EXPLORING AN OPEN FUTURE
Google, San Jose agree downtown village can’t be a ‘spaceship’ and should be integrated into the community
SAN JOSE » Google has embraced San Jose’s aspirations that a proposed downtown Google transit village near Diridon Station would be fully integrated with the community and not be another tech campus that’s isolated from its neighbors, a city councilman told a town hall meeting Wednesday night.
“The project Google has proposed has the potential to be the biggest private development in the history of San Jose,” City Councilman Raul Peralez told the town hall gathering. Peralez represents the downtown district where Google is planning a transit- oriented development that could employ 15,000 to 20,000 workers.
City officials and Google have launched negotiations for the sale of 16 city-controlled properties that Google would need to purchase as part of the land necessary for its project. Those include several undeveloped parcels, such as the big parking lots next to the SAP Center.
In what he described as a “glimpse” into the tone of the negotiations with Google, Councilman Peralez said a number of encouraging signs have emerged in the discussions between the city and the tech giant.
“I am very excited and optimistic regarding the conversations we have had with Google,” Councilman Peralez said. The councilman added, however, that negotiations are only in the early stages and have no assurance of success. “We are not there yet as it pertains to
an agreement,” he said.
The San Jose councilman pointed to Apple’s new “spaceship campus” in Cupertino as an example of the type of project that San Jose doesn’t want to see from Google. Peralez criticized Apple’s doughnutshaped campus as being a project that’s not near mass transit.
“The spaceship is a project that completely closed itself off,” Peralez told the town hall meeting. “The spaceship is the antithesis of the project we want out of Google. And they have heard us.”
That disclosure was greeted by cheers from some of the hundreds of people who gathered at Washington Youth Center at the south end of downtown San Jose, the second town hall meeting organized to present commu- nity views and concerns about the proposed Google village, which could consist of 8 million to 10 million square feet when fully built out.
“Our wishes are being reciprocated,” Peralez said. “Google feels the same way. It would be an open campus that would integrate, rather than one that is closed off.”
Mountain View- based Google and its development ally Trammell Crow have spent at least $141.7 million buying up properties near the Diridon train station for the proposed Google village.
Residents who spoke at the meeting raised the issue of affordable housing at a time when home prices and rental rates have skyrocketed. They said that if Google adds 20,000 jobs, then 20,000 residential units should be developed.
“We can’t leave this project up to Google and we can’t leave it up to the city,” said Maria Noel Fernandez, campaign director with Sil- icon Valley Rising, a coalition of community groups that organized the town hall meeting Wednesday night, as well as a town hall gathering a few weeks ago in east San Jose.
One thing seems certain: San Jose, in the view of city and community leaders alike, has arrived at a crossroads.
Some city leaders believe a Google village near Diridon Station could help alleviate some of San Jose’s prior errors when it embarked on a campaign to annex unincorporated neighborhoods and land. San Jose’s decades-long quest for elbow room paved the way for a huge population boom, but also unleashed the woes of a sprawling, Los Angeles-style community that’s snarled with traffic jams.
“We know that we need to urbanize and create more density. We made a mistake with sprawl,” Peralez said. “Our opportunity with Google is both exciting and nerve-wracking.”