Starting next Thursday, August 8th, the City of San Jose will hold the first of two community workshops on the future of the former Pleasant Hills Golf Course in East San Jose. The workshops will solicit feedback on the Draft Guiding Principles released in June, which the City developed to reflect feedback from surveys and the initial round of workshops held in February and April.
The 114-acre Pleasant Hills site, which has been vacant since 2004, is the largest single development area in San Jose. It presents an opportunity to integrate a significant number of new market rate and affordable homes in a mixed-use development along with open space and neighborhood-serving retail. Given its scale and location, this is a project with regional importance, and the planning process deserves broad input from communities across the East Side, around the city, and Santa Clara County. These workshops are likely the last opportunity for this broad set of stakeholders to provide input before the developer files a development application with the city.
COMMUNITY WORKSHOP #3 – In-person
Date and Time: Thursday, August 8, 2024 – 6:00-8:30 p.m.
Location: East Valley Family YMCA,1975 South White Road, San Jose, CA 95148
Reserve a Spot
COMMUNITY WORKSHOP #4 – Virtual
Date and Time: Thursday, August 12, 2024 – 6:00-8:30 p.m.
Location: Meeting link will be provided
Reserve a Spot
The Guiding Principles are not a detailed plan for the area as we might see for a more traditional planning process that outlines how a site can be used and the requirements for residential, commercial, and open space. In this case, the development team, including established San Jose developers Mark Lazzarini, Tony Arreola, and Gary Dillabough, will have access to this community input and have committed to “considering” them as they prepare their proposal for the site. However, because the Golf Course will require rezoning, the City of San Jose Planning Commission and City Council will still need to review and approve any submitted application. They will use the Guiding Principles as a benchmark against which to evaluate the proposal.
In a recent twist, the Santa Clara County Planning Department and the Board of Supervisors have asserted that because the golf course is technically on unincorporated county land, they have the right to sidestep the city’s community planning process and approve a development plan without a public hearing as long as it conforms to minimum county standards. While the Pleasant Hills site has yet to be annexed by the City of San Jose, it is within the boundaries of areas that have traditionally been under the authority of city planning. The county’s actions may take authority away from the city’s Planning Commission and City Council and put the burden back on the developers to respect the community planning process. There is a lot at stake here.
Pleasant Hills is well-placed for a thriving mixed-use community with abundant housing for residents at a mix of income levels. In recognition of the site’s significance, San Jose’s City Council voted to require that any new development exceed the minimum percentage of affordable homes required in similar developments in the city. The site is adjacent to Lake Cunningham Park and surrounded on the remaining three sides by existing homes. It lies about a mile from the forthcoming VTA Light Rail extension to Eastridge Mall, which will better connect East San Jose to local and regional transit. It is also about a mile from the Reid-Hillview Airport, which will be redeveloped following its closure in 2031.
This site is large enough to meet various community needs, including affordable and market-rate housing, neighborhood-serving retail and commercial space, and open space. Because the Draft Guiding Principles will provide city staff and the council with a framework for evaluating the project, it is critical that it is both responsive to the surrounding neighbors and include details reflecting the minimum housing densities necessary to make affordable housing feasible while leaving room for parks, plazas, bicycle, pedestrian access, and appropriate retail.
Please attend one of the community workshops, in person on August 8th or virtually on August 12th, to weigh in on the importance of responding to our need for affordable housing throughout the city and the expectation that the site’s developers will respect the community input on this critical addition to the city’s East Side.