S.J. officials delay plans for Google village
The city is still moving forward, but the timeline is postponed at least a few months
As San Jose transitions many of its resources and employees over to its coronavirus response effort, one of the most crucial projects for the city’s downtown in decades is taking a back seat.
San Jose officials have announced that they have delayed the City Council’s consideration of Google’s Downtown West transit village project, and the community benefits package that will accompany it, by several months — from the end of 2020 to early to mid-2021.
“The City is currently focusing on emergency response to the coronavirus pandemic while continuing to provide essential services to businesses and residents,” Deputy City Manager Kim Walesh said in a statementApril 14. “Given the circumstances, we are adjusting the target for City Council consideration of Google’s Downtown West Mixed-use Plan from the end of 2020 to early 2021.”
Despite the delayed timeline, the city is continuing to try to move forward the project and the planning document that must guide the development.
In three video statements released this week, city officials unveiled an assortment of proposed changes to the Diridon Station Area Plan, which was passed by the council in 2014 — nearly three years before Google proposed its transit-oriented project.
The plan, which covers about 250 acres surrounding the Diridon train station, established height limits for development, land use designations, and transportation and housing strategies.
The suggested caps on residential and commercial space, however, were far below what Google has proposed.
In their statements this week, city officials said they now anticipate that the Diridon Station Area could accommodate up to 12,900 residential units and 12.9 million square feet of commercial space — five times the number of housing units and three times the commercial space initially proposed under the plan, according to one of the city’s new videos.
Google’s proposal accounts for up to 5,900 of those residential units and up to 7.2 million square feet of that office space.
The city also is considering allowing Google to build up to Federal Aviation Administration height limits that are nearly triple what the 2014 Diridon Station Area plan currently allows.
The tech giant’s transit-oriented development — expected to accommodate 25,000 Google employees — is planned for the western edges of San Jose’s urban core near the Diridon train station and SAP Center, dramatically extending what is traditionally considered the city’s downtown.
In December, the city and Google began negotiating a development agreement that will determine the monetary added value of land use changes required to move ahead with certain elements of the project — such as building higher than the area’s height limits and reducing the number of required parking spaces.
The city plans to release the draft environmental impact report for the Google project and provide updates on those negotiations this summer.
City officials also expect to release a draft amended Diridon Station Area Plan this fall.
Within the plan area, the city expects to allow highrise construction to reach FAA height limits — up to 295 feet tall — “mainly on sites near Diridon Station, rail lines, freeways and the Guadalupe River Park,” Tim Rood of the city’s planning department said in a video statement.
Development in other sections of the planning areas would not be as tall, including transitional 65-feet height limits near residential areas, Rood said.
The city is no longer proposing a “large multiacre suburban park,” like the 8-acre recreational park between Park Avenue and West San Carlos Street along Montgomery Street that was proposed in the 2014 plan. Instead, city officials envision meeting the area’s park and open space needs through “small interactive spaces,” including improvements to the Los Gatos Creek Trail, and creating new community centers.
“The form of the development in this area — not only from Google and Downtown West but from other developments that we think are going to come in here in the future — really don’t lend themselves well to that park model,” Nicolle Burnham, deputy director with the city’s department of parks, recreation and neighborhood services, said in a video statement.
As for transportation improvements, the city is looking for ways to prioritize pedestrians and bicycles, create a bus lane on Santa Clara Street — from Diridon to the Alum Rock transit station — and potentially close the offramp from northbound State Route 87 onto Santa Clara Street.
Ramses Madou of the city’s department of transportation called that offramp a “real bottleneck” and a “scary place for pedestrians and bicyclists.” Instead, the city hopes to prioritize public transit on Santa Clara Street and see the vehicular traffic for downtown come out on Julian Street, Madou said.
The city also is looking into extending Cahill Street, which runs in front of Diridon Station, from Park Street north to Montgomery Street.
The city is designing Cahill Street to be “pedestrianized,” which means that it can be closed to vehicles in the future if the city decides to do that, Madou said.