In the Fall of 2019, a process began to envision potential future uses of the Reid Hillview Airport and the land on which it sits. One of the top priorities of this project was to include community voice by drawing upon the perspectives of those most impacted by the airport, including residents who live around the airport, business owners, fixed-base operators, pilots, schools, and other vested stakeholders.
This process included one-on-one conversations with community leaders, attendance at neighborhood association meetings, convenings of community leaders, a large community workshop, an online community workshop and stakeholder check-ins. These community conversations and connections proved instrumental in understanding the community’s needs and dreams for the site. The learnings also extended to how best to engage community members in an extended planning process for the RHV site that will likely span over a decade. Recommendations in Chapter 5 provide an initial roadmap for how to ensure community engagement in the future of the site in ways that are authentic, transparent, and collaborative.
Engagement goals
- Co-design a community involved process from vision to implementation
- Sustain community involvement over the long term
- Respond to changes to the airport context in real time
- Communicate to the broader community
- Mobilize the broader community in political decision making, design and planning processes
Coalition representation
- Community-based organization leadership (example: Si Se Puede Collective, PACT, Vietnamese Roundtable, etc.)
- Faith based community
- School leaders (Eastside Union, Alum Rock Union and Evergreen School districts)
- City Neighborhood Associations (Welch Park, D5 United, Plata Arroyo, etc.)
- County Political Representatives
- County Roads and Airport staff
- County Facilities and Fleet Department staff
- Airport community
Outreach tools
- Direct Mailing of postcards (6,562 copies) to households within a 1.5-mile radius from the site
- Sharing postcards at neighborhood association meetings
- Emailing flyers through local schools
- Emailing information through listservs
- County Project Website
Outreach to community leaders, organizations and City neighborhood associations to date
- Presentation & Discussion with Welch Neighborhood Association (about 20 people in attendance)
- Presentation & Discussion with Plata Arroyo Neighborhood Association (about 12 people in attendance)
- Discussion with Si Se Puede Collective Leadership
- Work Session with Community Leaders
- Public Community Workshop #1 (about 90 people in attendance)
- Online Public Community Workshop #2 (303 respondents)
Community Workshop 1
On February 25, 2020, a community workshop was held at Overfelt High School in San Jose to engage the community in the future of the Reid Hillview Airport. The purpose of the meeting was to better understand the community, their aspirations, their values and their relationship to the airport. Approximately 90 participants were in attendance, including a mix of neighbors, community leaders, organization members, students from San Jose State University’s aviation program and pilots.
Community Workshop 2
The second workshop was originally planned as an in-person workshop but shifted to virtual as a result of shelter-in-place requirements. The format of the engagement included a video presentation and an online survey with goals to recap what was heard in Community Workshop #1 and continue the conversation about the future of the site. Both the presentation and survey were provided in three languages: English, Vietnamese, and Spanish
The engagement materials remained online for four weeks with 303 responses.
Presenting the vision plan to the community
Having held two community workshops, our team presented learnings from this process to community organizations and neighborhood associations.
