SAN JOSE — Downtown San Jose could boast significantly taller buildings, both in the existing core area and the neighborhood where Google is eyeing a transit-oriented village, after the first official review in a decade regarding height limits in the Bay Area’s largest city.

Much of downtown San Jose lies beneath or near the flight paths of airplanes going in and out of San Jose International Airport. Depending on the downtown section where a building might be constructed, city rules place height limits on buildings ranging from roughly 120 feet to 200 feet — which works out to roughly 10 to 16 stories.

“There is a real focus on density in downtown San Jose, and the only way you can create density that makes a difference is to try to have higher buildings,” said Scott Knies, executive director of the San Jose Downtown Association.

San Jose city officials, amid a burst of new towers and development proposals, as well as major expansions being eyed by Google and Adobe Systems in the city’s urban core, have launched a major study of raising the heights of buildings in the downtown area.

About four scenarios are being considered by San Jose policy makers and city staffers. The first public airing of the alternatives for higher buildings occurred Monday at the City Council’s Community and Economic Development Committee, chaired by Councilman Johnny Khamis.

“The real issue, the real focus, is on the core downtown area plus the Diridon Station area,” said Kelly Kline, chief economic development and land use officer with the office of San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo. “There could be fairly significant opportunities in the Diridon Station area for higher buildings.”

San Jose officials, as they ponder how to enable much higher buildings downtown, must balance the needs of airlines that use the city’s fast-growing airport with the desire by local business leaders and property owners to increase density.

“Our hope is to develop a consensus viewpoint with all of the people who care about the downtown and who care about the airport,” said Kim Walesh, San Jose’s director of economic development. “We are hoping for potential conclusions and a recommended strategy for height limits by the end of this year.”

In the Diridon train station area, the highest building is the SAP Center, a 110-foot-tall sports and entertainment complex. The Federal Aviation Administration rules typically would cap buildings at 230 feet in the flight path areas.

“You could have a building twice as high as SAP Center, even in the Diridon Station area,” Knies said. “This is an economic issue. It is not a safety issue.”

The vast majority of flights wouldn’t be affected by a big jump in height limits for downtown San Jose buildings, experts said.

Related Articles Map: San Jose’s tallest buildings “In analyzing all of the flights connecting to San Jose airport, there are only a handful of flights that could be impacted,” Knies said. “It’s primarily the flights from Asia.”

The debate over the height limits also underscores the interwoven relationship between the airport and the downtown district, John Aitken, San Jose’s director of aviation, told the council committee during a presentation Monday.

“Downtown needs the airport, and we need the jobs downtown,” Aitken said.