Google becomes talk of the town
San Jose leaders kick off series of meetings to engage the public about the proposed project
SAN JOSE » A diverse group of leaders Wednesday night formally launched a quest to gather and process citizen input about Google’s proposal to develop a massive transit village near downtown San Jose’s Diridon Station.
The 38-member Station Area Advisory Group — including political, business, labor, civic and community leaders — gathered at San Jose City Hall to kick off a series of wide-ranging meetings to engage the public regarding Google’s development. Google plans a transit- oriented commu- nity of office towers and amenities near the Diridon train station and the SAP Center.
“The Google project is just a concept,” Kim Walesh, San Jose’s director of economic development, said in a presentation to the advisory group. “This is one of many steps” before construction can begin and Google employees can move into their gleaming new offices.
Mountain View-based Google is eyeing development of 6 million to 8 million square feet of offices where 15,000 to 20,000 of the search giant’s employees would work.
“As this multi-year engage-
ment process begins, we look forward to hearing feedback on our proposed development and working closely with the community and city of San Jose to create a shared vision for a vibrant, mixed-use, transit- oriented destination,” Javier Gonzalez, Google’s community affairs manager for the South Bay, said in comments emailed to this news organization.
Over its first six months of existence, the advisory group expects tomeet nine times, according to a schedule through late August.
Maria Noel Fernandez, an advisory group member, said she wants the advisory group to scrutinize the quality of the Google jobs in downtown San Jose.
“I would like a real analysis about what kinds of jobs these will be,” said Fernandez, campaign director with Silicon Valley Rising, a coalition of community groups that has raised concerns about Google’s proposal. “I want to do a deep dive on the 20,000 workers. What kinds of tech jobs, service jobs, construction jobs.”
Google is interested in developing offices in this part of downtown San Jose because it’s near what could become a dramatically upgraded transit hub at Diridon Station. At present, the station has links to light rail, Caltrain, Amtrak, the Capitol Corridor line, the ACE Train and buses. In the future, BART and high- speed rail lines could connect to Diridon.
Near Google’s areas of interest in downtown San Jose, Trammell Crow plans a mixed-use project called Diridon consisting of 1 million square feet of offices, along with retail and 325 housing units on an 8.3-acre site. TMG Partners and Valley Oak Partners are eyeing a millionsquare-foot office campus. Adobe Systems intends to expand its three- building headquarters by adding a fourth downtown office tower.
Members of the advisory group were invited to express their greatest hopes and worst fears about the project.
The hopes are that Google’s development will be a game- changer for San Jose and the catalyst to transform its downtown into a vibrant place.
The fears include that the development will be mediocre, and local residents and businesses will be displaced and unable to live or operate in the area.
“This is a big project,” Lee Wilcox, chief of staff for San Jose’s city manager, said of the Google development. “It is un-traditional, so the more input the better.”
Wilcox added, “We all need to own this together.”