Almaden Resident

News

More soccer coming to T.J. Martin Park if city grants permit

By Monica Heger

The Burchell portion of TJ Martin Park is being kicked around as a temporary location for a youth soccer field--again. This time around, Councilwoman Nancy Pyle is working to secure a permit for soccer teams to use the field.

Pyle gave soccer teams permission to use the field near Burchell earlier this year as part of her push to help alleviate the field shortage in Almaden Valley, but the parks department said the field was not zoned for soccer use.

This is not the first time soccer enthusiasts have been pushed out of TJ Martin Park. Soccer parents have complained season after season of finding screws and other objects scattered in the road and under their tires. Last December, someone scattered 200 screws along Oakglen Way. A neighbor reported finding more screws in the area last month. The dispute between neighbors and the Almaden Valley Youth Soccer League, which uses the park for some of its games, has been ongoing for the past 10 years. Some neighbors say there is too much sports use at the park. Traffic, noise and blocked driveways are among their complaints.

Lee Wilcox, Pyle's chief of staff, said Pyle's office is brainstorming ways to add more soccer without disturbing the neighbors.

Wilcox said options include having a site coordinator out on the fields, talking to parents about driving slowly through the neighborhood streets and possibly having a police officer on site during the weekends.

The use of TJ Martin is part of Pyle's plan to solve the field shortage in San Jose, particularly in Almaden Valley where many school fields have temporarily closed for renovations this year. The council was scheduled to review a request from Pyle this week to invest as much as $165,000 in consultant fees to develop a sports master plan for the city.

A community meeting will be held in coming weeks to discuss opening the Burchell portion of TJ Martin Park for soccer.