Okay, apologies for my tardiness, Commissioner Rosario will not be here this evening.

And so you are stuck with me.

There we go.

This is our special meeting of the it's a study session.

We're presenting the 2025 General Plan Annual Performance Review Report.

I am going to do a quick roll call just to make sure that we know who is here, except I don't have the roll call list, but that's okay.

Commissioner Barroso.

Yes.

Commissioner Cantrell is not here.

Commissioner Casey?

Here.

Oh, I saw Commissioner Bandal in the hallway.

We'll wait for him.

Commissioner Cow.

Not here.

Commissioner Escobar?

Here.

Commissioner Newing?

Yes.

Commissioner Oliveria.

Yes.

And Commissioner Young is not here.

Just note that Commissioner Bandal is walking in the door right now.

Okay.

With that, I think we have a staff presentation for this evening.

So Commissioner Bandal has just walked in the door.

Let's go ahead with the staff presentation.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Good evening, Planning Commissioners.

My name is Sanjita Kochan, supervising planner in the general plan team in the planning department.

I have the pleasure of presenting the 2025 general plan annual review report today.

I'm joined by my team, David and Laura.

They'll introduce themselves.

Take it away.

Thank you.

Hi.

Good evening, Commissioners and Chair.

My name is Laura Maurer.

I'm a planner on the general plan team.

And I'm going to be joined today by David Fong, who is also a planner on the general plan team in our presentation today.

Before we start, we also just want to acknowledge and express our appreciation to all the departments that helped us with this report, including PRNS, DOT, ESD, OED, and other teams within PBCE.

We do ask if you please leave questions until the end of the presentation.

There are slide numbers on the slide, so uh you can use that for easy reference.

Today, as we mentioned, we are going to be presenting some highlights of the envisions and 2040 General Plan 2025 annual performance review report.

This annual review report is mandated by the state law and by a general plan policy.

The general plan sets forth a vision and a comprehensive roadmap to guide the city's continued growth through the year 2040.

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.

This evening's presentation, we're going to give an overview of each strategy and present a summary of the implementation highlights from each strategy.

David and I will be dividing the presentation.

Uh those strategies that are mostly related to planning and development and then cover all the other strategies that cover topics like transportation, parks, economics, etc.

I'll hand it over to David.

Thank you, Laura.

We're going to start off with the community-based planning major strategy.

This is a commitment to effectively engage all segments of the community in a meaningful planning process.

Public outreach is implemented using our city's public outreach policy, Council Policy 6-30.

The picture tabled shows the number of community meetings held by the plan division by fiscal year since the fiscal year 2011, which was the year the Vision 2008 2040 general plan was adopted.

For the last fiscal year 2024 to 2025, the planning division held 34 in-person and virtual community meetings with approximately 1002 community members and stakeholders.

Out of the 34 meetings, 24 were virtual, eight were in person, and two were hybrid.

A majority of the meetings were held virtually, but meetings for large or controversial projects such as the Saratoga Urban Village Plan, the Pleasant Hill Golf Course Guiding Principles Meeting, and the Builders Remedies Projects Incorporated in-person meetings.

In the last fiscal year, the last fiscal year continues the trend of declining number of community meetings and declining attendance since the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is in part due to fewer overall projects being submitted, smaller projects that do not require community meetings, more ministerial applications that do not require community meetings, and more uh in-person committee and more in-person community meetings.

The form-based plan major strategy uses land use designations and the general plan's goals and policies to address the form, character, and densities for long-term development in the city.

The strategy aims to maintain and create compatible and cohesive neighborhoods while allowing for flexibility within the land use designations.

The design guidelines help the city facilitate growth, set expectations for higher quality site and building design, and maintain and enhance the character of its neighborhoods and communities.

The pictured gateway tower project approved in the SOFA district of downtown, is an example of some exemplary design.

The project was designed to prioritize an active and pedestrian oriented streetscape, despite the challenges of the site's irregular triangular shape and limited street frontage.

The proposed ground floor facade incorporates commercial uses, pedestrian scale, historic elements, and continuation of adjacent storefronts.

The design retains the historic facades of the city landmark Herald College and a structured merit, preserving the established architectural rhythm and character of the SOFA district while introducing a contemporary tower that is visually distinct yet compatible with the surrounding historic context.

Okay, so on to major strategy, uh the focus growth strategy number three.

The focus growth major strategy aims to focus new residential and commercial growth capacity in specifically identified growth areas, which are identified on the map on the right.

Our growth areas include downtown, employment areas, specific plan areas, and urban villages.

The approach is meant to reduce environmental impacts, improve the city's financial health, and preserve established neighborhoods.

Since fiscal year 2011-2012, building permits were issued for 79% of residential development, 87% of commercial development, and 91% of industrial development within these designated growth areas.

Also, since fiscal year 2011-2012, planning entitlements were approved for 91% of residential developments, 90% of commercial developments, and 94% of industrial developments were within these growth areas.

Residential growth can happen outside of growth areas because of an increased number of ADUs that have been constructed after passage of state ADU laws, which allow ADUs throughout the city, not just in growth areas.

Also, significant industrial and commercially designated land also exists outside of growth areas.

This chart shows the issuance of building permits permitted citywide and in growth areas for single family slash duplex residential units since fiscal year 2011-2012.

50 single-family duplex units were permitted in the last fiscal year, which is nearly the same that were entitled in the prior fiscal year.

However, this is still significantly lower than the number of units that were permitted throughout the 2010s.

8% of single-family duplex units were permitted in growth areas in the last fiscal year.

However, single family duplex units are not a product type envisioned for growth areas in the general plan, so it's not unusual to have a low percentage within growth areas.

This chart shows the issuance of building permits citywide and in growth areas for accessory dwelling units, otherwise known as ADUs since fiscal year 2011-2012.

508 ADU units were permitted in the last fiscal year, which is a slight decrease decrease from the prior fiscal year.

However, ADU production has continued to fluctuate around an average of 500 units per fiscal year for approximately the last five fiscal years, after it's significantly increased year over year between fiscal years 2016-2017 and 2020 210.

7% of ADU units were entitled in growth areas in the last fiscal year.

ADUs are also not a product type envisioned in growth areas, so it's not unusual to see a very low percentage of ADUs in growth areas.

This chart shows the issuance of building permits issued citywide and in growth areas for multifamily units since fiscal year 2011-2012.

525 multifamily units were permitted in the last fiscal year, which is a significant decrease from the prior fiscal year, with the lowest number of multifamily units permitted since adoption of the general plan.

However, 1,659 multifamily units have already been permitted in the first six months of this current fiscal year, which points to the significant decrease as a normal fluctuation of units permitted year over year.

34% of multifamily units were permitted in growth areas in the last fiscal year.

This is a significantly lower percentage than any other fiscal year, and can be attributed to the fact that there was just overall less multifamily units.

This chart shows the square footage of new commercial building permits issued since fiscal year 2011 2012.

1.2 million square feet of commercial space was permitted in the last fiscal year, which is nearly double the square footage that was entitled in the prior fiscal year.

However, this is still below average and more in line with the square footage that has been permitted in the last five fiscal years.

This chart shows the square footage of new industrial building permits issued since fiscal year 2011-2012.

1.6 million or sorry, 1.7 million industrial square feet was permitted in the last fiscal year, which is more than double what was entitled in the prior fiscal year.

This continues a trend of increased industrial square footage seen over the last three fiscal years and is reaching near record levels.

93% of the industrial square footage was entitled within growth areas in the last fiscal year.

These next three sides will go over planning entitlements.

So this one is showing planning entitlements citywide and in growth areas for all residential types, not just single family or ADU or multifamily but all together since 2011-2012.

So there were 4,722 residential units that were permitted in the last fiscal year, which is a slight increase over the prior fiscal year.

This continues the trend of above average entitlement of units seen over the last four fiscal years, with the current fiscal year also on track to entitle above average number of residential units.

92% of the residential units entitled were in growth areas in this last fiscal year.

This chart shows the entitlement planning permits for commercial square footage entitled since fiscal year 2011-2012.

2.5 million square feet of commercial space was entitled in the last fiscal year, which is a decrease compared to the prior fiscal year.

This is the lowest amount of commercial square footage entitled since fiscal year 2018-2019 after five years of above average entitlement of square commercial square footage.

92% of the commercial square footage was entitled in growth areas in this last fiscal year.

This chart shows the entitlement planning permits for industrial square footage entitled since fiscal year 2011-2012.

980,000 square feet of industrial space was entitled in the last fiscal year, which is a very slight decrease from the prior fiscal year.

This is still lower than the average in half of what was entitled just two years prior.

However, all of the industrial square footage was entitled in growth areas in the last fiscal year.

Next is our urban village strategy.

This strategy promotes the development of urban villages that are active, walkable, and transit oriented mixed use settings for new housing and job growth.

In total, the general plan identifies currently 63 urban village areas and plans for approximately 65,000 housing units and 116,000 jobs.

Since the adoption of the general plan, 16 urban village plans have been adopted by city council.

There were no urban village plans completed within the last fiscal year.

However, the Five Wounds Urban Village Plan is working on their currently working on their environmental review.

Also, the Saratoga Urban Village Plan in Eastside Alum Rock Urban Village Plan did start their urban village planning process in 2024, and the Eastside Urban Village is anticipated to be completed in the summer of 2026, pretty shortly, and the Saratoga Urban Village Plan in fall of 2027.

The South D'Anzo Boulevard and South Baskum South urban villages are under consideration for the next areas to go through the urban village planning process.

To support housing production before adoption of urban village plan, the general plan has a policy allowing signature projects, which let mixed-use residential projects of exemplary nature to move forward ahead of an adopted urban village plan if it meets certain criteria and clearly advances implementation of the urban village major strategy.

In total, there have been nine signature projects submitted.

Two projects have been completed and one partially completed.

We have five others that are entitled and one that is pending entitlement.

Since fiscal year 2011-2012, we have issued building permits for 11,975 residential units and 9.5 million square feet of commercial space within urban villages.

Also since fiscal year 2011-2012, we have planning entitlements that have been approved for 24,432 units and 8.3 million square feet of commercial space in urban villages.

This strategy supports continued growth of downtown as the city's cultural center and it has an important employment and residential neighborhood.

Consistent with this, the general plan plans for 28,000 residential units and 106,000 jobs in downtown.

Since fiscal year 2011-2012, building permits have been issued for 6,384 residential units and 5.5 million square feet of commercial space in downtown.

Also, since fiscal year 2011-2012, planning entitlements were approved for 16,581 residential units and 22.7 million square feet of commercial space in fiscal year 2012-2013 to a low of 12% in 2016-2017 and steadily rose until the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused the vacancy rent vacancy rate to jump back to over 20%.

In fiscal year 2022 23, the vacancy rate significantly increased 30% with the completion of the 200 Park Avenue office tower, which completed construction without a tenant.

In the last fiscal year, the vacancy rate decreased slightly to 29% from a high of 31% in the prior fiscal year.

Downtown is also a cultural center for the city where many events are held.

In fiscal year 2024-25, there were 113 events in downtown with over 2 million attendees.

After several years of few or no events because of COVID-19 restrictions, attendance has returned over the last several years to pre-COVID levels of attendance.

This strategy establishes the four-year review cycle, which you guys know very well, which provides an opportunity for the city to evaluate changes in planning context and the city achievements of key goals.

The city has completed two four-year review processes, one in 2016 and one in 2021.

And the third four-year review process began in the summer of 2025 with completion of task force meetings in June of 2026 and anticipated hearings for approval at the end of 2027.

This third fourth, this third four-year review focuses on four main topics: increasing residential capacity, creating missing middle housing opportunities, modifying the urban village planning process, and evaluation of the jobs to employed resident ratio.

Staff will also reinitiate the TRI-Elements update in fiscal year 26-27 to update the safety element and open space elements and create a new environmental justice element.

However, there was one general plan of general plan amendment hearing for 100% affordable housing, which was held in May of 2025, where one project was approved.

Although the housing section is not a major strategy in the general plan, it is intertwined with many other strategies.

The sixth-cycle housing element contains a work plan to achieve the goals of the housing element.

A key tool for tracking progress in the housing work plan dashboard pictured on the screen visualizes the status of strategies and policies.

The dashboard is updated semi-annually and helps the public stay informed about ongoing and upcoming housing initiatives.

In 2025, staff completed or were under review for several initiatives to advance the city's housing goals, including creating a city ministerial allowance or sorry, ordinance to allow for ministerial processing of certain residential projects within approved urban villages, evaluing small multifamily housing throughout the city as part of the general plan four-year review.

Also evaluating the urban village planning process as part of the general plan four-year review, and continuing incentives for residential development through construction tax reduction or elimination for qualifying projects.

Supporting job growth within existing job centers, adding new development lands, and designating job centers at regional transit stations.

Since the adoption of the general plan in 2011, the city's population continued to increase until it peaked in 2020.

With a population of 1,049,000.

But the population has declined the following four years to a population low of 969,000 in 2024.

It has rebounded, and as of December 2025, the population is 979,000, just slightly above where we were in 2011.

Therefore, the city has only grown by approximately 9,500 people since 2011, which represents about 1%.

The continued high cost of living may be leading to slow population growth, exacerbated by the pandemic and the high availability of remote work, particularly in the tech sector.

You can see the number of jobs occupied in the right column from 2011 to 2024.

San Jose has attained roughly 57,000 new jobs, which is about 4800 jobs annually.

As shown in the lower table to the right, San Jose remains the city, the only city with the lowest jobs per resident ratio from surrounding cities, and the only city under a 1.0 ratio.

The data reinforces the importance of the general plan's job focus and the need to maintain employment lands for future job growth.

Strategy 6, Streetscapes for People emphasizes the human-centered street network, supporting a more equitable, environmentally sustainable and dynamic, transit-oriented city.

Goals and policies of the general plan encourage the development of complete communities where residents can walk, bike, or have and have access to parks and trails.

The Department of Transportation led efforts in the past few years for the approval of several transportation plans, which move forward the complete streets principles.

These include Vision Zero Action Plan, the Better Bike Plan 2025, and Movimento, or the East San Jose Multimodal Transportation Improvement Plan, the Downtown Transportation Plan, West San Jose Multimotor Transportation Improvement Plan, and the Transit First Policy.

In fiscal year 2024 to 25, the city installed 7.4 miles of new on-street bikeways and upgraded 32.8 miles of existing on-street bikeways.

Progress on other notable projects include the centralized transit signal priority project, which is a traffic signal technology that adjusts signal timing by extending green lights, shortening red lights, or reordering phases.

This reduces the time buses spend waiting at intersections.

The centralized TSP project has been implemented at 671 traffic signals serving all VTA rapid, frequent and local bus routes.

Transit times on bus routes are expected to be 20% faster.

To the right is the East Ridge to Bart Regional Connector.

This will extend VTA Light Rail approximately 2.4 miles along Capitol Expressway from Ellen Rock Station to the East Rich Transit Center.

The project is currently under construction with passenger service expected to start by the beginning of 2029.

The measurable sustainability environmental stewardship major strategy aims to achieve ambitious environmental leadership goals by advancing its climate smart San Jose Plan through 2020 2040.

The Measure of Sustainability Strategy recognizes the general plan as a tool to minimize impacts on resource consumption, minimize contribution to global warming, and the preservation of the natural environment as it relates to growth and development.

Major initiatives to improve sustainability in 2025 included the Zero Emissions Neighborhood Pilot Program.

This program implements multiple climate smart improvements to the Santee neighborhood of East San Jose, including leading educational workshops at Community Gardens, hosting volunteer native planting events, which saw almost 100 plants being planted.

There were also several energy efficiency programs for single family and multifamily building owners, such as the Energy and Water Building Performance Ordnance, San Jose Clean Energy's energy efficient programs, peak rewards program, and the multifamily charger assistance program.

To further measure progress towards the general plan goals, staff in the environmental services department collects data annually on key environmental indicators for energy use, transportation, housing, and water use.

Climate Smart San Jose aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels.

This graph for Climate Smart Greenhouse Gas Reductions shows pathways and inventory.

The graph provides a comparison between the Climate Smart Plan's emission reduction pathway, the pathway to carbon neutrality by 2030, and San Jose's emission reduction progress so far.

The orange dot is just climate smart plans sectors only.

Based on this data and chart, San Jose is on track to meet its climate smart emissions reduction goals by 2050.

However, these emissions are slightly higher than those required to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.

As in previous years, the majority of community wide greenhouse gas emissions came from transportation, which accounted for 51%, and energy use inside of buildings accounting for 29% of all greenhouse gas emissions.

The fiscally strong city major strategy establishes land use goals and policies that promote a balance of revenue and cost to allow the city to improve delivery of municipal services.

A key component of the strategy is to preserve employment lands since commercial development has the most beneficial impacts on the city's fiscal health and ability to provide services.

Past land use patterns have resulted in predominant low density single family residential uses in San Jose.

Low density sprawl results in a disproportionate cost to the city due to high capital investments and ongoing operations and maintenance for infrastructure, serving fewer people and business than the city otherwise could in a higher density built environment.

Key measures for determining the city's fiscal strength are the capital and operating budgets, including the capital improvement program.

For fiscal year 2025-2026, the adopted budget totals 6.26 billion for all city funds, which is 2.1% more than the prior fiscal year.

In the 2024 to 25 annual report for the budget, the city ending fund balance was 21.9 million above the estimate.

These funds were utilized for cleanup, rebudgeting action to non-discretionary and highest priority needs.

The strategy also promotes building a world-class trail network and continuing to build parks for the city's residents.

For fiscal year 2024 to 25, highlights include five new park openings, including Riverview Stormwater Garden, Brazone Park, Mercado Park, the beautiful Way Park, Tujio Fujimoto Park, plus major renovations at several existing parks.

Two miles of new trails on the Coyote Creek Trail connecting Mayberry Road to Empire Street and between Phelan Avenue and Tolley Road.

79% of residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park, which is 1% less than the prior fiscal year.

The city has 3.2 acres of recreational land per 1000 residents, which is the same percentage as the prior fiscal year and 0.3 acres short of the 3.5 acre goal in the general plan.

The strategy supports the physical health of the community by promoting walking, bicycling, and public transit.

To get there, Climate Smart, along with the land use and transportation chapter of the Vision San Jose 2040 general plan sets long-range goals and policies to provide for a safe, efficient, and sustainable transportation network.

General Plan Policy TR 1.3 calls for a reducing drive-alone mode share to no more than 45% by 2030 and no more than 25% by 2040, with goals to increase various other modes accordingly.

As shown in this chart, the city has increased its goals to decrease their reliance on single car travelers and more reliance on alternative modes for transitation.

Although we have not seen an increase in public transit users in the last five years, we are seeing an increase in more carpool and ride share participation.

The city is still actively working to improve these numbers.

Goals and policies of the general plan encourage the development of complete communities where residents can walk or bike and have access to parts and trails.

Vision zero is a nationwide program adopted it by the city in 2015.

In February 2025, the city council adopted the 2025 Vision Zero Action Plan, strengthening this commitment through updated strategies, equity focused initiatives, and alignment with national best practices.

The plan sets a clear target, a 30% reduction in fatal and severe injuries by 2030, with the goal of eliminating them by 2040.

In 2025, the walk and roll program worked with approximately 90 um elementary, middle, and high schools for San Jose.

The program provided traffic safety, education for safety assemblies, bike rodeos, and informational resources, as well as events designed to motivate students to try walking and biking to school.

Improvements in traffic safety in October of 2024, City Council adopted the speed safety system use policy and the speed safety system pilot program impact report as required by uh state assembly bills.

In 2025, as part of the speed safety system, the city installed speed enforcement cameras at 33 locations and red light cameras at four intersections.

Improvements to our community forests, the community forest management plan, which is the city's forestry program, planted over 1600 trees in the last fiscal year.

An ongoing planting of 1,000 street trees annually will be provided along with pruning all existing street trees and planting and maintaining trees and parks is maintained through the city's forestry program.

And lastly, trails, our department of transportation along with parks and recreation also helps build and maintain our trail systems.

The city's trail network to date has built out 66 miles of off-street trails now open to the public.

The city has a goal to provide 100 miles of all street trails designated for use by pedestrians, cyclists, and non-odermor vehicles.

This concludes staff's presentation.

Thank you, Commissioners, for listening in on how the city's progressing this past year with general plan goals and major strategies.

We are available now for any questions and comments.

If you could hold that for one sec.

Um I didn't ask earlier if there was any public comment.

I didn't see any cards.

Okay.

Please, Commissioner.

We have no action here.

It's purely informational, correct?

Okay.

And then staff on the slide decks where you were going through the variety of uh developments that were had that you were listing entitlement.

Um do we track the what actually got pulled for a permit to build?

That is the the first section, the first section where it was building permits.

That's what's actually just to see the differential.

Yeah.

And maybe you can speak to it, like which I'm I'm assuming that the commercial has the highest variable of differential.

Good chance, yes.

Um let's see.

So this is the commercial permits.

Um I guess that then there's the what actually is completed, right?

This is what's completed.

So this is the permitted is building permits.

That's what they've actually pulled the permits to actually construct it and construct it.

Very rarely do people pull permits and then not uh do the construction.

It does happen occasionally, but it's pretty rare.

Um, but the other one, this one would be like what was entitled.

So that's the first step usually is entitlement, and then the next step is building permits.

So, yeah, we can see that there's a lot that's entitled that does not go through to building.

However, these processes can take a while too.

So, you know, they can take two more.

Like I'm thinking of that larger commercial project that's off of like Highway 87 around Julian or Coleman, where uh they broke ground and then they stopped construction.

So that's an example.

You can pull a permit, but just they're not going for it.

Yeah, I believe they they made they did the parking, like the underground parking.

I think they may be coming back in to complete some of it, but yeah, they they sort of paused and right.

Okay.

That's it.

I just, you know, entitlements are all um they're they're one measure, right?

And then the other measure, and of course, these things are uncontrollable by us, right?

What's their financing to actually go execute?

Correct.

Thank you.

Sure.

If you could go back to slide nine, I'm just gonna follow on a question.

Um is there any uh representation of how many projects I know this is square feet, but was that one large project or was it three large projects or do we know?

I do have that data.

Um it would take me a little time to go through it, but if you were interested, I could get that data and email it over.

I do know for the really high amount in 2019 2020.

I believe those were the both the years that the Adobe North Tower and the 200 park were issued, and so those were very large, significant amounts of square footage, which is why that one is so high, but but there's always a lot of other little ones.

This also includes um what's called like finish interior, which is just finishing out like empty space too.

So some of that is included in this as well, not just the new building itself.

What I was trying to get at there was how much of 23, 24, 24, 25 is you know, huge data centers is this represent one project for the city, or does it represent 30 projects for the city?

Yeah, I could get that number for you uh later, but I in general there's not as many um commercial permits.

I would say you know, maybe it's uh 10 or 20 versus like a hundred, you know.

It's for for a future report, it might be nice to just see somewhere there what the number of projects is.

Great feedback, thank you.

Thank you.

Sorry, Commissioner Casey, I was checking my notes.

Yeah, we want to continue.

Um to follow on to um Commissioner Oliverio's question um about the permitted entitled.

And yeah, I think knowing how many units are actually brought online and part of that maybe we can assume that it's 90% of entitled or permitted, I should say.

Um but but also there's the delay they permit it, it takes two, three years.

So to see when we're actually gonna start moving the needle for residents, it would still be kind of helpful to see.

I don't know if it's a certificate of occupancy or whatever measure we would be used to see what was actually brought online during the year to see if that starts to help at all.

Like what was finalized in that year.

Yeah, like what if what can people actually move into?

Yeah, um, people like pretty pictures.

Yeah, yes, they do.

We want to see a building and people in it.

Um then I have another question.

Um, well, I guess it's a clarification from for myself as well.

With I mean we know the number of people going to offices and all that is greatly decreased since COVID, etc.

And there's folks that work from home, my son and his girlfriend, they're 100% remote for a company that's 100% remote.

They live in San Jose.

So when we look at the job numbers and things like that, I'm assuming it's based on wherever the so-called headquarters of this virtual company is located, that gets all the credit for the jobs, or because that's where the taxes go, or do we somehow get some credit for that and tax somehow for people that are 100% remote working from San Jose?

Is that Department of Finance?

Yeah.

Yeah, so we don't like collect that data ourselves.

It does come from the state, so it comes from the Department of Finance, I believe, but our OED helps us with this with this kind of information.

I'm not completely sure how like whether it's like based on where they're from or how they calculate that, but we could also get that information.

Yeah, it may be I mean, maybe much larger than us in terms of trying to get some of that.

I mean, I understand the jobs to um resident ratio, but in some cases I think we have more people working and living here than maybe we're getting accounted for, and it's not just to brag the number, it's somehow how do we get some of that tax revenue, which is what we're ultimately after.

But yeah, that may be a much larger question.

But I just wanted to understand if my understanding of how it's calculated today is correct.

So those wouldn't be in our job numbers then, correct?

For people like that.

If I can maybe I'll just jump in for a second.

Um so work from home is not included in our jobs numbers.

So it is tied to business location, it's not necessarily just headquarters location.

Um so if they're a well if the company's 100% remote, then I assume it's not.

Right, so it's where that business is registered, yeah.

Okay, sort of doing business as in a certain location.

So it's tied to that location.

But um what we see, because it is it's an important question.

I mean, in theory, uh companies that are operating within the city limits are intended to get a business license, and in theory, you know, pay taxes associated with that, but um it's very hard to track.

Yeah, so I imagine.

Okay, thank you.

One follow-on question on that.

I mean, ultimately, whether it's franchise tax forward or department of finance, there's someone, you know, someone filed a tax return that showed they were employed.

That could be a metric for San Jose, showing you have 389,000 people that filed a uh W-2 in California.

Yeah, I mean, it's certainly something we could follow up on, whether we have access to sort of that level of data or information or the ability to then process it on the back end would be the question.

But um but it it's an important point, right?

Because when we developed the general plan back in 2011, um, you know, we knew at that time that about 60% of our workforce were leaving every day to work in surrounding communities.

And so that number has shifted with remote work becoming a factor.

We just don't necessarily have a sense of what that looks like.

Yeah, and just with the economy of the future, we're not gonna have necessarily a lot of manufacturing and other things.

There's gonna be more and more, I think, work from home types of things.

So I just want to get our fair share.

I'd happily argue that one.

I think it's still a uh focus for advanced manufacturing.

So what you'd see more on the RNDN, but San Jose's got a long legacy of being a center, and we actually, there's a surprising amount of activity in the market right now.

That's good.

So some of the buildings that we saw built over this last period, um, you know, a lot of tenant interest on the industrial side.

Um, so not just data centers, but but uh manufacturing is still resurging in the valley.

It's great to see.

Thank you.

I also know that Google moved into a bunch of the old Cisco buildings in San Jose, and I'm assuming that drove our numbers up a little.

So, they literally just moved in.

Um, and they it takes time to sort of ramp up, and then we've seen Apple move into some of their locations in North San Jose as well.

So yeah, definitely we will see kind of a lot of these numbers move.

I think there is uh a fair amount of activity in the market that we're tracking.

Not all of it, you know, some of it is occupying existing space, and so we'll see some churn there.

But actually, actually, another question of mine is do we have forward looking projections of some of these numbers that we could not not super accurate ones.

Um I think you know, and back to the conversation about permitting, right?

The one thing to bear in mind when we look at numbers like this is the difference between sort of entitlement and permitted through the building permit process is really just a moment in time.

The numbers aren't, you know, you can probably see trends as a through line, but they're not always directly connected, especially when you take into consideration through the pandemic, we did a lot of work extending entitlements.

So we uh have sort of come towards the end of that, but there were some long-standing sort of you know eight-year entitlements out there that that went to building.

Um what would be the sort of number that we're working on we don't currently have is what the rate of attrition is for entitlements.

So right now we're sitting on somewhere in the region of 26,000 residential units entitled with an active entitlement.

So typically that's a backlog over the last four to six years.

Um, right now there's uh I think it's about 3800 units either in a building permit process or under construction.

So what we're looking at now is sort of what does that entitlement pathway look like for those that are about to expire, and how many of those will drop off?

Because I think that's that's really the telling numbers.

We do a lot of work in entitlement, but unless we see that transfer through to development, then um then it's a challenge.

So following on that, have you what kind of work do we do to understand what's gonna drop off or what's gonna be?

So that's something that we're expanding into now.

Laura's been doing uh a tremendous amount of work on this.

Um we produce a five-year forecast every year, which goes into the budget process because obviously uh new development has a significant impact on property taxes, so budget's really interested in our work.

So we issue that um that forecast in about February typically.

It goes into the budget process that's developed by city manager's office, which does sort of look out and sort of um looks at what we're predicting.

Um the one thing we don't have is that really sort of active tracking of expiration, and so we've added capacity in the department now that's gonna take a deeper look at that.

Um, so we can do a little bit more analytics.

Um we've actually now started to do a little bit more outreach with those entitlements that are starting to drop off just to see where they're at, just to see if we can, you know, there's anything we can do to push them over the goal line or anything we can do with those entitlements to keep them active if they're close, you know, because we don't want to have to push them back through another process.

Commissioners, any other questions?

I have two.

On slide three, could could you um there was a I had a question about the 2020 2021 number of 115 and 3500 attendees?

What was special about that year that it's you know two or three times any other year?

I can answer the question.

So in 1920, that's the COVID year.

Could you bring the microphone closer?

Sorry.

This is working?

Is it better?

Yes.

Yes.

So in the for a while after COVID, when we all went remote, for a while there were no community meetings while we while we were all ramping up, you know, learning the whole Zoom process, etc.

And I think that's the reason why that year is low and then the next year is higher.

Okay, so it was a catch up from 19 uh 2019, 2020.

Okay, thank you.

And then on slide 10.

Uh that uh 1762 in 24-25, where uh I think I asked this already.

I'm curious about the is that one project or 12 projects or um I don't know the exact number, but I do believe it's not very many, probably four or five.

Okay, and you'll follow up on that one.

Yeah, thank you.

And Laura, the industrial also includes build out of existing spaces, or is it just new construction?

Uh for permitted, it would be finished interior or so not for additional alterations or tenant improvements, but it's just finished interiors or new construction.

So again, there may be other projects in there that were built shell that were coming online that sort of catch up.

We do see that a lot, especially some of the warehouses that were built recently.

They come in for new construction and then they come in again for finish interior to build out the shells of the warehouses so that they might actually show up in here twice.

I have one last question.

Page 23, the reference to uh the uh Zen, the zero emissions neighborhood.

Um forgive my ignorance, but you where are those?

Or is it um so this is monitored by our ESD department?

Um but they do have a map uh in their in their own um ordinance and studies.

Uh, could somebody just share that with me?

I'm just curious.

Do we have a not now?

You can oh yeah, we'll get back to you with that one.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Uh sorry, Commissioner Cow.

Yeah.

Uh first of all, thank you so much for the presentation.

There's a lot of information here.

So I'd like to, maybe in the spirit of this big picture overview, um, ask a big picture question.

Are there any specific areas of concern or areas of focus that the planning department based on, I mean, because there's so many initiatives and um there's so much data that you all just presented in this presentation, and I'm curious to know where are those areas of concern or focus for you all, and is there opportunity moving forward to help think through some of those issues, whether it be here um with the planning commission or well?

Actually, let's keep it just to that because that's relevant to all of us here.

Chris, would you like to take that?

That's a Chris question.

Areas of concern.

Um, you know, uh a lot of what we do is really thinking about the future of the city as a whole, but that city only occurs if we see the investment and construction that comes with it.

And so, you know, how we continue to build a policy framework that balances all of the needs of a thriving city, but that's also buildable and can deliver on the promise of employment, of amenities and services and retail, and also sort of most importantly housing, is a huge challenge.

Now, obviously, we set out what was a pretty ambitious vision for that in 2011 with this general plan.

The world has shifted around us, and so we're constantly playing catch up.

If you think from uh 2018 or end of 2017, then Mayor Licardo passed a memo with the city council that was the response to the housing crisis.

And that was really you know the initial set-off of this discussion around what are we going to do about housing.

Since then, the state has passed over 450 pieces of legislation relative to the city's interaction with housing.

That work alone occupies about 90% of our citywide planning's work plan.

Just playing catch-up.

And not just catch up, but also defense around a lot of these projects.

So, you know, our work plan now looks ahead.

Some of you may recall the housing element process.

Um, you know, that took us about two and a half years to get through with the state.

Um, the next one's due in uh January of 2031, right?

So that means we need to start it at the end of 27, essentially.

Um, that's why we're doing the four-year review right now.

Is that so we've got the tools and the capacity available to do that?

Because we know that if we don't, we'll be in another situation where state law overrides our local control of land use.

So that's a balance, right?

And it's a challenge.

And as we take on all of these issues, um, you know, there's a huge push around sort of this uh abundance mindset around housing, it's just more housing everywhere all the time.

Um, but you know, we've always been a housing rich city, so we've got to keep jobs at the forefront, we've got to think about how we build the infrastructure and the services to support that.

Um so I mean there's a lot there.

We could probably go for a couple of hours talking about those issues.

All right, thank you very much for that.

I do want to loop back to a jobs-related issue that Commissioner um Casey brought up, and I think Commissioner Oliverio too.

In relation to people working from home, is there a way for us to maybe think differently, look at different metrics moving forward, given that there is so much more work from home now?

Um, because I heard you mention earlier that it's really at the moment based on where the business's headquarters are, right?

And probably Silicon Valley in relation to the country would have a ton of work from home of people working from home, and I was kind of thinking about it as they were speaking and making their comments asking questions.

I know a handful of people who work from home exclusively.

That's a luxury in Silicon Valley that is not enjoyed in many other places in the country and even in within California.

So out of curiosity, are there are there thoughts, I guess, in the pike or ideas moving forward to re-evaluate how we think of the data feeding our jobs to employ ratio.

I don't know the exact name, but yeah.

Yeah, no, you got it.

Yeah, yeah.

Um, so I'll take a first path and then you guys can save me if I get off track, which is usually the case.

Um, so I think there's a couple of important things to think about.

So one is you know, why do we think about the balance between jobs and employed residents?

Um, and it's actually a sort of a fundamental cornerstone of everything we think about in our general plan.

It's not just uh tax revenues to the city, right?

It actually under it underlays uh a lot of our sustainability goals, right?

When you think about how the city grew in the second half of the last century, it was massive sprawl into single family neighborhoods.

And what that did is it put a huge pressure on the roadways, right?

And so, especially when uh if we don't have the jobs capacity and we have a lot of the residential capacity, if all those people are leaving every day, um then uh you know, it's uh it's increasing the vehicle miles traveled, it's increasing the pressure on intersections.

Um, so you know, you'd think that work from home is a benefit to that.

So, you know, that's one way that we're keeping an eye on this, is what's the impact on traffic patterns?

Um, you know, I think there's there's been some impact, but traffic's still pretty rough.

Um, as we continue to shift density around the city and continue to be a base for residential for the rest of the valley, we'll still see some of those challenges.

So bringing the opportunities for people to work in offices close to where they live will continue to be an important factor.

Um there's also the sort of consideration around vibrancy, and I think we've seen this most importantly in the downtown, um, is that as we've seen this decline in the number of jobs in downtown and this increase in vacancy, you can see the impact on the built environment.

There's not as many people on the street daytime.

And when people are working from home, um, you know, we often go for a walk, like in a city like San Jose, if you're gonna run out to the store or grab coffee, there's a likelihood you're gonna drive.

We're not walkable communities, right?

So, so again, there's a a shift, it's sort of it it has a different impact in different locations.

So I think that's something that we're really thinking about as we sort of look forward to this.

Um, it's still gonna be important to think about this sort of balance.

Um, but what's really sort of the the bigger priority is how we think about land area and the use of land area.

So, you know, in a typical city, not that there is such a thing, but we would expect to see something more like about 30% of the land area dedicated to employment, um, you know, a broader range.

Again, because of how we grew, because of the history of the city, we're down at about 13% is employment lands for San Jose, which is significantly lower.

So, you know, for us it's a real priority to preserve those lands to use them wisely to look at that investment and sort of drive it in a really productive way.

The other sort of really sort of important thing is these things move in waves, and we understand that, right?

I think we've already seen some of the shift back.

Um, you know, employers uh pre-pandemic were in a situation where they were really catering to the uh employees' needs.

It was an in, you know, an employee market essentially.

So we saw a drive to dense urban locations where there were amenity rich, where they were transit rich, because employees could get there easier, they could stay there longer, there was sort of more of the things they wanted.

Um, you know, in a post-pandemic world, it turned the other way around where employees just wanted to be at home, and the employers were sort of, you know, in the the sort of scramble for you know increased share of the market for high quality talent, especially in an area like San Jose, you know, they were more flexible in what they considered as far as business location.

Um we know that'll swing back and forth in the future.

So how that moves will be interesting.

Some of the bigger moves we've seen in recent uh months around office space just sort of tend to be pointing at a trend back towards the office.

We're hearing a lot from major employers.

Um, but then we're gonna have to balance that with the impact potentially of things like artificial intelligence as we look at that and the impact of the overall economy.

So there's a lot of factors that go into it.

I think work from home is an important one, but ultimately over time, it will likely even itself out and we'll really be sort of accounting for that in a larger number.

Okay, thank you very much.

Just one comment, please.

Just on the work from home thing, I don't think we have an advantage at work from home.

I think in my experience, uh working in software, we have countless employees or in geographic areas all across the country that are nowhere near a tech center, and work from home is really enabled a dispersion of jobs to other parts of the country that had never been never experienced before.

So still interested in maybe what the number might be, but no panacea that I think everyone's uh working from home and spending their sales tax dollars in San Jose because the sales tax data doesn't show that.

And they're all buying online while they work from home, which that's a different conversation.

That's a really good point, Commissioner Oliverio.

Thank you for highlighting that.

Sadly, thank you.

Yeah, please, Commissioner Van Dal.

Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation, appreciate it.

That doesn't make sense.

If you are working from home, then why would you want to pay rent in San Jose when you can live?

Some other bit more cheaper.

So I don't think we're out of a huge advantage, but I think we're somewhat advantage, I'd say.

Um I do have a question.

There's a question is for Mr.

Burton because we miss him and we don't see him that often anymore.

Um and make sure that there's a market for our employment lands, and then uh that will keep them as employment.

It's good to hear from me.

Thank you.

Commissioners, any further comments?

I'd like to thank staff for their presentation today.

Very informative and helpful and and as always.

Uh so thank you for taking the time.

I know that it was probably a long day for you as well.

Yes.

Thank you.

And we will get back to you with those.

Perfect.

The question.

Thank you.

Um we have time for open forum if anybody has any any further comments.

Otherwise, we can move to adjourn.

Okay, no further comments.

Let us adjourn at six ten p.m.