Backers of a proposal to transform a barren, city-owned hillside on San Jose’s Communications Hill into a vineyard had spent years devising a plan, drumming up support and gathering signatures to bring it to a vote before residents in the community.

But after the ballots cast by residents in the Communications Hill special tax district were counted last month, the proposition to spend up to $400,000 to study the feasibility of planting and maintaining a vineyard on about 25 acres of the hill earned only 61% of the vote — failing by a slim margin to get the two-thirds support required.

“The idea of it is nice but figuring out a way to actually get to it is always tricky,” said Nick Patel, president of the hill’s largest homeowners association, Tuscany Hills. “We couldn’t get a proper business plan in place without the city figuring out whether it was a feasible option, and I think that’s the reason we didn’t get enough support.”

The approximately 25 acres envisioned for the vineyard were dedicated to the city about two decades ago as part of an agreement with the main developer on hill, KB Home. The funding for the feasibility study would have been tapped from a special tax levied against the neighborhood’s properties for improvements.

Proponents of the vineyard, including Patel, argued that it would have provided beautification, security and fire protection for the hill — the last being a particular concern after a 35-acre brush fire on the Fourth of July last year threatened multiple homes and destroyed a detached garage.

No clear business plan was developed for the vineyard before it went to voters in March, but Patel envisioned that the chosen vintner would be required to reimburse the city for the study and initial work, pay a lease on the land and operate as a crop share program in which residents would get some of the profits from the grapes or wine produced.

But some residents on the hill, such as Manuel Martinez, balked at the suggestion of using their tax money to study and establish a vineyard that a private company could then reap the benefits of.

“It seemed like a giveaway,” said Martinez, who has lived on the hill for more than 10 years. “And in hindsight, given the current health circumstances and financial catastrophe that we’re experiencing now, it just seems even more ridiculous.”

Leaders of the Tuscany Hills Homeowner Association submitted a petition to the city in January 2019 to hold an election with two separate ballot measures — one for the vineyard feasibility study and another to spend up to $200,000 from the district fund each year to expand security services on the hill. They did not gather the required 25 percent of registered voters, but the city council voted to allow the election to take place anyway.

Results released this month revealed that only about a quarter of the registered voters in the facilities district participated in the special election. And while the vineyard initiative failed, the measure to increase security operations garnered approval from 73% of the residents who cast a ballot, according to city documents.

The level and frequency of new security services, which is anticipated to begin in July, is still being determined.

“The difference I see — and that I think was reflected in the results — is that (the security proposal) is an investment in the hill that benefits the entire hill,” Martinez said about the results. “The vineyard wasn’t going to benefit the entire hill. It was placed on there by special interests that appear to have the ear of city hall.”

Nearly three decades ago, Communications Hill was one of the largest tracts of undeveloped land near the city’s downtown core. To guide the growth of the area, the city created The Communications Hill Specific Plan — consisting of parks, terraces, recreational paths and public staircases — and established the special maintenance district as a way to fund those public features through a tax on property owners within the district boundaries.

Maintenance work covered by the tax funds includes repairing access roads, landscaping and managing open spaces. To include a vineyard and more security into the equation, the law required an election. The district’s current fund sits at about $1.9 million, and the March election cost the district about $30,000.

Despite the defeat of the years-in-the-making vineyard proposal, Patel said the majority support it garnered still indicated that the city’s landscaping efforts on the hill are inadequate.

As a temporary solution, he plans to work with the city to sprinkle a variety of fire-resistant and drought-tolerant wildflower seeds along the hillside. But in the long-term, Patel indicated that he’s not giving up on the concept of a hillside vineyard just yet.

“It’s great to get a democratic vote out there and it shows that the majority of people out there support it,” he said. “So I think if we come up with a more polished plan in the future, we can create something that works well for everyone.”