ALUC
SAN TA CLA RA COUNTY
A I RP O R T L A N D U S E
COMMISSION
October 3, 2024
Airport Land Use Commission
County Government Center
70 West Hedding Street, East Wing, 7th Floor; San José, CA 95110 (408) 299-5700
San José Mayor and City Council
200 East Santa Clara Street
San José, CA 95113
RE: City of San José Partial Overrule letter relating to the August 28, 2024, inconsistency determination of the Airport Land Use Commission regarding City of San José referrals for proposed Envision San José 2040 General Plan Text and Map Amendments (GPT24-001) and Diridon Station Area Plan Amendments in response to recent amendments to the San José Mineta International Airport (SJC) Airport Land Use Compatibility Plan (ALUCP)
Honorable Mayor and City Council:
On September 19 , 2024, the Santa Clara County Airport Land Use Commission (ALUC) considered the above overrule (also known as an override) notice from the City of San José City Council. This letter provides the ALUC’s formal comments, pursuant to Public Utilities Code section 21676(b), for the City Council’s consideration.
The City of San José (City) proposes to overrule the ALUC’s determination that certain amendments to the City’s General Plan and Diridon Station Area Plan are inconsistent with the Airport Land Use Compatibility Plan (ALUCP) for San José Mineta International Airport (SJC). State law gives the ALUC the sole authority to adopt an airport land use compatibility plan and establish the corresponding airport influence area (Pub. Util. Code §§ 21674, 21675(c)). The ALUC amended the ALUCP on March 27, 2024 (Agenda Item No. 6), in accordance with state law. If the City believed the ALUC’s action was unlawful, its remedy was to file a petition for a writ of mandate asking a court to set aside the ALUC’s amendment of the ALUCP and corresponding SJC airport influence area (AIA) within 90 days of the ALUC’s action. The City did not do so. Instead, the City is proposing to adopt its own AIA, which includes a smaller area than the AIA in the amended ALUCP, and to only refer proposed general plan, specific plan, zoning and building regulation amendments to the ALUC that are within the City’s purported AIA. This action has no precedent nor authority in state law and is clearly inconsistent with the adopted ALUCP.
On August 28, 2024, the ALUC considered a referral submitted by City of San José staff for amendments to the Envision San José 2040 General Plan (Text and Map Amendments, GPT24- 001) and Diridon Station Area Plan Specific Plan Amendments (Agenda Item No. 5) that included an alternative AIA for SJC. The ALUC found the proposed amendment s to be inconsistent with the SJC ALUCP as amended by the ALUC on March 27, 2024. The ALUC also found the amendments to be an unlawful attempt to modify the SJC ALUCP and AIA.
The ALUC ’s inconsistency determination explained that only an Airport Land Use Commission has the jurisdiction to create or modify an Airport Influence Area (AIA). Per Section 2.2.4 of the California Airport Land Use Planning Handbook:
ALUCs establish the AIA after a hearing and in consultation with the involved agencies, as required by Section 21675(c). ALUCs sometimes describe the AIA as the referral area (as it is the area within which projects are potentially referred to the ALUC).
Docusign Envelope ID: A9C95E68-1C25-4621-92BA-E787FC2AF8C4