San Jose Planning Commission Study Session on 2025-27 Capital Budget & CIP - May 14, 2025
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San Jose Planning Commission Study Session on 2025-27 Capital Budget & CIP - May 14, 2025
The San Jose Planning Commission held a study session on May 14, 2025, to review the proposed 2025-2027 biannual capital budget and 2026-2030 Capital Improvement Program (CIP). Staff presented a $5.3 billion overall spending plan with $1.2 billion in capital funds, and a total five-year CIP of $3.4 billion. The session included public comment, detailed staff presentations, commissioner questions on funding risks and deferred maintenance, and a motion to recommend adoption with a request for further analysis on federal funding uncertainty.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Lillian, a substitute teacher, spoke on non-agendized issues. She expressed concern about the rate of tree removal by developers, referencing a recent planning session draft with 352 trees slated for removal. She urged the commission to maintain tree canopy, uphold the green building ordinance, and reduce environmental impacts, reminding the city is designated Tree City USA. Chair Tordillus noted existing tree removal and replacement policies.
Discussion Items
- Staff from the City Manager's budget office, Public Works, Environmental Services, Parks and other departments presented the capital budget and CIP. Key points included:
- $5.3 billion recommended spending plan (145 funds); capital funds are 18% ($1.2 billion).
- Five-year CIP totals $3.4 billion, lower than last year ($4 billion) partly due to exhaustion of Measure T funds (a $650 million bond approved in 2018) anticipated in FY 2028-29.
- Largest funding sources: financing proceeds ($864M), contributions/loans, other agencies ($644M, down 19%), taxes/fees/charges (construction & conveyance tax up $27M to $267M).
- Federal grant uncertainty: staff is monitoring, will bring analysis to council.
- Key programs: water pollution control, traffic, airport, parks ($500M deferred maintenance), fire apparatus, 911 center upgrades.
- Deferred maintenance: $500 million for parks, $1 billion citywide (parks). Park department exploring a future bond or parcel tax with community education starting summer 2025.
- Storm sewer rates: legal constraints prevent annual increases; a new stormwater assessment fee is under development (1.5 years out).
- New this year: presentation of a biennial capital budget with annual updates.
- Commissioners questioned: the delta between proposed and adopted budgets over time; scenarios if federal funding is reduced by 25%, 50%, or more; deferred maintenance strategy; fire apparatus not eligible for Measure T funds; 911 center upgrade details; and construction & conveyance tax volatility.
Key Outcomes
- Commissioner Pickford moved to recommend to the City Council the adoption of the 2025-2027 proposed biannual capital budget and 2026-2030 CIP, and transmit a report including a finding of consistency with the 2040 General Plan. The motion additionally requested staff bring to council various scenarios of federal funding depletion (down to zero) and their impacts on the capital budget, general fund, and grant-funded positions. Vice Chair Cantrell seconded.
- The motion passed unanimously (6-0). Commissioners present: Barroso, Larnois, Oliverio, Young, Tordillus (Chair), and Cantrell. Bendel and Bickford were absent; Rosario was absent.
- The study session adjourned at 5:51 PM, with the regular meeting to reconvene at 6:30 PM.
Meeting Transcript
Good evening, everyone. My name is Anthony Tordillus, and I am chair of the Planning Commission. Welcome to this planning commission meeting. The purpose of this planning commission study session is to briefly review the 2025 to 2027 proposed biannual capital budget and 2026 to 2030 capital improvement program. Members of the public are welcome to attend. We will get things started with roll call. Vice Chair Cantrell. Commissioner Barroso. Commissioner Bendel. Commissioner Pickford. Commissioner Lagnois. Commissioner Oliverio. Commissioner Rosario. Commissioner Young. Myself here. That's five in attendance. So we do not yet have quorum. We will go ahead and get started with the staff presentation. And then we will hopefully have quorum by the time that we go to vote on this item. And it looks like we have Commissioner Lardnois starting or arriving now, so that gives us quorum. Okay, before we move into the staff recommendation, we will open the floor to public comment for non-agendized items. If anyone uh in attendance this evening would like to provide public comment for anything not on tonight's agenda, feel free to come forward at this time. And you'll have two minutes if you could just state your name for the perfect. Thank you. Yes, my name is Lillian. I'm a substitute teacher, and I'm here because I'm interested in how the planning commission and the people that sit on the commission will go forward with your envision plan. Um this is not on your agenda items today, so I'm just gonna throw it out there. So planning on land use, number one, sustainability. Uh, we talk about climate and carbon neutrality in our city. Um, you know, when I'm in a classroom with kids, we talk about tree canopy, we talk about climate, we talk about the environment. This is all very important to the city of San Jose, especially since we're considered tree city USA. Um, there was a lady that used to work here, her name was Carrie Romanoff. She was your first sustainability officer, and she I think had the first what's called Green Bond Design Build. So I'm interested in knowing if the Planning Commission is going to be uh maintaining green building and sticking to the green building ordinance. There is such an ordinance in your city, I believe. Um, but really I'm here today because I have looked at previous planning commissions, and I have noticed an uptick in developers uh uprooting trees. And I'm wearing green today because I like trees. I don't know about you guys. Um, I don't think it's that far-fetched of an idea to understand that if we maintain our trees, it has a real effect on our climate and carbon neutrality. So um when I saw recently, um, this is maybe a week ago in one of your planning sessions, there was a draft, and I looked at it and there was 352 trees going to be removed, ordinance and non-ordinance trees. I was sick to my stomach. I'm like, this just can't keep going on. And then I noticed once again uh another uptick and two more um developers coming in, and all of a sudden, the city you your commission commission is stating that uh we are not going to allow this to continue, and we will not um uh suggest to city council that in fact they develop and uproot those trees. However, that doesn't mean that these things can't come back on your agenda. So, how do you plan to reduce environmental impacts? And if you get elected, uh although um, you know, if the if if the uh city planning commission continues to uproot trees at the rate they're doing, I would be interested in knowing how if you sit on City Council, Mr. Torridos, that you will in fact keep Tree City USA as it is and keep our tree canopy and not consistently allow developers to uproot hundreds of trees. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. I think the only thing that I will add here is that there is an existing tree removal policy in terms of the number of replacement trees required on site as well as an inlu fee option.
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