San Jose City Council approves mega-retail center in Almaden area

Despite concerns from a handful of residents, environmentalists and others that a proposed mega-retail center on one of the last major swaths of open land in San Jose will negatively affect traffic and quality of life, the San Jose City Council on Tuesday night easily approved rezoning the area for such a project.

In a 7-to-1 vote, the council agreed to change the designation of about 45 acres of land on the northeast corner of Highway 85 and Almaden Expressway to commercial use only.

The council also denied a recent appeal of the project's environmental impact report by an adjacent landowner concerned about a new traffic median that he thinks will affect some nearby businesses.

Only Councilman Kansen Chu was opposed each time, siding with the affected business owners.

Councilwomen Rose Herrera, Nancy Pyle and Madison Nguyen were absent.

Saying the appellant's traffic issues were not significant enough to halt the project, Mayor Chuck Reed supported the zoning change because he believes the new retail center will help boost retail sales tax revenue in the city. Reed estimates the city loses up to 20 percent of retail sales tax revenue that now goes to other cities where San Jose residents shop.

"We've asked staff to aggressively pursue that (issue). ... This is a project that will help us do that," Reed said. "When you compare this project to what is across the street, I would say it's vastly superior to most of the

Early on, the city's planning staff had successfully pushed for changes to the project, including more landscaping, fewer parking spaces, smaller tenant buildings and a family-friendly "village green" area. City Councilman Don Rocha, who represents the area, also responded to neighbors' concerns by getting preliminary funding approved for a pedestrian bridge that will provide access over the nearby Guadalupe River.

Rocha praised the doggedness of the nearby neighborhood associations for their suggestions for improvements, calling their work "impressive." But he also gave a public nod to Gerry DeYoung, president of Ruth and Going, which is designing the site, for responding to the public's concerns, as well as the engineering firm's willingness to invest in San Jose "at this economic time."

"Not a lot of folks are putting up private dollars to make an investment as significant as this," said Rocha.

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San Jose City Council approves mega-retail center in Almaden area