Taller downtown San Jose towers could add 4,900 jobs and keep airport robust: city report

SAN JOSE — Office, residential and hotel towers could be 260 feet tall — roughly 25 stories — in parts of downtown San Jose, including the development area of a proposed Google transit village, according to a new city staff proposal.

The proposal is designed to unleash a dramatic increase in the heights of buildings in downtown San Jose yet still preserve robust airline operations at the nearby international airport, and create 4,900 new jobs, the city staff report stated.

“This is very encouraging,” San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said. “Our extensive engagement with the airlines reinforces what we have long believed. We can have a safely operating airport and a downtown of a stature that befits a city the size of San Jose.”

The proposal would allow buildings to be 75 to 150 feet higher than is currently allowed by municipal ordinance in the area of the Diridon train station and the SAP Center, under a scenario that the staff report recommends be approved by the City Council. The tallest building in the Diridon station area is SAP Center, at roughly 110 feet in height.

In other parts of the downtown that are more directly beneath the flight paths of jetliners using San Jose International Airport, buildings could be five feet to 35 feet higher than they are now, which could add two or three stories to existing height limits.

John Aitken, the city’s director of aviation, was credited as a key player in helping cobble together the key interests of increased development downtown via taller towers and continued safe and vigorous airport operations.

“This is a win-win for the downtown and the airport,” Deputy City Manager Kim Walesh said.

Airlines offered differing impacts from the scenario that is being recommended by city staffers, according to the report.

Hainan Airlines, which links San Jose and China’s capital of Beijing, anticipated a “significant reduction in cargo and passenger payload” because it won’t be able to fly over the Diridon station corridor.

Air Nippon Airways, often known as ANA, which offers flights to Tokyo and other destinations in Japan, said it wouldn’t suffer a reduction in passengers, but it did anticipate a loss in cargo.

British Airways, which connects San Jose with non-stop routes to London, predicted that the proposed alternative would have “no impact at all to current operations.”

Southwest Airlines, the dominant carrier that serves San Jose, reported no impacts would occur except on days when the local temperature was 92 degrees or higher, an assessment shared by Alaska, American, Aeromexico and Delta. When temperatures rise beyond a certain level, the reduced air density requires a jetliner to travel faster or carry less weight to generate enough lift to safely take off, according to a 2015 Columbia University study.

Hawaiian Airlines stated its flights to Honolulu, the Big Island of Hawaii and Maui would have no passenger impacts, but did say its flights to Kauai would have some loss in passengers. Some impacts on cargo volume would occur for all its flights.

United Airlines stated that the proposed scenario would result in “minor” or “significant” impacts to passenger loads, depending on which of its aircraft were in use on a given flight.

“The economic impact is overwhelming,” said Scott Knies, executive director of the San Jose Downtown Association. “When you double the building capacity on the west side of the downtown, what you gain in density and potential new employees and potential tax revenue, that completely offsets the aviation-related losses. We can have our cake and eat it too.”

An estimated 27 aviation jobs would be lost, and aviation-related economic activity would suffer a loss of $2 million if the city adopts the scenario proposed by the city staff, the report stated.

However, taller towers would create 4,900 jobs and increase economic activity in San Jose by $747 million, according to the city report.

“Maximizing the amount of jobs and housing within walking distance of Diridon Station will connect lots of residents and workers to high-quality transit and help to alleviate the congestion of workers flowing north by creating a regional job center for the South Bay,” Teresa Alvarado, director of the San Jose office of SPUR, a nonprofit civic planning organization that supports the city staff scenario.

The current height restrictions, as well as the new heights being proposed, are within the Federal Aviation Administration rules for the San Jose area.

“Under federal law, the FAA must be given the opportunity to review every proposed tall structure near an airport, and any proposed structure over 200 feet high, to determine if it would pose a hazard to air traffic or navigation aids,” FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said. “The FAA’s determination is only a recommendation. We don’t have authority over local building decisions.”

San Jose’s downtown at present is akin to a series of boxy and flat mesas, and proponents of taller towers believe the skyline could become more dense and visually appealing.

“There are many San Joseans who have longed for a more distinctive skyline,” Liccardo said. “The restrictive flight paths have constrained us to what architects might describe as a squat downtown. For those of us with greater ambitions but also supporting continued safety at the airport, this is all happy news.”

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