Residents and environmental groups came to San José City Hall on Aug. 18 with a simple request: Wait.
We wanted the City Council to honor longstanding commitments to protect the surrounding open space permanently. We also wanted the city to explain the implications of rezoning 35 acres at IBM Almaden from site-specific Planned Development to Industrial Park.
We are not opposed to new uses or greater flexibility on the developed 35 acres. The IBM research center cannot remain frozen in time. But flexibility should not mean a blank check. Whatever comes next should be disclosed, reviewed under CEQA and shaped by meaningful public input.
We asked San José to finish its data-center standards and examine the effects of SB 131, a 2025 state law, before changing the zoning.
Councilmembers Kamei and Campos took these concerns to heart. Kamei sought a two-week delay, while Campos elicited staff’s acknowledgment that SB 131 could eliminate CEQA review for some uses.
District 10 Councilmember George Casey refused to wait. “Community input is not going to actually change anything,” he said.
That sentence should concern all of us. And that is exactly why CEQA matters.
CEQA, the California Environmental Quality Act, compels the city to be transparent. Before approving a project, it must analyze and disclose environmental impacts, consider safer alternatives, require feasible mitigation and give the public a chance to be heard.
But CEQA review at IBM Almaden is no longer assured.
SB 131 exempts qualifying “advanced manufacturing” projects from CEQA when they are built on industrially zoned land. By rezoning IBM Almaden to Industrial Park, San José has rendered the site vulnerable to SB 131. A future project that qualifies as advanced manufacturing could now claim the exemption. City staff acknowledged as much.
“Advanced manufacturing” sounds clean and modern. But its definition is extraordinarily broad. California has applied it to rare-earth processing, metal forging and recycling, biofuel refining, biopharmaceutical production, and aerospace and defense manufacturing.
At Almaden, such operations could bring hazardous materials, air pollution, wastewater, truck traffic, noise, light pollution, and enormous water and energy demands. Yet if SB 131 applies, there would be no environmental impact report examining those risks, alternatives or cumulative harm, no responses to public comments and no CEQA requirement to reduce significant impacts.
San José should make a simple commitment: No project at IBM Almaden should move forward without early public disclosure, meaningful community participation and project-specific environmental analysis. The city should also adopt enforceable data-center standards and permanently protect the surrounding open space before the next proposal arrives.
Community input must mean more than letting people speak after nothing can change.
Pandora’s box is now open. Pay attention to what happens next at IBM Almaden.
Shani Kleinhaus, Ph.D., is the environmental advocate for the Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance.
So cute that Shani thinks we don’t live under a totalitarian boot and that laws matter.
Citizen input? We were not even allowed at City Hall without a perpetual subscription for deadly jabs. Our City Council includes people who, in a just world, would be in the dock before a Nuremberg tribunal.
Shani, you have no say over your own body, let alone Almaden Valley.
This and other concerned community members speaking out matters. Thank you for writing this! It is important that, if nothing else, it will always be recorded exactly WHO was behind this tragedy.
This is no time to be pessimistic. There is always something citizens can do to fight for their voice to be heard. Giving up is what allows politicians to do as they please. At the very least, make it hard for them. Make noise. Annoy them, bother them, remind them you are unhappy with the decisions they are making without the your consent. If they are not going to listen, they may as well have to hear our complaining – constantly. Maybe we can stop this from happening and we should try. It is worth a shot. The politicians of this city are not doing their job and we have to let them know it. They deserve to know we are not happy – write to them, call them, tell them you are unhappy. Don’t make it easy for them!!
Carrie —
Did you speak out when politicians did as they pleased during Covid tyranny? Lockdowns, censorship, forced masking, forced jabs? People lost their jobs, lost friends and family, lost pregnancies, lost their lives, or simply lost permanently their trust in government at all levels, lost trust in doctors, lawyers, the judiciary, media, tech companies, librarians, performance venues, the chamber of commerce, the VTA, the San Jose Sharks, and the San Jose Rotary Club.
Or did you remain silent?
It’s not too late for you to annoy them, bother them, and remind them there is no statute of limitations for crimes against humanity, especially the ongoing experiment involving coerced jabs (falsely called vaccines) that continue to claim millions of victims worldwide.
The Science got a pardon but still took the Fifth. This was among the greatest crimes in human history and the entire San Jose establishment was complicit. Blood on their hands.
If you’re still not speaking out about Covid tyranny, I don’t value your opinion on any subject.