Additional housing planned near San Jose’s Diridon station

Development would include about 568 residential units

SAN JOSE >> A big residential complex — including more than 100 affordable units — is in the works for a choice central San Jose site next to a light rail station that is just a few stops away from the Diridon train hub where Google is planning a transitoriented development.

The development alongside the Tamien station, a joint light rail and Caltrain stop, would include an estimated 568 residential units and 3,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, according to planning documents on file with the city of San Jose. Republic Urban and The Core Companies are the co-developers of the project.

“The idea is to put market rate and affordable housing units right next to transit stations like Tamien,” said Konstantin Voronin, land acquisition director with Republic Urban.

The ground-floor commercial space would likely be a child care center or the type of local-serving retail seen in a big residential project.

“The entire development is 24 percent affordable” and will contain a “mix of 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom units,” according to a presentation prepared by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, or VTA.

Of the 568 residences being planned, 433 units, or 76 percent of the total, would be market rate apartments, while 135, or 24 percent, would be offered as affordable domiciles, the VTA report stated.

The 135 units would be set aside for people in three categories of low-income households, using a complex formula derived from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development average median income in Santa Clara County of $125,200.

One-third of those would be set aside for people with household family incomes of roughly $68,860 a year, another third would be offered to households with a yearly income of approximately $53,200 and onethird would be available to people with an annual household income of about $40,690, according to a VTA presentation.

The site, located on Lick Avenue near Floyd Street and between Willow Street and West Alma Avenue, is a parking lot for the Tamien Station and also is the site of a Bright Horizons child care center. Republic Urban wanted to retain Bright Horizons as part of the new residential project, but the children’s facility decided to move to a nearby location.

The prospect of a major development boom in downtown San Jose — some of which is already underway — helped fuel the plans for the new residential project.

Google has proposed a

transit-oriented community of offices, residences, shops, restaurants and open spaces near the Diridon train station, a development where 15,000 to 20,000 of the search giant’s employees would eventually work.

San Jose-based Adobe Systems intends to build a new office tower next to its existing three-building downtown headquarters campus, marking a big expansion fueled by major employee growth.

“You have Google coming in with 20,000 jobs, and we would be just down the line

from Diridon Station,” Voronin said.

Republic hopes that the seven-acre development fits the concept of a transit-oriented project that could help people live near their work, have access to a rail connection with links to other parts of the Bay Area such as San Francisco and the East Bay, and rely less on their cars.

“We will try anything to get housing closer to tran- sit,” Voronin said. “We want build to maximum allowable density” based on the Tamien Area Specific Plan.