San Jose leaders toss public hearings for infill development

San Jose officials are aggressively moving forward with filling housing gaps in existing neighborhoods, but experts say the proposal needs to go further.

The City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to approve the strategy known as infill housing, following housing department officials identifying barriers on residential developments and finding opportunities for San Jose to reach its state-mandated goal of adding 62,200 new homes by 2031. The vote included an expansion of  infill projects in the downtown core and around San Jose Mineta International Airport. While about 600 areas have been identified for potential infill projects, housing advocates said more areas need to be considered if the strategy is to be truly effective.

Councilmembers such as Pam Foley took issue with part of the plan that eliminates public hearings for infill housing developments.

“The developer doesn’t have to listen to them and the city council doesn’t have a vote, many of our residents don’t accept that (and) they’re not going to accept that with this change,” she said at the meeting.

Eliminating public hearings is part of a streamlined approach city officials said will speed up the permitting process by an average of 25% and create new housing in areas surrounded by existing communities. Projects would still be required to post signs with information about the developments and receive public comments.

“These are areas that have been planned for growth, in some cases, for 15 years,” Mayor Matt Mahan said. “I certainly would like to see it extended to other urban villages, to downtown, to the airport growth area, and as our group memo points to this is a step in the right direction.”

Foley said the idea of going from a two-year planning process to 180 days is attractive — but neighborhood outreach for housing projects is important. Developers have significantly improved housing projects because of input from concerned neighbors, she said.

“It doesn’t mean that the developer has to make any changes that the community gives you questioning, but it really informs the developer on what’s important to the neighbors and how to make their project successful,” Foley said.

Councilmembers Peter Ortiz and Domingo Candelas also raised concerns about forgoing the public hearing process for projects.

Erik Schoennauer, a land use consultant who represents developers across San Jose, said the infill housing strategy is insignificant because the city estimates only about 200 new homes will come out of it. According to the proposal, infill projects can’t be close to creeks or city landmarks, and developers must propose at least 40 homes per acre.

“The housing element and the (Regional Housing Needs Allocation) requirements are that you generate, on average, 7,775 units per year, right? And the city’s already behind by 5,000,” he said. “There are so many exclusions, it’s going to do nothing. I hope in 2025 we can have a real talk about improving the city’s overall process. Let’s create a (California Environmental Quality Act) working group.”
Ali Sapirman, Housing Action Coalition policy and advocacy manager, said the group worked hard to bring up infill housing in San Jose’s housing element plan.

She said Mahan’s updated plan to include downtown and airport areas is a direct response to concerns from housing advocates over the strategy only being expected to produce about 200 new homes.

“Our only feedback is that we’re concerned the public outreach might undercut the discretionary process,” Sapirman said. “We want the ministerial process to move as quickly as possible and adding these additional layers of public comment, when there’s already public comment built in, causes discretionary delays.”