Santa Clara County

When individuals barter, they generally have a firm sense of underlying value, i.e. “What’s this thing really worth to me?” A 10-year-old car might be worth $1,000, to judge from the Recycler or Craig’s List. At $20,000, a used car is a bargain only if it is a 1949 Ferrari Spider with the original piping on the seats.

Cities, on the other hand, often appear not to have a sense of “beyond this price we will not go.” True, they bargain for big things on which it is hard to pin values, such as stadiums for NFL football and professional soccer. Still, the fact that cities are willing to entertain highly aggressive offers suggests to me that some city officials have a hard time drawing a line between a good deal and a bad one.

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After five years, a planning effort for a new growth area in south San Jose has halted because a coalition of developers has ceased funding the effort. Coyote Housing Group, which includes Shapell Homes, Citation Homes and other developers, announced in mid-March that it would suspend funding for work on the Coyote Valley specific plan. The group cited the “extremely complex planning process” and complications with existing industrial entitlements in North Coyote Valley. » read more | add to cart

This is a story of two downtowns — one that has become a model core for a large suburb, and one where the walls that stalled progress have finally come down. This is also the story of the long-term consequences, sometimes unintended, of land use decisions. » read more | add to cart

It is no secret that affordable housing is in short-supply in Santa Clara County. Recently, the Bay Area Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), Charities Housing Development Corporation, and the Institute for Metropolitan Studies at San Jose State University released a report, “Housing Silicon Valley: A 20 Year Plan to End the Affordable Housing Crisis,” to quantify the problem and suggest solutions. The study is available at the LISC website: www.bayarealisc.org.

The report led to the creation of a “blue ribbon commission” of housing experts and civic leaders that is scheduled to release an action plan in October. Greg Chin, program coordinator for LISC, helped write the report and is providing staff assistance to the commission. He spoke with CP&DR Editor Paul Shigley in May.

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A state appellate court has upheld the City of Gilroy’s housing element against a challenge filed by affordable housing advocates. The court ruled that, under the housing element law in effect when Gilroy updated its housing plan in 2002, the city did not have to provide a site-specific inventory and analysis. » read more | add to cart