Willow Glen Resident

News

Guadalupe River Trail continues to connect neighbors within city

By Mayra Flores De Marcotte

Willow Glen residents are a step closer to the downtown Guadalupe River Trail.

The Guadalupe River Trail Reach 6 phase of project will allow the trail to extend from Highway 280 to Virginia Street.

This section will connect the downtown trail, which ends at the Children's Discovery Museum, to the Washington neighborhood, just outside of North Willow Glen. Future extensions of the trail system will ultimately cut through Willow Glen near Willow Glen Way.

"This addition will be knocking on the door of Willow Glen," Yves Zsutty, San Jose trail program manager, said.

With this connection, residents will now be able to enter the trail system at Virginia Street, Zsutty said.

This stretch was a tricky one for the department because it is on a narrow piece of land that would put the public in close proximity to a sensitive ecosystem, Zsutty added.

"We need to make sure we keep people away from the delicate natural environment, as well as the manmade environments of the freeways," Zsutty said.

Community leaders have worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Santa Clara Valley Water District for more than 20 years to design a project that combines flood control work with environmental protection.

The San Jose City Council approved a contract on Jan. 23 that will allow the city manager to negotiate with the water district for a cost-sharing agreement on a soil study.

The study is needed in order for the city to design the Reach 6 stretch of the trail. The water district also needs the study to proceed with the flood control. The cost of the study is $106,693, of which the city will pay $35,287 and the water district $71,406.

The department's goal is to take the trail as far as Chenowyth Avenue near Westgate Shopping Center.

This next phase of the trail is meant to meet the objective of the city's greenprint, which stipulates 100 miles of trail systems, Zsutty said.

"There are 30 other trail systems, but none as large as the Guadalupe River Trail," he said. "It is a major trail and will go from the bay to the southern end of the city. None of the other trails will go through the entire city as this one will once completed."

The master plan for the trail project breaks it down into two phases. The first consists of the stretch between Highway 280 and Virginia Street. The second phase will be from Virginia Street to the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board railway alignment, at which point it will cross the river via a new pedestrian bridge and continue along the river to the Highway 87 Bikeway and Tamien Light Rail Station.

When completed, the Los Gatos Creek trail will connect with the Guadalupe River Trail, which will then allow residents to connect with the 400-mile Bay Trail.

The Los Gatos Creek Trail is an 11-mile paved trail that began in the 1970s after a group of Campbell residents pushed for a par course. The trail extends from the Lexington Reservoir through Los Gatos and Campbell, and into San Jose.