A business park in North Santa Clara is being redeveloped into a new apartment complex that will add 1,792 new homes to the city’s housing stock.
The Santa Clara City Council unanimously approved the project, referred to as Santa Clara Park, at its meeting on Tuesday night. Developed by the Irvine Company, the project is located at 2518 Mission College Boulevard within the city’s Freedom Circle Future Focus Area — roughly 108 acres between Great America Parkway and the San Tomas Aquino Creek Trail that is expected to accommodate 3,600 new homes as well as retail and office space in the coming years.
The project will be comprised of five five-story buildings, and 15%, or 269, of the 1,792 units will be affordable. Santa Clara Park will also have 3,500 square feet of retail space and more than four acres of new public parks.
Mission College is located roughly one mile from the site, and Anne Kepner, a member of the West Valley-Mission Community College District’s board of trustees, said she sees the area around the college “as an optimal location for new housing developments in the city.”
“The vision for this area to the north and east of Mission College will result in a more vibrant and more integrated neighborhood for those who live and/or work in this part of Santa Clara,” she told the council.
Santa Clara Square, which is another development by the Irvine Company, is located to the south on the other side of Highway 101 — a roughly 10 minute walk via the San Tomas Aquino Creek trail. It includes a mix of apartments, shops and restaurants.
But Jake Wilde, the manager of development projects for the nonprofit Catalyze SV, said the bicycle connections to get from the Irvine Company’s newest project to some of the surrounding areas “is not that strong.”
“We’d like to see Santa Clara work with this project and others along the creek trail to improve low light and nighttime conditions,” he said. “If the trail is going to act as a major bicycle transportation amenity, it needs to be available to residents 24/7. Our roads don’t close at sunset, and neither should our bike ways.”
The sole point of contention over the project was related to the installation of a new traffic signal that will be put in at the intersection of Great America Parkway and Hichborn Drive. Mayor Lisa Gillmor raised concerns that the new signal would back up traffic — especially during events at the nearby Levi’s Stadium.
But City Manager Jovan Grogan said that the city controls the signaling on traffic lights during events at the venue, and city officials don’t believe that “having a signal there will have a negative impact on traffic.”
Councilmember Suds Jain said that as part of the project’s environmental impact review, developers would have needed to conduct a traffic study.
“Why even do them, if we’re going to ignore them?” he said. “The traffic study showed there is potentially a need for this traffic signal. I’m not going to ignore the data on that.”
The council decided to hold a study session at a future date to further review the issue of the traffic signal.
Gillmor said she was ultimately supporting the project because of the Irvine Company’s track record in the city.
“They have proven themselves in Santa Clara and that’s why I’d like to see a proven project on that side of 101,” she said. “I think it’s going to be a catalyst for other quality development out there.”