SAN JOSE — Fresh details have emerged regarding a plan to build hundreds of homes that would replace a retail center in San Jose, including indications that some of the housing will be affordable, city documents show.

The proposed development would be constructed at a site with addresses ranging from 1670 through 1696 Berryessa Road in San Jose, according to a preliminary application on file with municipal planners.

The project is slated to produce 210 apartments on a 1.4-acre site a few blocks from the Berryessa BART Station in San Jose.

The apartment complex would be eight stories, the proposal states.

Pan-Cal Corp., a veteran real estate developer, has proposed the project, which would replace North Valley Plaza, a small retail center at that site.

“The proposed development is to replace the existing commercial buildings with residential apartments,” Pan-Cal stated in its preliminary proposal for the project.

The housing complex would also include amenities on the ground floor and on the second floor, the planning documents show.

The ground-floor amenity space, slated to total 2,200 square feet, would include a lounge. The proposal didn’t disclose the nature of the second-floor amenity space, which is expected to total 1,100 square feet.

The 210 units would consist of 144 one-bedroom units, 42 two-bedroom units, 12 three-bedroom units and 12 studios, the preliminary proposal shows.

The unit sizes in the proposed development: studios, 572 to 736 square feet; one-bedroom units, 1,166 square feet; two-bedroom units, 1,687 square feet. The size of the three-bedroom units wasn’t disclosed.

Pan-Cal filed the proposal in a fashion that suggests the developer would use a streamlined approval process for housing under the rules sketched out in SB 330, state legislation aimed at spurring new housing development, the planning documents show. SB 330 also can be used to limit the roadblocks that can be placed in the path of a project proposal.

The development rules associated with SB 330 suggest that 11% of the apartments, or 23 units, could be set aside for “very low-income” residents,  while 20%, or 42 units, could be set aside for “lower-income” individuals.

Developers have proposed several housing projects on multiple sites in the vicinity of the Berryessa BART station, which at present is the BART’s sole train stop in San Jose.

Source: www.mercurynews.com