Citywide Vote on $1.3 Bil Cisco Headquarters Project Rejected

SAN JOSE-San Jose City Council members unanimously refused to schedule a citywide vote on Cisco’s 688-acre headquarters development Tuesday night, citing problems with the petition opponents circulated to gain the signatures necessary to put the issue on an upcoming ballot.

Council members said the petition was in violation of state election laws in many ways, including misleading voters. The petition’s promise that a successful referendum would “prevent the huge Cisco development, on the farmlands of Coyote Valley” was one such misleading statement because the petition really only reduced the size of the campus by approximately 5%, the Council found.

The Council’s decision, in defense of its unanimous approval of its largest employer’s project back in October, was foretold by city attorney Rick Doyle’s determination last week that the “administrative” changes that the petition would have generated should not be subject to a referendum and was therefore invalid. The attorneys for People for Livable and Affordable Neighborhoods, the opposition group that wrote the petition and gathered the signatures, are denying any errors and vowing to litigate over Tuesday’s decision. Then again, if it had gone the other way, deep-pocketed Cisco had threatened to litigate the matter.