Coyote Valley is a 7,000+ acre area in the south of San Jose that was designated an "urban reserve" area several decades ago, with the understanding that it would not be developed until market forces supported significant densities for both jobs and housing. The San Jose City Council established a policy that roughly half of the Coyote Valley area would be preserved as open space or rural development (the "Greenbelt"), while the remaining half would be developed for at least 50,000 jobs and 25,000 housing units. The Coyote Valley area is owned by over 250 landowners, ranging from major housing and commercial developers to individual homeowners and farmers.
EPS was retained by the City of San Jose as part of a multidisciplinary team to create a visionary but feasible Specific Plan for Coyote Valley. In addition to the dense commercial and residential development (average housing densities of roughly 25 units per acre), the plan involves the development of an internal transit system, several highway interchanges, the re-routing of an existing creek, and the creation of a recreational lake. EPS's roles include market analysis for various land uses and building prototypes, financial feasibility analysis for the development areas as well as the Greenbelt area, and the formulation of an innovative financing and implementation strategy through which the diverse current property owners could realize reasonable financial returns while also funding the major infrastructure investment required.