To the dismay of some residents, an office building close to downtown Willow Glen and Lincoln Avenue is slated to become an inpatient mental health facility.
The San Jose Planning Commission has unanimously approved a conditional use permit that will allow LGTC Group, formerly known as Los Gatos Therapy Center, to run a 24-hour facility 913 Willow St., serving up to 48 patients at one time with what the medical group calls “mild pathologies,” such as eating disorders, depression and anxiety.
“We really can’t talk about mental health advocacy if we don’t provide a place for people to achieve those services,” said Commissioner Piegluigi Oliverio, who also resides in Willow Glen. “I mean table stakes and I can say many people in this neighborhood have sought these services and received these services. It might not have been obviously here, because it doesn’t exist, but they’ve been receiving them somewhere.”
The new inpatient facility will combine the existing 7,369-square-foot office building and a 2,548-square foot garage on two parcels near the intersection of Willow Street and Chabrant Way.
LGTC Group Executive Director Eugene Tilman stated the facility will not be used for short- or long-term residence and is not a walk-in, self-referred facility. Instead, patients will be only transported from other locations and discharged to other facilities.
“We do have outpatient offices within two miles, right there on Bascom Avenue to where we will shuttle the patients to and from,” Tilman said. “Only people that meet strict medical criteria for admission would be admitted into the facility and discharged.”
LGTC operates several clinics and residential facilities in the South Bay, including in Campbell, Sunnyvale, the Cambrian neighborhood in San Jose and an eating disorder facility for teens in Willow Glen.
Because of its location and its status as a locked facility, Tilman said the property would have a security system to monitor the perimeter.
Tilman also noted that while the facility will hold 48 beds, it would likely not surpass 65-70% occupancy at any one time.
But given the inpatient facility’s proposed location near a neighborhood and other large projects proposed in the vicinity, it has raised concerns from residents about potential impacts.
“Inpatient services are not for mild pathologies,” resident Bryan Maldonado said. “Those are for very severe pathologies. I’ve lived on the street since 2011 (and) the street is filled with children, and we’re very concerned with how the types of patients that are coming in and how they are going to manage that, security wise.”
Adding to neighbors’ apprehension is a seven-story, 126-unit Builder’s Remedy project proposed across the street at 940 Willow St. that locals have petitioned to stop over concerns about parking shortages, antiquated infrastructure and safety issues. But the potential impacts of that proposal could not be used in the deliberations about the inpatient facility because they were not germane to its permit application.
Tilman’s group has previous success with converting office space into inpatient facilities in San Jose. In December 2023, the Planning Commission approved a similar 48-bed project in Japantown at 738 N. First St. – a three-story building formerly occupied by an insurance agency – despite similar objections from nearby residents.
While the hearing for that Japantown facility received a substantial amount of pushback, commissioners noted that they had not heard any complaints since the project had been approved.
Commissioner Justin Lardinois recalled comments Oliverio made during the previous hearing where he noted how a number of similar inpatient care businesses already quietly operated in neighborhoods, unbeknownst to residents, dispelling the notion they were as disruptive as detractors made them out to be.
“If we let every neighborhood say we don’t want this here, we wouldn’t have these facilities anywhere in our city,” Lardinois said. “In a city of almost a million people, a facility that serves less than 50 people is very small, and we need a lot of them throughout our community.”