Peninsula Open Space Trust today announced its purchase of Monterey Pondside, a 15-acre property zoned for agriculture in North Coyote Valley in south Santa Clara County for $2.5 million.
Located on the east side of Monterey Road and the Union Pacific Rail Line, Monterey Pondside gives the small parcel outsized regional significance for improving safe linkages for wildlife, according to the environmental trust.
The trust and its partners at Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority and the City of San Jose have been working collaboratively to identify and advance a planned wildlife crossing at Fisher Creek on Monterey Road. Monterey Pondside provides important habitat along Coyote Creek, and its proximity to the planned crossing at Fisher Creek will support broader wildlife connectivity.
With its eastern and southern boundaries adjoining Coyote Creek Parkway, local officials say that Monterey Pondside also plays a critical role in the overall Coyote Valley linkage – fortifying Coyote Creek’s resilience and effectiveness as a successful habitat for wildlife movement, including for wildlife moving to and from wildlife crossing locations.
“Acquiring Monterey Pondside helps strengthen Coyote Creek’s role as a wildlife corridor,” said Marian Vernon, wildlife linkages program manager for the trust. “The key to the success of any future wildlife crossing is preserving undeveloped, natural habitat free from light, noise and human disturbance so that animals can safely use it as an ‘approach zone’ to a crossing. With its east-west adjacency to protected lands, these 15 acres provide exactly that, as part of a larger tapestry of lands supporting wildlife movement.”
Formerly the site of an orchard, Monterey Pondside consists of parcels that are zoned for agricultural use but are now fallow. The few structures on site are more than 70 years old and no longer functional.
The property is located directly across the street from lands protected by the trust, the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority and the City of San Jose since 2019 and where the authority is currently planning future habitat restoration and public access improvements.
Coyote Valley sits at a juncture in the regional landscape, connecting 1.1 million acres of habitat in the coastal Santa Cruz Mountains and the Diablo Range to the east. Protecting the few remaining undeveloped wildlife corridors that still exist between these mountain ranges delivers multiple environmental benefits to the area by protecting the region’s biodiversity and climate resilience. Including safeguarding groundwater recharge, creating buffers from wildfires and reducing downstream flood risk, the trust said in a press release today.
Monterey Pondside is located immediately south of the former proposed site for the LS Power high-voltage converter station that is now co-located at the existing PG&E substation nearby.
“Left unprotected, this agricultural and open space property could easily have become the site of industrial-scale development, such as data centers or battery storage, that is incompatible with wildlife movement. This would have severed one of the last remaining pathways through Coyote Valley for local wildlife moving between the coastal and inland mountain ranges to find food, shelter and mates,” said Andrea Mackenzie, general manager of the authority. “With our conservation partners, the authority has spent over $160 million protecting over 1,660 acres of open space land in Coyote Valley for public benefit. Protecting these critical linkages through land protection and wildlife infrastructure will secure important ecosystem and community benefits to Santa Clara Valley residents for generations to come.”
