Willow Glen Resident

News

Ballpark EIR doesn't address the impact of future projects

By Monica Heger

It might be a hypothetical ballpark for a hypothetical baseball team, but the environmental impacts are very real, and those living near the proposed San Jose ballpark continue to voice concerns.

Resident Patrick Barnell drew chuckles from the audience at the March 28 meeting organized by the city when he asked if a city has ever built a major league baseball stadium without first having a team.

After the levity had passed, the project's principal planner, Akoni Danielsen, tried to respond to residents' concerns about parking, traffic and noise in the surrounding areas.

Marc Morris, a member of the Shasta-Hanchett Park Neighborhood Association, submitted a four-page letter to the San Jose Planning Department about his concerns with parking. He pointed out the 1,200 parking spaces for the proposed garage were counted twice in the EIR. He also noted the EIR looked only at available parking around 7 p.m., the projected start time for a baseball game. He thought it likely fans would arrive prior to the game. He said looking at parking before 7 p.m. will show there are fewer spaces available than predicted, because these spaces will be filled with office workers during the day.

In addition, Morris questioned the EIR's lack of analysis on multiple events--a baseball game, an event at the arena, the Center for Performing Arts, the convention center, the Tech Museum or the Children's Discovery Museum. While the EIR addresses the parking situation for a baseball game and an arena event, it does not address the other possibilities.

Yolanda Reynolds, another member of the Shasta-Hanchett Park Neighborhood Association, had other questions related to parking. She wondered why the EIR did not analyze streets to the west of the railroad tracks.

"You just see this line west of the railroad tracks, and they say nothing's going to happen beyond it. But I don't think people will pay attention to that, and there's not enough adequate analysis," she said.

One individual brought up the issue of traffic on neighborhood streets. He said traffic caused by people cruising for parking was not taken into consideration by the EIR.

Joe Bentley, president of the Shasta-Hanchett Park Neighborhood Association, pointed out problems with noise impact.

He said that the area would be affected differently if a concert took place.

Bentley noted a band would most likely set up at home plate, which would cause noise from the concert to project over the bleachers, not home plate.

Ed Rast, president of the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association, had a set of different concerns.

He was troubled by the fact the EIR did not discuss alternative uses for the site, or take into account the development projects that are being planned for the area.

"Part of the problem is understanding the different development plans," Rast said. "There is the Diridon plan, the midtown specific plan, the Burbank/DelMonte plan, the baseball stadium and the downtown core-extension plan. That's a whole desk full of plans. And when you look at one plan, they're not tied in with the other plans."

Rast said the EIR does not address these additional impacts and their consequences on parking and traffic.

"We're not against development; we just want good development," Rast said. "If you do bad development because you don't understand all the consequences, then it takes city tax dollars to fix the problem. It's really important to understand the consequences."

Two more public meetings are scheduled at city hall: April 19 at 7 p.m. in the council chambers and April 27 at 4 p.m. in room 1446.

The planning department will accept comments on the EIR until May 4 at 5 p.m. Written comments and questions at the public meetings will be considered as official comments on the EIR.