The gridlock, congestion, road rage, stops and starts begin in committee meetings.

And the refurbishing of the Hacienda Gardens Shopping Center at the intersection of Meridian and Foxworthy avenues is far from reaching cruising speed.

Four members of the Ninth District Community Action Committee, made up of Willow Glen residents who live near the shopping center, met with representatives of the San Jose Planning Commission, the San Jose Public Works Department, and the developer, KT Properties, at a progress meeting on Sept. 12. Progress meetings are organized by the city's so-called Global Committee—which consists of city staff, residents and the Hacienda developer—whenever the city has completed a new study report on the Hacienda development, and the Sept. 12 meeting was on the much-anticipated topic of traffic.

However, unlike the usual progress meeting that lasts approximately an hour, the 3:30 p.m. traffic meeting lasted until almost 7 p.m.

"Usually we go to 5 p.m.," said Rhonda Hansen of the Ninth District Community Action Committee. "We're really trying to fine-tune this project."

Yet the unusually long meeting didn't accomplish as much as some attendees had anticipated.

"We had hoped to resolve traffic issues, but we ran out of time," Mike Enderby, a senior planner with the San Jose Planning Commission, told The Willow Glen Resident a few days later. "We'll probably have to schedule another meeting."

Enderby added, however, that the Global Committee may be ready to go before the city council for a final approval in November.

Ebrahim Sohrabi, a senior civil engineer with the San Jose Public Works Department, also attended the traffic progress meeting.

"Traffic is the most challenging aspect of any project these days, as far as public works is concerned," he said. "Traffic is going to increase as a result of this project, but the traffic is not going to be significant."

Developer Mark Tersini of KT Properties declined to comment, and property owner Gary Rajkovich of Hacienda Partners did not return phone calls.

The proposed project has been a little over a year in the making. After two plans were presented to the neighbors and the planning commission, the San Jose City Council, at a meeting on Aug. 21 of last year, unanimously approved a change in the city's General Plan allowing for a medium-density development with between 3,000 and 97,000 square feet for commercial space.

On Aug. 8, 2001, the planning commission had held a hearing recommending the project's northern portion consist of between 80 and 160 residential units. The San Jose Planning Department had initially recommended approximately 240 units.

"We'd much rather have had single-family homes," Carpenter said.

The suggestion for a scaled-back development came from District 9 Councilman John Diquisto, who wanted Tersini to cut the proposed 600 housing-unit plan to only 300.

Diquisto also recommended that the Global Committee, made up of city staff, the developer and residents, meet regularly throughout the project.

Neighbors met Sept. 18 to draft a letter to Enderby addressing unresolved traffic issues from the progress meeting.

"Our major concern is for the traffic," said Noel Carpenter, a Willow Glen resident and member of the Ninth District Community Action Committee, the afternoon prior to the letter-drafting meeting. "We still would like to receive these reports before the Global Committee has its meetings so we can be better prepared to bring up our concerns."

Carpenter added that some members of the neighborhood committee want to discuss the developer's position. "Some feel he has bent over backward for the neighbors," she said, "while others may want to ask for him to do a little more than what he is legally obligated to do."

"We're trying to do this amiably," Carpenter said.

While neighbors and planners discuss the project, some business owners in the Hacienda Gardens aren't in the loop.

"We are just waiting for them to tell us that something is going on," said Fiacro Ruiz, a manager at Anita's Jewelry. "All we hear is rumors; the landlord tells us nothing. Anita's Jewelry is in favor of a remodeling but we live in anxiety."