City urges quick trestle ruling

Plans for Willow Glen to install replacement span this summer

San Jose’s attorneys last week urged the court to quickly decide whether the Willow Glen Trestle should be torn down.

Too long a delay means a prefabricated bridge built to replace the trestle will have to sit in storage another year even if Santa Clara County Superior Court rules in the city’s favor, they said. And that could throw the long-planned connection between Los Gatos Creek Trail and Three Creeks Trail in limbo.

City officials have been anxiously awaiting a ruling since the court held a hearing in February on whether there is substantial evidence to deem the old wooden railroad bridge a historic landmark, which would save it from being demolished.

A legal battle has been waging since 2014 between San Jose and a group of residents who call themselves Friends of the Willow Glen Trestle over the historic status of the controversial structure. The Friends group challenged the San Jose City Council’s vote to replace the trestle with a new $1 million steel bridge.

Because construction along Los Gatos Creek where the trestle crosses near Lonus Street is only allowed during summer, District 6 Councilwoman Dev Davis said the city is hoping for an expedited ruling so it can install the new span soon.

“The northern segment of the Three Creeks Trail is scheduled for construction in 2017,” Davis told the Resident. “The next step would be to connect the Los Gatos Creek Trail and the Three Creeks Trail, which depends on the trestle issue being resolved.

“The community deserves certainty about this issue that has dragged on too long already,” she added.

When the case originally went to court, the Friends argued that an environmental impact report was necessary because evidence backed up the trestle’s historic status. Superior Court Judge Joseph Huber agreed with them back then and ordered the city to prepare the report.

Although it complied, the city meanwhile appealed the order, arguing it has the authority to determine whether the trestle is historic. The Sixth District Court of Appeals sided with the city last year and kicked the case back to Superior Court with an order to re-examine it using a different legal standard.

Differing conclusions by two experts on historic landmarks added another layer of complexity to the case. Last year, the state Historic Resources Commission unanimously declared the trestle eligible for placement on the National Register of Historic Places. But the application was returned in September after a federal historian concluded the trestle’s eligibility wasn’t “sufficiently justified” and its historic importance was “blown out of proportion.”

The Friends group has since sent new documents to the National Register, including transcripts from the state commission hearing. They are also gearing up for a hearing next month in Pasadena, where their application to list the trestle on the state register will be considered.

“This time, even if the city objects, at least hopefully the state will have officially recognized the trestle as being eligible for listing, rather than merely recommending that some other agency so recognize,” Friends leader Larry Ames said in a written statement.

Residents are being urged by the group to send letters to the state commission by April 25 describing how or why the trestle is important to local history.

A decision is expected to be handed down within 90 days.