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What will ‘Opportunity Housing’ Look like?
San Jose’s Envision 2040 General Plan Task Force recommendation to eliminate single-family zoning throughout San Jose (euphemistically known as ‘Opportunity Housing’) includes NO design guidelines other than maximum building height and minimal set back limits. This means NO architectural review of the new multi-unit building next door, and no requirement that the look-and-feel of new developments fit into the existing neighborhood. In fact, state law (SB330) prohibits any new zoning requirement that is not defined by a simple quantifiable measurement.
Under Opportunity Housing there will be no public hearings, zero planning overview of new developments, zero notification to neighbors, and zero neighbor input on proposed designs. There is more planning approval and required public hearings to remove a single large tree, than will be required to build a multi-unit building next to your house under Opportunity Housing!
What does Opportunity Housing mean? It means developers can build a 4-plex apartment, plus 3 ADUs, right next door to any single-family home in San Jose—and you will not be given a chance to say anything about it! 4-plex developers can, and likely will, use the cheapest materials and highly questionable design choices.
What does Opportunity Housing look like?
Here are some examples of 4-plexes in single-family neighborhoods in San Jose today.
Opportunity Housing includes NO requirement for on-site parking. All those cars will have to go somewhere. Parking on the street, and maybe on the front lawn.
Of course, providing on-site parking for 4-7 units may not look that nice either—if parking covers the entire front lawn.
This 4-plex is bathed in sunlight…because the developer built this multi-unit out to the maximum footprint the law allows, chopping down all the old growth trees on the property. Perfectly legal and highly likely under the Opportunity Housing proposal.
Multi-units cannot be served by traditional trash cans on garbage pick-up days. Large dumpsters will be required to service these properties under Opportunity Housing.
Do you have a poorly-designed multi-unit in your single-family neighborhood? Send us a pic and we will include it in our rogue’s gallery.
Send your pics to: familiesandhomessj@gmail.com
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