The City of San José proposed a project that will allow for a 60-foot tall multi-use building to be constructed on the northeast corner of Hemlock Avenue in a meeting on Monday evening.
Planning Project Manager Angela Wong led the webinar and presented the construction project.
Wong said to construct this six-story building, three existing buildings and 15 trees will be demolished.
She said the building will be 166,570 square feet wide and include 75 multifamily dwelling units and 100 residential parking spaces.
Attendees at the meeting proposed a special-use permit amendment and vesting tentative map.
A special-use permit is a type of zoning permit that permits a specific piece of land or property to be used in a way that veers from the usual accepted use of the area, according to a webpage from LegalMatch.
A vesting tentative map shows a proposed subdivision and allows the right to continue development for a specific period, according to city codes from the City of Dana Point.
“The tentative map is to merge three blocks into one lot for up to eight commercial condominium units,” Wong said.
She said the permit will also allow for commercial condominiums to be on the site as well.
Commercial condominiums refer to a project that is intended to or include commercial occupancy, according to a webpage by the Code Publishing Company.
“The site is designated as an (urban village) and it’s also within the Santana Row Valley Fair Urban Village Plan,” Wong said.
Urban villages are areas that have both residential and job-based developments, have access to transit and are walkable, according to a webpage by the City of San José.
This is in alignment with the city’s Envision San José 2040 General Plan, which aims to have 60 urban villages, according to the same webpage.
Urban village plans include specific requirements for sites depending on where in the city the construction will take place, according to the city’s Planning, Building & Code Enforcement webpage.
“These urban village plans allow up to 60 feet in height for the current project height,” Wong said.
Sam Monfared, architect of the project and owner of the Carpira Design Group, will be spearheading the project.
“We dedicated a portion of the property to provide the 12-feet sidewalk for pedestrians which is the urban village requirement,” Monfared said.
He said the company intends to bring a similar feeling as Santana Row with the project.
An open forum was provided where community members had two minutes to voice concerns or questions.
Adam Asghari, the owner of the project, said the project would be an asset to the neighborhood in response to community member's concerns in the forum.
“Compared to the other alternatives such as affordable housing, I think having high-end condominiums, which would be owned by people, would be a good asset,” Ashgari said.
A community member voiced her concerns about living across fro the construction site with her two children.
“I love where I live, even with the issues we’ve dealt with (but) I would not want to live across from this building,” she said “This does not seem like a safe place to have my kids here.”
