Planning Director's Hearing - August 5, 2026: Deferral of Special Use Permit for Retaining Wall
Planning Director's Hearing - August 5, 2026
The Planning Director's Hearing for August 5, 2026, convened at 11:15 AM UTC (9:09 AM local time) with Hearing Officer John 2 presiding. The sole agenda item was a request to defer a special use permit for a retaining wall at 6763 (address incomplete), due to concerns raised by Valley Water about potential property encroachment. After discussion, the hearing officer granted a two-week deferral.
Discussion Items
- Item 3A – SP26005 / ER26-024: Staff (Jacqueline Guerrero, planning project manager) requested a two-week deferral to verify property boundaries, as Valley Water had alleged that the retaining wall work was already under construction and encroaching on their property. The applicant (John) opposed the deferral, explaining that work had been previously permitted by Public Works but was stopped due to Valley Water's concerns. He stated the project was not currently active and that they were seeking proper approvals retroactively. Hearing Officer John 2 clarified that planning staff needed additional time to resolve encroachment issues and granted the two-week deferral.
Key Outcomes
- Deferral Granted: Item 3A was deferred for two weeks to allow staff to further review property boundaries and Valley Water's claims.
- No other items were heard; the meeting adjourned at 9:09 AM local time.
Meeting Transcript
Good morning. We're calling to the order of the planning director's hearing of August 5th, 2026. My name is John 2. I'm the hearing officer for today's agenda. On behalf and delegated by the director of planning, building and code enforcement, Christopher Byrne. This meeting is being held via Zoom conference call. Member of the public may participate by following the instructions listed on page two of the agenda. If you'd like to provide public comment, you have two methods to do so for participants who join electronically and have audio input on their computer or smartphone. They can use a rate sign feature in Zoom during the agenda item they would like to speak to or click star nine on their phone. Remember to keep your raise time feature on until planning support staff identifies their 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 or the phone number that you called in 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 that they would like to speak and that they are unmuted. Planning support staff will identify you by name when it is your turn to speak. At that time, you'll be unmuted and can provide comments for the allotted time. If we exceed the allowed time, you've been muted so that we can move on to the next speaker. Please note the following. The hearing procedure and order input will be as followed. I'll identify each project described on the agenda. For those items on the consent calendar, I'll ask if anyone wishes to speak on them. If a separate discussion is warranted, I'll move the items to the public hearing portion of the agenda. If a separate discussion is not needed, the item remain on consent calendar for approval. For those items listed under the public hearing, I'll ask that to provide a brief report. The applicant or the respective who wishes speaking item will have up to five minutes to speak and should identify themselves by stating their name for the record. After the applicant or the resident has spoken, any member of the public who wishes to speak on the item will provide testimony up to two minutes per speaker, either for or against the project. All members of the public should identify the 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'll then close public hearing, and we ask staff to answer questions, respond to comments made by the applicant or the public or further discuss the item. I'll then take action on the item. If you challenge these land use decisions in court, you may be limited to raising only those issues or you or someone else raised at this public hearing or in writing correspondence delivered to the city or prior to the public hearing. The planning director's actions items will be finalized when the permit signed and mailed, unless the permit or the environmental clearance determination is appealed. The plan director's action on the permits are appealable in accordance with the requirements of title 20 of the study code. The plan director's action on the environmental review for the permits permits under the California Wallet Environmental Quality Act are separately appealed according to the requirements of Title 21 of this municipality code. Before we begin, I'd like to remind members of the pro of the public to follow our code of conduct at the meeting. This includes commenting on the specific agenda items only. No public will public speakers will not engage in conversation with the hearing officer or staff. The hearing officer staff and the public are expected to refrain from abuse of land, which repeated failure to comply with our code of conduct, which will disturb, disrupt, or impede the order of conduct of this meeting may result in the removal from the meeting. The meeting of the registering will now come to order. Two, uh deferrals. Any items scheduled for hearing this morning for which deferral to a future meeting is being requested, will be moved to this portion of the agenda and considered on the matter of deferral. I'll identify any item to be deferred and ask comments from the audience. If you would like to change any of the of the items, any of the items, uh, the deferral date or the speaker questioning for all the audience, please use the raise hand feature in Zoom or click star nine to raise your hand. I will now open to public hearing. There's currently no items for deferral. Staff, is there any additional comments? Morning hearing officer. My name is Jacqueline Guerrero, planning project manager for item 3A. Staff would like to recommend deferral for two weeks. Ask staff wants to verify the property boundaries. So just for the record, staff is asking for consent item 3A, SP 26005 and ER26-024, which is for a special use permit to allow the installation of retaining law.
openpublica.com