English
Spanish
Vietnamese
A proposed Buddhist temple in San Jose’s Evergreen neighborhood sparked a contentious, nearly two-hour meeting at the Village Square Branch Library Thursday night. Around 150 residents gathered at a monthly District 8 Community Roundtable meeting to hear presentations and ask questions about the Wat Khmer Kampuchea Krom temple, planned to be developed on 1.86 acres...
Sand Hill invokes controversial state law to build 91 townhomes in Saratoga
Sand Hill Property Co. is planning a new 91-townhome development in Saratoga, but the project comes with a twist: the prominent developer is using a controversial state law to streamline city approvals. Since Senate Bill 35 took effect in 2018, the law, which speeds up the development of certain housing projects, has been used only...
Mother of slain San Jose police officer joins fight for Laura’s Law
It’s been nearly five years since Katherine Decker’s son was shot to death by a suicidal man during a routine police call in East San Jose. Now, Decker is joining a political fight with Silicon Valley lawmakers and advocates to push for a controversial law that allows authorities to order psychiatric treatment for people with...
San Jose lawmakers support exempting nonprofits from Measure E
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, who has been leading the effort on Measure E, a real property transfer tax on properties valued at $2 million or more, wants to ensure the measure doesn’t impact nonprofits. San Jose lawmakers during a council committee meeting Wednesday unanimously approved the mayor’s proposal, which calls for exempting 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations from the...
San Jose measure to shift mayoral elections won’t extend Liccardo’s term
A labor-backed initiative, which seeks to shift San Jose’s mayoral elections to presidential years to boost voter turnout, will no longer extend Mayor Sam Liccardo’s term for an extra two years to align local and national elections. Instead, South Bay labor groups who are leading the initiative they hope will attract a higher concentration of voters —...
UPDATE: San Jose approves amnesty program for illegal granny units
San Jose leaders kicked off the new year Tuesday by unanimously approving an accessory dwelling unit amnesty program for residents who need to get a permit for their backyard cottages and get them up to code. The program is one of the final steps in the city’s plan to make accessory dwelling units easier to...
Jim Beall reintroduces affordable housing bill vetoed by Newsom
California’s housing crisis dominated headlines in 2019, but one San Jose legislator’s effort to alleviate its impact left Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk without a signature. Last year’s Senate Bill 5, authored by state Sen. Jim Beall, D-San Jose, aimed to support Newsom’s goal of building 3.5 million housing units by 2025 by establishing an Affordable...
San Jose to consider investing $9.4M for Alum Rock housing project
Tucked away into a far corner of the city, the San Jose City Council’s approved Alum Rock Avenue Urban Village project seeks to revitalize a predominantly Latino neighborhood of San Jose. An 87-unit mixed-use affordable housing complex located in the heart of the neighborhood is included in those plans, and that building may soon move...
San Jose spends millions on road repair but some neighborhoods are left out
After San Jose voters in 2018 approved a bond measure for $300 million to “repave streets and potholes in the worst condition,” the city repaved nearly 300 of its 2,400 miles of roadways last year — that’s one out of every eight miles, or more than 12 percent of the total. “We’re paving more than...
Four major Santa Clara developments to watch in 2020
The South Bay has become a major development hot-spot in the last few years, as office space fills up in traditionally trendy cities to the north and growing companies look for space to expand. But 2020 is set to be an especially active year in Santa Clara with multiple big projects hitting important milestones. Below...