SAN JOSE — Efforts to create a new generation of higher towers in downtown San Jose are near success — with the trade-off being minor impacts on a few overseas flights — according to San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo.

Some proponents of economic growth hope that significantly taller buildings will be allowed in downtown San Jose, which is beneath the flight path for the city’s international airport and has a flattened look, with boxy hotels, office towers and residential high rises.

“We are working earnestly to find a path to reach both objectives, taller buildings downtown and a strong and growing airport,” Liccardo said in an interview.

Multiple key neighborhoods of downtown San Jose — including a western section of the city’s urban heart where Google plans a transit-oriented community of office buildings, homes, stores and restaurants near the Diridon train station — have height constraints to ensure jetliners can soar safely above the structures.

“We’re in negotiations with the airlines about the height limits,” Liccardo said. “There are potential trade offs to get higher buildings downtown.”

Two or three airlines, primarily those that connect Asia and San Jose, might be affected. As an example, they might fly with a bit less cargo or fewer passengers, potentially with five empty seats or so, according to the mayor. That would lighten the planes so they could safely clear the tops of taller buildings.

Experts who are familiar with the downtown believe it makes sense to pave a smoother path to construct higher buildings in the city center.

“Developers can generate more revenue with taller buildings, and once you are not so limited in height, you can start adding more interesting architectural features,” said Nick Goddard, a senior vice president with Colliers International, a commercial realty brokerage. “You can add spires, buildings constructed in a wedding-cake pattern, more variety.”

Plus, pressure could intensify to construct higher buildings in the downtown due to the expansion plans by tech giants Google and Adobe Systems, as well as the prospect that Diridon Station will add a BART stop and high-speed rail connection, in addition to the existing light rail, Caltrain, Amtrak, ACE Train and Capitol Corridor lines that new serve the transit hub.

“This is going to be downtown San Jose 2.0,” said Bob Staedler, principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy, a land use and planning consultancy. “The downtown will have a Grand Central Station of the West. So taller buildings make more sense, because property values will be going up.”

Over the 12 months that ended in September, investors spent $1.43 billion purchasing downtown San Jose properties, according to Santa Clara County property records and this news organization’s analysis of the property transactions. That’s nearly three times the $484 million in downtown San Jose property purchases over the one-year period that ended in September 2017.

“We don’t have to be confined to the squat, little skyline downtown San Jose has had for so long,” Staedler said.

The airline industry’s trade association referred inquiries to the Federal Aviation Administration.

“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 Wednesday. “The FAA’s determination is only a recommendation. We don’t have authority over local building decisions.”

It’s also possible that the state Transportation Department’s Aeronautics Division might weigh in on the matter.

The FAA doesn’t have a blanket building height limit that it applies to structures near airports, according to Gregor.

“We evaluate structure by structure,” Gregor said.