The proposed project would be built on 21.5 acres of land that borders Lincoln and Parkmoor avenues and Race Street. Sobrato owns seven of the eight industrial buildings that sit on the property.

Sobrato vice president of development Tim Steele presented the company's preliminary plans to neighbors at a July 12 community meeting, which took place in the Sherman Oaks Community Center.

Sobrato has applied to the San Jose Planning Department for an amendment to San Jose's General Plan to change the current parcel designation from industrial/commerical to high-density housing.

Steele, a Willow Glen resident, said many of the buildings have been vacant for several years and new tenants have been difficult to attract and maintain.

The buildings once housed canneries and a meat packing plant. These buildings were later used as high-tech manufacturing facilities, until many of those operations moved overseas, Steele said. Companies such as Cisco took up residence in one of the buildings, but later moved on. Most of the facilities have remained vacant, he said.

"We started getting frustrated about not being able to do anything," Steele said. "We felt residential on a long-term basis would be the right thing to be looking at."

The San Jose Medical Group building is located within the project but that will most likely remain untouched during the initial planning stages, Steele said. The Vasona Light Rail also goes directly through the project, so the developer may consider incorporating retail in the area.

A General Plan amendment is the first step in the city's approval process. Sobrato would also have to submit a planned development rezoning application that would weigh the project's impact in greater detail.

If the planning commission and city council approve the General Plan amendment and rezoning, Sobrato would then have to apply for a planned development permit before it could build, San Jose senior planner Jodie Clark said.

Although the project could take years to approve, neighbors used the first meeting to make their wishes known.

Several neighbors expressed concerns about how the project's large density could create more traffic on neighborhood streets and Lincoln Avenue. Neighbors said commuters currently speed through the streets and nearby housing developments already have insufficient parking.

"The number of units are going to seriously impact the quality of living," nearby resident Sherron Wright Donegan said. "It's going to exacerbate the existing problems."

Neighborhood leaders from North Willow Glen, the Rose Garden and the Burbank communities voiced concerns over an area that already has one major housing project in the works: developer KB Home's plans to build 390 single-family homes on the former Del Monte Cannery site at Auzerais Avenue and Sunol Street, just blocks away from the Sobrato proposal.

Delmas Park Neighborhood Advisory Committee president Kathy Sutherland said this section of San Jose appears to be the latest target of developers for high-density housing.

Sutherland asked the planning department to consider all these projects when weighing the negative impacts of the Sobrato proposal. This would enable the community to view the area's development comprehensively rather than piecemeal, she said. Sutherland also questioned whether area schools could accommodate the children expected to live in these projects.

Burbank/Del Monte Neighborhood Advisory Committee president Randi Kinman told Steele she would like to see the new development include pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly streets and open spaces, such as parks.

The city plans to hold another community meeting after the project's environmental report is released in October. The project is tentatively scheduled to go before the planning commission and city council in early 2006.