SAN JOSE — An innovative San Jose residential development would blend townhouses with accessory dwelling units and replace most of a prominent retail center, according to plans on file with city officials.
The housing development envisions a 21-building project of townhouses, many of which would incorporate the accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, into the townhouse, according to a preliminary proposal on file with San Jose city planners.
The residential project would sprout at the corner of Blossom Hill Road and Santa Teresa Boulevard in San Jose, across the street from Westfield Oakridge shopping center.
The proposed housing development would bulldoze and replace retail sites occupied by several well-known merchants: BevMo!, a wine, beer and spirits retailer; Scandinavian Designs, a contemporary home furnishings store; Party City, a party supplies retailer; and Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant.
The project site has addresses that include 859, 863, 865, 871 and 873 Blossom Hill Road, according to the preliminary plans on file with the city.
The proposed townhouse buildings would all be three stories high and include rooftop decks as an amenity, the plans show.
The development is slated to consist of 172 townhouses. The plans state that 35 ADUs will be part of the townhouses within the project.
“The ADUs would be incorporated into some of the townhouses,” said Kurt Anderson, the architect for the proposed housing development.
An adjacent surface parking lot would also be part of the residential development.
The project is slated to create a new private street to serve the development.
A group managed by real estate executives Mike LaBarbera and Robert Facchino II owns the development parcels where the project would be built, according to Santa Clara County public documents.
Some merchants in the shopping center appear to be outside the development footprint, according to a summary of the preliminary plans posted by city officials.
Not included in the project: Mandarin Gourmet Restaurant, Pho 24 Vietnamese Cuisine & Sweet Tea; and a Chevron gasoline station.
This residential project could contribute to what is a shifting scene on this stretch of Blossom Hill Road.
Just to the west, the exit of longtime anchor Sears prompted a wide-ranging revamp of the Oakridge shopping center that brought several new stores to the regional mall.
A few blocks away, at 1007 Blossom Hill Road, construction is underway on a 271-unit residential complex that will replace a long-closed Fish Market seafood restaurant.
The Facchino/LaBarbera Blossom Hill entity that owns the property filed the proposal in a fashion that suggests the developer would use a streamlined approval process for housing under the rules sketched out in SB 330, state legislation aimed at spurring new residential development, the city files show.
SB 330 also can be used to limit the roadblocks that can be placed in the path of a project proposal.