SAN JOSE — A downtown San Jose apartment project linked to the city’s purchase of a historic building landed final city approval despite concerns from some neighbors and a union-backed group over its height and construction.
The City Council approved the development of 276 apartments at 470 West San Carlos St. on Oct. 20 with a 10-0 vote. That vote upheld a previous approval by city planners for the proposed eight-story project and rejected an appeal of the prior ruling.
Stakeholders + Neighborhoods Initiative, a group formed by residents who live near the development site, led opposition to the apartment project known as The Gifford.
Kathy Sutherland, president of Stakeholders + Neighborhoods, said her group is worried about the project’s design and how well it would mesh with the area.
“Urban Catalyst proposes an eight-story building that, by the city’s own analysis, is ‘a building with no setbacks’ at the shared property line with our homes,” the group wrote in a letter earlier this year.
Stakeholders + Neighborhoods Initiative said typical design guidelines in downtown areas near the Diridon train station require projects to have a step-back arrangement so they don’t loom over existing homes.
The project’s precise height was a topic of debate at the meeting. Urban Catalyst, the developer, said the complex is expected to be 84 feet and 10 inches high.
A union-backed group suggested at the hearing that under some scenarios, the project might actually exceed 85 feet by about an inch or so and should require union workers to build.
Certain California and city rules crafted to streamline housing production oblige a developer to employ unionized construction workers when a project is 85 feet or higher.
The project’s final approval was completed in the wake of the city’s purchase of a historic downtown property at 26 through 36 South First St., known as the Knox Goodrich Building.
Urban Catalyst sold the Knox Goodrich Building to the city in a deal that was officially completed on Aug. 7.
Erik Solivan, San Jose’s housing director, said during a June council meeting that the deals would proceed separately and with sufficient scrutiny.
“These two things are bridged together, but they are not in any way tied together,” Solivan said.
San Jose officials believe the purchase of the historic building and development of The Gifford would greatly benefit downtown.
“The Gifford, along with Urban Catalyst’s Icon-Echo Apartments, Gateway Residential Tower by CORE Developers, and the Bank of Italy conversion to residential units by Westbank, will spur a revitalization” in downtown San Jose, city staffers wrote in a June memo to the City Council.