Neighbors object to hotel proposal
Project fuels debate on city’s Urban Village Plan
A group of West San Jose residents is banding together in an attempt to block the construction of a six-story hotel they say “completely violates” a development plan crafted by the city to enhance their neighborhood.
But to the developer and city planners, the 119-room hotel proposed to be built on a .69-acre parcel at 1212 S. Winchester Blvd. fully complies with the city’s policies and vision for the area.
The hotel would be located within the city’s Winchester Boulevard Urban Village Plan — a blueprint approved by the City Council in 2017 to guide a shift toward denser development along a 1.5-mile commercial stretch of Winchester Boulevard in West San Jose between Interstate 280 and Impala Drive.
The hotel would be the first tall building allowed under the blueprint’s density focus, according to the city. For several blocks on that side of the road north and south of the hotel, one- and two-story homes, apartment complexes, strip malls and shops dominate the landscape.
The property is about 1.5 miles north of downtown Campbell and 1.5 miles south of Santana Row, which the developer and city planners say would provide a “necessary service for existing and future demand for business travelers and visitors.” If approved, the hotel would replace two single-story commercial buildings that used to be houses.
Residents surrounding the property have come up with a laundry list of reasons why the hotel should be rejected, ranging from concerns about fire risks to conflicts with the area’s urban village plan to endangering pedestrians and bicyclists. The project, which has been endorsed by city planners, goes to the City Council on Tuesday.
Councilmember Chappie Jones, who represents the neighborhood, said he doesn’t support the hotel as it stands now but could be swayed if certain revisions are made.
Jones last month asked the council to postpone a decision to give the developer more time to meet with community members and make adjustments, noting the project had “tested the integrity of the Urban Village Plan in a way my office has not yet experienced.”
“If you look at the scale of what is being proposed, it just overwhelms the neighborhood and surrounding homes,” Jones said in a recent interview. “So, I have some real reservations about a hotel of that size going in on that parcel.”
Dr. Adam Askari, a San Jose dentist and the project developer, said he followed the urban village plan to a T and has already invested at least $2 million into the project.
“If they kill our project, they might as well kill the whole urban village,” he said in an interview. “If the City Council in 2017 approved an urban village and we followed that vision, yet here they are changing their mind, no developer is going to want to come in and buy a property in an urban village. It would scare all the developers.”
San Jose’s urban village plans are already struggling to attract the kind of developer interest city leaders sought when they baked the concept of concentrating denser development around transit and commercial corridors into the city’s General Plan more than a decade ago.
Under the Winchester Urban Village Plan, the property targeted for the hotel was given a “neighborhood/community commercial” land use designation, which the city defines as shallow lots that are appropriate for small commercial businesses with a “strong connection to, and provide services and amenities for, the community.”
Shehana Marikar, who lives in a house adjacent to the property, argues that a six-story hotel that has only a 20-foot buffer from the homes behind it and a 6-foot buffer from hers “completely violates” the neighborhood’s urban village plan.
“I just don’t get what the city is trying to accomplish,” she said. “It’s not the case of us not wanting something built, but make it neighborhood friendly, make it community commercial where we can support the businesses and the business would serve us in turn.”
San Jose Planning Supervisor John Tu said a hotel can serve neighboring residents by accommodating visiting family, friends and workers. The city already has approved several hotels on lots with the same land use designation, including an Aloft and Hampton Inn in West San Jose.
Residents also have complained about the lack of a fire lane behind the hotel where it butts up against several homes, an inadequate number of parking spaces and a 41-foot driveway that would cross the sidewalk along Winchester Boulevard and defy the urban village plan’s mission of creating “pedestrian-oriented frontages” and “pedestrian-friendly access to parking areas.”
City staff would allow the hotel to provide fewer parking spaces than normally required, or a total of 66 in an underground garage equipped with a vehicle lift system. In exchange for the reduction, the developer would allow only 10 employees on-site at any given time. Neighbors say that doesn’t add up.
“The planning department is not doing their due diligence on this and that’s a supercritical number that will make or break the feasibility of this,” resident Jeff Williams said.
Despite neighbors’ opposition, Askari is urging city leaders to give the project the green light.
“I truly think it’ll act as a catalyst to develop the area just like when the Fairmont hotel was brought into downtown,” he said. “It’s a great asset to the city in terms of shortage of the hotels and being minutes away from the airport and high tech campuses.
“I think the neighbors have to look at end of the tunnel. There’s a lot of nice things happening.”