RESIDENTS OF A SOUTH SAN JOSE NEIGHBORHOOD are organizing against plans to redevelop a single-family lot, accusing the developer behind the project of misusing state housing laws. Opponents fear the precedent the project might set if it’s allowed to move forward.
An LLC linked to Redwood City-based development firm Samara has filed permit applications to demolish a home that sits on a nearly half acre lot at 15385 Warwick Road and replace it with a duplex, according to permit records.
Nearby residents in the surrounding Homestead Acres neighborhood have cast the project as a predatory use of Senate Bill 9, the landmark California housing law that opens up suburban properties to lot splits and duplex constructions. They fear the Warwick Road duplex proposal is a mere pretext, and that once demolition is complete the developer will pivot to a larger residential building that could overwhelm their quiet enclave.
The residents also allege San Jose planning officials, who are presently reviewing the developer’s application, have overlooked evidence that should disqualify the project from SB 9’s provisions.
“I’m okay with some growth,” Viet Nguyen, one of the Warwick Road residents opposing the plan, told San José Spotlight. “The big thing is developers who are just taking advantage of whatever loopholes, whatever laws they can, and then not really caring about the neighborhood.”
San Jose planning officials have defended their review process, adding that following a “good faith” investigation, they determined the project must be advanced under rules laid out under state housing law.
Samara representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
Leading organizers in the opposition campaign said the stakes of this housing fight go beyond their own neighborhood, suggesting that a greenlight for the Warwick Road project could inspire other developers to pursue similar development strategies in San Jose’s suburbs.
It’s all playing out as San Jose’s elected leaders consider updates to the city’s general plan that could increase density limits across its single-family neighborhoods.
Misplaced concerns?
San Jose’s housing boosters contend the opposition to these changes — as well as state housing laws like SB 9 — are misplaced. They argue that unless the city opens up its expansive suburbs to larger developments, it will never build enough homes to bring down spiraling housing costs.
“We’ve been underproducing housing for a very long time … so a lot of our laws target areas that we haven’t been building in, like single-family neighborhoods,” Ali Sapirman, a city housing commissioner who also represents the Housing Action Coalition advocacy group, told San José Spotlight. “I live in an eightplex, two-story building among single-family homes — and I certainly don’t feel as if my housing degrades the rest of the community.”
Homestead Acres residents have long been wary of any encroachment on their semi-rural feeling neighborhood, which is home to large lots on streets that have no curbs, gutters, sidewalks or even street lights.
They’ve been lobbying against the redevelopment plans at 15385 Warwick Road for more than a year. An earlier iteration of the plan, since withdrawn, would have used another state housing law to subdivide the property into nine parcels, according to permit records. Residents said they fear the addition of a large residential building on the corner lot property would create traffic problems and reduce surrounding property values.
At the heart of their case that the city should reject the project is a claim the property’s prior owner used to rent out a room in the home. SB 9’s drafters included a provision that excludes any property that has been home to a rental tenant within the past three years, a measure intended to prevent displacement caused by demolitions.
But officials with San Jose’s Department of Planning, Building and Code Enforcement have said the property’s current and prior owners have filed notarized attestations that no tenant has been present on the property, according to emails obtained by San José Spotlight.
“The city conducted this investigation in good faith and practiced due diligence by asking questions about tenants and following up for additional information from the prior and current owners,” department spokesperson Vivian Truong told San José Spotlight. “The city is obligated to move forward with the review and approval of the application.”
“If this project is allowed to move forward despite the evidence we’ve provided, it signals to other developers that they can ignore zoning intent … to squeeze high-density developments into areas where they simply don’t fit.”
Kenny Seok, Warwick Road resident
The project’s opponents remain unconvinced. They said the city has disregarded evidence that supports their claims, including video footage, photos of postmarked mail and testimony from neighbors.
“The city is favoring the developers ruining our neighborhood fabric,” Kenny Seok, another Warwick Road resident, told San José Spotlight. “If this project is allowed to move forward despite the evidence we’ve provided, it signals to other developers that they can ignore zoning intent, disregard physical evidence and bypass the community’s collective concerns to squeeze high-density developments into areas where they simply don’t fit.”
SB 9’s slow start
Neighborhood organizers point to the Warwick Road project and a handful of others scattered across California’s suburbs as a sign housing redevelopment projects are gathering steam in single-family neighborhoods.
To date, such projects have been few and far between. Once billed as legislation that would end single-family zoning in California, SB 9 — which allows property owners to build as many as four homes on a single-family lot — has produced only a trickle of new housing.
Between late 2022 and March of this year, San Jose’s Department of Public Works has approved just 17 SB 9 building permits, according to city housing data. As a point of comparison, the city approved more than 2,600 permits for accessory dwelling unit projects over the same period.
Housing experts say that a number of restrictions written into the law have made it difficult to use, especially given the relatively modest financial returns that small-scale projects typically produce.
“I just think the rents aren’t quite there yet,” Bob Staedler, a principal with real estate firm Silicon Valley Synergy, told San José Spotlight.
But others expect that as time passes and more property owners become familiar with SB 9 and more recent housing legislation, their usage could become more common.
“This is not an obscure, too hard to manage process anymore. It is something that is starting to hit a little bit of a rhythm,” Kelly Snider, a land use consultant and urban planning professor at San Jose State University, told San José Spotlight. “Of every 100 houses that exist today, maybe four or five of them are going to become SB 9 (projects) in the next few years.”
Contact Keith Menconi at [email protected] or @KeithMenconi on X.
This story originally appeared in San Jose Spotlight.