The Riding Group, a development company, plans to build 21 two-story single-family detached houses on the purchased property, with the main entrance to the development at the elbow of Willowbrae Avenue and Willow Oaks Drive.

The houses will be designed as four-bedroom garden townhouses with two-car garages.

The money from the sale of the land will go toward demolishing and rebuilding most of the synagogue's existing buildings, including a child daycare center and the construction of a new social hall.

Only the synagogue's sanctuary will remain after the other buildings are demolished and rebuilt on the remaining 2.1 acres. The existing sanctuary will be converted into classrooms and the new building will house a new sanctuary, preschool and social hall.

"We don't have a place of our own for kosher events," said a relieved Rabbi Eitan Julius the day after the San Jose City Council approved the development project on June 17.

"We've been wanting a social hall of our own with its own kosher kitchen for bar mitzvahs and celebrations for the longest time," he said.

The synagogue is situated on four-acres located at the corner of Willowbrae Avenue and Willow Oaks Drive. The eastern portion of the property is adjacent to a dry creek bed that was left over when the Los Gatos Creek streambed was diverted to irrigate the orchards in the 1950s and 1960s. The location of the dry creek has made it difficult in the past when interested parties considered buying the property for development.

During the last couple years, the synagogue's been eager to find a buyer for a portion of its property so it could procure the necessary funds to upgrade its facilities, but its had trouble finding the right developer. An earlier plan to lease the land to the county for 65 years for a senior housing development fell through when, according to Julius the county waited too long to come to a decision, and the synagogue elected to look elsewhere.

Erik Schoennauer, a planning consultant for The Riding Group, a San Jose-based developer, said it was the fifth company approached by the synagogue and the one that finally agreed to buy the land.

"It's a difficult site to work with, especially since it's so close to the dry creek," Schoennauer said of the two-acre section. "In the past, proposals for this site have included 130 units but we're finally down to 21 units."

San Jose District 6 Council member Ken Yeager said that he was glad to approve the proposed plan after so many attempts.

"I know a winner when I see one," Yeager said at the June 17 council meeting.

But some residents in the area are questioning the density of the project.

That seems a tight fit, says one Willowbrae Avenue resident who lives close to the synagogue.

"This street is quiet enough as it is," said the two-year resident who asked that his name not be used. "I just can't see how they're going to squeeze 21 houses into that small lot."

Other residents seem fine with the prospect of more houses on the quiet avenue.

"Two-car garage houses are OK," said Charles Elkins, who has lived on Willowbrae Avenue for six months. "I mean, that's what we have now," on the street.

Naomi Lewis, who has lived on Willowbrae Avenue for five years, said she is more concerned with increased noise and traffic during the upcoming months of construction. The groundbreaking, Julius said, is tentatively set for January 2004.

"Our plans are just to modernize, not expand. We're a conservative congregation so we prefer the small, intimate and informal way of doing things," Julius said.