On Feb. 14, city officials met with economic development, transportation, housing and neighborhood leaders for a four-hour study session. Although the session covered proposed policies for downtown and North San Jose, it was the transportation department's new policy that raised concern among Willow Glen residents.

The existing transportation impact policy is often referred to as the Level of Service, or LOS, based on an alphabetical grading of how long a car has to wait at a stoplight. Currently, developers must maintain a Level D—a wait of up to two cycles during peak hours—at any signalized intersection affected by their development. Developers can maintain this by traffic calming measures, such as widening the street.

That policy is one of the most stringent in the country, the city says, and proposes to exempt 27 intersections throughout the city to protect the current streetscape. Developers, said Hans Larsen, deputy director of transportation, would be required to enhance the area for pedestrians, transit and bike facilities with community input.

Willow Glen Neighborhood Association First Vice President Ed Rast served on the neighborhood panel with other neighborhood advocates from around San Jose.

In Willow Glen, the corners of Bird Avenue and San Carlos Street, Lincoln Avenue and Willow Street and Meridian Avenue and San Carlos Street are slated for exemption.

By exempting these intersections, traffic could worsen to Level E or F, making drivers wait at intersections through three or more cycles during rush hour, Rast said.

"The area is not designed to accommodate high traffic density," Rast said. Willow Glen also has few alternative routes and insufficient traffic controls to deal with the added density, he added. Rast advocated capping the traffic levels at E.

The transportation department projects that all three Willow Glen intersections would not worsen beyond Level E, but have not limited traffic congestion.

"The LOS policy has created 99 percent of the heartburn," San Jose District 4 City Councilman Chuck Reed said. However, Reed added, the policy may help the city reach its goals of expanding while not destroying neighborhood character. "I'm interested in having the ability and the flexibility to do that," Reed said.

Reed asked the neighborhood panel how the city could improve reaching out to neighborhood associations when looking to build high-density housing.

Rast said that neighborhoods such as Willow Glen will be reluctant to accept high density housing until both downtown and North San Jose has been developed.

"In listening to this conversation, I'm really so pleased that we're having it. In a way, it's overdue," San Jose District 6 Councilman Ken Yeager said. "The compromise is to go to [Level] E. We need to do this in phases. Let's not scare the jeebies out of them and keep talking to the neighborhood."

The city's economic development, redevelopment, planning and transportation departments will gather suggestions from the study session and submit a new proposal. The city council plans to vote on the policies in June.