Santa Clara County Land Use & Development Digest

For years, Santa Clara postponed needed maintenance and replacing aging facilities, and the bill now adds up to $571 million this year. It has been near this level for years, and the only thing that’s changed is that, now, everything is older.

A major housing project proposed in the East Whisman neighborhood received praise for adding more green space and affordable units, but not with some misgivings about the loss of trees and where those affordable units would go.

A new coalition that includes former mayors, philanthropists, athletes and volunteers is spearheading a $33-million campaign to revive a project to build Palo’s first city-owned gym.

Garrett Kuramoto was born and raised in Sunnyvale. This Santa Clara resident is also the superintendent of libraries for the city of Sunnyvale; and right now, he is working with the city to build a second library in the Lakewood area in north Sunnyvale.

Seeking to accelerate Tesla’s plans to open its new engineering headquarters, the City Council approved a deal with the car giant to expedite an upgrade of a substation on Hanover Street.

Los Altos residents will soon be seeing firsthand the progress of Los Altos leaders’ efforts to restore a landmark heritage apricot orchard at the city’s civic center.

A federal appeals court has declined to reconsider its controversial April 2023 decision that mutes Los Altos’ and other cities’ attempts to require natural gas bans in new construction.

Although the front portion of 4600 El Camino Real has been cleared for demolition, crews postponed scheduled work. No official reason was given for the delay or when demolition could begin.

Downtown San Jose’s Pacific Motor Inn is transforming from a hotel that once used to shelter people from COVID-19 into a massive mixed-income apartment complex.

Castilleja School, which won the right to redevelop its Bryant Street campus in 2022 despite neighborhood opposition, will return to the public spotlight next week when the city considers its plan to relocate an easement.

The highest court in the land will soon decide how much leeway cities and counties have in offsetting new construction with fees to pay for infrastructure.

In a setback to the reopening of El Camino Real to traffic, the city of Los Altos announced that it has postponed its plans to demolish a shopping center building burned out by a massive fire last month.

An ongoing work in progress, the Innovation Campus has benefited from a variety of funding sources.

The highest court in the land will soon decide how much leeway cities and counties have in offsetting new construction with fees to pay for infrastructure.

The city of Cupertino is one step closer to seeing more housing delivered due to a legal case concluded this week that enforces the “Builder's Remedy” provision of California law designed to ensure cities adequately plan for and ultimately deliver needed housing.

The Santa Clara City Council told homeowners and city planners to take another look at the redesign plans for a home in Santa Clara's Old Quad neighborhood.

Raging storms brought major damage to California’s coastline last winter. But in Half Moon Bay, a different kind of coastal upheaval is gaining momentum—one that could decide the fate of billions of dollars of property and affect hundreds of public beaches.

A stucco building on El Camino Real that until recently housed an auto body shop would make way for a two-story office building as part of the latest development proposal in the quickly changing Ventura neighborhood.

The year started with an onslaught of unexpected challenges, from extreme weather conditions to a housing plan that was not on track to win state approval, ending in some difficult negotiations with a local school district.

San Jose is spending nearly $2 million to lease land it has yet to use for homeless people living in their vehicles — and council members, residents and advocates want things done quicker.

San Jose is allocating millions of dollars to double the capacity of its oldest temporary housing site for homeless residents, pushing long-term operating costs into overdrive.

For more than 20 years, the commercial building at 260 Homer Ave. has faced a unique restriction: None of its occupants are allowed to take up more than a third of its total space.

Construction is officially underway on the new Laurelwood Elementary School campus.

In a bid to revitalize a key gateway to downtown Mountain View, a local developer is proposing to build a seven-story condominium and commercial complex at the corner of Castro Street and El Camino Real.

Silicon Valley International School, a private school known for its bilingual immersion programs, is preparing to expand its footprint in Palo Alto with plans to build a second campus on East Meadow Circle.

This year, Milpitas banned natural gas in all new buildings, enhanced its rideshare program and looked for new ways to increase its housing. Looking ahead into the new year, the city has plans for a workplace housing project and an expansion to its Innovation Campus.

A California icon dies, the A’s sign a deal to leave, and the drought is washed away.

A 2021 California law that allows multiple residences to be built on a single-family lot to increase the state's housing stock also allows cities to throw notification of the property's neighbors out the window.

In 2023, San Jose and Silicon Valley’s development scene faced numerous challenges, including increasing costs due to inflation and spiked interest rates making financing projects of all kinds more difficult and expensive.

For the second time in the past decade, the Buena Vista Mobile Home Park is facing the prospect of demolition. This time, however, the city and the community are embracing rather than fighting the redevelopment of the mobile home park.

The Hoopa Valley Tribe announced it is acquiring about 10,000 acres of land in Northern California for $14.1 million. As part of this, the tribe will remove dams along the Klamath River and restore salmon runs.

Per current California law, apartment buildings that are above three stories require two stairway exit routes. But this requirement has been shown to impact the size, cost and design of new housing while also putting limits on the work of architects.