City of San Jose 4-Year General Plan Update

The City of San Jose 4-Year Envision General Plan Task Force held its second Task Force meeting on December 18th.  Below is a review of several Task Force recommendations made at the December 18^th meeting.  Policy proposals and staff recommendations were initially presented to the task force at the November 20^th Task Force Meeting.  All task force recommendations will be forwarded to the City Council at the conclusion of the 4-Year General Plan Update process.

• Redistribution of Planned Growth and Urban Village Boundary Modifications:

Staff recommended the elimination of the Evergreen Urban Village & E. Capitol/Foxdale Urban Village. The Task Force majority concurred with staff and recommended the elimination of the Evergreen & Foxdale Urban Villages.  The Evergreen site is almost entirely built out (385 remaining units that will be reassigned to the Downtown and Berryessa Bart Urban Village planning areas).  The Foxdale Drive Urban Village is 95% built out with 100% deed restricted affordable housing.

• Race Street Light Rail Urban Village:

Staff recommended removing the Reed & Graham site and properties east of Lincoln Avenue from the Race Street Urban Village planning effort.  The Task Force majority did not concur with staff recommendation and recommended maintaining the existing boundaries (retaining the Reed & Graham and east of Lincoln Avenue properties) as part of the Reed Street Urban Village Planning effort.  Over the past decade the north Lincoln Avenue area has initiated the redevelopment of numerous older warehouse properties with multi-family residential, neighborhood park and refurbished warehouse/retail and is within a quarter mile of the Race Street Light Rail station.

• Modify Signature Project Policy IP-5.10

The staff recommended revised standards to establish “clear, and objective standards for Signature Projects”. The staff recommendations would have increased the amount of commercial space/square footage required for Signature Project status. The Task Force majority did not concur with staff and recommended maintaining the existing (not increase) required commercial space for Signature status and emphasized that “greater flexibility” should be the focus going forward to encourage increased opportunity for Signature Project submittals.

• Urban Village Horizons

Currently the 61 Urban Villages citywide are broken into a Horizon I, Horizon II and Horizon III development phasing timeline.  An Urban Village can only proceed to development if it has an adopted Urban Village Plan.  Urban Village Plans currently take approximately 2 years to implement once funding to coordinate the Urban Village Plan is secured.  Staff has indicated they are looking to implement an “expedited” planning process for Urban village plan adoption and a “consolidated planning effort” for many of the smaller Urban Villages going forward.   Sixteen Urban Villages currently have Horizon I status, ten Horizon I Villages have adopted Urban Village Plans. 

Staff is recommending that the five Wounds BART and the S. 24^th St./William Ct. be moved into Horizon I (both have adopted Urban Village Plans).  Many of the Task Force members expressed that they believe the Urban Village Horizon I, II & III phasing program should be eliminated to promote and facilitate more residential development. 

Following lengthy discussion at the December 18^th meeting by the Task Force’s business representatives and several housing advocates the Horizons issues was continued to the January 30^th meeting.  To read the December 18^th General Plan Task Force Staff Memo, click here.