Plan to expand park OK’d

Del Monte facility will triple in size with new soccer fields, parking

SAN JOSE — Del Monte Park soon will get a lot bigger.

The San Jose City Council recently approved a proposal to triple the size of the 2-acre park near Los Gatos Creek Trail.

As part of the second phase of a master plan for the park, 4 acres between Auzerais Avenue and West Home Street will be added, pushing the park’s boundaries westward along Sunol Street.

“The council’s been on this project my entire tenure,” Councilman Pierluigi Oliverio said, adding that the master plan, which includes parking and a lighted artificial turf area large enough for two small youth fields, “has been a long time coming.”

Since opening almost two years ago, the park has seen plenty of visitors attracted to its open space, picnic areas, children’s playground and dog park.

The proposed soccer fields generated the most excitement at a recent community meeting. Almaden Valley Youth Soccer President Colin McCarthy said “a facility like this will open the door not only in District 6” but also will relieve overcrowded soccer fields in District 10.

Although San Jose is home to a professional soccer team, one self-described “soccer dad” said the city has “the absolute worst facilities of anywhere in California, so this would be a huge step up.”

In an effort to provide a community gathering space for Midtown residents, the city acquired the land earlier this year from Barry Swenson Builder.

Although the land originally was offered up as part of the planned Ohlone mixed-use development on West San Carlos Street, city officials wanted a significant park in the area sooner than later and didn’t want to wait for the project, which had stalled during the economic recession.

So the council approved the purchase of 4 extra acres in April.

Oliverio said the city has even bigger designs for Del Monte Park and will develop a third phase once the first of three buildings slated for the Ohlone project starts going up.

“When the first building breaks ground, they will write a seven-figure check for park fees that will go towards the development of Phase Three of Del Monte Park,” Oliverio said in an email.

“It will likely take the second building to cover all the costs of Phase Three.”

According to city documents, the third phase will involve the recent acquisition of several more acres on Home Street and could include tennis and basketball courts, additional picnic areas and landscaping. Between the two recent purchases and public dedication of Home Street, the park eventually will grow to a total of 10 acres.

The second phase will cost approximately $5.6 million and is expected to start in October, when the developer intends to raze one of the warehouse buildings on the site.

That work should be finished by next year, and the third phase will follow in 2018-2019.