November 24, 2021
Dear Mayor and City Council,
The Vendome (see map below) is a small historic neighborhood in downtown San Jose (2 blocks wide by 9 blocks long). It includes a small park (Ryland) and two current static billboards. Our residential homes (many over 100 years old) are directly bordered by the SR87 freeway. We are in a unique location along the freeway as the only neighborhood in this area on the west side of North 1st Street.
The proposal starts with giant 1000 square foot digital billboards at the Airport which has been rejected by the public and the airport commission. Additionally, the phase one plan follows with many billboards targeted to freeway areas especially along SR87 from Julian to the airport.
This will directly impact our residential neighborhood. The buffer zone between an electronic billboard and a residential home is only 150 feet. All residential areas should be exempt from having these disruptive billboards in their neighborhoods.
Also, on the west side of the SR87 is the Guadalupe River Parkway. While the parkland currently has other issues including homeless encampments, it has great potential to be a feature of the expanded downtown and North 1st Street Transit Village (plan for the future; think Golden Gate Park or Central Park). Our parks are invaluable and should be protected from billboard pollution.
While my neighborhood would be particularly affected by the two above issues, billboards in general are a type of pollution and blight. I find it telling that none of the renderings for the Google Village or other green development projects include billboards?? Develop and stick with a plan to eliminate all billboards in San Jose. 93% of residents surveyed opposed billboards on freeway facing property and 80% opposed billboards on buildings downtown.
Please represent the will of San Jose residents. You still have time to do the right thing and revisit these misguided proposals. The whole concept should be scrapped. Few might remember the 101 highway littered with billboards. The decade’s long ban has been in place for a reason. “Money isn’t everything…….”
Thank you.
Tod Williams