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San Jose Mercury News A week
after environmentalists announced an effort to place a referendum on the ballot opposing Cisco Systems' campus in semi-rural Coyote Valley, the networking giant Friday began hiring many of the state's top signature-gatherers for a
petition drive of its own supporting the project. The twin efforts mean that starting today, shoppers emerging from Wal-Mart and other large stores in San Jose could be confronted by signature-gatherers from rival camps.
Cisco said the purpose of its petition drive is not to qualify a competing ballot measure, but to give residents a chance to hear about the benefits of the 20,000-worker campus and express their support. But
environmentalists contend Cisco is trying to siphon off the limited number of professional signature-gatherers who are capable of collecting the 30,684 necessary signatures in the three weeks until the Dec. 12 ballot-qualification
deadline. The groups also say Cisco and its development partners are trying to confuse voters, who may be too busy to figure out which petition to sign. The San Jose City Council, in the most significant land-use decision
in a generation, agreed Oct. 24 to allow Cisco to transform one of the largest and last expanses of undeveloped land in the city into a $1.3 billion campus. The controversial decision has polarized the community into
distinct camps: supporters who applaud the promise of job growth and economic benefits, and opponents who decry the loss of open space and fear the campus will drive up already prohibitive housing prices. The debate has been
fierce, and the dueling petitions are fueling more rancor. "It's amazing that a company of that size would stoop to this," said Ernest Goitein, one of the environmentalists behind the referendum effort. "The
people should decide whether to build in such a beautiful valley, not just the 10 members of the city council who voted for it." But Cisco spokesman Steve Langdon said the firm and its partners, Divco West and
Gibson-Speno, want voters to get a balanced view of the project before they make up their minds. "The partnership feels we need to be making an effort at the same time to show we have strong support and to share information
about our project," Langdon said. "If they were not out gathering signatures, we probably wouldn't be, either. But as long as they are, it is not wise for us to sit on our hands." Plan for gradual growth
Since the early 1980s, the city's plans have called for development of Coyote Valley in phases, with the industrial phase going first and housing to follow. Cisco plans to create a "city" within 10 years on 688
acres in the northern third of the valley, complete with a main street, parks, cafes and a dry cleaner, but no housing. The campus would be within walking distance of the Caltrain commuter line running from Gilroy to San Francisco
and even nearer to a proposed extension of San Jose's light-rail line. The environmentalists' petition asks voters to support a referendum rejecting the zoning changes approved by the city council that make the Cisco
project possible. The group, People for Liveable and Affordable Neighborhoods (PLAN), contend that the campus would have a devastating effect on traffic and housing prices for San Jose and its southern neighbors as far away as
Salinas. To collect enough valid signatures, the group needs an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 people to sign, PLAN leaders said. Cisco's petition Cisco's petition calls the campus "pioneering" and
says it will "create thousands of new jobs and permanently safeguard more than 250 acres of open space in the Coyote Valley, help reduce traffic congestion with a new Caltrain station and eventual light-rail improvement, and
provide over $100 million a year in additional tax revenue for vital services in the state, Santa Clara County and the city of San Jose." If PLAN succeeds in collecting the signatures of 8 percent of registered voters
in the city, Cisco would have to stop construction until the election is held. The city council would decide when to hold the election and would likely put it on the ballot in spring 2001. PLAN supporters fear that Cisco's
paid workers will physically try to prevent them from gathering signatures, a tactic known as "blocking." Last year in Salinas, opponents of Mountain Valley, a proposed 853-home tract, got a restraining order forcing
proponents to stay 25 feet away from them while they solicited signatures. Four years ago in San Jose, opponents of a junkyard approved by the city council claimed that supporters tried to physically block them.
Instructions to circulators But Langdon said petition circulators have been instructed to stay 45 feet away from referendum supporters. "The volunteers and individuals hired to collect signatures for us have
been given firm, explicit instructions not to interfere with the other effort and not to discourage anyone from signing the other petition," Langdon said. "We are also offering financial incentives to those who are
especially polite with the people they approach." Jerry Mailhot, manager of the environmentalists' petition drive, said competition already is cutthroat for signature-gatherers, known as circulators. Friday,
circulators said both sides were paying $1.50 per signature and bonuses, depending on the gatherers' validity rate. "Everybody is calling," said circulator Bill Roberts, a San Diego resident, who said he decided to fly
up and work for Cisco after considering offers from both sides. Political experts, including former acting California Secretary Tony Miller, whose office reviewed petitions and validated signatures for statewide initiative
campaigns, said simultaneous signature-gathering usually occurs only when opponents and proponents are trying to qualify competing measures. In San Diego last winter, however, supporters of a new baseball stadium for the
Padres collected signatures on a supportive petition at the same time opponents were asking residents to endorse putting a referendum on the ballot. "I haven't heard of this tactic before of collecting signatures without
putting anything on the ballot," Miller said. "It's expensive. But if you have that kind of money, that's what you'd do." Cisco and PLAN declined to say how much they are spending on the petition drives.
Cisco has hired three of the largest ballot-qualification firms in the west, including Arno Political Consultants, National Voter Outreach and Progressive Campaigns. |
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