News
May 10, 2009
We had a dry run of our presentations to San Jose City Council on
Three Creeks Trail funding and critiqued the presentations.
We
heard of a meeting with Ed Shikada, Deputy City Manager, about the
City’s failed attempts to negotiate the purchase of the right
of way from Union Pacific Railroad.
We learned that the money
shown in the capital budget for the Three Creeks Trail is not hard
cash, but is money that has been promised by various sources but not
banked and booked, and not currently available for land purchases.
April 12, 2009
We received the report on the availability of funds for the Three
Creeks Trail. The bottom line is that the city has allocated no money
for the trail. We reviewed the disposition of funds from various
other sources.
We planned a presentation to the San Jose City
Council for their May 12th meeting on the budget for the next
year.
One member presented a history of the county’s and
city’s involvement on the Three Creeks Trail.
We made
plans to outreach to four neighborhood associations in San Jose
District 3 that would benefit from the implementation of the
trail.
We agreed to schedule the clean-up of the Los Gatos Creek
bed on April 25th.
A member agreed to establish a web presence
for SAVE OUR TRAILS.
March 29, 2009
We learned that the project to develop houses on the path of the
Three Creeks Trail between Lonus Avenue and Willow would not be going
ahead.
A concern was expressed about trash that is accumulating
in the Los Gatos Creek up- and downstream of the trestle. A committee
was formed to organize a clean-up in the area.
We heard from
Helen Chapman, Director, Committee
for Green Foothills, who gave us contact information for other
groups that would support our efforts.
One member volunteered to
check into the status of funds and grants that have been allocated or
may be available for implementation of the Three Creeks Trail.
March 1, 2009
Organizing meeting of Save Our Trails
Feb 28, 10am-12pm at
Willow Glen Baptist Church
Everyone present introduced themselves. The mission statement of Save Our Trails was read.
The group discussed the current objective/proposed strategy to attempt to defeat the development of the old railroad property to possibly be purchased by Asante Real Estate Group. Two community members presented information about how much money the City of San Jose had to purchase this piece of property that is being proposed to be developed by Asante Real Estate. We discussed what compromises the community might be willing to make.
Organization of the group was discussed as a group. We resolved that there would be 4 subgroups to work on specific matters for the 3 different sections of the trail. We will also refer to the entire proposed trail development as the 3 Creeks Trail, which includes sections in District 3, District 6 and District 7. The 4 subgroups are named, Guadalupe to Coyote Creek, Outreach, Trestle/Los Gatos Creek to Guadalupe and Finance.