Santa Clara residents struggle with neighborhood parking

Santa Clara residents living along Calle Del Mundo and Calle De Luna say finding a place to park has become one of the neighborhood’s biggest challenges as development continues to reshape the city’s Clara District.

After finishing late-night Uber shifts, 69-year-old Saiprakash Thirunagari often parks his car streets away from St. Anton Apartments because he can’t find a closer parking space near his affordable housing complex. He said parking wasn’t nearly as difficult when he moved into the neighborhood more than three years ago, before thousands of new apartments were built nearby.

“I park my car about 18 minutes away and I walk home late in the night because there is no space,” Thirunagari told San José Spotlight.

Thirunagari is one of several residents who told this news outlet they struggle to find parking near their homes. Some pay between $150 to $300 a month for garage parking, while others end up circling neighborhood streets in search of open spaces and worrying about tickets or being towed. The complaints have raised questions about whether Santa Clara’s parking requirements for new housing developments are keeping pace with the city’s growth.

Jorge Gonzales, another resident living in St. Anton, said he has received multiple parking tickets since moving in — and eventually lost his car. He said it was towed while he was out of town and he couldn’t afford the $3,000 impound fees.

“I was gone for like a week,” Gonzales told San José Spotlight. “My car was towed and it wasn’t worth more than $1,000. So I just left it in there.”

Parking requirements

The Clara District, a former industrial area near Levi’s Stadium, has become one of Santa Clara’s fastest-growing neighborhoods as the city transforms warehouses and office space into thousands of new homes. The area has been the focus of the city’s long-term housing plans, with several apartment developments recently completed, under construction or awaiting residents.

District 1 Councilmember Albert Gonzalez said residents have repeatedly brought parking concerns to City Council meetings. He said the city is working to balance adding more housing with the reality that many residents still rely on their cars despite the neighborhood’s proximity to public transit.

“It’s something that the city manager and I are actively working on because we know it’s affecting residents,” Gonzalez told San José Spotlight. “Do we want to build housing for cars or housing for people? But at the same time, people sometimes come with cars, and people need their cars for their livelihoods.”

Many apartment projects in the Clara District are within a half-mile of public transit options, including being within walking distance of the Lick Mill and Great America VTA light rail stations. Even so, residents told San José Spotlight they rely on their vehicles to commute to work and run daily errands. Cars line both sides of Calle Del Mundo, with several vehicles parked in or along the bike lane adjacent to the Parkside construction site.

City spokesperson Janine De la Vega said Santa Clara’s zoning code generally requires one parking space for studio and one-bedroom apartments and two spaces for two or more bedrooms. But projects near major transit, including those in the Clara District, abide by state law which takes precedence over local parking requirements.

Assembly Bill 2097, which took effect in 2023, generally prohibits cities from requiring minimum parking for many new developments within a half-mile of a major transit stop. State lawmakers approved the measure to reduce housing construction costs, encourage development near transit and make it easier to build new homes.

“The parking provided in new development meets all requirements under the city’s zoning code and state regulations,” De la Vega said.

Finding a solution

Laurel Harrison is a dog walker who frequents Calle Del Mundo Park and has lived in the area for more than two decades. She said parking in the area is now “nonexistent” and worries the new Parkside development will only make the shortage worse.

“It’s just a matter of what are they gonna do? Once this building comes up, there’s gonna be even less places to park,” Harrison told San José Spotlight. “They have to come up with a solution at some point.”

City planning documents show parking space varies across major developments in the Clara District. City planning documents show the 347-apartment Parkside development includes 396 parking spaces, while another nearby 371-apartment development at 2225 Calle De Luna and 2232 Calle Del Mundo has 306 parking spaces after officials approved a reduction from 331 spaces.

Rob Gomez, vice president of development at Ensemble Real Estate Investments, which is building Parkside, said the project will slightly exceed the city’s parking requirements for market-rate housing.

He acknowledged construction has temporarily reduced available street parking around the project and said he understands why residents are frustrated. But he said Parkside’s parking supply was designed to meet demand, adding that developments without enough parking would be difficult to lease.

“If someone doesn’t have a parking space, they’re not going to rent from us,” Gomez told San José Spotlight. “We want to lease all our units and build a bigger community, and to do that, we have that parking.”

While Gomez said Parkside will provide sufficient parking for its future residents, he added the growing neighborhood could benefit from additional public parking.

“I think there is going to be continued demand for parking in the area,” Gomez said. “It would be great if there was a parking garage. I think every developer would agree with that, and the city as well.”

Contact Maryanne Casas-Perez at [email protected] or @CasasPerezRed on X.