall that council member.