Willow Glen Resident

News

Willow Glen neighborhood petitions to join Campbell's city boundaries

By Michael Rizzo

One group of residents is pushing to give its south Willow Glen neighborhood a Campbell address. About 50 homeowners living in the area bounded by Dry Creek Road and S. Leigh, McBain and Hurst avenues are petitioning the Campbell City Council to incorporate their neighborhood into the city's boundaries rather than be absorbed by San Jose early next year.

The neighborhood is among 15 blocks in Willow Glen south of Hamilton Avenue, along with 48 other unincorporated pockets scattered throughout the city, that San Jose is in the process of annexing. Santa Clara County currently controls the areas.

The planned annexation would bring local taxes, trash pickup, police and other public services under San Jose's jurisdiction.

Jerry Bleeg, who gathered the names on the petition, says it doesn't make sense for the city to incorporate his neighborhood, which borders Campbell and is less than one mile from Campbell's city hall.

Bleeg said if his neighborhood had to be annexed, he and others in the area feel much more connected with Campbell, which is a smaller, tight-knit community.

If the neighborhood was part of Campbell, "We would have much more of a voice [at city hall]," Bleeg said during a meeting at Sherman Oaks Community Center March 19, where 70-plus residents met with officials to discuss San Jose's annexation plans.

Most of the residents at the meeting, however, indicated that they opposed being annexed at all, according to a show of hands. Most said they preferred the county's services.

"We've been very happy with the services of the sheriff's department," said Alicia Chisholm, 68, who lives on Marina Way.

Bleeg's neighborhood isn't the first to seek inclusion into Campbell.

Residents in another county pocket slated for annexation in the Cambrian neighborhood expressed a similar preference earlier this year to join Campbell rather than San Jose. A petition at the time, signed by 204 Cambrian-area residents, sparked a discussion between San Jose and Campbell officials, but by February the effort was squashed.

San Jose planning policies demand an equal exchange of either land, population or tax base before any agreements can be made to redraw city borders, something the city of San Jose was "not interested at this time in pursuing," according to city documents.

Bleeg said despite San Jose's earlier decision with Cambrian, he's still pursuing his hopes of a Campbell annexation with the city's planning officials.It may be his neighborhood's only way to have a say so in its future since residents who don't like the annexation plan won't have a vote in what happens, he added.

For more than 20 years, annexation required 100 percent approval by pocket residents determined through protest hearing processes. State legislation passed in 2005 lifts that requirement until 2014.

"We've been presented no recourse," Chisholm said.

The push to incorporate is part of an April 2006 settlement between the city and county. San Jose agreed to take possession of all unincorporated urban developments of fewer than 150 acres within its sphere of influence.

Contending that providing county services such as law enforcement to scattered pockets has proven inefficient, the county has long favored the annexations.

San Jose City Councilman Pierluigi Oliverio, who would represent the areas of currently unincorporated Willow Glen, was at the meeting and dispelled rumors that the city would profit from the annexation.

"Understand that the county doesn't want you--not because they don't love you--because they can't afford you," Oliverio told the crowd.

Property taxes would remain the same after annexation, but the city would also collect a 5 percent tax on utility use. Businesses would also face more taxes.

The city would take over all public services, such as waste collection. The city charges $25.80 for a 32-gallon trash can, whereas the county charges $19.02 to $31.94. In San Jose, grass trimmings and leaves are collected loosely from the street and not in a can.