MILPITAS — Despite concerns over state required bonuses and incentives for the developer, a proposal to build 84 new apartments near BART that would all be priced below-market rate is heading to the City Council in early August for potential final approval.
The project narrowly gained support from the Milpitas Planning Commission during the June 30 meeting as three commissioners voted in favor of it, while two voted against it, and two abstained.
The split was in part due to some planning commissioners bristling at the idea of making concessions and exceptions to development standards for the developer, such as reducing parking space minimums, which city staff said the developer is entitled to under state laws meant to encourage the building of more affordable housing.
“In good conscience, I just can’t approve this,” Commissioner Larry Ciardella said at the meeting. “I know it’s a state mandate, but it just doesn’t make any sense at all.”
Pacific West Communities, an Idaho-based developer, proposes to build the complex on a 1.11-acre site at 308 Sango Ct., an area near BART and other public transit that currently has many older industrial buildings, but where the city since 2008 has been working to foster “a vibrant transit-oriented community with a mix of housing, retail, entertainment, and employment.”
To make way for the apartments, the developer would need to demolish a two-story, 14,800 square foot industrial building.
City reports said 51 of the apartments will be reserved for people who earn between roughly 40% and 60% of the area median income, and 33 of the units will be for people who earn between 80% to 120% of the median, according to city staff. There would be one manager’s unit that would not be reserved as affordable.
For a family of four, the current median income in Santa Clara County is roughly $151,000, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
City staff recommended the developer receive several concessions and waivers, based on state law, which cannot be denied unless they create health and safety hazards or harm historical property, city reports said.
Instead of 140 total parking spaces required by the city for an 85-unit building, the developer will only include 48 parking spaces in the building’s parking garage.
Though city codes require a balcony on each unit, the developer has proposed only building them for 10 of the units to save on costs, though there will be a private courtyard for residents. The construction of the building will be modular, so apartment units would be constructed off-site, and hoisted into place by crane, city staff said.
“The state is trying to facilitate the additional construction of affordable housing by making it less expensive to do it, in this case by reducing parking, and the other concessions are aimed at those same goals,” Planning Director Ned Thomas told the commission.
But some of the commissioners weren’t satisfied with that reasoning.
“I feel like affordable housing is what we need in Milpitas, but for some reason it feels like this project is being forced in a location that just doesn’t work,” Commissioner Steve Belong said.
He also said the developer seemed to be trying to cut a lot of costs, and Belong appeared to take issue with the developer anticipating receiving about $25 million in state bond money to build the roughly $45 million project, though his biggest issue was the parking.
“It seems like there’s going to be a lot of residents that are just fighting over parking,” he said.
“I too wish everybody would use public transportation, but the reality of it is that most people have at least one car, and when you’re talking about family units here, there’s probably going to be multiple cars, and I foresee parking being an issue on that little street.”
Commissioners Mercedes Albana and Belong both abstained from the vote over parking concerns, while Vice Chair Bill Chuan and Ciardella voted against the project. Chair Steve Tao, and Commissioners Tim Alcorn and Alexander Galang, voted in favor of it.
Albana said the decision was “a hard one.” Tao said he was “troubled by the state mandate,” but ultimately acknowledged the commission can’t override state law. “It is what it is,” he said.
The total number of apartments is also affected by state incentives. City zoning allows only up to 60 units per acre in the area, but because the project includes all affordable units, it is eligible for an up to 50% increase in the number of units, due to a state law that allows for density bonuses for below-market rate projects.
City staff reports said the 85 unit total amounts to a 27% density increase.
The developer normally also would be required to install or commission a public art project worth about $250,000 based on the cost of the project, according to city staff, but Pacific West has also requested a waiver from the city to avoid paying that fee or building the art.
The developer’s representatives have said they will build a “bright yellow canopy integrated into the building as a public art piece,” city planner Michael Fossati said at the meeting, though city reports said that wouldn’t be worth more than $10,000.
But the most pressing concern for many of the commissioners appeared to be the reduction in parking spaces.
“More than 47 people are going to have cars. If they’ve got to go to the grocery store and it’s across town, or to Walmart, how are they going to get there?,” Ciardella said as he cast his vote against the project. “I’m going to be on the phone with our state people tomorrow because this is just unreasonable.”
