A developer has been selected to finally bring some housing near the Tamien light rail and Caltrain stations in Willow Glen.

Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority officials introduced representatives from UrbanCo-Tamien, a partnership between CORE Development and Republic Urban, during a Nov. 15 community meeting at the San Jose Elks Lodge.

VTA spokesperson Linh Hoang said in an interview that UrbanCo-Tamien was “selected for their abilities and their capability of providing a mixed-use and mixed-income housing and commercial opportunity” to the 6.96-acre site on Lick Avenue, just east of Highway 87.

“Their familiarity with the neighborhood was really taken into consideration, and their ability to deliver something the community had envisioned,” Hoang said, noting the two development companies that make up the UrbanCo-Tamien team have built a number of similar local projects including the Meridian at Midtown and Ohlone mixed-use buildings, both on West San Carlos Street.

About 440 rentals are poised to be built for the mixed-use, transit-oriented community, including about 88 affordable units for people earning 60 percent or less of the area’s median income. Last year the San Jose City Council unanimously approved a minimum of 3,000 square feet of ground-level commercial retail space there, but that could possibly triple to 10,000 square feet to accommodate a childcare facility that many residents have demanded.

Site plans haven’t changed too dramatically but Willow Glen Neighborhood Association president Richard Zappelli said having developers finally involved was a welcome change.

“We attended previous meetings where only VTA real estate people were running the meeting,” Zappelli said in an email. “This made a big difference. Two members of the developers team did nothing but take notes in full view of the public.”

Bringing in a developer now could also possibly increase the housing density “with the city’s help in rezoning,” project executive Michael Van Every said in an interview.

“We heard from the community loud and clear that affordable housing is paramount in this part of the city,” he added.

For years, a parking garage was planned to be built as part of the development on the west side of the freeway where VTA has a 262-space parking lot. Willow Glen neighbors objected to the garage, and plans to build it have since changed.

“We don’t intend to build a parking garage,” Van Every said. “Parking garages are actually what really make transit traffic problems in neighborhoods. We’re going to essentially work with what we have. We have land on the west side that we’re going to reconfigure and realign to make a more efficient surface-level parking lot.”

Some residents told the Resident that parking is just as important as adding more housing, and they’re concerned there won’t be enough spaces when transit riders park on the streets to avoid paying to use the lot. They also asked where crews will park during construction.

“We need to come up with that plan, that interim construction plan that allows us to mitigate the construction period,” Van Every said.

Another community meeting is tentatively scheduled for early next year; groundbreaking is expected to happen in 2019 or 2020 and construction should take about two years.