San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan is pushing for permanent environmental protections for more than 500 acres of open space around a former tech research center being purchased by a data center developer.
At an Oct. 16 Santa Teresa Foothills Neighborhood Association meeting, Mahan said he is working with District 10 Councilmember George Casey to protect the 565 acres of open space around the IBM Almaden Research Center, a 35-acre industrial park in the rolling hills of Coyote Valley. The site is being acquired by Blackstart Digital, a data center development and investment firm focused on sustainable redevelopment, though a spokesperson has said the company doesn’t intend to develop the surrounding open space.
“The thing folks are upset about, rightly, is that when IBM initially built out the campus there, they said that they intended for the open space to be in perpetuity,” Mahan said at the meeting. “But … they never created any legally binding easement. Now there is a new owner… we are going to push them as hard as we possibly can to actually adopt a permanent conservation easement.”
Mahan said he wants the development to be limited to the industrial park’s current size.
“I don’t think we want to see an expanded footprint,” he told San José Spotlight. “We want to protect the open space.”
Casey, whose district includes the former IBM site, did not respond to requests for comment.
Erik Schoennauer, a land use consultant representing Blackstart Digital, said Mahan and Casey have made it clear they want the open space protected.
“We look forward to working with them to determine the best approach to accomplish this goal,” he told San José Spotlight. “Our project proposes to only use the existing 35 acres of developed industrial park land.”
The project will be required to comply with data center standards being crafted by the city, Schoennauer said, which are expected to provide protections for the environment and nearby residents. City officials recently released draft standards, with final adoption by the City Council expected in December.
Resident Duane Caldwell, who attended the neighborhood association meeting, is concerned how a new data center at the former IBM site could affect wildlife, water and energy use. He said the lighting and noise could drive wildlife into residential areas and also cause residents’ utility bills to increase.
“I’m concerned especially about the IBM Almaden research facility getting rezoned so quickly in order to accommodate a speculative developer who’s going to come in and basically increase the impact on very sensitive foothills,” he said at the meeting.
Councilmembers rezoned the property in August, which prompted concern about attracting more data centers to the region. While residents and environmental advocates called for the rezoning to be delayed until development plans for the site were known and uniform standards established, Casey wanted the land to be economically feasible and saw no reason to delay.
A Blackstart Digital representative previously told San José Spotlight the industrial park is served by an on-site 25-megawatt substation and houses multiple generations of preexisting data center facilities where the company intends to expand capacity, subject to power availability.
Mahan said residents have reasonable concerns about data centers increasing utility costs, noise and pollution.
“I want San Jose to have the strictest (data center) standards in the country,” he said. “Require 100% clean energy, require using recycled water from the recycled water plant up in North San Jose, or a closed loop system.”
Alice Kaufman, policy and advocacy director of environmental group Green Foothills, said it would be great for permanent conservation use to be codified.
While she appreciates the work the city is putting in to create data center standards, she said it doesn’t fully address the noise impact on wildlife. She said the city’s zoning code doesn’t require data centers to limit their noise enough. A data center that’s adjacent to an open space area is only required to adhere to the weakest noise standard that exists in the municipal code, she said, adding that it’s something Green Foothills wants changed.
“It’s important open space. It’s part of our regional wildlife corridor,” she told San José Spotlight. “But it would be better to have that land deeded to an open space district or habitat agency, or some entity that would steward the land and manage it for the benefit of wildlife … an agency that has experience in doing that and would actually put resources into it would be an ideal result.”
Contact Lorraine Gabbert at [email protected].
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