Good morning.

We are calling to order the Planning Director hearing of March 4th, 2026.

My name is Sylvia Doe and I am the hearing officer for today's agenda on behalf of and delegated by the Director of Planning, Building, and Code Enforcement, Christopher Burton.

This meeting is being held via Zoom conference call.

Members of the public may participate by following the instructions listed on page two of the agenda.

If you would like to provide public comment, you have two methods to do so.

For participants who joined electronically and have audio input available on their computer or smartphone, they can use the raised hand feature in Zoom during the agenda item they would like to speak to or click star 9 on their phone.

Remember to keep your raised hand feature on until planning support staff identify your turn to speak.

During the meeting, you can also call 408-535-8517 or email planning support staff at San Jose CA.gov and identify your name that's listed on Zoom, the phone number that you'll call into Zoom with, and what item or items you would like to comment on.

All members of the public will remain on mute until the individual identifies they would like to speak and they are unmuted.

Planning support staff will identify you by name when it is your turn to speak.

At that time, you will be unmuted and can provide comment for the allotted time.

If you exceed your allotted time, you may be muted so we can move on to the next speaker.

Please note the following.

The hearing procedure and order of input will be as follows.

I will first identify each project as listed on the agenda.

For those items on the consent calendar, I will ask if anyone wishes to speak on the item.

If a separate discussion is warranted, I will move the item to the public hearing portion of the agenda.

If a separate discussion is not needed, the item will remain on the consent calendar for approval.

For those items listed under public hearing, I will ask staff to provide a brief report.

The applicant or the representative who wishes to speak on the item will have up to five minutes to speak and should identify themselves by stating their name for the record.

After the applicant or their representative has spoken, any member of the public who wishes to speak on the item may provide testimony up to two minutes per speaker, either for or against the project.

All members of the public should identify their name for the record, although it is not required.

Following comments from the public, the applicant may make additional remarks for up to five minutes.

I will then close the public hearing and I may ask staff to answer questions, respond to comments made by the applicant or the public, or further discuss the item.

I will then take action on the item.

If you challenge these land use decisions in court, you may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised at this public hearing or in written correspondence delivered to the city at or prior to the public hearing.

The planning director's actions on agenda items will be final when the permit is signed and mailed, unless the permit or the environmental clearance determination is appealed.

The planning director's actions on the permits are appealable in accordance with the requirements of Title 20 of the Municipal Code.

The planning director's actions on the environmental review for the permits under the California Environmental Quality Act are separately appealable in accordance with the requirements of Title 21 of the Municipal Code.

Before we begin, I want to remind members of the public to follow our code of conduct at meetings.

This includes commenting on the specific agenda item only.

Public speakers will not engage in a conversation with the hearing officer or staff.

The hearing officer, staff, and the public are expected to refrain from abusive language.

Repeated failure to comply with the code of conduct, which will disturb, disrupt, or impede the orderly conduct of this meeting may result in the removal from the meeting.

The meeting of the director's hearing will now come to order.

On to the next portion of the agenda number two, which is deferrals.

Any item scheduled for hearing this morning for which deferral to a future meeting date is being requested will be moved to this portion of the agenda and considered on the matter of deferral.

I will identify any items to be deferred and ask for comments from the public.

If you want to change any of the deferral dates or speak to the question of deferring these or any other items, please use the raised hand feature in Zoom or click star 9 to raise your hand to speak.

I will now open the public hearing.

And as of this morning, there are no items proposed for deferral.

Are there any members of the public or staff who has updates to the deferrals portion of the agenda?

If so, please raise your hand in Zoom or click star nine.

Okay.

Seeing none, the matter of deferrals is now closed, and we will move on to the next portion of the agenda, which is the consent calendar.

There will be no separate discussion of individual consent calendar items as they are considered to be routine and will be considered in one action unless an item is moved to the public hearing calendar for separate discussion by the hearing officer.

The public may comment on the entire consent calendar and any items removed from the consent calendar by the hearing officer.

If you wish to speak on one of these items, please use the raised hand feature in Zoom or click star 9 to raise your hand to speak.

This morning we have one item on the consent calendar, which is the only item agendized for this morning's director's hearing, which is item number 3A.

This is file number PDA 15-055-02 and ER25-101.

This is the plan development permit amendment to allow the conversion of approximately 14,500 square feet of ground floor retail space into 11 residential units located near the intersection of 6th Street and Jackson Street.

Are there any members of the public who would like to speak on this item?

If so, please raise your hand at this time.

It looks like we have one hand raised.

And just to verify, um, if you can unmute yourself, I just wanted to confirm that this is the item you would like to speak to, albeit it is the only agenda item.

And if so, I'll move this project to the public hearing portion of the agenda.

Good morning.

Yes, that's correct.

I wanted to speak on this uh one item on consent.

Okay, perfect.

Uh thank you for confirming.

We will now um go ahead and move this item from the consent calendar to the public hearing portion of the agenda.

And seeing how there are not any other consent calendar items, we'll go ahead and move to the public hearing portion of the agenda and start with staff's presentation on the plan development permit amendment.

Thank you, hearing officer.

This is Laura Miners, the planning project manager for this request for a plan development permit amendment to allow modifications to the previously approved plan development permit file number PD 15-055 on an approximately 1.69 gross acre site located on the northern corner of the intersection of North 6th Street and Jackson Street at 620 North 6th Street.

The amendment is to allow the conversion of approximately 14,500 square feet of existing ground floor retail space into 11 residential units with minor exterior modifications, including extended construction hours on Saturdays from 8 a.m.

to 5 p.m.

Construction activity on Saturdays will be limited to interior work and minor exterior work, such as painting and landscaping.

The subject site is currently developed with a six-story building consisting of 219 residential units and approximately 18,000 square feet of ground floor retail space.

The subject conversion would result in a total of 230 residential units and approximately 3,500 square feet of ground floor retail space.

No changes to the building footprint and no tree removals are proposed on the subject site with this amendment.

Existing vehicular access to the parking garage is from one driveway along North 7th Street.

Pedestrian entrances are located along North 6th Street, Jackson Street, and North 7th Street.

The uses surrounding the site include commercial retail and restaurant uses to the west and south, Highlandville Park to the north, and multifamily residential on the other side of the railroad tracks to the east.

Additionally, there is a currently undeveloped vacant parcel to the north, east of Highlandville Park.

The subject project is consistent with the transit residential general plan, land use designation, and the APD Plan Development Zoning District per previously approved file number PDC 15-018.

The project is also consistent with the development standards of the Plan Development Zoning District, Citywide Design Guidelines, and Council Development Policy is relevant to the permit amendment with the exception findings made to the Citywide Design Guidelines Section 2.1.1 standard 2, which requires primary front door access or private open space access along the public street.

Entrances to the 11 new residential units would be provided from within the ground floor parking garage.

The environmental impacts of this project were addressed by an addendum to the final environmental impact report, also known as EIR, prepared for the Japan Town Corporation Yard Redevelopment Project adopted by the City Council under resolution number 74384 on April 21st, 2008, as amended.

Due to the minor scope change and uh to the project to allow for the conversion of the ground floor commercial space into 11 new residential units, the project would not result in any new significant impacts beyond those already assessed in the EIR.

No new or more significant impacts beyond those identified in the Japan Town Corporation Yard Redevelopment Project Final EIR and subsequent addenda have been identified, nor have any new mitigation measures or alternatives which are considerably different from those analyzed been identified.

Staff therefore recommends that the planning director consider the addendum to the final environmental impact report prepared for the Japan Town Corporation Yard Redevelopment Project adopted by the city council under resolution number 74384 on April 21st, 2008 as amended, in accordance with CEQA, and approve a plan development permit amendment.

This concludes staff's presentation.

Thank you, Laura.

Is the applicants at this meeting?

And if so, you have up to five minutes to make your opening remarks.

Yes, it's Sean M.

Got it.

Good morning, Sean.

You'll have again up to five minutes to speak.

Thank you.

Can you guys hear me?

Yes, we can.

Good morning.

Awesome.

I appreciate I'd like to thank staff for the time spent on this process.

And I'd like to, you know, first touch on the fact that this is really our last option, unfortunately, for this retail space.

We are retaining the corner three suites in the proposal and converting a portion of the retail into residential.

And after nearly five years of leasing, we have really exhausted all of the other options on this project.

So we have looked at uh, you know, a food hall option.

We've looked at a performing uh arts center, we have looked at uh medical office building, um, we've looked at a large child care center, um, we have switched up the uh retail brokerage team uh to try to find new leads, but uh you know, after that duration and based off of the deep experience of our you know Shea retail folks, you know, we've we've come to the conclusion that this is the best way to activate the street and retain some uh retail at the site.

So we recognize and and uh you know understand the the comments that we've received from the community.

Um, but we view this as really the only option remaining to activate the street level uh in Japan town.

So um, you know, I'll I'll end there and then I'm happy to respond to any any other questions or comments as we as we go.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes, after the uh public comments portion, you'll have an opportunity to make closing remarks again for up to five minutes.

All right.

At this time, we'll open up for public comments.

If any members of the public would like to speak, please raise your hand in Zoom so that we get a gauge of how many speakers there are, and each speaker will have up to two minutes.

Alright, so far I see uh one hand.

We'll have the caller with the uh phone number ending in two two four.

You can unmute yourself.

Thank you.

My name is Jordan.

I'm a resident in Japan Town.

I live at one of the multifamily apartment complexes that's directly adjacent to the project.

Um I've been extremely grateful to the Shea Company for developing the beautiful park and for bringing hundreds of new neighbors to support Japan Town.

At the same time, I'm really hopeful for the whole vision that was promised in the original development agreement with bringing mixed-use development uh into the neighborhood at this location.

Um disappointed to see the conversion happening, which would reduce the amount of commercial space uh to be 78% smaller than what was originally discussed with the community.

Um, you know, in terms of housing versus retail, um, you know, just like to recognize that there's a lot of housing that is hopefully being built in Japan town.

Um we definitely need a lot more housing, but in terms of the total housing stock, 11 units isn't that much.

Um, on the other hand, you know, there's really only limited opportunities to build out commercial in Japan town.

And I'm definitely um, you know, understand the concern about lost rents of not being able to fill in uh the current storefronts that have been vacant for a couple of years.

Um, but you know, I do also want to recognize you know economies are in flux and you know, maybe in a little bit, things might be better for commercial.

I'd also just like to recognize that it, you know, it's the space right now isn't built out and it requires money to build it out one way or the other, uh, regardless of it's residential or commercial.

And I I do wonder if it would be easier to attract uh retail tenants if the space is a little bit more uh built out.

So those are my comments.

Thank you for your consideration today.

Thank you so much for your comments, Jordan.

Are there any other members of the public who would like to speak this morning on this item?

If so, now is your opportunity.

Please raise your hand in Zoom or click star nine on your phone.

Just pause for a moment here.

I don't see any additional hands being raised.

So we'll bring it back to the applicant.

Sean, if you would like to make any closing remarks or speak on any of those items, that would be great.

And you'll have up to five minutes.

Thank you.

Yes, can you hear me?

Yes, I can.

Oh, great.

Um, Jordan, thank you for for joining the meeting and uh nice to hear you virtually.

Um, you know, we uh we don't take this process lightly.

Um we've we've been working uh to chase down all possible leads to to you know fill up the retail or at least get some key um components at the at the hard corner there at at Six and Jackson.

Um but we you know we don't share your optimism that uh that the market will shift.

Um, you know, mixed-use projects are incredibly difficult to execute, and often the uh amount of of retail square footage is is overdone uh in in hopes of uh of achieving kind of that dream of of the activated street with the residential units on top and the retail on the ground floor, and and the reality is just it's it's much more difficult.

Um, and I can say that I I spend uh every week talking to the brokers and reaching out to different uh types of of uses and different communities of of businesses that uh that could potentially come into the site and and we're gonna continue to do that to to fill the three spaces that that we have um but you know we view this as as really the only option to to go forward so um I'll pause there but I appreciate the comments thank you Sean.

All right Sean um since you have the mic if I may I have um some questions for you that'll help me as part of this uh reviewing this or considering this project um I guess two two questions that are kind of related to one another so first question is uh if you can verify whether the existing storefront windows will be preserved and the windows will be transparent and then also um as uh Shay was designing the conversion of these commercial retail units for residential if you can kind of talk about how the units were designed and of course uh kind of where that the question is coming from uh for me is uh trying to uh maintain to the extent possible active areas along sixth street and uh Jackson um and whether these units have active areas yeah so uh this project is challenged because it is in a flood zone and so access into residential um is uh is a design challenge so you you need to raise yourself up out of the flood zone um and flood protect any area that is entering into those residential areas that's below the flood zone and so we're limited in what we can do in the street facing area in that frontage um so the the floors within the retail suites actually have to be built up um you know between a foot and a half and and and two feet depending on where you are in the building uh so you can imagine that creates some pretty significant ramping challenges so the proposal is that we maintain the look and feel of the storefront but that we need to have operable windows and so traditional retail storefront um does not have that option and the energy efficiency um of the retail storefront windows uh don't hit the code that you need to hit for residential and so what's proposed is is uh mimicking that retail storefront so the the look and feel will match um uh the the retail storefront that remains but you'll have uh operable windows um from a from a window treatment standpoint as far as uh how we intend to kind of um you know create some privacy for those units we intend to kind of have a a dual system so from up above we would have a a what I call kind of a shear window treatment that can be lowered from the ceiling down so that provides some privacy but there's still some opacity so there's sunlight coming in there's some visibility in and out uh but when folks want to go to bed or they need privacy there'd be another layer that would be a a uh a darker uh window treatment or or roller shade type of treatment um so you can thank you for pulling up this uh this elevation that helps with the explanation um so you know we are we're very much going to mimic the the storefront that exists right now but we have to adapt it in order to be uh hit the residential code.

Um the, you know, the entrance will come from the garage, which is uh unique definitely for residential, um, but that's really a function of of the challenge that we have um with the with being in the floodplain.

Um so we you know we do intend to enhance that area you know with the landscaping to be sure it it kind of has a little bit more on the on the planters and the and the treatment so that it it uh it doesn't feel bare um but you know we're unable to like create uh say say patios out there or anything like that because of the access challenge we have into the units um so I hope that answers your question let me know if I missed anything.

Yeah it does it helps um thank you Laura for screen sharing the proposed floor plan uh or the the building elevations um if you wouldn't mind scrolling down to the the floor plan a little bit.

Yeah and on the I can touch on the design and and any real specific questions we do have our architect on the call as well.

So we we looked at these and I I bet we did 25 different iterations of how to lay out these units because this is it's never an ideal situation when you're dealing with uh larger spaces and you're trying to create uh residential units for rent um so we we looked at the rest of the building and the unit mix that we have and we're really uh focused on smaller units in the two existing towers the average square footage is small we've got a lot of studios and smaller ones um so we really wanted to focus on adding some variety something that could work for young families or um you know young working couples that need a little bit more more space um and we also tried to to land as many of the bedrooms towards the towards the back of the units if we could um so the the units layout there they're kind of a larger square footage I believe it's around eleven hundred square feet um on average and you know we we wanted these to have a kind of an upgraded feel so a little bit larger closets some opportunities for larger bathrooms um some side by side laundry units things that we couldn't offer in the other building um and you know we we have we have a challenge with the uh you know the the lid of the units as well so we've you know we decided to go ahead and drop the lid and and add drywall um softening to really make it feel like like a home so that you don't have all the the noise on the ceiling of the of the dropped plumbing and all the electrical running through so we want these to finish out and feel um you know really special so that we can get tenants in there that want to stay long term um I could keep going but let me know if you have any other kind of specific questions on our on our approach.

No thank you for sharing that helps me better understand the the layout and design and I see how you know there's some looks like there's some thought in putting the more active uh so to speak areas of the the unit like the living area and the dining area um along the the streets um oh and I also see the the retail area as well just curious um I know you mentioned that there are three suites commercial suites that'll be preserved um are those pretty flexible and depending on what type of tenant and how much square footage that they'll need our space yeah so the the suite that is uh you know planned north along uh Jackson Street um you know heading heading towards uh seventh that is currently leased so the the one that's closest to the residential unit uh kind of in the upper right yep that one uh is currently leased to a pet grooming tenant um they are just about ready to begin their build out uh I believe they pulled their permit it's been it's been kind of very close for several weeks now um so they they're a successful uh operation they have uh five or six other locations in Silicon Valley um so we're really excited to get them open I think it'll be a great service to the to the folks that live in the neighborhood and and also the residents that live in the building because we have over 30% of the residents with pets.

Those other two spaces uh we would love them to be configured into a single space and and be a you know a cafe or a restaurant.

Um but we we will remain flexible because the the cost of build out on on restaurants and cafes is you know, what we're hearing is is north of six hundred dollars north of of $650 even.

So you know, we'll we'll have to be uh we'll have to work really hard to find the right tenant and and basically invest in that business to to fill that space.

Um so hopefully that helps to answer the question.

Yeah, it does.

Um I did do a site visit here yesterday and saw the uh coming soon sign um for the grooming uh retail uh tenant space.

So thank you for the update on that.

I'm sure the neighborhood will look forward to it.

Um that answers all of my questions that I have for you, Sean, um, at the moment.

So I will go ahead and close the public hearing portion of the agenda for staff.

Uh Laura Jordan in public commons did mention development agreement and commercial square footage.

Um, if you don't mind kind of speaking to that and kind of elaborating on, you know, what was included in the development agreement uh in relation to commercial square footage.

Yeah, the development agreement um specifies um 16,000 to 24,000 square footage of commercial space along the entire block.

Um so although we're we're losing about 14,500 square feet of commercial retail, uh we're adding that and more back into the block uh with the uh tyco project, which is forthcoming.

Got it.

Thank you.

Um I have no further comments for staff, um so I'll go ahead and move on to just deliberation of this project.

Um I do want to disclose that uh I do live nearby in the Japan Town neighborhood along the border, um, in the north side neighborhood, but still outside of the area of conflict of interest um within the location of this project.

Um and also did want to mention that I read public comments, emails including from you, Jordan, uh, this morning.

So thank you for that.

And then also from the Japan Town Community Congress's letter dated February 26th.

And I know this is one of the challenging topics of mixed use development and housing and retail space.

Um, and while I do agree that creating ground floor retail space is certainly uh desirable for the Japan town neighborhood business district, uh residential uses are also allowed given the property's general plan land use designation of transit residential, as Laura uh mentioned in her uh presentation, and then also through this property's uh plan development zoning district.

Um, and uh, in addition, uh the proposed 11 units also increases the development's density um to 136 uh dwelling units per acre, uh which is well within the allowable density range for this transit residential general plan designation.

Um, and so I was thinking through this project, the project still preserves about uh 3,500 square feet of commercial space, uh particularly at the prominent intersection of 6th Street and Jackson Streets to extend commercial uh uses to this development and maintain opportunities for future Japan town businesses, uh economic vitality, and then also to further enliven Japan town's sidewalks, um, while adding additional housing units within walking distance to transit and uh bus and light rail as well.

So for those reasons, um I do find that the project is consistent with the city's general plan designation as well as the plan development zoning district.

And so for those reasons, I will be approving this project um per staff's recommendation, as well as the addendum to the Japan Town Corporation Yard Redevelopment Project Final Environmental Impact Report.

Um so this plan development permit amendment is hereby approved.

And as there are no other projects on the public hearing portion of the agenda, this brings us to adjournment.

And this concludes the planning director's hearing for March 4th, 2026 at 9 32 a.m.

Thank you to everyone, the public for attending this morning.

Take care.

Thank you.