Author: Bob Staedler (Bob Staedler)

San Jose has missed the state’s Jan. 31 deadline for an approved 2023-2031 Housing Element. The Housing Element is a plan to map out future housing in San Jose and help the city meet its goal of planning for 62,200 homes by 2031. According to the city, the Housing element addresses a range of housing...

The San Jose City Council agenda last week had an innocuous item called the Municipal Regional Stormwater Permit Reissuance. It was previously discussed during the Dec. 5 Transportation and Environment Committee meeting. The new five-year stormwater permit became effective July 1, 2022 and expires July 2027. If you want to know how much you should be...

During the Nov. 29 San Jose City Council meeting, outgoing Mayor Sam Liccardo said the city has a homeless housing marketing problem. He’s right on the money: San Jose residents want homeless housing, just not near their homes. There is clearly a lack of trust and confidence by many neighborhoods that homeless housing solutions and...

San Jose like other parts of the country is dealing with the harsh realities of past racial injustice. This has sparked “equity lens” and fairness conversations in the city’s budgeting of vital services. One of the undeniable wrongs that can’t be ignored is redlining. Redlining was a practice of creating racially segregated neighborhoods in every...

San Jose held a study session on Nov. 1 during the regularly scheduled city council meeting. It was the fourth they’ve held over the last several years. The city hired Century Urban LLC to perform a conceptual feasibility analysis and then brought several Urban Land Institute members to give their perspective on the difficulty of building...

Parking requirements have been reduced in some new housing developments with the advent of AB 2097. San Jose has been touted as leading this and the state following course. That is clearly not the case. San Jose officials voted in June to “craft a policy to eliminate parking minimums.” They should not be given credit...

California passed several housing bills before the end of the current legislative session. Assembly Bill 2011 enacts a streamlined ministerial approval by cities comparable to Senate Bill 35, for multi-family projects on commercial zoned land that meet certain provisions. Those include prevailing wages and affordable housing requirements. The bill would allow housing projects to be...

San Jose should be commended for shelving the ridiculous idea of taxing vacant homes. The housing crisis needs serious solutions and wasting staff time on such a frivolous item does not make any sense. San Jose voters passed Measure E on March 3, 2020. It enacted a real property transfer tax, which is imposed on...

Over the last several decades, there have been various opinions and political handwringing on what is wrong with downtown San Jose. In the past, San Jose officials have blamed the lack of downtown vibrancy on business cycles and other over simplistic issues such as daytime or nighttime population.  The city of San Jose presented its...

When government agencies sue each other, it is simply a huge waste of taxpayer dollars. The only winners in these situations are the contracted attorneys on either side. Those dollars could be used to fund vitally needed services, but are wasted going to a long, drawn out court battle. A majority of those matters could...