Affordable housing plan for E. San Jose airport dependent on soil contamination

EIGHTY-TWO YEARS after Reid-Hillview Airport opened, Santa Clara County supervisors want to shut it down and consider converting it into affordable housing.

For decades, advocates and elected officials have pushed to close the airport and rezone the property for housing. But whether that happens depends on the soil’s lead levels. A study commissioned by the county in August already concluded dangerous lead levels in the air have contributed to elevated blood lead levels in children living less than one-and-a-half miles away. Doctors point to the use of leaded fuel in general aviation planes at the airport as the culprit.