San Jose

When we study a city, county, or town, we examine its zoning, its development review processes, and how often approvals face opposition through local administrative appeals or litigation. We also study the development approvals to understand how local governments apply their own law, and state law. We map the approvals to examine what the community is allowing to be built and where. The following reflects data on approvals issued in 2014-2017.

San Jose



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San Jose At-a-Glance

Approvals (2014-2017)
81 multi-family housing projects approved
14,601 units total
734 units (5%) were affordable units

Zoning (as a percentage of all zoned land)
4% all income levels
44% single-family

Prior Use (of land approved for new multi-family housing development)
32% already residential (320 units demolished, 2,226 market rate units built, 22 affordable units built)
44% commercial
1% agricultural
20% vacant
2.5% unknown

Median Timeframe for Approval (entitlements)
15.7 months for multi-family housing (urban area median: 10.8 months)
32.2 months for single-family homes (urban area median: 12.6 months)

Review Process
San Jose did not permit any projects of 5 or more units through a ministerial process (requiring no discretionary review) in 2014-2017.

Opposition to Development
Two projects litigated. The median timeframe for the entitlement process plus lawsuit completion in San Jose was 58 months.
Six projects faced administrative appeal.

Wildfire Hazard
One project in San Jose (7 units) was sited in a high-risk fire zone.


Takeaways

San Jose's housing approval rate lagged behind some of its neighbors.

When we adjusted entitlement rates for city size (measured by population), we found that San Jose's approval rate was less than half of Mountain View's. It was three times the rate of Palo Alto's housing approval rate, however.

San Jose's planning and zoning do not appear to facilitate multi-family housing.

San Jose's local regulatory environment and zoning (its density and use provisions) likely did not facilitate multi-family housing approvals. The City zoned very little land zoned for dense housing, and local law required all dense housing to go through discretionary review.

San Jose also took a relatively long time to move proposed multi-family housing through its review process.

During our study years, anyone proposing multi-family housing in San Jose went through a discretionary review process. That was true even if the proposed development complied with the City's zoning and planning requirements completely. Discretionary review involves planning review and allows the City to impose conditions of approval on some kinds of development and to reject other kinds of development proposals. In some cities, this can extend approval timeframes. San Jose's median timeframes for all housing we studied, of ~18 months, were the third longest in the study (out of twenty jurisdictions across the state).

Most of what San Jose approved would result in housing being built where there was no housing before.