1/10/2011

Post date: Mar 23, 2013 9:21:19 PM

River Oaks Neighborhood Association Board Meeting

Monday January 10, 2011

7:00pm @ Premier Pizza, River Oaks

Present: Jean, Mike, Laura, Erik, Roger Barnes (SCUSD), Steve Stavis (SCUSD)

Agenda item: Action plans for the upcoming Mello Roos vote.

• • Details about the proposed schools, in no particular order:

    • • Cisco wants to keep the Alviso property that the city had originally proposed as a highschool. Instead they are willing to buy the northernmost 20 acres of Agnews and allow the school district to purchase the southern 55 acres for an "educational complex" of a K-8 and a high school.

      • Mentioned in passing, the Agnews site would be cheaper to operate.

      • The generation plant on the northern edge of Cisco & Tasman (the steam-generator) has an underground fuel tank. Laws prevent the SCUSD from building a school within 1/4 mile of such a tank. This works out perfectly if Cisco takes the northern 20 acres of Agnews.

      • Also, if the state sells the Agnews property, it is required to clean up any environmental contaminants on the site.

      • SCUSC is going to have to demolish the buildings on the Agnews campus: they are not up to earthquake codes for schools in California, nor are they economically or programatically feasable to use for a school (most of the rooms are too small). The SCUSD is working with the local historical preservation societies to try to come up with an architectural and landscape design that evokes some of the same elements as the original Agnews historical buildings.

      • SCUSD is planning an "educational complex" that will include playgrounds and buildings that can be used by the community when they are not in use by the school.

      • The Agnews Watertower is already a historic landmark and cannot be torn down. The school district cannot build anything within a 150-foot radius of the tower. They're planning on landscaping the area prettily and making it a miniature community park.

      • The high school will likely be of an "urban" design, i.e. multistoried. The final full build-out (in 10+ years) would be 1600 students. Construction would have to start in 7-8 years.

      • The K-8 school would be another 1100 students. Construction would start in about 3 years.

      • There would have to be at least 1 more K-5 school feeding to cover the final build-out of North San Jose beyond what's being proposed for the Agnews site.

      • Both schools will be closed-campus for lunch.

  • Details about the current negotiations with developers:

    • • Developers are currently trying to claim they are "offering more". But... more than what, exactly?

      • If the SCUSD did nothing, they would recieve $2.97 per square foot in developer fees; or approximately $3000/unit.

      • The school district estimates it will cost at least $50 million to build a single K-8 school, and another $200 million to build the high school. (Note that these costs are in today's dollars and today's job market.) That, plus the other required schools, and paying off $20 million of the Measure H bond, means the actual cost per unit is something like $18000.

      • The original deal between SCUSD, the city of San Jose, and the developers in the original Phase I approval of North San JOse was:

        • • Developers agree to provide $6000 per unit

          • city pays $75 million (which was worth about $7500 per unit)

          • city provides 8 acres for a high school in Alviso

      • which comes out to about $135 million worth of value. The SCUSD originally was going to make up the remaining $65 million with a bond when the population levels required building another school.

      • Then, when the economy crashed: the city backed out of their end of the deal, and the developers folded.

      • A few developers survived the crash, consisting of a proposed 4800 units. Last year they offered a deal of $6000 per unit. Obviously the cost of building the schools hasn't gone down... so SCUSD said "no".

      • SCUSD ran the numbers again, and cut out the Measure H repayment, the later K-5 school 20 years down the road, and came up with a minimum of $11000 per unit for those developers as a counteroffer. SCUSD says it really can't go lower.

      • Developers then upped to $8000 per unit.

      • Most recent offer from developers is $9000 per unit if SCUSD takes the offer today and the Mello Roos passes; and $5000 per unit if SCUSD takes the offer and the Mello Roos fails.

      • SCUSD countered with $11000 per unit if they agree before January 31, 2011; or $13000 per unit if they agree after January 31 but before the Mello Roos election ends on March 8th.

  • Our city council member, Kansen Chu, is siding with the developers.

  • Also note that the recent Governor state budget proposal may cause the state to confiscate the Redevelopment Agency (RDA) funds. The Mr. Barnes and Mr. Stavis were not sure how that would affect the SCUSD tax revenue.

  • Roger shared some anecdotes from the Don Callejon elementary school in Rivermark. The area the school covered was forced to shrink because it was oversubscribed. The school no longer covers the Miraval condominium complex. The anecdote:

    • • $800,000 units have lost $100,000 in value due to this change

      • Rental price for units have dropped $200/month due to this change

  • Roger is going to look for more hard data for those in our community who want information on how a local school will affect our property values.

  • Action Planning:

    • • Ballots will arrive in the mail for registered voters on February 7th.

      • The mail-in ballots are due on March 8th

      • The Mello-Roos will pass 2/3 of the returned votes are "Yes"

      • SCUSD is putting together an informative newsletter that should also arrive on February 7th

      • RONA will distribute information via email & website

      • RONA will email out a 2-week reminder for returning the ballots

      • RONA will go door-to-door around River Oaks.

        • • The week of February 7th to 13th.

          • RONA to organize this

          • Roger will help on training and handouts

      • RONA will organize a community meeting, on the 5th-6th, midday, most likely seating area by Hobee's. Roger may help getting audio equipment.

      • Roger will get RONA a registered voter list so we can target our door-to-door efforts.

      • RONA will put up signage. One sign to announce the community meeting. One sign to remind people to vote

  • Roger to get RONA the proposed draft layout, as well as other details.