More than three months after San Jose and Santa Clara came to an agreement that moved San Jose one step closer to building tens of thousands of homes in the northern part of the city, there are no signs that shovels will make its way into the ground in the near future.
The holdup? Stalled negotiations with Santa Clara County. Now, the city and the county are about to enter mediation this month in an attempt to resolve what’s been a more than a decade-long dispute over housing in North San Jose.
The section of the city — the area north and west of I-880 and south of Highway 237 — has long been seen as an ideal location for growth. It’s San Jose’s largest employment district, and has easy access to public transit due to its proximity to the Valley Transportation Authority’s light rail line.
That’s why in 2005, the city adopted the North San Jose Development Policy — a plan that would add 32,000 homes, more than 25 million square feet of office and industrial development, roughly 3 million square feet of retail and commercial space and 1,000 hotel rooms.
But soon after, Santa Clara, Milpitas and Santa Clara County sued the city, claiming the plan lacked traffic mitigation measures and would negatively impact neighboring jurisdictions. A settlement reached the following year required San Jose to divide the plan into four phases that limited about 8,000 new homes for every 7 million square feet of new commercial space built and to make roadway improvements that would lessen traffic congestion.
While the limit for the first 8,000 homes was reached quickly, the city struggled to meet the cap for commercial space, and as a result, San Jose officials have said that housing hasn’t been built in the northern locale for more than a half-decade.
In the wake of a deepening statewide housing crisis, city officials have been looking for ways to build out North San Jose, and in May, they negotiated a way that marks one step closer to getting there. The San Jose City Council in May signed off on an agreement with the city of Santa Clara to invest $38.5 million in transportation improvements to reduce traffic congestion. In exchange, Santa Clara agreed not to sue San Jose.
But the $38.5 million hasn’t been enough to satisfy the county’s concerns. And according to Mayor Sam Liccardo, he hasn’t seen “any progress” on negotiations in the last several months.
“We’re eager for the county to articulate what specific requirements they have that will enable us to get affordable housing built in North San Jose,” Liccardo told the Mercury News. “I haven’t seen any indication that the county is any more willing to allow housing to get built.”
In an interview, Santa Clara County Executive Jeff Smith emphasized that the county and the city had an agreement in 2006 that specified explicit road improvements.
A May 17 letter from county counsel James Williams to the city outlined the outstanding projects San Jose must complete, including the widening of Montague Expressway between Lick Mill Boulevard and First Street, as well as I-880 and Trade Zone Boulevard, and the construction of the Trimble Road flyover.
Smith said it’s part of the city’s “standard irresponsible approach to development.”
“When anybody is stuck in traffic on any of the San Jose roads, they can think about the city not mitigating the housing and the construction that they approved,” Smith said.
The county has previously threatened to take San Jose to court if the city moves forward regardless, but Liccardo said he believes litigation is “unlikely” and instead this is a “case of the dog that didn’t bark.”
“What’s far more likely is that the cloud of litigation will prevent any builder from getting a shovel in the ground,” he said. “That is the mere threat of litigation will be enough to tell every builder in the region that you should not build in North San Jose.”
With housing construction still on pause for the foreseeable future, Mathew Reed, the director of policy at the pro-housing nonprofit Silicon Valley@Home, said the “risk of not opening this area up is regionally consequential.”
The section of the city would play a critical role in the city’s pursuit to meet not just its housing goals, but its affordable housing goals, as well — a commitment has been made to ensure 20% of the planned 32,000 units are affordable.
Reed said that North San Jose has been viewed as an ideal location for growth because of its proximity to jobs in the immediate area, as well as Santa Clara, Sunnyvale and Mountain View. But that means it’s crucial to “mitigate regionally the traffic demands” as the city continues to grow economically.
“North San Jose is well served by transit,” Reed said. “It is accessible to major highways and traffic connectors and that poses both challenges and opportunities, but if the goal is to decrease the miles that cars drive, which is the new standard, there is no question that San Jose plays a critical role regionally in meeting those goals.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com