2 days Ago By Vicente Vera
San Jose’s most passionate parks advocates say city leaders need to create a new stream of funding to address the multimillion-dollar maintenance backlog and ongoing disparity in park quality for residents who live in areas like East San Jose.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. Related Stories October 25, 2024 East San Jose official wants funds to fix blighted parks August 6, 2024 UPDATE: San Jose drops parks maintenance tax measure April 15, 2024 San Jose park maintenance has multimillion-dollar backlog “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.”An image presented by Councilmember Peter Ortiz outside City Hall on Oct. 16, 2024 of a dilapidated water fountain at Esther Medina Park in East San Jose.
Photo by Vicente Vera.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.
”Contact Vicente Vera at [email protected] or follow @VicenteJVera on X.The post San Jose officials weigh ballot measure for maintaining parks appeared first on San José Spotlight.
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