To: City of San José Mayor and Council
June 20, 2023
Re: Agenda Item: 10.1 (c) 23-937; Memorandum and Resolution (1) Good afternoon Mayor and Council Members,
My name is Alex Sywak. My wife and I have owned a parcel in San Jose for almost 40 years and have a pending application, PT16-040, to site 61 single detached homes, each to include an ADU, utilizing the City and state density bonus law. Inspite of being within ¼ mile of four high quality transit corridor (HQTC) stops, within ½ mile of eleven HQTC stops and within ½ mile of two major transit stops (MTS), Planning has required we downsize to 15.
Adoption of today’s amendments to CP 5-1 should help. Being proximate to high quality transit, according to CEQA Guidelines our project should always have been presumed to have a less than significant transportation impact. If our project was in the City of Mountain View, it would screen out and be exempt.
We attended the Planning Commission hearing on May 25th., but getting stuck in traffic, by the time we arrived at 7pm, the amendments to CP 5-1 had been passed, and we missed Public Comment. We wanted the Commissioners’ help with several aspects, and ask the same of you today.
1) The Transportation Analysis Handbook of April 2023, on the first page of Appendix C cites a 2002 study which broadly concludes, and provides a formula, that a project whose proposed density is twice the surrounding existing density should reduce the VMT of the proposed project by about 30%. Both Planning and CEQA allow specifics of a proposed project to be factored into the reduction of VMT for a project. Our project provides a density greater than twice that of the neighborhood.
2) Our traffic consultant and we have had trouble getting responses to technical issues from the Transportation portion of Planning. We understand everybody is busy and we are just Mom and Pop, but direction and answers from a lead person would be helpful. 3) Plan Bay Area 2050 identifies specific PRC statutes that allow CEQA streamlining of housing projects that meet conditions of a Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS). We need an answer as to whether the City of San José has a SCS, and what conditions our project would have to comply with to be eligible. Our project meets all requirements in the City’s GHGRS checklist. Does compliance with this checklist determine our project satisfies being a SCS project and is eligible to utilize applicable statutes and guidelines? We would appreciate help with any, or all, of the above.
Thank you for your consideration,
Ingrid and Alex Sywak