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On Nov. 4, the City Council voted 6:1 to establish the Stadium Neighborhood Relations Ad Hoc Subcommittee (Committee) through 2026. Members of the committee will be Councilmembers Albert Gonzalez, Karen Hardy and Suds Jain with Raj Chahal as an alternate. This is something I have been advocating for every year since 2022 and I wanted it to be modeled after the Neighborhood University Relations Committee for Santa Clara University. The committee with be funded from the Stadium Authority and not the General Fund.
A representative from the 49ers will be present to address any concerns that residents have regarding Stadium operations like noise, traffic, parking, violence, litter, porta-potties, etc.
The first meeting of this committee will be at 3 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 15 at the Northside Branch Library at 695 Moreland Way. It will be open to the public.
Santa Clara City Tree Lighting Ceremony
The 114th Santa Clara Tree Lighting Ceremony will be on Friday Dec. 5 from 5:30-8 p.m. in Central Park at 909 Kiely Blvd., Santa Clara. The event will feature a visit from Santa Claus, food trucks, live performances by local groups.
The Santa Clara Historic Home Tour will be Friday Dec. 5 from 6 to 10 p.m. and Saturday Dec. 6 from 12 to 5 p.m. Tickets are $30 and most of the money goes to local non-profits. For more information and to purchase tickets visit the home tour website.
Picking up wristbands & tour programs. You will need to access your receipt from your ticket purchase either in person or from Eventbrite. Check in at the Santa Clara Woman's Club Adobe, 3260 The Alameda, Santa Clara, CA. You will receive a wristband for the tour. The program will list the address' of the homes and structures on the tour.
This year, four private homes including the Franck Mansion (1902) will be on the tour as will the Santa Clara Fire Museum
The tour is sponsored by the Historic Preservation Society of Santa Clara and the Old Quad Residents' Association. The proceeds support cultural, historical nonprofit groups in the City of Santa Clara.
In response to efforts by a community group, Reclaiming our Downtown (ROD), the City Council, on Dec 4, 2018, initiated a “Downtown Community Task Force (DCTF)” to “provide input on the vision, land use, circulation, and urban design aspects of the Plan, as well as key policy issues”. The City issued an RFQ for a consultant to help facilitate and guide the DCTF. Wallace Roberts and Todd, LLC (WRT) was selected as the consultant. Learn more about WRT.
The first meeting of the DCTF was Dec 20, 2018 when I was on the Planning Commission. There have been 45 meetings of the DCTF since it started. All the meetings are recorded and available on the City’s website.
As a result of these meetings, a Downtown Precise Plan was developed with a Form Based Code to provide objective design standards for development. A CEQA document was also created which includes traffic studies so any developer who complies with the Precise Plan will not need a CEQA review, saving time and money.
The Downtown Precise Plan planning area encompasses approximately 25-acres of land bounded by Benton Street, Lafayette Street, Homestead Road, and Madison Street, as shown below.
“The Downtown Precise Plan and Form Based Zoning Code were presented to the Planning Commission at a public hearing on October 25, 2023, for a recommendation to the City Council. The Planning Commission adopted resolutions to unanimously recommend to the City Council approval of the project.“ The City Council approved the Downtown Precise Plan, Form Base Code and CEQA findings at the December 5, 2023 Council Meeting with a 6:0:1 vote (Mayor Gillmor recusing). At that time the Council, by consensus, directed staff to look into a nexus study for community benefits from density bonuses. On January 9, 2024, the Council voted to create a zoning district for the Downtown.
Various studies have been done for the downtown. The City Council approved $325K on June 21,2022 to study moving City Hall to Downtown (Mayor Gillmor and Suds Jain recused).
The City has issued an RFP for a consultant to perform the nexus study and is also working on an RFP for a developer to build on Blocks A and B which are owned by the City. One sticking point has been whether these City owned parcels are subject to surplus land act. It seems that we can get an exemption from SLA if we build enough low income housing in the Downtown. The exemption is important because it allows us to require ground floor retail. The main issues with the RFP are what kinds of incentives are the City Manager and Council willing to give to developers to get started with construction given that interest rates are high and most construction these days is for townhomes. Even Core is proposing townhomes at Agrihood and Pulte is proposing townhomes at the Super Kyo Po supermarket across from Kaiser.
Some people have proposed putting City offices in Commerce Plaza building on Lafayette. The City Manager says it would cost more than $23 million to refurbish the building for accepting tenants.
Another sticking point is the future of the Courthouse which has been closed for years. Cutting a deal with the County or State to move the Courthouse operations is critical to the development of the Downtown. People from Reclaiming Our Downtown are trying to get Prometheus to rebuild Park Central Apartments. Fortunately, Adam Thompson was able to get the City to purchase parts of Franklin street from Prometheus so that we can restore the spine of Downtown. Also folks from ROD are trying to find developers for blocks A and B. Here’s the website for ROD.
On Friday Nov. 14, I attended the grand opening of Bafang Dumpling in Santa Clara Square. Who says there are few good places to eat in Santa Clara? Bafang is a fast casual dining experience that originated in Taiwan in 1998 and has 12 locations in Southern California. Santa Clara is the first Bafang in NorCal. At the grand opening the line was halfway around the building. The first customer arrived 2 hours before the opening.
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 On Oct. 29, I attended a Bay Area Regional Convening on Illegal Dumping sponsored by the Alameda County Illegal Dumping (ACID) and Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley. ACID has created an Illegal Dumping Solutions Report — This mixed-methods report surveyed over 370 illegal dumping experts. Combining the findings with qualitative stakeholder interviews, this report highlights 3 recommendations to comprehensively address illegal dumping throughout the State.
They have also produced a Model Ordinance for Illegal Dumping EnforcementThis Model Ordinance expands accountability and increases the administrative fines for illegal dumping. It is meant as a guide for jurisdictions throughout the region to adopt similar ordinances, creating a uniform set of illegal dumping standards and rules across the region.
If you see illegal dumping in the City of Santa Clara, you can report it on the MySantaClara App on your phone. This app is the best way to report Code Enforcement issues, water waste, tree maintenance issues, illegal dumping, graffiti, overgrown vegetation, street light repair, sidewalk and street issues, etc. You can even report Stadium noise on the app.
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