Evergreen Valley College

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Evergreen Valley College is a public community college in south San Jose.

Location and contact

Site name: Evergreen Valley College
Street address: ??
URL: http://www.evc.edu/

Site specs

Over-all site size: Plus there's lots of area outside the walkway that could be used for crating and whatever (tbd how much would be included in the site fee).
Field size: The field area is used both for soccer practice and for softball. The main usable area inside the walkway is 400x500.
Field description: It's nice thick grass. I'd say that the surface underneath is good to very good--a little uneven here and there but never found any obvious pits or lumps. It is used by both the soccer team for practice and by the softball team, so it's an athletic-quality field (and, as I said, they refurbish it every summer to maintain the quality).
Fencing: Not fenced. It's in the middle of what appears to be a fairly active community of walkers and joggers. Even at 9 on Saturday morning, there were probably a dozen people within view or passing me during the 15-20 minutes I was there. But we're a LONG way from any roads, so it's not as if dogs will be able to run off the field and into traffic. And on the up side, that gives us yet another chance to promote dog agility in the community among our target audience (dog owners).
Restrooms: There is a small restroom by the field. I didn't try opening it to see how many stalls each side (men/women) has, but it's possible that it's just one or two per side. It's not normally open weekends per Stacy and there would be a custodial fee to do so. She said most groups bring in portapotties. TBD what the fees are.
Lights: none
Parking: Looks like over 200 stalls near the field--student/faculty so TBD whether we're allowed to use it all. Lots more parking across the way. But the near lot isn't ideal. It's 350 feet (about the length of a football field) up a gently sloping walkway from the closest corner of the parking lot to the closest corner of the field--see photos--, which means most people will be going farther. Not as good as Twin Creeks, but closer and not nearly as steep as at Hayward, and there's a nice-quality walkway around 3/4 of the field, so no hauling across the grass like at TC.
There might be fees or no-fee permits required. TBD via campus security.
Tents: presumably no (see RVs)
RVs: Security has disallowed it in the past. I said that we could probably provide references from Hayward and described how they did it. She said that's up to security. That's where we got around to the topic of me or someone coming in and talking to them about what we do and why and all that. I said that this would be a hindrance to our long-term use of the facility--but she really made it sound as if the campus is interested in developing new relationships and willing to talk about things, although she emphasized that other groups have requested it and been turned down. Don't know whether we'll get around this, but worth a shot.
Access for loading/unloading: I doubt very much that we'd be able to have people drive up to unload. There's only one narrow access path, so no where to loop or turn around. That might be something to bring up in person while on site with the grounds staff and discussing other issues and present it as an interesting problem. However, she said that she's sure we could at least accommodate handicapped handlers in the same way we'd do trailers.
Trailers OK on field?: In the past they've disallowed it because of broken sprinklers and such. She said that she understands that there's no way we'd haul heavy equipment up from the parking lot, so we'd have to work with the grounds crew to identify exactly where we could go with the trucks and trailers, but she thinks that's workable.
Power: ...
Water for drinking & dog hosing: they use recycled water on their field, and might or might not have a regular water connection somewhere near the field (e.g., at the building alongside the walkway to the field); Stacy wasn't sure about that.
Dog exercise area: There are other fields--grassy and wilder--all over the place where people could take their dogs. I didn't ask about off-leash, but I suspect the usual rules apply (they're supposed to be on leash but we do have them offleash for warmup and such). There were people walking their dogs nearby and in the far distance while I was there. I *think* I saw some far-distance ones off leash, but hard to tell. So it's not off-limit to dogs.
Crating: lots of space, some near trees
Extra space: ...
Climate: in hills above San Jose. Can be hot in summer but not as bad as in valley.
Site extras: Field had a lot of geese on it, which means goose poop, which every field in the universe these days seems to have problems with. But, again, if it's a sports-used field, it's mowed and groomed and probably won't be any worse than some of these other fields.

If you want to rent the site

Facilities phone number: 408-274-7900 x 6653 (Business Services, currently Stacy Alvarado)
Email contact: ??
General attitude: (so far seem to want to develop new relationships) They have periodic meetings (monthly?) where all of the campus facility groups--security, grounds, business, custodial, etc.--get together to discuss the use of and schedules for the facilities. Their next meeting happens to be this Wednesday. That's when they discuss all of the interesting, unusual, or whatever special requests that people make. They do often have people come in from outside groups (like us), especially if the requests are new or things that they don't usually allow (e.g., overnight parking) to talk at the meeting and answer questions. I'm willing to do that. Unless we think that sending in our secret weapon, Sandy, would be worthwhile (if she can come over here on short notice on a wed).
Availability in general/reservations/etc.: The grounds crew fences off the whole field for a period during the summer to refurbish the field. Stacy (the field-rental lady) wasn't sure when that's scheduled for this year. TBD rest of year.
Contract type/isues: tbd
Availability of Friday setup: presumably as per contract
Vendor policy: Whatever we want
Food policy or services: Food vendor is something they'd have to discuss at the meeting because there's food involved. Didn't say what department is responsible for that. (I didn't think to ask "what if we brought in food for our group without charging for it" so that we could just provide food for workers.) She said that Food Services might be able to provide food if they're on campus during the summer, which she wasn't sure about--and could find out on Wednesday.
Security policy or availability: TBD. Probably we'd have to provide our own. Stacy thinks that campus police works til 10 friday night but not weekends (seems odd to me that they wouldn't have patrols on weekends, but we'll find out).
Other restrictions: ??

Fees when renting the field:	Restrooms:	?
	Site:	TBD. They apparently haven't had the chance to rent it out by day or by weekend, but Stacy says they're interested in people who'll come back to the same site over and over and they'll certainly be willing to come up with a number. I suggested that e.g. Cal State Hayward lets us set up friday for free because we have no income that day. Current rates are $50/hour but only $30/hr for nonprofits. Even if they just multplied that out for 24 hours, that's $720-$1200/day.
	Vendors:	none
	RVs:	?
	Food:	see "food"
	Security:	?
	Utilities:	?
	Garbage cans, dumpsters, service:	?
	Furniture rental:	?
	Other fees:	?

In the vicinity

Hotels: ...
Neighbors (who might be bothered by noise): none
Nearby amenities: starbucks and macdonalds in shopping center on the corner.

Reported by

Ellen Finch, April 2 2007

Other things that you want to say about the site

Directions

From 101 in south San Jose (south of 280 but north of 85), take the Yerba Buena exit.
Turn left onto Yerba Buena and go about 2.3 miles.
Turn left onto San Felipe (there's a shopping center with Wells Fargo and Pasta Pomodoro and Starbucks on the corner).
At the next stoplight (0.3 miles), Paseo de Arboles, turn right onto the Evergreen Valley campus.
Drive at 15 mph 0.4 miles to a stop sign; go straight at the stop sign about .1 more miles and turn right into the driveway for staff & student parking.