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Perhaps the expression "it takes a whole village to raise a child" can be arguably amended to read "and a few village advocates to influence how that child's environment will look." This is one of the positive outcomes of the San Jose City Council's 10-1 vote to approve the controversial Tamien Place project.
The proposed development—3.1 acres at the northwest corner of Lick and W. Alma avenues that buttresses up against the Willow Glen community—will be rezoned from light industrial to planned development. This rezoning will enable Barry Swenson Builders to construct two 11-story twin condominium towers with 228-units adjacent to Route 87 and 14 townhouses along Lick Avenue.
The result is a win for the city's ever-growing housing needs, a win for businesses and even a win for Willow Glen residents, although some neighborhood associations may disagree.
Yet it was the insistence of the neighborhood associations not to be locked out of the process that improved the outcome, with District 3 councilwoman Cindy Chavez listening to residents concerns and working on a compromise. She authored a memorandum that recommended numerous amendments to the project as a condition of approval. These amendments included more open space—the donation of two parcels of VTA-owned land—for the development of recreational facilities. The donation of $400,000 by the VTA toward construction of improved parking in tandem with a way to explore additional funding for traffic calming in the area; an additional 5,000 square feet of retail space on the proposed housing site, and the requirement that the architectural design remain consistent with the city's previously developed conceptual plan, to maintain the project's integrity.
Now after two years of debate and discussion, the area be transformed from a parcel that is presently considered unsafe by neighbors—the closed down Alma Bowl and VTA/Sprig Electric site—aesthetically unappealing and prone to vandalism, into a location that will maximize returns for the city, the VTA and Willow Glen merchants and residents.
With parks, pedestrian-friendly improvements, traffic calming features, and a well-thought out architectural design, the long-term results should prove rewarding and enhance property values.
It is also conceivable that downtown Lincoln Avenue and businesses along Bird Avenue and Willow Street, only 34 blocks away for the project, could become the primary beneficiaries of this development once completed.
However, suburban Willow Glen's proximity to the project worried District 6 councilman Ken Yeager, who was concerned about a potential increase in traffic, housing density, aesthetics and lack of open space. He argued that more time was needed to explore the issue. And his lone dissenting vote arose from worries that the project was promising more than it could fulfill.
But we believe that the surrounding Willow Glen neighborhoods will benefit from the area's improvement, and that merchants are perfectly positioned to take advantage of this new base of customers. Businesses in Willow Glen are known for their diversity and personalized services—from spas treatments to poetry readings to coffeehouses providing wireless Internet to stores with unique gift ideas—and these offerings should attract the population living in the 242 units, just a few miles away, to our businesses.
Projects such as Tamien Place are a good example of what can be accomplished when neighborhoods rally, city council members agree to listen, and a developer talks to the public. Tamien is also an important reminder about how a good development project works, which is not through community stubbornness or a developer trying to ramrod an application through the system, but through acknowledgement that a great deal more is achieved through compromise and smart thinking.
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