The city is facing a projected 2025-26 budget deficit of $35.6 million — and the parks department won’t go unscathed. The budget is expected to decrease park funding by $2.8 million next year, according to Sheena Talosig, spokesperson for the department.

“We do everything we can to stretch our resources — grants, partnerships, volunteers and contractors all help us maintain parks,” she told San José Spotlight. “We’re also always looking for ways to be more efficient, but the bottom line is that we just don’t have enough staff to meet the need. With a $550 million maintenance backlog, it’s clear that sustainable funding for park staffing is critical to keeping our parks safe, clean and accessible.”

Maintenance and preserving parks is at the department’s core, Avi Yotam, deputy parks director, said at a May 12 Almaden Valley Community Association meeting. He said the $2.5 million in budget cuts includes the loss of $100,000 for community forestry. 

Other cost savings will come from the city’s closure of Yosemite Family Camp due to wildfire damage this summer, with a one-time savings of $240,000 while being repaired, Yotam said. The City Council is also considering the privatization of Lake Cunningham Action Sports Camp, a skateboard and bike park, which could save the city $879,000 annually.

To ensure equity in park upkeep, the department uses the Healthy Places Index to guide its decisions and in prioritizing maintenance in neighborhoods with the greatest need, Talosig said.

She added the department is looking at how park funding can be restructured, after the city cut developer fees that took funding away from parks. This summer, the department will begin community outreach to better understand what people want and need from city parks. The feedback will help shape a potential ballot measure to secure sustainable maintenance funding and a new park master plan focused on how to make the system more flexible and equitable citywide, she said.

The existing maintenance backlog has impacted community centers, park grounds, playgrounds, restrooms, picnic areas, sports facilities and trails.

City parks receive funding from construction, property transfer taxes, development impact fees, general fund allocations, gifts, grants and partnerships. Although the department receives $40 million annually from the construction taxes, councilmembers — in an effort to accelerate housing construction — have reduced funding allocations.

Yotam said the Parks and Recreation Master Plan will balance immediate maintenance needs with long-term aspirations. 

“Using our California Park and Recreation Society’s standards for park maintenance, we assessed how many staff we ought to have as a park and rec department for the city,” he said. “We found we’re about 100 people short.”

Kathy Kleinsteiber has volunteered with planting pollinator gardens at local parks for years. The city asked her to choose plants and design a pollinator garden at Cahalan Park, which she maintains with other neighborhood volunteers.

“It would be nice to give money to parks because they don’t have enough money to maintain them,” Kleinsteiber told San José Spotlight. “Most of our parks look like heck. The budget cuts are making it even worse.”

Parks Manager Veronica Schulte said the park service depends on volunteers and is pursuing additional grants. In fiscal year 2002–03, they had about 227 full-time staff in park maintenance covering 1,475 acres, she said. This dropped to 183 full-time staff responsible for 1,801 acres of park land during this past fiscal year. 

“Fast forward to this year, we have more acreage but less staff. We’re stretched very thin over the additional parks,” she said. “Having more parks means less services over time for each of the parks on a day-to-day basis, because they have more to do on their routes than they did before with less people.”

Story updated May 28 at 12:05 p.m. Original story published May 27 at 12 p.m.

Contact Lorraine Gabbert at lorrainegabbertsjspotlight@gmail.com.

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The $5.5 million purchase of a former dairy farm by the nonprofit protects the northwestern ridge of Coyote Valley from future development. Coyote Valley, which provides wildlife connectivity between the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Diablo range, is essential to the conservation of biodiversity, flood and groundwater protection and climate resilience. 

“The property’s a strategic link in Coyote Valley, which is one of the last remaining undeveloped valley floors left in the South Bay,” Gordon Clark, president of the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST), told San José Spotlight. “The protection of the property helps combat habitat fragmentation. Without a wide range of plants, animals and microorganisms, we can’t have healthy ecosystems that provide the air we breathe, the water we drink and food we eat.”

POST, Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority and other partners are creating a Coyote Valley Conservation Areas Master Plan as a roadmap for habitat use and restoration of more than 1,500 acres of natural and agricultural land. POST has collaborated with the open space authority on land purchases, scientific studies and restoration efforts to return Coyote Valley to a wetland and encourage agricultural use.

“The open space authority’s role in Coyote Valley is making our broader successes in protecting and restoring the valley and planning for its bright future possible,” Clark said.

In 2021, city and county officials took action to shield more than 300 acres of Coyote Valley land from development. For decades, the expanse of protected open space and farmland was viewed as a future site for sprawling housing development, tech campuses and industrial warehouses. Agricultural land in Coyote Valley has declined by 45% over the preceding two decades.

Marian Vernon, POST wildlife linkages program manager, said animals need to move between habitats to access resources and mating opportunities, but development and roads create barriers and road kill. To combat this, POST is conducting a feasibility study on wildlife crossings at Monterey Road and Highway 101.

“We’re close to honing in on the types of structures we might want to build or existing underground passages we might want to improve for wildlife,” Vernon told San José Spotlight, adding it could take eight years from conception to construction.

Alice Kaufman, policy and advocacy director for Green Foothills, said the property purchased by POST is an important piece of Coyote Valley’s conservation landscape puzzle.

“We’re thrilled that this acquisition was able to happen. More needs to be done,” she told San José Spotlight.

Kaufman pointed out Heritage Oaks Memorial Park plans to shave hillsides to create a large cemetery in Coyote Valley and San Jose may allow development along Monterey Road, which backs up onto Coyote Creek.

Nick Perry, Coyote Valley project director for the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority, said the master plan should be completed by 2027. Agricultural production and cattle grazing are important aspects of the plan, he said.

Cattle grazing reduces wildfire risk and keeps non-native grasses down, so native plants and flowers can thrive. Early implementation and pilot testing is underway, and replicas of beaver dams will be installed this summer to create a wetland habitat. Laguna Seca, a seasonal wetland, once covered 1,000 acres of Coyote Valley.

“The fact that we now get to plan it as a natural area, as an agricultural area, as a place people get to connect with nature is an amazing opportunity,” Perry told San José Spotlight.

Contact Lorraine Gabbert at lorrainegabbertsjspotlight@gmail.com.

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The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously axed Board President Otto Lee’s proposal for banning the use of gas-powered leaf blowers in unincorporated neighborhoods. Other supervisors worried the law would send a message encouraging residents — annoyed by the noisy equipment — to call the police or U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) on laborers who might be undocumented immigrants.

District 1 Supervisor Sylvia Arenas was the first to push back.

“I just don’t want it to be a reason why residents (report) immigrants that are doing their job …  either to get people in trouble with ICE or police,” Arenas said at the meeting. “That will give the kind of message to our community that if we’re prohibiting the use, then somebody’s going to enforce it. People will come to ask us, ‘How are you doing that? You bothered with an ordinance, so let’s see how you’re enforcing it.'”

Lee acknowledged Arenas’ concern and said that wasn’t his intent. His board colleagues agreed there was no ill will.

“I don’t see any type of active enforcement, sending code enforcement to say, ‘Aha!’ That’s absolutely not the approach, especially with what you mentioned,” Lee told Arenas at the meeting. “That’s the last thing our county should spend any resource on whatsoever. That’s not my intent.”

Cities across the Bay Area have grappled with regulating climate impacts and proliferation of noxious fumes and noise from leaf blowers, harming both residents and the workers operating them. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law banning the sale of new gas-powered leaf blowers after 2024.

Lee brought his proposal forward to address those same issues — with written support from dozens youth climate action groups and nonprofits. His policy would have also limited the use of electric leaf blowers to specific hours, based on rules in places such as Los Gatos, Sunnyvale and Cupertino.

His proposal was whittled down to exploring options for a rebate program to help small business owners transition to electric-powered leaf blowers. His idea was to either get county support or partner with community groups. San Jose leaders in 2021 launched an electric leaf blower pilot program to decrease air pollution.

County Executive James Williams was hesitant about the rebate idea.

“We would not be recommending the creation of a county funded rebate program at this time,” Williams said at the meeting.

Several days earlier, Williams put forward a recommended budget that would cut 279 positions across different social safety net services to absorb at least $70 million in anticipated federal assistance cuts and a county budget shortfall. That shortfall is estimated to swell to $476 million over the next five years. A majority of the cuts will happen in the health and hospital system, which is 30% of the county’s proposed $13 billion budget.
Supervisors ultimately agreed to have county officials report back to them on existing rebate programs available in the community — and options for getting the word out. Supervisor Betty Duong also requested the county’s Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement and Department of Environmental Health engage with small businesses and workers about those programs.

Duong called that approach “more incentivizing, educational and worker-based.”

Contact Brandon Pho at brandon@sanjosespotlight.com or @brandonphooo on X.

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The Los Gatos Creek Watershed Collaboration began testing tools to clear brush and restore the forest’s ecosystem on 155 acres along Montevina Road a little more than a week ago. The effort is part of a larger initiative to treat 840 acres of forestland in the Santa Cruz Mountains and prevent wildfires in the high-risk zone near the Lexington Reservoir. The collaboration, which recently received a $6.9 million Cal Fire grant for the work, includes Midpeninsula Regional Open Space Preserve, San Jose Water and the Santa Clara County FireSafe Council and parks department.

New fire safety technology is boosting the work, including remote-controlled machines that thin the overcrowded forest floor by mulching and chipping brush. This equipment enables fire mitigation experts to clear hard to reach areas. The work is expected to finish by fall 2027.

FireSafe Council CEO Seth Schalet said joining forces with the landowners, including San Jose Water, Midpen and the county park system, will help speed the necessary work along. Schalet’s team also uses artificial intelligence to detect fires early in the Santa Cruz Mountains and prevent devastation. The CZU lightning complex fires in 2020 burned more than 86,000 acres, including land in the Santa Cruz mountains.

“Collaboratively, we want to think about how we can get more acres protected and ensure that, ultimately, we’re reducing the risk,” Schalet told San José Spotlight. “If a fire happens, hopefully, the goal is that we can reduce the intensity and severity.”

This is the second grant Cal Fire has awarded the collaboration, which started in 2020. It received a $7.5 million forest health grant in 2021, which it used to treat 1,000 acres in the mountains bordering Los Gatos.

That work helps protect residents like Sarah Johnston, who has called the small mountain community of Aldercroft Heights in the Lexington Hills home for more than 25 years. She helped it get Firewise USA certification, a nationwide program that recognizes communities that reduce wildfire risk. She said the community experienced several arson-related fires last year that moved more slowly after hitting land the collaboration had already cleaned up.

“Having the support of agencies like the Santa Clara (County) FireSafe Council, who are helping to empower residents to help themselves, is just incredibly critical,” Johnston told San José Spotlight. “There’s so much work that everybody needs to be doing, and we can’t just be relying on the fire agencies or these big landowners.”

The collaboration aims to receive a third Cal Fire grant to continue protecting the land after treating the 840 acres.
Ryan McCauley, Midpen spokesperson, said the work is important for fire safety, but also helps the mountains’ native species, including the imperiled Santa Cruz kangaroo rat. He said the Santa Cruz Mountains are the lungs of the Bay Area that the community needs.

“(It) helps if you’re out there physically getting exercise, but also just the mental health benefits,” McCauley told San José Spotlight. “Your anxiety decreases, your mood changes, feelings of loneliness can decrease, just feeling like you’re part of nature.”

Johnston said she’s grateful for a seat at the table during this work.

“(Collaboration) is the direction where people need to go,” she said. “Fire knows no boundaries of land ownership.”

Contact Annalise Freimarck at annalise@sanjosespotlight.com or follow @annalise_ellen on X.

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On Tuesday, the San Jose City Council revisited the idea of a 2026 ballot measure that would levy a 1 cent per square foot parcel tax on single-family homes and other property to help fund an estimated $554 million in needed infrastructure maintenance. The proposed ballot measure could potentially raise $21 million per year to maintain and improve parks, playgrounds, trails and more under the city parks department.

While officials shelved the idea last year because of a lack of popularity around tax measures, Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services Director Jon Cicirelli said the department will launch a citywide campaign to educate residents about the potential ballot measure — and test the waters among voters who lacked enthusiasm last election cycle. The parks funding measure could be placed on the June or November 2026 ballot if community engagement proves to be successful.

“This proposal isn’t just esoteric somewhere else in the city,” Cicirelli said Tuesday. “This is meant for all of us, right? For the whole city and hopefully in seeing that value, it improves results and polls.”

District 5 Councilmember Peter Ortiz was the first to introduce the idea of a parks funding ballot measure last year after he said the deterioration of parks, green spaces and neighborhood amenities — particularly in his district of East San Jose — could no longer be ignored.

“The activists and I truly believe regardless of your ZIP code, the color of your skin, you deserve access to a clean and safe open space in your very own neighborhood,” he told San José Spotlight. “Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the reality in this city.”

A February report from the city manager’s office revealed funding for new parks and recreation facilities between 2026 and 2030 totals about $8.4 million.

Jean Dresden, founder of San Jose Park Advocates, said city employees need to ensure their future education efforts on the potential ballot measure are engaging residents in the best ways possible.

“When you do polling, questionnaire design is key. The polling we did in 2024 had a different design than in January, and that questionnaire design changes the likelihood of the results,” she said at the meeting. “The city council champions are key.”

But councilmembers like Domingo Candelas said residents are already overtaxed, and the parks department needs to prove it can manage its existing dollars effectively.

“We have to put our pants on one leg at a time and go to work every day, and do the work that we can with the resources we have,” he said Tuesday.

The parks department is facing the second-highest level of proposed 2025-26 budget cuts with an estimated target of $9.5 million, according to the San Jose City Manager’s Office. City leaders already reduced parks fees by 50% for the next round of housing developers in an effort to win their attention.

Parks advocates such as All District Leadership Group President Greg Peck and Shani Kleinhaus, an environmental advocate with Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance, said San Jose elected officials need to scale back tax breaks that allow housing developers to avoid funding park maintenance.

Staffing at the department has dropped to just 182 full-time employees while the amount of developed parkland has grown to 1,801 acres. Over the past 23 years there has been a 19% reduction in staffing and a 22% increase in parkland acreage.

Ortiz said as the city reaps the rewards of increased housing developments, parks are losing funding to recent developer incentives.

“We just had a town hall in my district alongside the mayor, and he mentioned (developer incentives), and I’m like, ‘Well, that’s the reason why our parks look the way they do,'” Ortiz told San José Spotlight. “I’m going to continue to elevate that issue in the 2025-26 budget.”

Cicirelli told councilmembers another obstacle facing parks maintenance funding is California Senate Bill 315.

“It’s a bill that would dramatically reduce these fees that we’ve been talking about so much,” he said Tuesday. “The city wouldn’t be able to collect residential development fees anymore.”

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Cal Fire released updated fire hazard severity maps for the first time since 2011 last month — and Los Gatos and Cupertino are in the crosshairs. Los Gatos and Cupertino‘s fire risk has spiked since 2011, with more than 1,000 acres in the red. Both communities, reliant on the Santa Clara County Fire Department, must adopt the changes by June. Both municipalities have more than a dozen projects combined — single-family homes in the pipeline and larger proposed developments — that fall in the updated risk zones.

Some of the proposed projects in the very high risk zone are using builder’s remedy, a state law exempting developers from local zoning standards enacted when municipalities are late earning state approval on mandated housing plans. Those projects include a 58-home development at 101 S. Santa Cruz Ave. and a 12-home development at 178 Twin Oaks Drive in Los Gatos.

A separate Cupertino project filed using Senate Bill 330 — a law that makes it easier to build affordable and moderately priced housing — is also in the red. The project plans for 51 townhomes between 10857 and 10887 Linda Vista Drive.

Cupertino Councilmember R “Ray” Wang said he’s worried about how the new maps will affect future residents’ ability to get fire insurance if the developments go through. Traditional insurance companies statewide are refusing to protect homes in high fire risk zones, forcing residents to turn to costly state insurance. Insurers dropped dozens of Los Gatos homeowners last year before the Palisades fire in Southern California destroyed thousands of acres.

“How do we make sure that (residents are) safe and protected? What mitigation measures will need to be there?” Wang told San José Spotlight. “Those fire maps are going to change how we look at zoning in the long run.”

Justin Stockman, fire captain with the Santa Clara County Fire Department, said the department is helping the municipalities parse through the fire risk changes and how they can build responsibly. Cupertino must build 4,588 homes by 2031 to meet state mandates, while Los Gatos is prepping for nearly 2,000 homes.

Los Gatos Vice Mayor Rob Moore said the town has been careful to plan for housing in areas not at risk of wildfire to address the housing crisis, but builder’s remedy complicates the issue.

“In my view, it is true that builder’s remedy takes away a lot of discretion from the local government,” he told San José Spotlight. “There are still important regulations that remote developments have to comply with, and I hope that anything that is proposed in a very high fire zone understands Los Gatos’ position as a community that is deeply concerned about our risk of wildfire.”

The updated maps haven’t deterred the development community or real estate business.

Mark von Kaenel, a real estate broker in the local industry since 1993, said prospective buyers looking in Los Gatos aren’t put off by costly fire insurance bills, even if they’re forced to enroll in the California FAIR plan. The state insurance provides fire coverage for homes in high fire risk zones traditional insurers such as State Farm won’t protect.

Von Kaenel said despite that, realtors should tell their buyers about the issues with fire insurance.

“It really does rely on the agents to fully educate their buyers to this, because we do have full-time homebuyers or people that are relocating to the area (who) don’t understand that insurance is a major issue and a major expense when they’re buying these homes,” he told San José Spotlight.

Kurt Anderson, principal at Anderson Architects which is working on the plans for 101 S. Santa Cruz Ave., said his firm follows the wildland urban interface building code requiring developers to reduce wildfire risk. Mitigation measures include fire-resistant construction materials and defensible space, which creates a buffer between the project and surrounding vegetation to slow the spread of fire.

Anderson said the firm would say no to a proposal in a high-risk area if the costs of the extra steps needed to ensure safety didn’t pencil out. He added it’s a fine balance between fire risk and housing needs, but said there are many customers who choose to live in higher risk zones and feel safer living in homes that were built using fire-resistant materials.

“You got to be prepared to be proactive and aggressive and go the extra mile to save your building right? Because insurance is sure not gonna replace it,” he told San José Spotlight.

Contact Annalise Freimarck at annalise@sanjosespotlight.com or follow @annalise_ellen on X.

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The Cupertino City Council voted 3-2 Feb. 4 to install solar panels at the Quinlan Community Center, Cupertino Sports Center and Community Hall. Mayor Liang Chao and Councilmember R “Ray” Wang voted no, citing funding concerns. Fremont-based Syserco Energy Solutions and Pleasanton-based 4LEAF, Inc. are the contractors for the roughly $4.4 million project.

Cupertino is expected to pay about $2.5 million of that total thanks to a 30% tax credit from the Inflation Reduction Act, a 2022 federal law partially aimed at incentivizing clean energy. The project is estimated to save the city nearly $291,000 in energy costs per year and roughly $13.4 million over the panels’ 30-year lifespans. The panels must be installed and operational by 2026 to meet the PG&E deadline for reduced rates.

Councilmember Sheila Mohan said she supports the project because solar energy is the future. She has solar panels on her home.

“We’re all trying to get away from fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions, and this is the first step,” Mohan told San José Spotlight.

The plan aligns with Cupertino’s energy goals in its 2022 Climate Action Plan.

Wang said as someone with solar panels and batteries at his home, he would support the project if it wasn’t reliant on Inflation Reduction Act funds. President Donald Trump froze the majority of the law’s money funding clean energy last month in an attempt to stop Green New Deal efforts. The effects the freeze could have on local energy efforts are uncertain.

Without the funding, Cupertino would have to foot the whole $4.4 million. Wang doesn’t want that to happen, especially with the city predicting budget deficits for the coming years.

“We went ahead with this because we’re worried about losing funding, but we’re going to end up paying more,” he told San José Spotlight. “I just think this is the wrong contract.”

The project first came to councilmembers last year as one of the city’s fiscal year 2024-25 improvement projects. It was initially expected to cost about $6.3 million, but was reduced after the city removed Blackberry Farm Golf Course, Cupertino Civic Center and the city’s library from the plan.

The solar panels aren’t Cupertino’s first climate-friendly effort. The city uses Silicon Valley Hopper, an affordable ride-share service fully powered by electric cars. Last month, Cupertino launched two portable, solar-powered electric car charging stations using grant funding from nonprofit Silicon Valley Clean Energy.

Zoe Elizabeth, deputy director of decarbonization programs and policy at Silicon Valley Clean Energy, said localized efforts are critical — especially while federal policy is uncertain.

“We feel the impacts of climate change at a local level and so this is why we see cities stepping up and taking this kind of action,” she told San José Spotlight. “Their commitment to continuing that progress is only more important (given a shift in federal policy).”
Cupertino resident Jean Bedord, who’s lived in the city for about 30 years, supports the solar panels not just for their green energy but for their unintended benefits. Some of the solar panels at Quinlan Community Center are slated for the Memorial Park picnic area, where there is no shade. The overhang supporting the solar panels will provide that.

“Solar panels are never going to completely replace certain forms of energy, but to the extent that we can utilize our wonderful sunshine, I’m all for it,” she told San José Spotlight.

Contact Annalise Freimarck at annalise@sanjosespotlight.com or follow @annalise_ellen on X.

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Over the past year thousands of non-structural fires have been sparked by homeless camps, causing toxic fumes and safety problems for people and property. Jerry May, president of the San Jose Fire Fighters International Association of Fire Fighters Local 230, said the situation is only getting worse.

“When you see what’s happening in LA, you’re talking about like a toxic soup that people are essentially breathing in, and obviously firefighters are exposed to that,” May told San José Spotlight. “So not only is it a high cost to the citizens, but materials like the ones burned at encampment fires also expose us and increase our risk of cancer.”

The data May shared with San José Spotlight is staggering. There were 4,231 total non-structure fires in 2024 — more than 10 times the number of residential fires at 360 and close to nine and a half times the number of business and building fires at 491. He said though the data can be vague about the type of fires, May said almost all of the recorded non-structure fires came from homeless residents and encampments.

Ken Schneebeli, who lives near Coyote Creek, said he has been raising concerns to city officials about potential toxic smoke from nearby encampment fires. Firefighters responding to the area sometimes have trouble identifying the source of the blaze, he said.

“It’s a common occurrence that the smoke will come on over, usually in our direction. It’s at times debilitating,” he told San José Spotlight. “Very routinely the fire department goes to try and find the fire and sometimes can’t, because it drops all the way down to the river bed.”

May said firefighters respond to such fires throughout the city at least three to four times per day.

Numerous South San Jose residents who live near Great Oaks Parkway told Councilmember Pamela Campos at a Jan. 27 meeting that firefighters are telling them encampment fires are draining their resources.

Residential fires caused $59.1 million in property damage last year, while business and building fires caused $76.8 million in property damage. But non-structure fires topped the list for most property damage in 2024 at $84.6 million, according to data provided by May.

“My team and I take public health and safety concerns, including fires and criminal activity, very seriously,” Campos told San José Spotlight. “While I am working ardently to identify and implement an interim solution, we must remain focused on providing permanent supportive housing and other safe, stable living environments for our community.”

Todd Langton, a homeless advocate and founder of nonprofit Agape Silicon Valley, said unhoused people choose to camp in areas where they will face the least resistance and possibility of being swept.

“Local governments should be finding a place for them to go, then abate,” he told San José Spotlight. “Instead, we’re just abating and people move under the railroad, or they move into somebody’s backyard or next to a school or wherever — they’re just moving around back and forth.”
Danny, a neighbor who only provided her first name for fear of retaliation from homeless residents, said whenever she drives along Great Oaks Boulevard propane tanks and gas canisters can be seen riddling the encampments.

Danny said city officials need to be vigilant and address the fire hazards posed by the encampments in light of the LA wildfires.

“If you look at the calls to the fire department, many of these fires in San Jose start from homeless encampments,” she told San José Spotlight. “This stretch has large trees purchased with tax dollars, and a few of them at least completely burned down. Many of them are on the verge of dying.”

Contact Vicente Vera at vicente@sanjosespotlight.com or follow @VicenteJVera on X.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story had an incorrect total for the number of non-structure fires in 2024.

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Cupertino recently soft-launched an augmented reality app, Cupertino McClellan Ranch, with the goal of teaching users about the 18-acre historic McClellan Ranch Preserve. The free app takes visitors on a quarter-mile walk. Visitors use the app’s map of the preserve to find its landmarks, such as the bee hives. Once users reach a location, the app accesses their phone camera to overlay Cooper, a 3D virtual robot, on the screen. The robot teaches them about local flora, fauna and history through animations.

Visitors can use the app — available in Apple and Google app stores — on their own or pay for a guided tour with a ranger versed in its tools. The app, which has had more than 100 downloads, is available in English, Mandarin and Hindi. It took about a year and a half to build through a collaboration with the city and Balance Studios. Cupertino is planning a more robust launch this spring.

City spokesperson Samantha LoCurto said Cupertino chose McClellan Ranch Preserve for the experience because of its blend of rich history and nature. The preserve used to be a horse ranch in the 1930s and 40s, with many of the ranch’s buildings still standing.

“The city aims to help visitors explore parts of the preserve that aren’t easily visible to the naked eye, while also attracting new visitors to this hidden gem,” LoCurto told San José Spotlight.

The preservation is home to towering oak trees, mule deer and great blue herons, as well as a community garden and 4-H program that houses chickens, ducks, alpacas and goats. It’s also home to Baer’s Blacksmith Shop, the Environmental Education Center and the Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance.

Matthew Dodder, executive director of the Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance, said the more tools to illuminate the preserve’s beauty, the better.

“You don’t need a docent. You don’t need someone to guide you through it,” he told San José Spotlight. “You can come here even when the shop is closed or when the nature center’s closed and still get the information, so that’s wonderful.”

Estrella Risinger, executive director of the California Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education, said the app’s potential to connect children with nature is significant. She said it’s a perfect combination of nature and technology.

“Being able to marry these two worlds by giving young people access to a tool which they’re probably very familiar with to really help foster and deepen this connection to the natural world is really critical,” Risinger told San José Spotlight.

Cupertino has experimented with augmented reality before with ARTour. The experience guides residents through a local art walk throughout the city using augmented reality and Cooper the robot.
Risinger said the app and outdoor education opportunities go beyond what people may learn about plants and animals.

“Seeing humanity’s place within the larger context is so necessary for a more just and sustainable world,” she said. “By providing experiences in nature, we help to deepen those connections.”

Contact Annalise Freimarck at annalise@sanjosespotlight.com or follow @annalise_ellen on X.

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Citing years of financial struggle and fragmented emergency response, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted Jan. 14 to begin dissolving the fiscally insolvent South County Fire District. The decision will end an $8 million annual contract with Cal Fire and switch to in-house county firefighters to cover the area — possibly requiring construction of a new station. Cal Fire serves approximately 289 square miles of unincorporated area between Morgan Hill, Gilroy and unincorporated San Martin.

The union representing South County’s Cal Fire employees has come out swinging against the decision. It’s claiming the move could displace 30 of its firefighters — forcing them to move from their homes in the area and work elsewhere — on the heels of catastrophic blazes burning through the Los Angeles area this month.

“We’re not happy. Our guys are bracing to be displaced or move far away from their current work locations over something that we felt the board did for political reasons and political reasons only,” Tim Edwards, president of the union representing Cal Fire’s South County firefighters, told San José Spotlight.

As a result of the fighting, Cal Fire could also end a separate contract to keep a fire season station along Pacheco Pass open year-round. While Cal Fire still owns a station in Morgan Hill — a city which, along with Gilroy, has its own fire department with three stations each — Edwards warns the county could be less of a priority during major fires in other parts of the state.

“Now that we have no contract to respond to medical, traffic collisions in that area, those engines will be the first to go to these big fires because their first priority will be the state mission,” Edwards said.

Steven Blythe, assistant chief of Cal Fire’s Santa Clara County unit, declined to comment on the board’s vote last week. He also declined to comment on Cal Fire’s position on continuing the contract for the Pacheco Pass station.

County officials — who asked not to be named so they could speak freely — called the threat over Pacheco Pass egregious, but insist on having a backup plan if Cal Fire chooses not to continue the station contract. Santa Clara County has a contract to use the station year-round, which is owned by Cal Fire and located in Hollister in neighboring San Benito County, which would otherwise be closed during the non-fire season. One backup plan being considered by county officials would be to park a fire truck near Casa de Fruta, just up the road from the station, which wouldn’t be ideal but would be more cost effective.

Whether or not the Pacheco Pass contract remains will depend on negotiations between the county and state fire department.

“We’ll still be there, don’t get me wrong. Cal Fire is going to respond to a major wild land fire because that’s what we do — we’re the state of California’s fire department,” Edwards told San José Spotlight. “But marks my words, once the county takes full control of that area, it’s going to cost way more to run fire protection in that area.”

County leaders said they plan on maintaining the same number of firefighters in the area.

County Executive James Williams said dissolving the South County fire district will enhance fire protection amid years of scrutiny over its dwindling revenues. The fire district’s bleak outlook stems from its reliance on local property tax revenue, which consistently underperforms because agricultural land is taxed on income generated by the land, rather than on potential market value.

Williams also said the move allows for a fully consolidated 911 center.

“There’s going to be a holistic dispatching from county communications. Today the dispatching is fragmented — meaning the law enforcement and ambulance dispatch is handled by county communications, but fire is separate,” Williams told San José Spotlight.

He added county fire offers services Cal Fire doesn’t, such as a Level 1 hazmat team that can respond to minor hazardous incidents.

Some residents led by South County Supervisor Sylvia Arenas lauded the move toward a more sustainable and reliable service. They cited the area’s aging fire engines and deteriorating stations. In letters to supervisors this month, other residents in San Martin expressed hesitance, still emotionally raw over the recent fires in Southern California.

“There are still more questions than answers at this point. However, when it comes to the potential impacts to the 30 firefighters, we are hoping the impacts are minimal,” Morgan Hill Mayor Mark Turner told San José Spotlight. “There may be opportunities to absorb some of those firefighters into local positions including Morgan Hill.”

Contact Brandon Pho at brandon@sanjosespotlight.com or @brandonphooo on X.

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