SAN JOSE — Plans for affordable housing for middle-income people might supplant a prior proposal for a hotel in a San Jose historic neighborhood near Google’s proposed transit village, public documents on file with city staffers show.
Preliminary plans are being floated at City Hall for a housing development at 615 Stockton Ave. in the Schiele Alameda neighborhood near downtown San Jose, on a site where a hotel had once been envisioned by project developer Alan Nguyen.
“A 100 percent moderate-income affordable housing project” would be built at the site, according to the preliminary proposal from Nguyen that’s being reviewed by the city planning staff.
Enscape Residences is a working name for the project, according to Nguyen.
The residential project is being pitched at the corner of Stockton Avenue and Schiele Avenue, which is near the footprint of a game-changing mixed-use neighborhood that Google has proposed near the Diridon train station and SAP Center.
Conceptual images of the residential development depict a building that would be no more than five stories high and would have an entryway along Stockton Avenue. Terraces and at least one interior courtyard would be part of the new development, according to the images.
At least one resident of the historic neighborhood, Kay Gutknecht, appeared open to the concept of affordable housing.
“I think people would support moderate-income housing,” Gutknecht said.
Of course, the keys are in the details of the project, including height and numbers of units, she noted.
“The mass of the building, how it fits in with the neighborhood, those would all have to be considered,” Gutknecht said. “A 20-story modern highrise would not be well received.”
The developer previously proposed a five-story, 120-room hotel with an outdoor guest area including a roof deck, which would have been one of the taller structures in the quiet neighborhood.
“The opening line from the developer was you all know that Google is coming and this hotel is for Google,” Gutknecht said. “We may be near downtown, but we are an incredibly quiet neighborhood at night.”
The hotel might have jolted the neighborhood too much, residents feared.
“A lot of people would go dining and drinking at The Alameda, but the way there would be right through our neighborhood,” Gutknecht said. “A hotel is a 24-hour operation.”
The hotel would have been built on 0.6 acres at 615 and 623 Stockton Ave. and would have required a historic home at the 623 address to be relocated nearby and for an existing commercial building and surface parking lot to be bulldozed.
The San Jose City Council rejected the hotel proposal in February 2020. Now, a revamped approach has emerged.
The new proposal would involve only the commercial building and adjacent parking lot at 615 Stockton Ave., requiring just 0.35 acres of the site. The historic residence wouldn’t be disturbed.
“The neighbors want housing, but not low-income,” Nguyen said. “So this 100% median-income housing is the desired outcome.”
A major push is underway on multiple fronts to create and preserve affordable housing in the Bay Area, including in Silicon Valley during a time of sky-high prices for shelter.
But some experts point out that the push for affordable housing at times downplays the needs of middle-income people.
“We are more interested in helping the missing middle,” Gutknecht said. “We need housing for teachers, firefighters, police officers. There could be support in this neighborhood for that, for middle-income housing.”
