The IBM Campus Above Almaden Was Rezoned. Almost Nothing Else Is Settled.

"We're not actually having a conversation about data centers right now. This is a step toward that, I want to acknowledge that." Councilmember George Casey, whose District 10 includes the former IBM Almaden Research Center, said that at the August 18 council meeting just before the vote to rezone the hilltop campus at 650 Harry Road.

Six weeks later, both halves of his sentence still hold. The council took a step. The conversation about what happens on top of the hill has not happened yet, and it will begin at City Hall this fall in meetings about data centers across all of San Jose, with no hearing set for the IBM site itself.

The one thing the August vote changed

The council voted 9-2 to rezone 35.1 acres of the campus to an industrial park district and the surrounding 565.1 acres to open space. Mercury News coverage the next morning put it plainly: "No specific projects were approved as a result of the changes." Councilmembers Rosemary Kamei and Pamela Campos voted no and asked to postpone the vote so the community could weigh in further.

Casey's District 10 office calls the vote a "conforming rezoning." Every parcel in San Jose has a General Plan designation and a zoning designation. When the two disagree, state law requires the city to change the zoning to match the plan. Investors filed that request in June, and Casey voted yes because he considered the change legally required. Erik Schoennauer, the land use consultant representing IBM, described it the same way, as bringing the site's zoning in line with the General Plan.

On September 29, the Mercury News reported that an affiliate of Blackstart Digital, whose managing partner is tech entrepreneur Chadwick Manning, has agreed to buy the campus and expects to close before the end of the year. The site became available after IBM moved its workers to its Silicon Valley Lab at 555 Bailey Road and put the Almaden property on the market.

What is still open

The buyer's plans are where the uncertainty starts. Blackstart says it will keep the seven existing buildings, which total more than 500,000 square feet, and has listed possible uses including advanced research, startup incubators, academic partnerships and quantum computing. The campus already has several generations of data center facilities and a 25-megawatt power station that IBM installed. "We intend to expand capacity, subject to power availability," the company said.

That quote led Bob Staedler of Silicon Valley Synergy to say, "The level of disconnect between what was presented during the rezoning process and what we are learning now is reprehensible." Staedler also said reusing the campus "makes sense." His objection is to how the plans were described during the rezoning, and he does not oppose reusing the site.

Here is where each open question stands as of early October:

The conservation easement question comes up least, and it may matter most over the long term. At the August hearing, city staff said a conservation easement needs agreement from both the property owner and the city. The applicant's side said the future owner would be open to discussing one after the sale. Staff also said the new open space zoning is stricter than the old planned development zoning in some respects. For now, the protection on those hillsides is a zoning designation that a future council could be asked to change.

The CEQA disagreement is also unresolved. In a joint letter, the Sierra Club, the California Native Plant Society and Mothers Out Front argued that Senate Bill 131 exempts advanced manufacturing on industrially zoned land from environmental review. Alice Kaufman of Green Foothills pointed out that rezoning usually happens once a final project is approved. Here, she said, "the council was asked to do the rezoning in advance."

Where the next decision actually gets made

City staff said at the August hearing that a data center permit for the site would not be a rubber stamp. They also said they expect any site permit decision to come after the city adopts uniform standards for data centers. That sequence changes which meetings matter for anyone who lives below Harry Road. The rules a future Special Use Permit would be judged against are being drafted now, citywide, on a published schedule.

Residents have asked for a moratorium on data centers. City officials argued one was unnecessary because permit timelines mean no application would likely be decided before the standards are finished. The city's remaining schedule for the Data Center and Large Energy Project Uniform Standards:

1. October 7. Town hall with District 2.
2. October 15, 6 to 8 p.m. Final large community session at City Hall, 200 E. Santa Clara St., in the Council Chambers with overflow seating in the Rotunda. Staff will present the final draft standards. A Zoom option and live translation are available, and the city will post a recording on its YouTube channel.
3. October 26. Youth Commission informational presentation.
4. Early November. City Council briefings on the final proposed standards.
5. November 18. Planning Commission presentation of proposed changes to Title 20 of the Municipal Code.
6. December 8. Tentative City Council date for the proposed standards.

The city also has an online feedback form for the standards. Between August 31 and September 14, staff held eight smaller working sessions, and 48 of the 66 people invited attended. At the August hearing, residents raised concerns about grid capacity and Harry Road traffic during public comment. The coverage of the sale reports no capacity figure beyond the existing 25 megawatts.

Blackstart has said it will hold "a full public process with the city of San Jose, neighbors, community leaders, conservation groups and open-space organizations" as its ideas develop. It has not announced a date.

The trail question nobody has answered

Neither the sale coverage nor the city's FAQ mentions one detail that affects people who never go near the campus. According to the Friends of Santa Teresa Park trail guide, the Stile Ranch Trail below the research center runs "through an easement provided by IBM," with access from Fortini Road. The same guide says the Calero Creek Trail runs beside an orchard on IBM property before it ends at Harry Road. That guide was last updated in October 2014. It describes the access as it stood then and does not show the easement's current terms.

Blackstart says it knows "how much the trails and hillsides matter to this community." No public source reviewed for this post confirms whether the easement carries over after the sale or who maintains that section. Blackstart's statement about the open space is not a commitment about the easement.

The trails remain open for now. The county's closures page, updated October 2, shows no alerts or trail closures at Santa Teresa County Park. The only closure listed is the Archery Range on the first Saturday of each month. The county's planning for the Fortini Property also counts the Stile Ranch and Calero Creek trails as part of the shared Juan Bautista de Anza, Bay Area Ridge and West Valley trail alignment. The county bought that roughly 47-acre parcel in 2022. Its site plan proposes a future multi-use route between Santa Teresa and Calero, and the final report is dated June 30, 2026.

Current access points for this part of the hills:

• Stile Ranch staging area / Fortini Trailhead, 22581 San Vicente Avenue off Fortini Road. The county describes it as a small staging area serving the Stile Ranch, Fortini and Calero Creek trails.
• Rancho San Vicente, south of McKean Road, with free parking, restrooms and a hydration station.
• Calero Creek Trail, 1.9 miles, paved between Camden Avenue and Harry Road and dirt south of Harry Road. Getting from the southern dirt section to Stile Ranch means crossing the creek channel, which the city says is impassable in rainy-season high water. The city spells it "Stiles Ranch," and the county uses "Stile Ranch."
• Pueblo entrance on Bernal Road, with paid parking and room for more than 170 vehicles, for the Coyote Peak climb.
• Bernal-Gulnac-Joice Ranch, 372 Manila Drive, with free parking.

One Friends of Santa Teresa Park date falls in the same weeks as the standards hearings. Mike Boulland leads a community tour of Bernal Ranch history sites on November 1. The group's October 1 minutes say the IBM center "has been purchased." The Mercury News and San José Spotlight both report a purchase agreement that is expected to close by the end of the year.

If you live in Almaden Valley, the questions about the hill are a homeownership issue. They affect what buyers ask about and what your home's surroundings look like over the years you own it. Aaron Derbacher tracks decisions like the December 8 standards vote and the IBM sale closing so his clients get the facts on dates and documents instead of rumor. If you own near Harry Road or the Fortini trailheads and want to talk through what these decisions could mean for a sale or purchase, Let's Connect.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.