Rockwell wants to build 15 townhomes on the 0.7-acre site. These townhomes will replace four single-family residences.

"Deferred maintenance from previous owners left these homes in very bad conditions, and they will be removed because they are no longer functional," said Michael Abdollahi, vice president of Rockwell Homes.

Abdollahi said the majority of the issues discussed with residents had already been addressed at previous neighborhood meetings.

"The residents liked the project because we did what they asked us to do," Abdollahi said.

The project initially had 18 units with less open space, but after listening to community concerns about density, the developer reduced the number of units to 15.

The proposed development is unique in that the site is in a Santa Clara County pocket, a small unincorporated area that is not part of San Jose.

The few residents at the Jan. 19 meeting, however, still expressed concerns about the annexation process when they met with the developers. The residents also had questions about future annexations throughout the neighborhood.

"We have already applied for annexation, and the site will be annexed into the city rather soon," Abdollahi said. "The site next to us was just annexed as well. It's just a matter of time and all the pockets will be annexed."

City officials throughout California have until January 2007 to annex unincorporated pockets that are 150 acres or less without elections.

The law was passed to make it easier for cities to take over these pockets, since it is considered inefficient for them to be under county jurisdiction.

There are nearly 200 pockets of unincorporated land in Santa Clara County. Under prior state law, cities were required to get approval from affected residents before annexing a neighborhood. So, as cities expanded over the decades, certain pockets of land were left out of their boundaries.

San Jose has listed 79 pockets of less than 150 acres and eight larger ones.

Along with annexation questions, residents also had questions about the front landscaping, design elevation, open space, parking, size of the homes and setbacks.

The townhomes will be attached and side by side, but not multi-layered, Abdollahi said. All the units will be designed as 1,200-square-foot, two-bedroom, two- bathroom homes. The height of the homes will not exceed 35 feet.

"Although the city guidelines permit up to 45 feet, we used a lot of taste," Abdollahi said. "We wanted an attractive look, not a massive one."

The development will also include open space that will equate to 34 percent of the design.

The project is set to go before the San Jose Planning Commission by May.