San Jose Planning Commission Study Session on 2024 General Plan Annual Performance Review Report - December 4, 2024
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San Jose Planning Commission Study Session on 2024 General Plan Annual Performance Review Report - December 4, 2024
This meeting was a study session of the San Jose Planning Commission focused on the presentation of the 2024 General Plan Annual Performance Review Report for fiscal year 2023-2024. Staff presented highlights across the 12 major strategies of the Envision San Jose 2040 General Plan, followed by questions and discussion from commissioners. No public comments were offered for non-agendized items, and no formal votes were taken.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No members of the public came forward to provide comment on non-agendized items.
Discussion Items
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Presentation of the 2024 General Plan Annual Performance Review Report: Staff (Laura and David) presented key data for fiscal year 2023-2024, including:
- Community-Based Planning: Since FY 2011-2012, the number of community meetings has remained steady; in FY 2023-2024, in-person meetings had significantly higher attendance than virtual ones.
- Form-Based Plan & Growth Areas: 80% of residential, 86% of commercial, and 77% of industrial development since FY 2011-2012 occurred within designated growth areas. In FY 2023-2024, 66% of residential, 74% of commercial, and 100% of industrial development occurred in growth areas. ADU production increased after a brief decline.
- Housing Production: Since FY 2011-2012, about 34,600 building permits for housing units were issued, averaging 2,666 units per year. Multifamily production rebounded in FY 2023-2024, nearing average levels. Single-family production increased to 52 units. ADU production increased after a decline in FY 2022-2023.
- Non-Residential Development: Commercial production dropped to nearly its lowest level (698,000 sq ft) in FY 2023-2024, while industrial production continued to increase (840,000 sq ft).
- Urban Villages: 16 urban village plans adopted; the Five Wounds Urban Village Plan is anticipated in spring 2025. New planning processes started for Saratoga and East Side Alum Rock.
- Downtown: Office vacancy rate increased from 30% to 31%. Downtown events attracted over 2.5 million attendees in FY 2023-2024, surpassing pre-COVID levels.
- Innovation & Regional Employment: Population declined for three consecutive years to 969,491 (down from 1,049,187 in 2020). San Jose has the lowest jobs-to-employed-resident ratio (0.79) among surrounding cities.
- Transportation & Mode Share: The drive-alone mode share target is 45% by 2030 and 25% by 2040. Transit mode share has not increased post-pandemic. The city installed 17.6 miles of new on-street bikeways.
- Climate Smart: San Jose is on track to meet its Climate Smart emissions reduction path by 2050 but slightly above the path to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.
- Fiscal Health: The adopted FY 2023-2024 budget totaled $6.13 billion, with a forecasted shortfall of $3.6 million for the next fiscal year.
- Parks & Trails: Five new park openings, 3 miles of new trails, and over 57 Viva Park events.
- Trail Network: 64.9 miles of off-street trails completed; goal of 100 miles.
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Commissioner Questions and Clarifications:
- Commissioner asked about the housing dashboard usage and adoption rates. Staff (Michelle Flores) noted that they do not have data yet but can look into it.
- Commissioner questioned the lack of transit mode share improvement despite investments. Staff noted pandemic impacts and that DOT is working on transit priority projects; the Transit First Policy was adopted in 2022. Data on transit ridership may be provided in future reports.
- Commissioner noted that the mode share data appeared inconsistent due to different data sources (American Community Survey vs. location data for 2022). DOT has purchased big data to improve future reports.
- Commissioner asked about the decline in commercial construction. Staff attributed it to high office vacancy (31%) and hybrid/remote work; industrial construction remains strong.
- Commissioner inquired about the Google downtown project status. Staff reported that entitlements are still valid (until 2051) but no active planning permits have been submitted.
- Commissioner expressed confusion about the Climate Smart graph; staff clarified that the orange dots represent the city's progress, which is tracking the carbon neutral pathway.
- Commissioner suggested expanding the 'healthful community' strategy (Strategy 11) beyond transportation to include indicators like access to healthy food, healthcare, and parks. Staff noted that the upcoming Environmental Justice Element (part of the TRI-E updates) will address many of these topics, and the General Plan Four-Year Review (starting 2026) could expand the strategy.
- Commissioner asked about the jobs-to-employed-resident ratio and why it hasn't improved despite population decline. Staff explained that job losses (tech layoffs) and the addition of employed residents (even with job gains) have kept the ratio low. Remote work also affects tax revenue allocation.
- Commissioner suggested a comparative analysis with cities like Fremont that have improved their ratio. Staff indicated that the Planning Department does not track that, but the Office of Economic Development might have information.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes or decisions were made during this study session.
- Staff noted that the next General Plan Four-Year Review is anticipated to begin in 2026 to prepare for the seventh cycle housing element.
- The TRI-E Elements update (Open Space, Safety, and new Environmental Justice Element) is expected to be completed by January 1, 2026.
- The Planning Division housing team is planning a study session with the Planning Commission in March 2025 to discuss the Housing Element Annual Report before submission to HCD.
- The meeting was adjourned for a dinner break, with the regular session to reconvene at 6:30 PM in the council chambers.
Meeting Transcript
Welcome to this planning commission meeting. Please remember to turn off your cell phones. The purpose of this planning commission study session is the presentation of the 2024 General Planning Annual Performance Review Report. We'll now start with roll call. Commissioner Barussia. Here. Commissioner Ben Dal. Here. Commissioner Bickford. Commissioner Lord Nois. Here. Commissioner Oliveria. Commissioner Rosario. Here. Commissioner Young here. Myself here. That's six. So we have quorum. All right. We will now call this meeting of the planning commission to order. First up on the agenda this evening is public comment for non-agendized items. Do we have any members of the public in attendance who would like to provide public comment? So you can come forward. Okay. In that case, I will turn it over to staff for our study session presentation on the twenty twenty-four general plan annual performance review report. Thank you. In addition, we have Rebecca Ross, supervising planner in the PRNS department, as well as Michelle Flores, supervising planner on the housing team and the planning division, who will be here later, available for questions after the presentation. Today we will be presenting some highlights of the envisioned San Jose 2040 General Plan annual performance review report for fiscal year 2023-24. This annual performance review is mandated by state law and by general plan policy. It contains 12 major strategies supported by goals, policies, and actions to achieve the vision of the general plan. They guide the standards for city services, land use patterns, and the quality of life and development. A general plan annual review report is organized around these 12 major strategies as well as a housing section and is analyzed based mainly on data for the 2022, sorry, 2023-2024 fiscal year. For this evening's presentation, we are going to give an overview of each strategy and present a summary of implementation highlights from each strategy. David and I will be dividing the presentation. The strategies are presented non sequentially to group strategies by similar topics. I will first cover strategies one, two, three, five, nine, twelve, and the housing section. David will cover strategies four, six, seven, eight, ten, and eleven. The community-based planning major strategy is a commitment to effectively engage all segments of the community in a meaningful planning process. Public outreach is implemented using the city's public outreach policy council policy 6-30. The pictured table shows the number of community meetings held by the planning division by fiscal year since fiscal year 2011-2012, which is the fiscal year that the San Jose General Plan was adopted. The majority of meetings were held virtually, but meetings for large projects such as the Five Wounds Urban Village Plan, the Pleasant Hills Golf Course Redevelopment Project, and the Coyote Valley Corridor Study incorporated in-person meetings. As on the table on the presentation, we can see for the last fiscal year in 2023-2024, though the number of community meetings were nearly the same as the prior fiscal year. There were significantly more attendees overall because the in-person meetings had significantly higher attendance than the virtual meetings. The form-based plan major strategy uses land use designations and general plan goals and policies to address the form, character, and densities for long-term development in the city. The strategy aims to maintain and can create compatible and cohesive neighborhoods while allowing for flexibility within the land use designations. The design guidelines help the facility the city facilitate growth, set expectations for high quality site and building design, and maintain and enhance the character of its neighborhoods and communities. The pictured design renderings in the slides are just a few examples of some of the exemplary design. The approach is meant to reduce environmental impacts, improve the city's fiscal health, and preserve established neighborhoods. Since fiscal year 2011-2012, 80% of residential development, 86% of commercial development, and 77% of industrial development has occurred within these designated growth areas. In the last fiscal year 20, 2023-2024, 66% of residential development, 74% of commercial development, and 100% of the industrial development occurred in growth areas.
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