VTA seeks developers for three transit villages
Valley Transit Authority says project’s goal is to ‘increase connectivity’
SAN JOSE >> The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority has decided to jump into the transit village game, seeking builders to construct projects on three sites near Silicon Valley rail hubs, according to documents obtained by this news organization.
The potential development sites are next to the Blossom Hill light rail station and the Curtner light rail stop, which are in San Jose, and the Milpitas Transit Center, the VTA documents show.
“A high-quality mixed-use, mixedincome transit-oriented development” is the type of project that the VTA is seeking at the Blossom Hill and Curtner rail sites in San Jose, the VTA stated.
In Milpitas, the VTA wants to develop “a high-quality transit-oriented development.”
Alarmed by brutal commutes and skyrocketing home prices, an array of companies, developers and government leaders have begun to scour the Bay Area for potential construction
sites where blends of offices, homes and stores could be built near transit stops, using high-density configurations. That could help ease traffic jams.
The Blossom Hill Station site totals nearly two acres, is near the corner of Blossom Hill Road and Chesbro Avenue, and borders State Route
85 and an off ramp from the freeway. The VTA is making at least two acres available for development, although the total site is 3.6 acres. It’s a park-and-ride lot at present.
San Jose officials have directed that if all 3.6 acres of the Blossom Hill station park-and-ride lot are developed, at least 197 housing units would have to be built at the site, along with 19,000 square feet of retail or offices, or a combination of those two, VTA officials stated.
At the Curtner Light Rail Station, now a park-and-ride lot near the interchange of State Route 87 and Curtner Avenue, up to 3.7 acres are being eyed for development, a VTA proposal states. Potentially, 305 residential units and 17,000 square feet of offices or retail could be developed on the site.
At the Milpitas transit center near the corner of Montague Expressway and Capitol Avenue, a parcel of up to 1.7 acres is being offered for potential development. The VTA documents weren’t specific about maximum limits for development, and they did indicate a wide variety of uses could be contemplated.
“Permitted uses include residential, office, commercial and medical,” the VTA stated.
The Milpitas project site would be adjacent to a future BART station. Although the Milpitas project is designed to help ease transportation woes, the VTA warned that it’s in an area of severe traffic jams.
“Access to the property is a challenge due to traffic queuing at the intersection of Montague Expressway and Capitol Avenue,” the VTA stated.
The hunt for transit-oriented projects arrives at the same time that tech titans such as Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon have grabbed, through leases or property purchases, huge office buildings or land sites for future expansion.
A game-changing effort has sprouted in downtown San Jose near the Diridon train station, where Google has proposed a transit-oriented community of offices, shops, restaurants, residences, open spaces and amenities such as an eco-walk and cultural loop where 15,000 to 20,000 of the search giant’s employees would eventually work.
In its three efforts to solicit project proposals, the VTA would grant builders long-term ground leases for the properties as a way to generate ongoing revenue for the VTA, the transportation authority stated in a blog post that outlined multiple objectives for the joint development ventures.
“Another goal is to assist in the development of transit-oriented projects that enhance neighborhoods, increase affordable housing opportunities, and increase connectivity and ridership at VTA station areas,” the blog post said.