San Jose leaders updating city's 4-year General Plan with focus on housing

San Jose city leaders are working to finalize an updated four-year General Plan, which is a governing document for how the city will continue to grow. 

Mayor Matt Mahan said this year is consequential due to an updated housing zoning element. 

"State law already allows pretty significant infill development. Under SB9, most residential lots in the city today can already be converted from one home up to four units. But the community is really just starting to learn more about this possibility," Mahan said. "The memo I've put forward asks staff to take the time over the coming years to study different densities, adding a parking requirement. We have some neighborhoods in San Jose where people are being forced to park five, six blocks from where they live."

City Council met on Tuesday to discuss further changes and improvements to the General Plan, including language more consistent with state law. 

"We will leave the meeting giving staff some direction to go do further study. This process is about a year and a half to go, we will ultimately update the General Plan," the mayor said. "I have always advocated for being denser in places like downtown or urban villages near transit. And the more that we densify in those areas, the less pressure there should be on the periphery." 

"At 32 units per acre, your average single-family parcel could potentially have up to four units. But it's worth noting that under SB9, current state law, in most of the city, on those same single-family lots, you can already build up to four units if you include the ADUs in that count. So, this may all be not that different from what the state is already allowing under its law, but we need total clarity and consistency across the city," he added. 

Jia Li is the VP of Development at Alpha X, which had been heading a construction project along Kirk Avenue in east San Jose. 

"This project has 18 homes, and two of them are affordable homes, which is the extremely low to very low," Li said, showing CBS News a model unit at "The Kirk."

"Previously it was just one single-family home. And it's kind of abandoned, not very well maintained at the time. And then when we purchase the property, we actually could choose to do one or two homes. But I think we know, San Jose needed a lot of housing, especially housing across all the spectrum," she said. 

While the city plans to officially update the General Plan by the end of next year, Li is continuing to collaborate with San Jose leaders to build efficiently. 

"We've been part of the discussion with the city task force. The staff takes the time to interview us and all the developers," Li said. "Right now, there's not much of a bigger lot available anymore, so infill is very important because it establishes infrastructure, and also there is more available land for infill." 

She hopes to be a part of the city's vision in building more homes and affordable housing in the South Bay. 

"We hope that everything is more streamlined, and then get housing approved faster, get housing built faster," she said. 

Li added that "The Kirk" is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year, and there has already been interest from the community.