The RGNA would like thank all of you that attended our 2008 General Membership meeting and a special thanks to those residents who helped the RGNA by dining at Vito's before, after, and from what we understand, during the meeting. The RGNA would also like to thank our guest speakers who answered some passionate if not spirited questions from the community:
Arthur Kennedy, Vice President, Equity Office Properties
Erin Reddy, Outreach Specialist, Our City Forest
Jonathan Emami, Vice President, ROEM Development Corporation
Matt Love, Director of Acquisitions and Development, Foster Enterprise
Kevin Schwaba, Council Assistant, District 3
If you missed out on the meeting or if you have even more questions, don't worry. There will be other opportunities to make your voice heard and to get your questions answered. At the March RGNA board meeting, Jonathan Emami will be giving an update. Also, Principal Lupe Mendoza-Ramirez will be talking about the conversion of Bachrodt Academy to a charter school. See article below. The next RGNA board meeting will be taking place at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 20th in the back room of Vito's New York Trattoria.
- Joseph Fota, President
In its efforts to improve student achievement, Bachrodt Academy will become San Jose Unified School District’s first conversion charter school. On January 24, 2008, the SJUSD Board of Education approved the conversion charter petition. We enthusiastically await approval from the State Department of Education. Becoming a charter school opens the door to many new opportunities.
The charter school will be composed of four major building blocks:
1. Creative Arts such as drama, dance, art, and music will be used to enhance instruction 2. Parent Involvement will be an integral part of the charter’s design 3. Technology will be integrated into the instructional program 4. Two-Way Bilingual Immersion (TWBI) Program strand will begin at the Kindergarten level. The TWBI program will provide students with an exciting opportunity to become bilingual and literate in both Spanish and English
For more information about the Bachrodt Academy Conversion Charter contact Principal Lupe Mendoza-Ramirez at Lupe_Mendoza@sjusd.org or by phone at (408) 535-6211.
ROEM Development Corporation is a local real estate developer that has been building homes in the Santa Clara County for the last 30 years. We take pride in what we do and strive to succeed in our mission to create high-quality and high-value infill communities for everyone. What sets ROEM apart from other developers is our unique approach to development in that we are not only the developer, but also the architect and general contractor. In other words, we are the same face throughout the process.
For the past 6 months, ROEM has been working on a site located at 1290 North First Street on the corner of North First Street and East Rosemary. The site is 4 acres in size and has a general plan of transit residential with an allowed use of 25-65 residential units per acre. The zoning and current use of the site is commercial and requires a Planned Development Rezoning and Planned Development Permit. ROEM currently has an application on file with the City of San Jose Planning Department to rezone the property to match its underlying general plan and allow for a density within the perimeters of the general plan designation.
ROEM has met with the Rosemary Gardens Neighborhood Association and it’s greater community on 3 occasions to hear their input and thoughts on the project. Overall the feedback has been positive and has enabled us to refine our program for the development to include many great recommendations from the community.
We look forward to working with the community and appreciate the attention we have received thus far.
- Jonathan Emami, Vice President, ROEM Development Corp.
The race between whether Sonoma Chicken Coop would open or the RGNA would get access to the Sonora's Community room for it's board meetings has ended with the Sonoma Chicken Coop as the apparent winner. According to Council Assistant Kevin Schwaba, Councilmember Sam Liccardo's office is no longer working on trying to secure the room for us. Even with the official CSJ minutes stating that the RGNA would have access to the room and the Sonora HOA bylaws stating the RGNA could use the community room, Sam has given up. See you at the Sonoma Chicken Coop.
Do you want to connect with your neighbors in a fast and easy way? Please join the RGNA email list server! Currently there are only about 30 participants and I suspect there are more with internet access that might be interested. The more people we can get involved the better! To join, just send an email to rgnaweb@hotmail.com stating your name, address, personal email, phone number, and your request for an invite.
Or go to yahoo groups: to RosemaryGardensGroup-subscribe@yahoogroups.com The website is: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RosemaryGardensGroup/
- Patti Bossert, Resident
On February 28th, after seven months of meetings, the North San Jose Neighborhood Planning Taskforce (TF) held its second to last meeting. One more meeting will be held to vote on the guidelines recommended by the TF. The TF basically dealt with redevelopment of the area loosely bound by Guadalupe Creek to the west, Hwy. 237 to the north, Coyote Creek to the north-east, and 880 to the south, south-east.
The majority of the plan's amenities seem to focus on the area surrounding Montague Expressway and N. First Street leaving high density housing as the only scheduled development in the Rosemary Gardens area which is known as Rincon South. After the RGNA protested the lack of amenities and services in the Rincon South area, a special meeting was held to address these issues. The result of the meeting was the addition of two statements to the NSJNPTF guidelines. They are as follows:
12.1 Develop and implement a strategy to build out parks in Rincon South (as envisioned in the Specific Plan) 12.2 Engage the Rincon South/Rosemary Gardens neighborhood in the development of an Action Agenda to address key issues and concerns
We made it into the guidelines. Now the question is what do we want? To address this issue, a series of community meetings will be organized by Councilmember Sam Liccardo's office. The first meeting is scheduled for the night of March 27th at Bachrodt Academy. As the date gets closer, notification will be sent out to the neighborhood with the exact time and location. Please bring your wish list to that meeting.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
For some unknown reason, the scores submitted to Staff Director Khanh Bui and the Traffic Calming Working Group (TCWG) for our traffic calming issues were downgraded. Out of the 27 neighborhoods that responded to the survey, Rosemary Gardens was the only neighborhood whose issues were reviewed and lowered.
The RGNA has protested the unfair treatment to Councilmember Sam Liccardo, Council Assistant Kevin Schwaba, and Khanh Bui. The RGNA has since resubmitted our scores to the TCWG. As of this writing, no response has been received as to whether the scores have been accepted.
The dream of a neighborhood "Movie Night" has turned into a cost nightmare. There are three neighborhoods in San Jose that we found that are able to put on a movie night, but their movie nights are sponsored either through grants, the Downtown San Jose Business Association, or a corporation.
So what is the approximate cost for licensing, equipment rental, and insurance? $1800.00, which is way out of the RGNA's budget. If anyone is able to help us by volunteering equipment or knows of an entity that would underwrite this event, please contact us at (408) 441-RGNA.