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Smart Growth
SMART GROWTH
For nearly three decades, San José has implemented smart growth policies. These policies foster economic development, revitalize downtown, protect neighborhoods, build housing, preserve open space, link land use and transportation planning, and direct growth to appropriate areas. San José has enjoyed job and housing growth proximate to transit, creation of parks and neighborhood services, and a low crime rate for a major city. A strong policy foundation, proactive planning, and political support have resulted in a community with a high quality of life.
San José's smart growth activities emanate from a strong vision of its future embodied in the San José 2020 General Plan. The General Plan is the City's official policy regarding its future character and quality of physical development. Seven strategies work together as the foundation for the vision: Economic Development, Growth Management, Downtown Revitalization, Urban Conservation/Preservation, Greenline/Urban Growth Boundary, Housing, and Sustainable City. The General Plan is guiding development to appropriate locations, including fostering greater intensities around light rail and other transit facilities, while
preserving hillsides and other natural resources.
San José has enjoyed job and housing growth near transit corridors, creation of parks and neighborhood services, and a low
crime rate for a major city.
Select the links below for information on the individual components of the City of San Jose's efforts toward smart growth.
Contents
SAN JOSE 2020 GENERAL PLAN
Focus on the Future
The San José 2020 General Plan is a comprehensive long term plan to guide future growth and development in the City of San José. The General Plan is an integrated, internally consistent statement of the official land use policy of the City.
The General Plan consists of text and a diagram. The text specifies the objectives, and standards for development. The Land Use/Transportation Diagram graphically translates policies into land use designations.
A general plan is an adopted statement of policy for the physical development of a community. The San José 2020 General Plan is the City's official policy regarding its future character and quality of development. The General Plan describes the amount, type, and phasing of development needed to achieve the City's social, economic, and environmental goals. It is the policy framework for decision making on both private development projects and City capital expenditures.
MAJOR STRATEGIES
The Major Strategies establish the basic structure for planning in San José. The principal objectives and central themes of the General Plan are:
- Economic Development: Maximizes the economic potential of the City's land resources and employment opportunities for San José's residents.
- Growth Management: Addresses the need to balance the urban services demand of new development with the need to balance the City's budget. This Major Strategy addresses several of the General Plan's key components:
- Urban Growth Boundary: Establishes the ultimate limit of urbanization in San José.
- Urban Service Area Boundary: Defines the area in the City where urban services are, or will be, available to serve urban development.
- Infill Development: Controls a variety of services costs through increased efficiency.
- Downtown Revitalization: Emphasizes the importance of a prominent and attractive downtown as a catalyst that brings new investment, residents, businesses, and visitors to the center city.
- Urban Conservation/Preservation: Underscores the importance of protecting and enhancing San José's neighborhoods and historic resources to promote community identity and pride.
- The Greenline: Seeks to preserve land that protects water, habitat, and agricultural resources and/or offers recreational opportunities, as well as to preserve the scenic backdrop of the hillsides surrounding San José.
- Housing: Strives to provide a variety of housing opportunities to meet the needs of all segments of the community.
- Sustainable City: Promotes the management and conservation of resources for present and future generations.
LAND USE/TRANSPORTATION DIAGRAM
The Land Use/Transportation Diagram provides a geographic reference and spatial context to the goals and policies in the General Plan. It shows designated land uses and illustrates the inextricable link between land uses and the transportation network.
ANNUAL REVIEW
The San José 2020 General Plan is kept current and available to public scrutiny through an Annual Review process. Once each year, the City considers all proposed changes in a single review and decision making process.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Maximize Economic Potential
Economic development is a fundamental priority for future growth in San José
Cities in California compete for economic development to increase their tax base and generate the revenues necessary to provide municipal services and facilities (e.g., parks, libraries, police, and fire protection). San José is a housing rich community, housing over 50% of Santa Clara County's population, yet only employing 40%. This imbalance creates a challenge for San José to obtain revenues for urban services for its residents.
Economic development is a fundamental priority for future growth in San José. The San José General Plan, the City's long range blueprint for physical development, directs this growth to Downtown and to two large industrial park areas in the northern and southern portions of the city. The Downtown contains financial and legal jobs, as well as some high technology employment (e.g., Adobe). The industrial parks attract and house high technology companies, contributing to San José's identification with Silicon Valley.
Given the need for a diverse economic base, San José also has land planned and/or occupied by light and heavy industrial businesses. These businesses play a critical role in providing the goods and services needed for the high technology sector.
San José has also identified areas for future economic expansion, particularly North Coyote Valley. This area is planned for 50,000 employees in a high quality campus environment, oriented to new heavy and light rail transit. Recently, Cisco Systems received its approvals to build a 20,000-employee campus in North Coyote Valley.
URBAN CONSERVATION/PRESERVATION
Promote Community Identity and Pride
The San José 2020 General Plan sets forth the policies which seek to protect neighborhoods. There policies require new development to be compatible with existing neighborhoods.
San José is a young city when measured by the relative age of its neighborhoods and housing stock. Most of the city's housing stock was built since 1950. The San José General Plan, the City's long range blueprint for physical development, recognizes the importance of sustaining viable neighborhoods.
San José's neighborhoods are more than a collection of houses. Residents have a need to belong to a neighborhood with community identity that promotes civic pride and a concern for the community. The development of neighborhood participation through citizen organizations and local improvement activities is essential to maintaining the high quality of life for all San José residents.
The San José 2020 General Plan sets forth the policies which seek to protect neighborhoods. These policies require new development to be compatible with existing neighborhoods. The City's growth control measures ensure that the city develops within a prescribed boundary, assuring existing neighborhoods of high levels of City services. Without growth controls, existing neighborhoods would be competing with far-reaching subdivisions for parks, libraries, police, and fire protection. The City's economic development activities seek to obtain a solid tax base to pay for city services to residents.
The City of San José is also committed to the protection of historic resources. The objective of preservation goes beyond saving an individual structure or even a group of structures that have historic or architectural significance. At a strategic level, preservation activities contribute visual evidence to a sense of community that grows out of San José's rich, historic past. Historic and architectural structures add inestimable character and interest to the city's identity.
URBAN GROWTH BOUNDARY
The Greenline Initiative
The Urban Growth Boundary program includes significant criteria for considering expansions of the Boundary.
The County of Santa Clara is an effective partner in San José's effort to manage urban growth.
The Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) establishes the ultimate limit on urbanization in San José. It was originally adopted and incorporated into the San José 2020 General Plan by a unanimous vote of the City Council in November 1996. See reverse side for UGB alignment.
San José's experience with rapid growth, between the 1950s and 1970s, provided hard lessons regarding the cost of urban sprawl. The City found that urban development at its edge, particularly residential development, did not generate sufficient revenues to cover the cost of providing urban services and infrastructure for those uses. Beginning in the early 1970's San José has used a variety of growth management tools to curb urban sprawl.
The Urban Growth Boundary is the latest in the series of growth management tools employed by San José to manage its growth, balance its budget, and preserve open space. Prior programs and policies have been very effective at managing, without inhibiting, San José's vigorous growth activity. The UGB builds upon those efforts. New development has been successfully directed into appropriate urban areas and away from non-urban areas.
The Urban Growth Boundary was created to help sustain the long term stability of the City's growth management efforts by:
o Clearly identifying which lands are intended for urban use and which are intended to remain rural
o Promoting environmentally and fiscally sustainable infill development
o Preserving surrounding hillsides, wetlands and open space lands as a legacy for future residents
o Protecting public health and safety by preventing urban development in areas subject to natural hazards
o Providing property owners and the public greater certainty about the City's long term plans for urban development
o Establishing criteria and a process for a comprehensive review of proposed UGB expansions
o Strengthening the consistency between City and Santa Clara County land use plans and development policies
Consistency between City and County planning and development has been critical to the success of San José's growth management policies. Since 1970, the City of San José and the County of Santa Clara have enjoyed a unique jurisdictional agreement under which urban development occurs only within the City's urban service area.
SAN JOSE - PLANNING FOR HOUSING
Planning for the Future
The San José 2020 General Plan details the policy framework for housing development in San José.
San José's Specific Plans have a combined development capacity of more than 14,700 new housing units.
The City of San José maintains a policy framework and ambitious planning programs that promote the construction of housing for all income levels and household types.
SAN JOSE 2020 GENERAL PLAN
The San José 2020 General Plan is the City's blueprint for physical growth. It guides the location and quantity of residential development, including affordable housing, through land use designations and policies.
- Major Strategies. The General Plan is based on seven major strategies which work together to support compact, infill, and transit-oriented development.
- Land Use Designations. Several land use designations allow mixed uses and/or have no maximum residential densities. These areas typically require a minimum density of 25 dwelling units per acre. One of these designations was created specifically to support public transit.
- Alternate Discretionary Use Policies: These policies allow increased densities in a variety of circumstances, particularly on sites near transit stations. Such policies encourage needed new housing and related services, in addition to supporting public transit.
SPECIFIC PLANS
Specific Plans further the goals of the General Plan, and often the Housing Initiative, by defining housing development opportunities in strategic locations throughout the city. San José has completed seven Specific Plans:
- Evergreen Specific Plan: 3,000 housing units within a suburban setting.
- Communications Hill Specific Plan: Up to 4,000 housing units in a very urban form, located on a hilltop site.
- Midtown Specific Plan: Approximately 2,900 housing units oriented to nearby transit facilities and an adjacent neighborhood.
- Jackson-Taylor Residential Strategy: Up to 1,700 high density housing units integrated into a new pedestrian-friendly community, surrounded by existing residential areas.
- Tamien Station Area Specific Plan: Approximately 1,200 housing units oriented to a multi-modal transit station and adjacent neighborhoods.
- Rincon South Specific Plan: Approximately 1,900 multi-family housing units oriented to light rail transit with supportive retail uses and nearby office and hotel development.
- Alviso Master Plan: Retention and protection of existing residential neighborhoods with opportunities for a small number of new housing units.
NEIGHBORHOOD REVITALIZATION PLANS
Working with the community, these plans focused on the City's most deteriorated neighborhoods to identify realistic actions for the revitalization of these communities.
The San José City Council has adopted several neighborhood revitalization plans, including the Poco Way, Santee, Washington, and University Neighborhoods Plans. Current efforts have expanded through the larger Strong Neighborhood Initiative (see separate insert).
TRANSIT-ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT
The General Plan identifies major transportation routes (e. g. light rail corridors) for future residential and non-residential developments at significantly higher intensities. These areas can support at least 6,500 new housing units, but could potentially accommodate several times more than that in both mixed use and residential-only configurations.
HOUSING INITIATIVE
The Housing Initiative is an innovative, proactive program to encourage the production of high density housing in close proximity to public transit corridors. The Housing Initiative Study concluded that the Guadalupe Corridor area could accommodate up to 10,000 new high-density units. The study also included thorough market and financial analysis proving the economic viability of more intensive housing units in San José. The Housing Initiative has resulted in General Plan amendments for 13 sites, potentially yielding 2,500 units.
Over 5,000 housing units have been constructed since the approval of the Housing Initiative Study in 1991. An additional 5,000 units either have Planning approvals or are pending approval. Housing types represented in these projects include Single Room Occupancy, senior housing, mixed affordable and market rate housing, and urban residential and commercial mixed use. Densities vary from 19 to 205 dwelling units per acre.
HOUSING OPPORTUNITY STUDY
Based on the successful Housing Initiative, the Housing Opportunity Study is identifying sites along the Transit-Oriented Development Corridors in high-density housing and mixed-use developments. The first phase of the Study resulted in General Plan amendments on 14 sites, adding 6,000 housing units to the City's total housing capacity. The second phase identifies another 11 sites, which could potentially add another 6,100 housing units.
STRONG NEIGHBORHOODS INITIATIVE
Building Stronger Neighborhoods through City/Community Partnerships
SNI Plan areas represent one quarter of San José's Neighborhoods and 18 square miles.
Communities are engaged and energized.
A major SNI objective is the development of strong new community leaders and action-oriented neighborhood organizations.
The Strong Neighborhoods Initiative (SNI) brings together the City of San José, the San José Redevelopment Agency and community resources to develop strategies to maintain and/or create high quality neighborhoods throughout San José.
PHASE ONE
In phase one of the program, 20 neighborhoods are developing improvement plans that detail community assets, needs and opportunities. At the same time, all 20 neighborhoods are being established as a single SNI Redevelopment Area. The improvement plans will endeavor to:
- Help strengthen neighborhood infrastructure and services.
- Help strengthen community organizations.
- Identify new development sites.
- Address interfaces with planned transit facilities.
PHASE TWO
Drawing on a combination of City, Redevelopment, private and community resources, phase two of the Strong Neighborhoods Initiative will implement high priority improvements and projects identified in each of the area plans, for example:
- Traffic calming
- New housing, including affordable housing
- New neighborhood commercial uses
- Parks and trails
- Community centers and recreation facilities
- Libraries
- Well maintained properties
- Well maintained public infrastructure
WORKING IN PARTNERSHIPS WITH NEIGHBORHOODS - A SAN JOSE TRADITION
The Strong Neighborhoods Initiative builds on the success of San José's Project Crackdown and Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy programs. Nine Project Crackdown areas continue to enjoy reduced levels of crime and blight. Seven neighborhoods have completed Neighborhood Revitalization Plans and are in the process of implementing them and updating them for consistency with the Strong Neighborhoods Initiative. Among the projects and improvements that are underway or completed in those seven neighborhoods are:
- A 62 unit new affordable housing project
- Dozens of rehabilitated housing units
New playgrounds
- New traffic signals
- Two new parks
- A community swimming pool
- Reconstructed public alleys and private property driveways
- Improved delivery of City services
- Stronger and more numerous neighborhood organizations.
THE STRONG NEIGHBORHOODS PROCESS INCLUDES:
- A Comprehensive Approach. All aspects of neighborhood condition are explored, including crime, blight, infrastructure, recreation, new development, community character and community organization.
- Partnerships. Plans and improvements are achieved through the combined efforts of community leaders and entrepreneurs, consultants and City staff from almost every City Department.
- Action Plans. Each improvement plan includes a detailed record of the individual actions and projects required to meet the neighborhood expectations for revitalization.
- Implementation. Lastly, the City/community partnership turns its attention to completing each of the action items. The Action Plan becomes the work plan for the implementation phase.
HOUSING FOR ALL INCOME LEVELS
San José's Affordable Housing Program
The City of San José has successfully carried out one of the nation's most active affordable housing programs, in one of this country's most expensive housing markets.
The City Council formed the Housing Department in 1988. Successive mayors and city councils have consistently supported the building of housing that is affordable to low - and moderate-income households. To date, they have committed $300 million in local funds for affordable housing. Additionally, the Council has worked with the community to overcome NIMBYism - "Not in my backyard" - a common reaction to affordable housing developments that often impedes achievement of affordable housing.
POLICY INITIATIVES
Since the late-1980s the City, in cooperation with the Redevelopment Agency, has adopted and implemented policies that:
- Promote housing production, especially for those most in need
- Encourage affordable housing that enhances the quality of neighborhoods throughout the city
- Further the principles of smart growth
These policies include:
- Funding Housing for All Income Levels: At least 60% of the City's affordable housing funds must be spent on units for affordable to very low-income households. A maximum of 25% and 15%, respectively, may be spent on units for affordable to low- and moderate-income households. The San José Redevelopment Agency has also provided the City with increased funding for housing units affordable to extremely low-income households (those earning less than 30% of area median income by household size).
- Dispersion: New, affordable rental housing should be constructed in more affluent neighborhoods. This policy is intended to avoid further concentrations of housing affordable to lower-income households and achieve a better socio-economic balance in all neighborhoods.
- General Plan Flexibility: The City's General Plan provides the ability to approve housing developments that are 100% affordable - regardless of the land use or density designation for specific properties - as long as the City's other urban design and infrastructure-capacity policies are met.
- Transit-Oriented Development Corridors: The General Plan designates these corridors as areas suitable for higher density housing, as well as more intensive non-residential uses and mixed uses.
- Development Tax/Fee Exemptions: The City exempts construction of units affordable to very low-income households from several "impact fees and taxes" normally assessed on new development to finance public infrastructure. In additional, the Redevelopment Agency, rather than the developer, pays the parkland-impact fees for units affordable to both very low-and low-income households.
NOTE: The criteria for extremely low, very low, low and moderate income is based on the Santa Clara County median income levels.
PRODUCTION
The City of San José continues to be one of the nation's largest producers of affordable housing. Between 1988 - 2000, the City financed the production of over 8,700 affordable new units, over 1,037 shelter beds and transitional shelter units, and over 2,000 rehabilitated housing units.
In October 2001, the Mayor and City Council approved an ambitious five-year 6,000 unit affordable housing production goal, twice the rate of production in the previous five year period. The City has met the 1,469 unit production goal in the first two years.
San José provides development financing for a variety of affordable housing types and styles. In the rental arena, financing is made available for developments targeted to families, to seniors, and to special populations. Shelters for the homeless and for single room occupancy (SRO) projects for the homeless and those at risk of homelessness are also included.
To achieve these impressive results, the City uses its funds as gap financing - which is funded primarily by the annual infusion of 20% of the Redevelopment Agency's gross tax-increment receipts. Through the aggressive pursuit of companion financing - primarily Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and tax-exempt, private-activity bond authority - by the City's development partners, the City's funding is highly leveraged.
- Since July 1, 1999, the City has allocated over $107 million for new construction, with 24% being allocated for units affordable to extremely low-income, 50% to very low-income, 15% to low-income, and 11% to moderate-income. Between 1999 and 2004, the City Council has committed over $55 million for the production of 650 units for affordable to extremely low-income households.
- A nationally recognized Teacher Homebuyer Program has placed over 140 teachers and their families in their first homes. Many of these teachers are now able to live much closer to the schools where they teach and become active members of their community.
- The City's Housing Rehabilitation Program continues to assist in making San José neighborhoods safer and more attractive. It is an integral part of the joint City/Redevelopment Agency Strong Neighborhoods Initiative (SNI). Many homeowners in neighborhoods are doing their part by repairing and repainting their properties. This program helps property owners, including owners of rental property, with these efforts. In fiscal year 2000-2001, $5.8 million of rehabilitation assistance, in the form of loans and grants, was utilized by more than 300 households. During the same time period, grants totaling nearly $1.2 million were designated for the exterior repainting of 700 units.
- The policy of dispersing City-assisted rental housing developments continues to be successful. Numerous attractive and often award-winning projects enhance outlying neighborhoods. An excellent example is the
71-unit DeRose Gardens senior housing development. It was San José's first low-income housing tax credit project. Completed in 1990, it continues to enhance the Willow Glen area.
- City-assisted housing helps to relieve traffic congestion through smart growth. The production of 4,145 units in 25 separate City assisted housing developments along have been built existing transit corridors, including the light rail transit.
EXCELLENT EXAMPLES OF HOUSING DEVELOPMENTS ALONG EXISTING TRANSIT CORRIDORS
1. "Midtown Trio"- The 90-unit Parkview Apartment project, the 191-unit Parkview Senior Apartments project and Phase 1 of the 62-unit Crescent Parc For-Sale townhouse developments are completed. Together with a new Safeway grocery store, they are clustered on the former Sears site along San Carlos Street, a major artery leading to Downtown.
2. Almaden Lake Apartments
(144 very low-income family units) and Homes at Almaden Lake (84 moderate-income and market-rate ownership units), together with the recently completed Almaden Lake Village (250 unit mixed-income rental project), are clustered near the Almaden Light Rail Station. Almaden Lake Apartments and Homes were developed by a partnership between a nonprofit organization and for-profit developer, who initially purchased the entire site with City financing.
3. Award winning Ohlone Court Apartments (135 very low-income family units) and the Ohlone-Chynoweth Commons Apartments (195 low and very low-income units)-shown on the front cover of this brochure-are next to the Ohlone-Chynoweth Light Rail Station. Completed in the Spring of 2001, Ohlone-Chynoweth Commons is the 25th City-financed housing project - resulting in a total of 4,145 units - along existing and future light rail lines.
4. The 110-unit Pensione Esperanza Single Room Occupancy (SRO)
project, located near the Cahill Station, a major regional transit hub, is another successful example of transit-oriented housing.
FISCAL IMPACTS OF GROWTH
Efficient Delivery of City Services
The fiscal health of San José is integrally linked with the City's land uses, development patterns, and economic activity.
Growth and development directly impact the delivery of critical city services to residents, workers, and visitors. In the City of San José, services are delivered across 175 square miles. These services include police and fire protection, parks and recreation, libraries, waste disposal, drinking water, and others. As San José continues to grow, the location of development needs to be carefully considered to ensure the continued high quality of such services.
As a geographically large city, San José is challenged to deliver equally high quality urban services to all of its diverse neighborhoods. The challenge is compounded by two additional factors: California's property tax laws (namely Proposition 13) which limits the tax rate, and San José's historic role as a bedroom community and not a major employment center.
URBAN SERVICE AREA
Since the early 1970s, successful service delivery has been accomplished by defining an Urban Service Area boundary within which "urban services" (i.e., water, sanitary sewer, roads, police and fire protection, etc.) would be provided. The Urban Service Area includes lands predominantly on the valley floor, away from environmentally sensitive hillsides and baylands.
By focusing growth within the Urban Service Area, San José has been able to make more efficient use of existing infrastructure and consolidate the delivery of key services. It has also facilitated the identification of the unique needs of certain neighborhoods and the provision of appropriate levels of service to meet those needs.
GROWTH MANAGEMENT
The San José 2020 General Plan, the blueprint for land use development, contains policies to manage growth within the Urban Service Area and to only allow expansions of the Urban Service Area under very specific circumstances.
One growth management tool is the Urban Reserve concept. Urban Reserves are areas set aside for future urban development (and inclusion in the Urban Service Area boundary) after certain criteria are satisfied. These criteria include job growth, fiscal stability, and the maintenance of service levels within the existing Urban Service Area. These criteria recognize that the expansion of the Urban Service Area adds to the geographic area of the city to be served and could potentially impact the delivery of services to existing neighborhoods.
FISCAL IMPACT ANALYSIS
As part of the last update of the San José General Plan, a fiscal impact analysis compared the fiscal impacts of different growth scenarios to determine whether or not it was time to expand into the Urban Reserves. The growth scenarios ranged from full expansion into the Urban Reserves to only accommodating growth within the existing Urban Service Area, particularly along transit corridors and the Downtown.
The results demonstrated that the location and type of new development affect the costs of services. Generally, residential development on the fringe of the city (i.e., the Urban Reserves) costs more to serve than new growth in infill locations (i.e., transit corridors). In addition, the analysis reinforced the importance of retaining a land supply for a diverse range of commercial and industrial activities to strengthen the City's tax base.
SERVICE DELIVERY MEASURES
The City of San José is actively engaged in developing performance measures that more accurately characterize the services delivered to citizens. "City Service Areas" align services provided by individual departments into seven key lines of business services provided to the community:
- Aviation
- Economic and Neighborhood Development
- Environmental and Utility Services
- Public Safety
- Recreation and Cultural Services
- Transportation
- Strategic Support
Performance measures within each of these City Service Areas reflect a commitment to customer-focused and data/results-driven service delivery.
In addition, they also measure the City's ability to meet strategic goals such as:
- Creating and maintaining a safe place to live and work.
- Expanding the use of alternate commute options.
- Reducing, reusing, and recycling solid waste at work, home and play.
These measures are being integrated into the City's annual operating and capital improvement budgets. In this way, the City's elected leadership has a mechanism to ensure that City expenditures reflect strategic priorities and that the results of these expenditures meet the needs of the
community.
As San José fully develops and implements performance measures, the City should be able to more accurately evaluate the impact of growth in terms of service delivery. To date, a more compact urban form has facilitated the efficient and effective delivery of a wide range of services to its diverse population base.
DOWNTOWN REVITILIZATION
City Center Where People Work, Live, and Play
The success of Downtown's revitalization is clearly demonstrated. The public projects have acted as a catalyst, bringing in private office and
housing development.
Downtown San José is vital to the City's long term economic and social well-being. Located near the geographic center of the City, Downtown is uniquely accessible via light and heavy rail transit, major freeways, and local streets. The high-rise character of Downtown makes it a landmark for the entire City. The diversity of land uses and architecture establishes it as the most urban of the City's neighborhoods. Downtown is the site of civic events, parades, festivals, and public celebrations.
Once a thriving Downtown, it declined in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s as major retail centers were built outside of the Downtown. These centers drew customers out of Downtown, leading to businesses closing. Following this flight, City Hall was moved a mile north out of the Downtown. By the mid-1970s, citizens had little need to visit Downtown San José.
In 1975, the City Council adopted policies and set in motion the beginning of a revitalization program for Downtown. Downtown revitalization became a major theme for General Plan '75, the predecessor to the current San José 2020 General Plan (see separate insert). The City Council envisioned a 24-hour Downtown, where people lived, worked, and played. New housing, offices, and cultural venues were planned.
Revitalization hit its greatest momentum in the 1980s and 1990s with the construction of a new convention center, major hotels, new office buildings, refurbished parks, new museums, new housing, a major sports arena, and a new home for the San José Repertory Theatre. Light rail was completed through a Transit Mall in the late 1980s. High technology companies, such as Adobe, have located their headquarters and "campus" in Downtown high rises. Projects continue today with the renovation of historic buildings as cultural venues, the addition of more housing, offices, and hotels. Plans are underway to return City Hall to Downtown, reinforcing its importance as the center of San José.
REDEVELOPMENT AS A KEY REVITILAZATION TOOL
San José's revitalization success comes from the utilization of a technique called redevelopment. Under California State Law, communities may establish redevelopment areas if certain findings of blight and other conditions are made. Once a redevelopment area is established, the property tax is frozen. As improvements occur and property values increase, the increment above the frozen base becomes the revenue for a community's redevelopment program, typically administered by a redevelopment agency.
San José has many Redevelopment Areas, including several in the Downtown and two key industrial areas. Through a provision in State law that is no longer in effect, San José merged its Redevelopment Areas into one. This allowed for the revenues collected in the industrial areas to be spent on public projects in the Downtown.
DOWNTOWN'S FUTURE
The success of Downtown's revitalization is clearly demonstrated. The public projects have acted as a catalyst, bringing in private office and housing development. While in the 1980's and early 1990's almost all private projects needed some subsidy; now fewer projects need City participation to receive funding. Restaurants, music clubs, and other businesses are well-established in Downtown, adding to the flavor of Downtown.
Other new investments are on the horizon. City Hall will be returning Downtown. Major new transit facilities are funded for construction. The redevelopment agency is working with private developers to create major new mixed use developments to revitalize the retail sector of the Downtown. This approach is based on a recent study completed by the Urban Land Institute.
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