After more than a year of negotiations, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has agreed to allow construction of new electrical facilities to upgrade the South Bay’s power grid on land adjacent to its existing Metcalf Substation on San Jose’s southern edges, negating a plan to bulldoze an orchard instead in nearby Coyote Valley.
The issue had become a priority for environmentalists and open space advocates, who said the project, proposed by New York company LS Power, threatened the rural character of Coyote Valley. Over the past decade, public agencies and environmental groups have spent more than $120 million to preserve Coyote Valley as a key wildlife corridor, farming region and natural buffer between San Jose and Morgan Hill.
After news stories surfaced in late 2024 about the project, several state senators and members of the Newsom administration joined leaders of the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority to raise concerns. They urged PG&E officials to allow LS Power to build its facilities on a 6-acre maintenance yard adjacent to PG&E’s Metcalf Substation, saying the impacts on wildlife and the bucolic Coyote Valley would be much less harmful to the environment if the construction were there instead of on a 14-acre apple and peach orchard 1 mile south that was LS Power’s fallback location…