Urgent need for neighborhood input

From the office of Dev Davis:

High Speed Rail is requesting community feedback on the State’s Preferred Project Alternative. 

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

High Speed Rail is requesting community feedback on the State’s Preferred Project Alternative. We are supplying a sample letter for you which includes the recommendations from Mayor Liccardo, me, and three of my council colleagues submitted as a memo to council yesterday during hearings on High Speed Rail and other rail issues affecting San Jose and its residents. Please note: I do not support Alignment #4 for San Jose. Feel free to add your own input but we want our community to be heard by the High Speed Rail Authority Board! If you need more information, check out www.hsr.ca.gov. Feel free to share this information with your neighbors and friends! 

Please submit your comment letter/email to san.jose_merced@hsr.ca.gov by Thursday, August 22, 2019. You can also provide feedback by phone at 800-455-8166. 

You can also share feedback in person at the Authority Board meeting on September 17, 2019 in San Jose. Location to be announced soon. 

Sample letter/email: 

Dear High Speed Rail Authority Board members: 

As a resident of San Jose, I want to share my concerns for High Speed Rail’s willingness to integrate input from our City’s process during the Diridon Integrated Station Concept (DISC) Plan. If a high speed train is being designed to help people live better lives and get places quicker, it also must consider how construction and operation of the rail will affect the lives of the people and communities it will serve. 

The safety and livability of our neighborhoods should be a main priority of your planning process. That’s why we insist that High Speed Rail staff remains engaged in the DISC process and find funding and make the needed changes during HSR planning to accommodate the Diridon Station Plan and grade separations. 

With the amount of projected rail service to increase dramatically, I fully support grade separations that help keep all modes of transportation safe (walking, biking, driving). Please find ways to minimize negative impacts to the Gregory/Gardner/ North Willow Glen neighborhoods through alignment over 280/87 or separate train traffic at Auzerais and West Virginia south of Diridon Station. 

I appreciate your consideration of my input on making High Speed Rail a better project through public engagement.
Sincerely,

[resident name and neighborhood]