The Willow Glen Resident Photograph by Skye Dunlap Outstanding in His Field: John Goshia and Gambit take a stroll through a future low-income housing development, which once served as an accidental wildlife refuge near the edges of Willow Glen. A housing development enters its final stage and an accidental wildlife refuge disappears Low-income units displace falcons, turtles and foxes in long-abandoned lot By Cecily Barnes On a crisp, gray Tuesday, seven geese float past the Rubino Orchard Project, their path tracing the Guadalupe River as overgrown threads of grass bend southward with the wind. Small insects skip downstream in a hopeless race against the current. "It's always been a cool little place to come," says Willow Glen resident John Goshia of this field, which is flanked by Canoas Garden Elementary School and the Guadalupe River. "It used to be more overgrown up here instead of just flat. It looks like they're leveling it off already." While throwing a shredded stick for his companion Gambit, Goshia recalls the jungle games he and his friends would play as kids at the abandoned prune orchard. He also remembers all the critters he's seen over the years. "Pheasants, Canadian geese, a fox," Goshia ticks off a list. "It was just luck that they came here. I think they would come for water and then go back into the hills." Goshia knows that the townhouses and condominiums that have shot up in his special spot, next to the Valley View Packing Plant, will continue to sprout like weeds. The project obtained the city council's blessing more than a year ago, and has moved at a comfortable pace toward the day when the last wild traces of this long-abandoned lot will be bulldozed. Any community dissatisfactions with the methods and consequences of the 1,000-home project were addressed a long time ago. Stopping this momentous development is not Goshia's goal. Rather, he wishes only to pay tribute or bid farewell to the place that has been part of his life. When it's gone, Goshia and Gambit will have to find a new playground. So, perhaps, will the falcons, hawks, eagles, owls, western pond turtles and red foxes they have witnessed during their outings. "It would have been great if the city could have done something like create a park, and still give those animals a chance to survive," Goshia says. "It was untouched for so long. It was so cool." The Rubino Orchards project will provide San Jose with much-needed affordable housing. The development will include 369 single-family homes, 140 cluster homes, 115 townhomes and 392 apartments. The site had been identified in the San Jose 2020 General Plan as an appropriate location for housing. The Environmental Impact Report that was completed before the construction began made slim concessions to mitigate the lot's destruction. As is typically the case with such developments, the EIR admits that there will be some irreversible damage done to the riparian habitat and the native species. [ Back to Contents Page | Willow Glen Resident Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Willow Glen Resident, February 3, 1999. ©1999 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.