Court Battles Loom Over Cisco's Proposed 688-Acre Campus

SAN JOSE-The San Jose City Council will meet tonight to decide whether it will ignore or honor a petition that would put Cisco Systems’ $1.3 billion, 688-acre campus to a citywide vote.

The opposition coalition, People for Livable and Affordable Neighborhoods, collected the necessary signatures — more than 40,000 – to put the 20,000-worker campus on an upcoming ballot. City attorney Rick Doyle says despite that, the petition is technically invalid because of its wording and should be ignored by the council, which unanimously approved its largest employer’s project back in October.

A source close to the Mayor’s office said last week he expects the council to follow their counsel’s lead and give the Cisco the go-ahead. Either way, the issue appears headed to court. Cisco has threatened to litigate the issue if their approval is taken away and put to a vote of the people. PLAN, the opposition group, has threatened to sue if it is not put up for a vote.