Transmitted via email
May 16, 2021
Honorable Mayor Sam Liccardo and Members of the City Council City of San Jose
200 East Santa Clara Street, 18th Floor
San Jose, CA 95113
Dear Mayor Liccardo, and Councilmembers Arenas, Carrasco, Cohen, Davis, Esparza, Foley, Jimenez, Jones, Mahan, and Peralez,
Re: 10.2 – North San Jose Strategy
With this opportunity to significantly increase the number of affordable homes in the City of San Jose, we are looking for explicit housing policies that center equity and inclusion in the redevelopment of North San Jose. We call on our elected officials to lead with boldness and intention in creating a San Jose that is affordable to its residents and integrated racially and socio-economically. When North San Jose was opened up for new housing development nearly two decades ago it was intended to be a transit and job-rich, new community accessible to everyone in San Jose. To realize this vision, the North San Jose Area Development Policy stated that 20% of all new homes would be affordable. This did not happen in Phase I; the policy was not followed. North San Jose was built as an exclusive community.
Reopening North San Jose to additional development was central to the Housing Crisis Workplan adopted by City Council in June 2018, a response to Mayor Liccardo’s call for the development of 25,000 new homes, including 10,000 affordable homes, by 2023. Council has continuously directed staff to meet these goals, most recently in November 2020, through policies that would allow the overall new development to hit the 20% affordable goal, making up for what was not built in Phase I.
Despite council direction, the amendments and plans included in the Staff memo and ordinances retiring the NSJADP do not recommit to the 20% affordable requirement once the plan is retired, and once again the affordable housing policy work remains an under-defined work in progress. We are concerned that the policy ideas presented as under consideration, while potentially impactful, do not go far enough to address the depth or breadth of the challenge.
To make good on the promises and potential for North San Jose, Council action retiring the NSJADP must explicitly include direction to staff to:
Develop policies and land use tools that will make it feasible and realistic to meet the original requirement that 20% of housing built in the plan area be affordable. In addition to the rezoning overlay of appropriate sites for affordable housing and modification of the Inclusionary Housing Ordinance, consider additional policies to secure land, increase access to city resources, and lower costs for affordable housing. Return to council with specific, detailed policies for consideration, including timelines for them to return to council for final adoption.
North San Jose should be accessible to everyone in San Jose. It is close to jobs, it is well served by transit, and it has a brand new K-12 school campus. Its build-out was originally intended to accommodate more than a quarter of the new homes in the City’s General Plan and has long been prioritized for affordable housing. It would be counterproductive to allow a newly exclusive neighborhood to be built at a time when San Jose is working to confront and dismantle the ways that city policies undermine equitable access to opportunity and sustain racial and ethnic divisions that have been institutionalized over generations.
Our communities continue to struggle under a housing affordability crisis, even as our range of resources expands, and we continue to explore the potential of new tools. We call on this Council to follow through on the commitment to affordable housing in North San Jose as a recognized part of the solution.
Sincerely,
Nadia Aziz, Directing Attorney
Law Foundation of Silicon Valley
Jeffrey Buchanan, Policy Director
Working Partnerships USA
Fred Buzo, San Jose Director
SPUR
Poncho Guevara, Executive Director
Sacred Heart Community Service
Maricela Gutiérrez, Executive Director
Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network (SIREN)
Laura Hall, President & Chief Executive Officer
EAH Housing.
Gregory R. Kepferle, Chief Executive Officer
Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County
Geoffrey Morgan, President & CEO
First Community Housing
Jennifer Loving, Chief Executive Officer
DESTINATION: HOME
Doug Shoemaker, President
Mercy Housing California
Zoe Siegel, Senior Director of Climate Resilience
Greenbelt Alliance
Alex Shoor, Executive Director
Catalyze SV
Jan Stokely, Executive Director
Housing Choices
Andrea K. Urton, Chief Executive Officer
HomeFirst Services of Santa Clara County
Victor Vasquez, Co-Executive Director
SOMOS Mayfair
Jahmal Williams, Co-Chair
Black Leadership Kitchen Cabinet of Silicon Valley
Regina Celestin Williams, Executive Director
SV@Home
Dan Wu, Executive Director
Charities Housing
Kevin Zwick, Chief Executive Officer
United Way Bay Area
May 17, 2022
San José City Council
City of San José
200 E. Santa Clara Street
San José CA 95113
Comments for Item 10.2 File 22-707 – City Roadmap - North San José Strategy: GPT21-003, PP21-008 & C21-018 - Amendment to the General Plan and North San José Area Development Policy; Amendment to Title 20 (Zoning Ordinance); and Amendment to Title 14, Chapter 14.29 (North San José Traffic Impact Fee Requirements).
Dear Mayor Liccardo, Vice Mayor Jones and Councilmembers:
SPUR submits this letter in regard to changes to the city’s North San José Area Development Policy (ADP). We commend the city in pursuing strategies to site housing in North San José as the largest potential planning area for new housing unit development. Given that the council’s adoption of this proposed policy change will retire the ADP’s current affordable housing goal of 20% for residential development, the city must remain committed to measures and expending resources that will enable greater production of housing for all income levels in neighborhoods near transit and jobs.
We are supportive of strategies that will maximize affordable housing production in North San José as this process continues moving forward alongside the Housing Element update. Although the city’s Inclusionary Housing Ordinance (IHO) has a 15% affordability requirement and developer alternatives to the addition of new units, the city should pursue strategies to go beyond this goal by moving forward with recommendations included in the staff memo, and by considering land acquisition for publicly owned housing sites, reducing costs for affordable projects where possible, and maximizing housing near transit service. Further, it is important for San José’s commercial uses and employers to contribute to the city’s resources for affordable housing.