San Jose was once set to host the largest co-living building in the world. But financial struggles and a torrent of lawsuits have all but killed that plan. Housing advocates now hope the space can be used for affordable housing. The lot at 199 Bassett Street in downtown San Jose remains empty after plans to...
UPDATE: San Jose commission defers decision on student housing high-rise
San Jose State students will have to wait even longer for a place to live near campus, following delayed approval of a high-rise apartment tower. A decision on a downtown student housing project has been deferred another month following an appeal from a neighboring property owner. The San Jose Planning Commission debated Wednesday over how...
Silicon Valley residential development booming, but not affordable
Rental rates are going up and affordable homes are scarce in Silicon Valley, a regional think tank says. Four out of 10 multi-family renter households spend more than 30% of their income on rent, according to a recent report from the Joint Venture Silicon Valley’s Institute for Regional Studies. This is considered a moderate to severe financial...
How do new state laws affect San Jose’s Opportunity Housing?
San Jose was considering a bold strategy to densify housing when a state law effectively abolished single-family zoning across California. Proponents claim the local vision is far from dead. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bills 9 and 10 into law last week that could dramatically increase housing density in residential neighborhoods by allowing the development of up...
State laws upend single-family zoning in Santa Clara County
With a pen stroke, Gov. Gavin Newsom has set the stage for potentially massive changes to how housing is built in Silicon Valley. Newsom signed into law Senate Bills 9 and 10 on Thursday. SB 9 allows for the development of up to four dwelling units on single-family lots throughout California, while SB 10 allows...
Santa Clara County approves affordable housing for ag workers
South Santa Clara County is home to mushroom farms and fields of garlic. Now the area will house the workers who tend them. On Thursday, Robert Van Tassle, operations manager of Countryside Mushrooms in Gilroy, picked up some personal items from the site of what was once Royal Oaks Mushrooms in Morgan Hill. He worked there for...
UPDATE: San Jose approves high-rise office towers
Woz Way is getting a makeover in the form of a pair of high-rise office towers—and the project is right at the city’s height limit. The Almaden Office Project, led by developer Boston Properties, will be built on a 3.57-acre parking lot on the corner of South Almaden Boulevard and Woz Way. The San Jose...
Fire hazards keep popping up at San Jose apartment complex
A fire-prone apartment complex in East San Jose has repeatedly received warnings about missing and defective smoke detectors and other fire hazards for years, according to city records. On numerous occasions, code enforcement officials flagged missing and non-functioning smoke detectors and carbon monoxide devices at Foxdale Village Apartments, a low-income apartment complex owned by KDF Communities that’s been the...
Former San Jose theater one step closer to office conversion
Years after the Camera 12 movie theater in downtown San Jose shut its doors, the project promised to replace it is now one step closer to construction. Local development firm Urban Catalyst, which purchased the property in 2019, recently obtained a building permit for the 100,000-square-foot project. The firm also received a $56.2 million senior construction...
San Jose-Google payment goes to affordable housing, rent relief
San Jose is investing $3 million from Google in various fixes for the city’s housing crisis, including pandemic-related rent relief. The City Council unanimously approved the allocation of funds on Tuesday, with $1.25 million going to tenant and landlord outreach on the eviction moratorium and rental relief programs, $1 million for affordable housing nonprofit organizations,...