RTRE vta properties

South Bay Transit Agency Seeks Public-Private Development of 26 Sites (list below)

Submitted May 6, 2010, 7:16 PM

The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority plans to test the waters for redevelopment of 287 acres across Silicon Valley in conjunction with the private sector. The agency hopes to parlay the best-situated properties into high-density villages on the doorsteps of its stations rendering both riders for the faltering system and cash for the agency’s coffers.

Nine sites in particular, measuring more than 211 acres total, have been designated “priority” status, as the first the agency intends to pursue because they have the most potential in the short term.

Among those sites are 17.3 acres near San Jose’s Tamien Station at state Highway 85 near downtown,122.3 acres in San Jose at Zanker Road and state Highway 237 likely best suited for retail development, and 1.6 acres near downtown’s Diridon Station. Diridon is planned as a major Northern California transportation hub and is being discussed as a stop on the route of the California high-speed rail.

“We will be looking for partners in developments that benefit the VTA, not just financially but that also help us to increase transit ridership,” VTA General Manager Michael Burns said May 6. That implies high-density mixed-use development, he said. Burns spoke to the Silicon Valley Building Owners and Managers Association.

The agency also hopes to enter into a public-private agreement to redevelop one of San Jose’s most prominent development sites, the so-called Mitchell Block. The property, 3.3 acres, has long been eyed as a key development site in San Jose’s long downtown renewal process. At one point, the city planned as much as 1.5 million square feet of mixed used development on the property.

Burns cautioned that the agency would not be conducting a fire-sale of the properties, saying the process of dispositions would be “market-based.” He acknowledged that land values were at or near cyclical lows in many cases. He said the agency would lean toward long-term leases on the priority sites rather than outright sales as a mechanism to share in some of the development upside. The arrangements also can allow payment for the land to be extended through time, he added.

Still, the first offerings are likely to include two sites in Palo Alto and San Jose, he said, both of which are considered for outright sale along with four other, generally smaller sites. The agency expects to complete an initial sales pass for the Palo Alto and San Jose sites to other public agencies in the region within the next 30 days. After that, it would test private-sector interest.

The Palo Alto site is a small parking lot at the corner of El Camino Real and Page Mill Road across from several Stanford University sport fields. It is not quite 20,000 square feet. The second is in San Jose at the corner of Lawrence Expressway and Moorpark Road. It is 32,147 square feet. The Palo Alto site has already attracted the interest of potential buyers, according to the staff report.

While the VTA is perhaps best understood as a public-transit agency, its activities include regional land-use planning among the 15 cities in Santa Clara County and heavy transportation-related construction of highways as well as public-transit lines and stations. It has a $372 million annual operating budget and 2,100 employees.

The agency is overseeing the $6 billion BART extension to San Jose and Santa Clara. Sixty-five percent of the design work is complete today, Burns said. The first, 10-mile phase of the 16-mile extension will include two new stations, one in Milpitas and one in the East Side Barryessa district of San Jose. The city of Milpitas has already approved a land plan around its station for more than 7,000 homes, a million square feet of offices and nearly 300,000 square feet of retail.

Plans at the Barryessa station include 4,000 homes and 350,000 square feet of retail, commercial and office space.

Meanwhile, Burns said, the agency anticipates federal approval of its environmental-assessment documents for BART by the end of this month. With that in hand, the agency can begin to buy property for the stations, a process that should last about two years.

VTA PRIORITY DEVELOPMENT SITES

Zanker Road/Highway 237 in San Jose: 122.3 acres

I-880/Milpitas Station in Milpitas: 3.4 acres

San Jose Diridon Arena Parking Lot: 1.6 acres

Morgan Hill Caltrain Station: 6.5 acres

Santa Teresa Station: 35.8 acres

Tamien Station: 17.3 acres

Union Pacific Railroad Corridor/San Jose: 2 acres

VTA Administration/River Oaks: 17.5 acres

West San Carlos Street: 5.25 acres*

*Not available for sale but proposed joint development

VTA SITES IDENTIFIED FOR JOINT DEVELOPMENT/NONPRIORITY