Meeting colors

OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD

Record of Proceedings

Community Economic Development Committee Meeting – April 27, 2026

City Council — Monday, April 27, 2026

BodySan Jose, California

SessionCity Council

DateMonday, April 27, 2026

StatusFILED

Video Record

0:00 / 1:58:29

Transcript — VerbatimClick a timed line to jump · ⧉ to share it

0:27

Can you take the roll, please?

0:29

Casey?

0:30

Here.

0:32

Here.

0:33

Ortiz.

0:33

Present.

0:34

Vice Chair Kamin.

0:35

Here.

0:36

And Chair Foley.

0:37

Here.

0:37

You have a quorum.

0:38

Thank you.

0:40

We're all here.

0:41

How about that?

0:42

We don't have anything to review on the work plan, no consent.

0:45

So we're gonna just jump right into the committee reports on citywide planning activities, semi-annual status report.

0:56

And here one of the presenters is running down the steps.

0:59

Please do not trip and fall.

1:19

Hi, good afternoon, Wisemara and committee members.

1:21

Manira Sandhir, Deputy Director for Planning with PVCE.

1:26

And we'll be doing a presentation on this item.

1:28

I'm joined by my esteemed colleagues, Division Manager Martina Davis and Principal Planner Jared Ferguson, who will walk you through our citywide planning activity semi semi-annual status report.

1:39

With that, I'll turn it over to Jared.

1:42

Thanks, Vanera.

1:46

So first to get started, as we always do, just quick overview of our citywide planning team.

1:52

So the citywide planning team is our long-range planning group within our planning division.

1:58

Within citywide planning, we have five teams focused on specialized areas.

2:04

So we have our general plan and data analytics team that focuses on regular updates to our general plan as well as processing privately initiated general plan amendments.

2:15

We have our housing policy and housing element team that focuses on housing policy and implementing our housing element.

2:47

So over the citywide planning team, we have a total of 19 positions with one current vacancy, which we're looking to fill.

3:06

So first to kind of go in a little bit to our team work plans and our team work plans, both what we've are currently uh completed since our last update, and then also the work in progress until uh for the next fiscal year and then upcoming work in the next fiscal year.

3:24

So our general plan team completed our five-year development forecast in February, and this is the key forecast which uh assists the budget office in estimating our construction related taxes for revenue purposes for the city's uh capital improvement program.

3:42

Have several significant um projects uh in progress.

3:46

So, of course, our general plan for your review, which is uh a collaboration with our housing team.

3:52

Um, and I'll talk more about that in the next slide.

3:55

Um, currently planned for full completion in December of 2027.

4:00

Um, we have a lot of work um in the next fiscal year as well after the conclusion of the task force process.

4:08

The team has uh multiple privately initiated general plan amendments that generally take place in the fall, so will be completed by December.

4:17

Um general plan annual report for the 2025 calendar year will be coming to you in June.

4:24

Um, and the team is also engaged in efforts to update our council policy 5-1, which is our transportation policy.

4:32

And then looking into the next fiscal year on work that the team will be starting.

4:37

Um, looking to start work on our tri-element update.

4:40

So this is updating three other elements of our general plan, um, both updating the open space and safety element of our general plan, and then looking to complete for the first time our environmental justice element, which is a new required element per the state.

5:00

Looking at adopting minimum densities, both downtown and then for our mixed-use neighborhood designation, completing the next version of our five-year forecast and the next calendar year and the next general plan annual update.

5:12

So to talk a little bit more about the general plan four-year review, which has been consuming a lot of our team's work in the last fiscal year since our last update on the citywide activities.

5:23

So obviously, the focus of our four-year review is really on housing, implementing key parts of our housing element and also preparing ourselves for the next housing element.

5:34

So we're looking at ways to increase residential capacity within the city, our work around missing middle housing, and then also looking at strategies to improve urban village implementation.

5:47

We have three task force meetings remaining.

5:50

We started in October.

5:51

So we're coming into the home stretch for the task force process.

5:56

We'll have the vote of the planning commission at the end of June, and then look to come to the full city council in August with the framework of the general plan four-year review update that is coming out of that.

6:10

We've scheduled our four open houses.

6:12

We've actually had two so far to date.

6:13

We have another one coming up on Wednesday evening at the Bascombe Community Center, and then one next Monday as well to round out the four open houses.

6:22

So going into the next fiscal year after that August City Council meeting, we would be looking to start the environmental review and then also start to actually draft the general plan text amendments as well as draft any ordin um related ordinance changes and additional outreach as necessary.

6:40

But we do anticipate that work to take up or subsume a lot of the team's efforts as we look to implement what the framework agreed upon in that general plan process.

6:52

So next, getting into the housing team.

6:55

So the work uh completed since our last update.

6:59

Um we had a big um uh body of work thrown at us uh with Senate Bill 79.

7:06

Um so we did uh you know a pretty robust analysis of that and provided a report to the city council um collaborating with our ordinance team.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting

Economic Development█████████████████████████████████████████████48%

Land Use████████████████17%

Community Engagement█████████████14%

Municipal Finance████████8%

Housing██████6%

Senior Services███3%

Engineering And Infrastructure██2%

Marketing and Communications█1%

Arts and Culture█1%

Summary of Proceedings

Community Economic Development Committee Meeting – April 27, 2026

The Community Economic Development Committee met on April 27, 2026, to receive and discuss four major reports: the citywide planning activities semi-annual status report, the Team San Jose semi-annual status report, the 2026 major events status report, and the economic strategy work plan annual report. All reports were accepted by the committee.

Public Comments & Testimony

Lillian Koenig, representing herself but also as a District 3 representative on the Senior Commission, expressed concern about the inclusion of seniors in planning efforts. She noted that she was unaware of task force open houses and emphasized the importance of seniors as stakeholders. She asked how senior data is tracked in housing and middle housing discussions.

Discussion Items

Citywide Planning Activities Semi-Annual Status Report: Presented by Manira Sandhir (Deputy Director for Planning, PBCE), Martina Davis, and Jared Ferguson. They reviewed work completed since the last update, including the five-year development forecast, general plan four-year review progress (three task force meetings remaining, open houses scheduled), housing element work (SB 79 analysis, zoning code updates), ordinance and policy updates (SB 79 industrial hub exclusion, vape shop zoning), urban village plans (Alum Rock East, Five Wounds, Saratoga), and transit-oriented communities work. They highlighted that current workload exceeds staffing capacity at 126%, with mandatory items comprising 90% of capacity. A fee study was directed to address funding. Councilmembers discussed capacity constraints, state unfunded mandates, the need for better prioritization, and concerns about engagement (e.g., open house format, use of planning commission as task force). Councilmember Ortiz raised issues about lack of diverse input and the choice of Viva Calle for an open house in East San Jose. Councilmember Casey noted frustration in her district about the four-year review and perception of going beyond state mandates. Staff explained the interactive open house format and the balance between state requirements and local control. A motion to accept the report passed.
Team San Jose Semi-Annual Status Report: Presented by John LaFortune (CEO), Ihab (CFO), Ben Roshke (VP of Research), Matthew Martinicci (VP of Sales), and Laura Shimeluski (VP of Marketing). Mid-year results showed overachievement in direct visitor spending ($5M over budget), future hotel room nights (up 17,000), theater occupancy (up 5%), gross operating revenues ($562,000 over budget), and customer satisfaction (up 5%). Super Bowl 60 drove February to be the best February ever for hotel revenue, with 21% occupancy growth driven by transient demand. NVIDIA GTC and March Madness contributed to the second-best March on record. The sales team booked 12 citywide events (140% increase), 58,394 room nights, and launched a first-in-the-nation citywide hotel contract. Marketing campaigns generated $22M incremental revenue and 33,000 hotel rooms. Councilmembers praised the report, discussed the importance of transient capture, the need for ROI data on SJ26 investments, and requested future reports include actualized versus booked data. A motion to accept the report passed.
2026 Major Events Status Report: Presented by Team San Jose and John Poach (Sports Authority). Recapped Super Bowl 60 activations: Invisible Skies project (2,000 attendees), drone shows (7,500 people), concerts by Kaylani (12,000 attendees) and Dom Dala (15,000 tickets sold), fanfest at San Pedro Square (48,000 unique visitors). March Madness had 46,500 tickets sold, a free concert with DJ Diesel (3,700 attendees), and strong hotel occupancy. Staff highlighted successful public-private collaboration, safety coordination (72 agencies in EOC), and lessons learned. Councilmember Kamei noted the importance of FIFA outreach for the upcoming six-week event, expressed disappointment that a requested memo on outreach was not yet provided, and requested targeted community engagement. Deputy City Manager Rosalind Huey confirmed a supplemental memo would be issued before the May 12 City Council meeting, detailing outreach plans including partnerships with IPEN and rapid response networks. A motion to accept the report and refer it to City Council passed.
Economic Strategy Work Plan Annual Report: Presented by Jen Baker (Director, Office of Economic Development and Cultural Affairs). The report covered the first nine months of the FY 2025-2027 work plan, with five objectives and 22 goals. 8 goals complete, 12 on track, 2 needing attention (over 90% progressing). Highlights: 3,573 jobs added/supported/retained, sales tax revenue up $9M, key company investments (Rose Batteries, Netgear, Lucid Motors, Equinix), five business improvement districts established ($760,000 annually), downtown foot traffic up 9.3% and 6.6%, 535 event days (exceeding annual goal). Challenges remain in office recovery and daytime downtown activity. Looking ahead, staff will develop a 3-5 year business development strategy, support BID capacity, advance the east side revitalization framework, and build on SJ26 momentum. Councilmember Mulcahy asked about retaining industrial properties and creating an inventory of underutilized sites for redevelopment. A motion to accept the report passed unanimously.

Key Outcomes

Citywide Planning Activities Report: Accepted by committee. Further fee study and prioritization will be addressed in budget process.
Team San Jose Report: Accepted by committee.
2026 Major Events Report: Accepted and referred to the full City Council. Supplemental memo on FIFA outreach to be provided by May 12.
Economic Strategy Work Plan Report: Accepted unanimously. Staff to continue developing business development strategy and inventory of industrial opportunity sites.
The meeting adjourned at 3:28 PM.

Meeting Transcript

Can you take the roll, please? Casey? Here. Here. Ortiz. Present. Vice Chair Kamin. Here. And Chair Foley. Here. You have a quorum. Thank you. We're all here. How about that? We don't have anything to review on the work plan, no consent. So we're gonna just jump right into the committee reports on citywide planning activities, semi-annual status report. And here one of the presenters is running down the steps. Please do not trip and fall. Hi, good afternoon, Wisemara and committee members. Manira Sandhir, Deputy Director for Planning with PVCE. And we'll be doing a presentation on this item. I'm joined by my esteemed colleagues, Division Manager Martina Davis and Principal Planner Jared Ferguson, who will walk you through our citywide planning activity semi semi-annual status report. With that, I'll turn it over to Jared. Thanks, Vanera. So first to get started, as we always do, just quick overview of our citywide planning team. So the citywide planning team is our long-range planning group within our planning division. Within citywide planning, we have five teams focused on specialized areas. So we have our general plan and data analytics team that focuses on regular updates to our general plan as well as processing privately initiated general plan amendments. We have our housing policy and housing element team that focuses on housing policy and implementing our housing element. So over the citywide planning team, we have a total of 19 positions with one current vacancy, which we're looking to fill. So first to kind of go in a little bit to our team work plans and our team work plans, both what we've are currently uh completed since our last update, and then also the work in progress until uh for the next fiscal year and then upcoming work in the next fiscal year. So our general plan team completed our five-year development forecast in February, and this is the key forecast which uh assists the budget office in estimating our construction related taxes for revenue purposes for the city's uh capital improvement program. Have several significant um projects uh in progress. So, of course, our general plan for your review, which is uh a collaboration with our housing team. Um, and I'll talk more about that in the next slide. Um, currently planned for full completion in December of 2027. Um, we have a lot of work um in the next fiscal year as well after the conclusion of the task force process. The team has uh multiple privately initiated general plan amendments that generally take place in the fall, so will be completed by December. Um general plan annual report for the 2025 calendar year will be coming to you in June. Um, and the team is also engaged in efforts to update our council policy 5-1, which is our transportation policy. And then looking into the next fiscal year on work that the team will be starting. Um, looking to start work on our tri-element update. So this is updating three other elements of our general plan, um, both updating the open space and safety element of our general plan, and then looking to complete for the first time our environmental justice element, which is a new required element per the state. Looking at adopting minimum densities, both downtown and then for our mixed-use neighborhood designation, completing the next version of our five-year forecast and the next calendar year and the next general plan annual update. So to talk a little bit more about the general plan four-year review, which has been consuming a lot of our team's work in the last fiscal year since our last update on the citywide activities. So obviously, the focus of our four-year review is really on housing, implementing key parts of our housing element and also preparing ourselves for the next housing element. So we're looking at ways to increase residential capacity within the city, our work around missing middle housing, and then also looking at strategies to improve urban village implementation. We have three task force meetings remaining. We started in October. So we're coming into the home stretch for the task force process.

SUMMARIZED BY OPENPUBLICA AI

TRANSCRIPT VIA PUBLIC VIDEO
openpublica.com