Coyote Valley: $22 million deal preserves huge ranch owned by prominent Bay Area family

1,986-acre property between San Jose and Morgan Hill is latest in land conservation trend

In the 1980s, Apple eyed Coyote Valley as the place to build its world headquarters. In the 1990s, Cisco tried to build a massive campus there and battled environmentalists.

But now the latest land rush around Coyote Valley — a scenic expanse of farmland and oak-studded hillsides between San Jose and Morgan Hill that reflects what Santa Clara County looked like before Silicon Valley sprawled — is to preserve nature and wildlife.

On Wednesday, the Peninsula Open Space Trust, a Palo Alto environmental group, announced it has purchased Lakeside Ranch, a 1,986 acre-property formerly owned by the Bechtel family, for $22.3 million. The property is home to black tail deer, wild turkeys, live oaks, laurel and sycamore trees, and Llagas Creek, which meanders to the Pajaro River.

“This is a testament to the power of persistence,” said former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo. “Coyote Valley was once envisioned for corporate campuses and tract homes. This is not the work of a few weeks, but the work of a generation.”

Since 2017, the land trust, commonly known as POST, has raised $95 million to fund or help fund 18 large land purchases worth $173 million in and around Coyote Valley. Much of the money raised comes from wealthy Silicon Valley individuals, foundations and local, state and federal sources. So far 5,518 acres — an area five times the size of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park — have been preserved as open space and farmland.

“We’re trying to take a proactive approach,” said Ben Wright, POST’s director of land transactions. “Rather than waiting to see what we’ve lost, we’re trying to get out in front.”

The area once slated for millions of square feet of corporate campuses, parking lots and tract homes is now being preserved for wildlife corridors and habitat. Public trails and parks are increasing. And plans are afoot to help reduce flood risk in downtown San Jose by allowing Coyote Creek to spread across Coyote Valley in wet years, recharging groundwater.

Such natural processes were common before the 1950s, when Santa Clara County was an agricultural powerhouse of orchards, flowering trees, ranches and fruit canneries known as “Valley of Heart’s Delight.” A post-war population boom, and the rise of computer companies changed the area into “Silicon Valley,” earning fortunes, but losing much of the rural character.

“The Valley of Heart’s Delight is a distant memory for too many,” Liccardo said. “And it is completely unfamiliar to most. This is our opportunity to recapture the essence of what made our home so extraordinary.”

In recent years, San Jose city leaders have focused new development downtown or into existing developed areas.

Altogether, other land purchases involving the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority, the Santa Clara County Parks department, the city of San Jose, and other agencies have brought the total land area preserved in and around Coyote Valley to 8,783 acres in the past decade.

The latest deal is the largest.

Lakeside Ranch is located along Uvas Road, between Chesbro and Calero reservoirs and about 10 miles south of downtown San Jose.

After a wet winter, the landscape is an emerald mosaic of pastures and oaks, breathtakingly verdant, seemingly lifted from a dreamy Hudson River Valley painting by Thomas Cole 200 years ago.

“The views are stunning from the top of the ridge lines into Coyote Valley,” Wright said. “It’s got a number of sensitive wildlife species. And there’s a potential for connector trails to parks and other open space properties.”

The property will continue to be leased for cattle grazing, Wright said, providing a buffer between Morgan Hill and San Jose. Biologists say such buffers maintain key corridors for deer, mountain lions, bobcats and other wildlife between the Diablo Range, the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Gabilan Range in San Benito and Monterey counties.

The property has been owned since 1954 by the Lakeside Corporation. POST officials said that due to non-disclosure agreements, they could not discuss the previous owners.

Public records show, however, that the Lakeside Corporation is controlled by Paul “Lew” Davies III and Laura Mateo.

Brother and sister, the former ranch owners are children of the late Barbara Bechtel Davies, of Piedmont, an avid horse rider who died in 2001, and whose grandfather was Warren Bechtel, founder of Bechtel, one of the nation’s largest engineering firms. Their father, Paul Davies Jr., who died in 2014, was a San Jose native who worked as general counsel for Chevron and served on the boards of major companies like FMC and Southern Pacific, along with the Hoover Institution and the California Academy of Sciences.

Davies III is a former Bechtel executive and former Atherton resident. He founded the Cambria Group, a Dallas-based private equity firm where he works now. He said Monday he would have no comment on the sale of the ranch.

Founded in San Francisco in 1898, Bechtel built Hoover Dam, BART, and the Channel Tunnel between England and France, airports, nuclear plants and other huge projects around the world. Over time, some Bechtel heirs have moved out of the Bay Area, and the company in 2018 shifted its headquarters to Virginia.

Wright said POST will study plants and wildlife on the ranch, then transfer it to a parks organization in the next few years so it can be opened to the public.

“It’s about protecting open space, fresh air, fresh water for 2 million people,” said Marti Tedesco, communications director for POST, on a visit to the ranch last week. “Imagine what this would look like if the landscape wasn’t protected. There would be Kentucky Fried Chickens in places like this.”

Bay Area News Group reporter George Avalos contributed to this report.