Empty land is a rarity in developed Campbell. City officials say vacant sites are an opportunity to build needed housing, but nearby residents have mixed feelings.
The Campbell Planning Commission voted 6-1 last month, with Vice Chair Matt Kamkar voting no, to approve a three-story, 40 townhome development located at 320 Virginia Ave. Six homes will be affordable to meet the city’s inclusionary housing policy, with three moderately priced and three designated for low-income residents. The roughly 2.08-acre parcel is a former San Jose Water Company well site.
San Jose-based Valley Oak Partners, LLC will develop the project, which includes plans for a community green space. Officials said the development is expected to start construction in early 2025 and finish in 2026. The Campbell City Council does not need to approve the project because of its size. The development rattled the surrounding neighborhood, which is predominantly single-family homes, drawing about nine residents to the planning commission hearing.
Tom Wagner, a Campbell resident since 2015, spoke at the meeting. His fence backs up against the project site and he’s concerned about privacy, increased traffic and noise. He said he would have been OK with the project, including its height, if the developer designed it more thoughtfully, such as putting the green space adjacent to his fence line to increase the distance between his home and the townhomes.
“I am a huge proponent of the fact that we need higher density housing, like there is a housing crisis,” Wagner told San José Spotlight. “I’m not even opposed to it being there, but I think they could have designed it in a way that took some of the concerns into consideration.”
Valley Oak Partners did not respond to a request for comment, but documents show it conducted a traffic study that found the development won’t increase traffic significantly.
Project consultant and 20-year Campbell resident Jim Sullivan said the developer began talking to residents in the area more than two years ago.
Planning Commission Chair Alan Zisser said the city is fully built out, making open sites like this ideal for housing. He said while it’s difficult for the city to mitigate resident concerns about future developments due to state laws, residents can petition for safety measures to slow traffic, such as speed bumps.
“This is a prime time opportunity to build additional housing, including some below market rate housing, so it was a natural (fit) for that (land),” he told San José Spotlight.
Campbell identified the site for future homes in its state-mandated eight-year housing plan. The city aims to have 3,870 new homes built by 2031, with 1,542 designated affordable for low-income residents.
The Virginia Avenue project could have included more townhomes per the city’s density policy. The site is zoned for up to 25 homes per acre or up to about 50 homes.
Mathew Reed, policy director for housing advocacy group SV@Home, said the lower density raises questions about the value of the development during a housing crisis. He said developers will likely profit from townhomes, regardless of how many they build, and usually only meet cities’ affordable housing policies rather than going above the requirement.
Reed said this project doesn’t encroach on the neighborhood as much as others due to its larger setbacks and while he understands resident concerns, the housing need is too large to forgo development.
“I would hope that we would have a greater sense of kind of collective interest in being part of the solution, rather than continuing to be part of the problem,” he told San José Spotlight.
The city has some affordable housing underway at major thoroughfares. VTA is working with Campbell to bring 90 affordable apartments to the Winchester light rail station. Another development will add 12 tiny homes near Campbell Park.
Zisser said residents support the push for more homes, but it’s tough finding sites for future developments.
“There’s a general agreement by people that we need more housing,” he said. “The issue always is where’s it going to go? That can become contentious.”
Contact Annalise Freimarck at [email protected] or follow @annalise_ellen on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.