June 19 th, 2017 Mayor Sam Liccardo and Members of the City Council City of San José 200 East Santa Clara Street, 18th Floor San Jose, CA 95113 Re: Item 4.1 Agreement with Google for Acquisition and Development of Properties in the Diridon Station Area. The undersigned organizations, representing a broad range of community, faith, labor, tenant and legal services groups across San Jose, encourage the City Council to require specific community benefits on job quality, diversity in contracting, affordable housing and displacement and other community needs as a condition of an Exclusive Negotiation Agreement with Google. The City has an opportunity to shape this project into a model for how the responsible growth of tech companies can benefit all San Jose working families. The City also has an obligation to ensure this project does no harm in terms of increasing economic inequality, housing unaffordability and displacement. A project of this magnitude deserves a broad and inclusive community engagement process, overseen by the Council, to identify solutions to mitigate the impacts of this project and ensure its results benefit all San Joseans. This project brings benefits and challenges for our communities. Google would become the largest employer in San Jose bringing as many as 20,000 jobs downtown near what will become one of the most important transit hubs in the state, increasing transit ridership and bringing new tax revenues. Still the project s proximity to high-value transit, significant increases in office space (including 50 percent greater density than allowed by current plans), and the arrival of large numbers of highly-paid employees are each factors that could trigger further displacement and gentrification downtown according to University of California, Berkeley. 1 The immediate area around the Google development includes census tracts at severe risk of displacement and a population where most residents live in rental housing, placing many at risk of being forced out as rents begin to rise. 2 The influx of highly paid workers could also impact other areas of the 1 Mapping Susceptibility to Gentrification, UC Berkeley http://communityinnovation.berkeley.edu/reports/gentrification-report.pdf 2 Urban Displacement Map, UC Berkeley http://www.urbandisplacement.org/map/sf
City as workers purchase housing in the few naturally affordable parts of the city, leading to challenges in communities in East and South San Jose. With up to 8 million square feet of office space, Google could employ 8,000-10,000 new subcontracted low wage service workers, a substantial addition to San Jose s low wage workforce. 3 Unlike other parts of the tech industry, over 60 percent of these workers are Latino or African American. Whether you re a cafeteria work, janitor, security officer, or shuttle bus driver, even with two earners, your household income is likely to struggle to afford even a modest two bedroom apartment in San Jose. 4 While the public does not have many details on the project, it is clear that any agreement will rely on a number of important public resources and incentives: the sale or lease of incredibly valuable public land, over $8 billion in public infrastructure investments over the next decade, a series of likely planning and zoning amendments on issues of density, height, and converting park land to commercial office space. The benefits such decisions would accrue to developers and landowners, in this case Trammell Crow and Google, as land value increases but will not fully benefit the rest of the community. 5 The City must act responsibly by capturing the value of any offered public incentives. The City needs to negotiate an agreement with Google that at a minimum makes commitments to investments and policies to ensure this project does not contribute to growing economic inequality, housing unaffordability and displacement. Across the region and nation there are strong examples of how cities and stakeholders can secure community benefits to address community needs attached to major mixed use developments involving similar sets of public incentive, including in projects involving Google and Trammell Crow. By directing staff to work with Google and community, labor, tenants, legal services and other stakeholders to negotiate specific community benefits, the City Council can not only bring tech jobs downtown but help to address the needs of everyone in our community. Specifically, we recommend: 1) Directing staff to negotiate specific community benefits as a requirement within its exclusive negotiating agreement with Google. In exchange the sale or lease of public lands, necessary planning and zoning amendments, other potential incentives, the City Council can not only bring tech jobs downtown but help to create a meaningful set of community benefits. In particular, we recommend including: Good Jobs and Responsible Employers/Contractors. o Require Google, the developer, other tenants, and their contractors in the development commit to at least meeting the City's Living Wage Policy. o Require Google meet with labor and community organizations to discuss the recruitment and training of local workers and standards for their direct and 3 Sourced from surveys of Silicon Valley Rising member organizations. 4 https://wpusa.org/publication/cashinginonrenters.pdf 5 http://www.ebho.org/images/research_and_reports/lvr-white-paper-full_141113.pdf
contracted service employees, on issues of wages, benefits, worker retention, antiretaliation, labor harmony, neutrality and enforcement. o Require Google, the developer, and their contractors (all tiers) to pay construction workers a prevailing hourly wage and benefit rate, utilize the State of California s rate of approved registered apprentices; and ensure that at least 25% of Registered Apprentice hours on the Project shall be performed by workers from vulnerable populations who are graduates of a City approved pre-apprenticeship program. o Google shall provide an annual report to the City on the hiring of local workers, and the wages and benefits paid to any workers on the site, including Google, the developer, any tenants and contractors including project wide and employer by employer data. Displacement Protections and Affordable Housing. o Require any rental or for sale housing developed to include additional on-site affordable units or equivalent alternatives (in addition to existing inclusionary zoning and impact fee policies) to develop additional affordable, accessible housing for low income and very low income residents. o Make a substantial additional investment in affordable housing equivalent to the projects impact on housing affordability and the increasing value of proposed public lands from potential up-zoning, infrastructure investments and other incentives. o Create a tenant assistance fund to provide legal and rental assistance to lowincome tenants most at-risk of displacement from higher rents. Community Centered Solutions. o Engage in a broad, inclusive and transparent process, approved and overseen by the City Council, to support those severely impacted by the expansion, particularly low-income communities of color, such as by increasing contracting opportunities for small, local, minority and women-owned and LGBT-owned businesses, along with mitigating impacts to the environment and traffic or expanding access to childcare, parks, and educational programs. 2) Set greater detail around the development of a community engagement plan. Currently the plan is developed by Google, with no significant direction from the Council on scope, key constituencies to be engaged and the range of opportunities for engagement. The Council should outline greater detail on the plan, including ensuring broad and transparent community engagement. The Council should also direct City staff to bring the Community Engagement plan back to Council for review before approval and include at last two additional review points before Council on its implementation before signing off on any memorandum of understanding on the project.
3) Need for greater transparency and public hearing. Currently the ENA only outlines the bare minimum of requirements as required under state law. The Council should direct the city to require a series of accessible public hearings on the project engaging the neighboring community and a broad and inclusive set of stakeholders across the City. 4) Explore ways to invest proceeds from the land sale to building affordable housing. The original Diridon Station Area Plan recommended among the suite of options for investing in affordable housing, exploring the reinvestment of any revenues from land sales or leases to invest in affordable housing. The City should study a plan to make use of these resources. While we have concerns, we believe it is possible to design a suite of community benefits and shape this project to be a win for the residents of San Jose and Google. We look forward to working with Google, City staff and the Council to make this project a success for all of our communities. Sincerely, Affordable Housing Network Black Leadership Kitchen Cabinet Latinos United for a New America Law Foundation of Silicon Valley Minority Business Consortium Santa Clara and San Benito Counties Building and Construction Trades Council SEIU USWW Silicon Valley De-Bug Silicon Valley Rising South Bay Labor Council Teamsters Joint Council 7 UA Local 393 UNITE HERE Local 19 Working Partnerships USA
From: Jeannette Estruth < Sent: Monday, June 19, 2017 10:01 AM To: City Clerk Subject: I Stand with Silicon Valley Rising on the Diridon Station Vote To Whom It May Concern: My name is Jeannette Estruth, and I am from Willow Glen. I would like to voice my support for Silicon Valley Rising, and let you know how important the community's needs are to me in any negotiations about Diridon Station with Google tomorrow. I urge you to place front and center workers' voices, unionized jobs, displacement protections, and affordable housing in any considerations regarding the station. Thank you so much! Best, Jeannette
From: Steve Borkenhagen < Sent: Monday, June 19, 2017 11:32 AM To: City Clerk Subject: Google Item (#4-1 on City Council Agenda June 20, 2017) Dear Ms. Taber: I have been a downtown business owner and downtown advocate since 1975 and a downtown resident since 1978. In addition to owning numerous businesses downtown, I have served on the boards of many non-profit organizations including the San Jose Downtown Association, the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce (now the SVO), and the San Jose Convention snd Visitors Bureau (now Team San Jose). I would like to express my enthusiastic support for the Google project referenced in item 4-1 on the agenda for the June 20, 2017 City Council meeting. Sincere thanks. Steve Borkenhagen
Honorable Mayor Liccardo and San Jose City Council 200 E. Santa Clara Street San Jose, CA 95113 June 19, 2017 Re: Item 4.1 on June 20th City Council Agenda ( Agreement with Google for Acquisition and Development of Properties in the Diridon Station Area ) Dear Mayor Liccardo and Councilmembers: The announcement of the exclusive negotiations between City of San Jose and Google is the next major step in San Jose s ambitious goals for transforming the Diridon Station Area. The scale of the potential Google development provides a city-building opportunity that will shape San Jose and Silicon Valley for decades to come. SPUR has been a leading voice for creating a compact and walkable community and a major concentration of employment in the station area supported by high quality, integrated transit options that are fast, frequent and all day. In our vision for Diridon: Diridon becomes a great urban train station and the gateway to the Bay Area. People can be transportation omnivores because rail, buses, bikes, and technology enabled vehicles act as one intuitive and attractive system that gets them where they need to go in San Jose and beyond. The station is a public space that connects people seamlessly to the neighborhoods around it and is part of a greater downtown San Jose. New growth is concentrated around the station and is designed to take advantage of unparalleled accessibility, making Diridon a major generator of economic activity. Diridon shapes and showcases the diversity of the south bay and is welcoming to all. People can walk to meet their daily needs without thinking twice about it. Diridon is a place where life is lived in public. This is the direct result of a clear and comprehensive vision, leaders who took risks, and a governance structure that was setup for success. - Based on SPUR Principles for Diridon, March 2017
Transit Google s decision to come to this location, next to what could become the most transitrich place west of the Mississippi, is no accident. We are within ten years of unparalleled transit connections to the region and the state. There is much to be addressed to get the transit right and accommodating the thousands of employees who will be utilizing these services. SPUR has and will continue to research, publish and advocate on key decisions related to Diridon Station s governance structure, station and station area design, and transit service. Housing Another critical issue that must be addressed to fully capitalize on this opportunity is for San Jose to remove barriers to building housing in the urban villages. The Diridon Station Area Plan includes over 3,000 units of housing and there 6,000 in the pipeline for downtown, within a short walk of Diridon. 1 Many more are planned in urban villages that are within a short walk, bike ride or transit trip to Diridon (e.g., The Alameda, East Santa Clara, Little Portugal/ Brookwood Terrace). Now more than ever, it is critical to make it easy to build in these locations. Adopting urban village plans is the first step, but there are many more ways that the city can loosen restrictions to allow housing to move forward in a timely fashion. These include: As new urban villages are approved, adopt the zoning needed to implement the plans, for both housing and commercial properties. Where possible, increase the number of housing units allowed in these urban villages. Some of these areas can accept more density than is currently proposed. Revise the mixed-use designations to make sure they are all economically feasible to build. Move light rail urban villages into horizon 1. 1 http://www.spur.org/news/2017-05-11/what-s-going-downtown-san-jose-our-take-threetrends 2
Jobs SPUR has been a vocal advocate of putting a significant amount of jobs near regional transit, particularly around Diridon and the downtown BART station. The prospect of Google coming to the Diridon station area, in addition to the thousands of new housing units being erected, may be the needed catalyst to spur the commercial development missing from downtown for a long time. Urban design Finally, what s built at Diridon Station has to be unlike anything we ve ever built here. In many global cities, Google has shown that they can deliver transformation both within their walls and outside of it in the public realm. We must do that here too. SPUR has many specific recommendations for achieving this including minimizing the supply of parking, using a phased development approach to deliver the long-term vision and creating binding standards for urban design. For now, we hope the Council will unanimously support entering into an Exclusive Negotiating Agreement with Google and we look forward to continuing to be a part of this exciting city-building effort. Teresa Alvarado San Jose Director 3
June 19, 2017 Executive Committee 2017 BOARD CHAIR Dan Bozzuto Bozzuto Insurance Services FIRST VICE CHAIR Lennies Gutierrez Comcast SECOND VICE CHAIR Marc Parkinson Petrinovich Pugh & Co., LLP VICE CHAIR SILICON VALLEY IDEA Cosme Fagundo Willco Management, Inc. VICE CHAIR MEMBERSHIP Ron Zraick Cinnabar Hills Golf Course VICE CHAIR BUSINESS VELOCITY Paul Cardus Silicon Valley Realtors VICE CHAIR COMMUNITY ADVANCEMENT Jack Wimberly KBM - HOGUE AT-LARGE Michael Bangs Oracle Tim Leets BBSI Tony Mirenda Blach Construction Company Jonathan Noble Microsoft Roxanne Vane Heritage Bank of Commerce Geri Wong Cornish & Carey Commercial Real Estate SVO PAC CHAIR Tracey Enfantino Environmental Systems, Inc. LEGAL COUNSEL Eugene Ashley, Esq. Hopkins & Carley, A Law Corporation TREASURER Michael Fox Jr. Goodwill Silicon Valley IMMEDIATE PAST CHAIR Jim Lynch San Jose Water Company PRESIDENT & CEO Matthew R. Mahood The silicon valley organization San Jose City Council San Jose City Hall 200 E. Santa Clara St. San Jose, CA 95113 SUBJECT: Agreement with Google for Acquisition and Development of Properties in the Diridon Station Area Honorable Mayor Liccardo and Councilmembers: On behalf of The silicon valley organization (The SVO), I am writing to encourage the Council to approve agenda item 4.1 along with the Memo authored by Mayor Sam Liccardo, Vice Mayor Carrasco, Councilmember Davis, Councilmember Peralez, and Councilmember Arenas. The vision for Diridon Station has transcended decades. Elected leaders and those focused on transit oriented development have called Diridon Station the Union Station of the Bay Area, and rightfully so. The SVO believes that Diridon will become the premier multi-modal transit-hub of the Bay Area, injecting economic growth unlike anything we have previously seen. Once completed, investment at the scale of this proposal would catapult this vision into reality. At the local level, this development will act as a bridge for the Alameda and Downtown core with the potential of driving job creation beyond its development footprint, creating not only new jobs within the scope of the project but well outside of it. This unique opportunity of scale for transformative change downtown is one that cannot be missed. To no one s surprise, Google is committed to engaging in a robust dialogue with the community about the planning of this project. The developer plans to implement a transparent community engagement process, which as mentioned in the memo from the Mayor, should include local residents, small businesses, and faith-based and local organizations. The SVO is a strong advocate for job growth and economic development. This project will create thousands of new construction jobs in our community and permanent jobs for our residents once completed new jobs that the City of San Jose so urgently wants and needs in order to address the current jobs to housing ratio imbalance. For these reasons, we would respectfully ask that you approve agenda item 4.1 to allow the City Manager to negotiate and execute an Exclusive Negotiating Agreement with Google. Sincerely, Matthew R. Mahood President & CEO 101 W. Santa Clara St. San Jose, California 95113 P: 408-291-5250 F: 408-286-5019 thesvo.com
From: Lames < Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2017 12:32 AM To: The Office of Mayor Sam Liccardo; City Clerk Cc: Rios, Angel; Cano, Matt; Zsutty, Subject: Agenda Item 4.1: Google at Diridon Station, 6/20/17 Council meeting The Honorable Sam Liccardo, Mayor of San José Members of the Council, City of San José 200 East Santa Clara Street San José, CA 95113 via email, sent 6/19/17 re: June 20, 2017 Council Agenda, Item 4.1: Google at Diridon Station. Dear Mayor Liccardo and Councilmembers, I am writing to express my support for the proposed Google campus at Diridon Station. This can be amazing! It sounds like it will be an ideal project for the area one that will benefit from, and will benefit, all the existing and planned transportation infrastructure serving the area! As noted in the June 16th memo by Mayor Liccardo and Councilmembers Carrasco, Davis, Peralez, and Arenas, in 2014 the City worked with surrounding neighborhoods and a diverse set of community stakeholders to help integrate the neighborhood with the major transportation investments on the horizon including BART, High Speed Rail, Bus Rapid Transit, and an electrified CalTrain. I am writing to remind you that the Diridon Station Area transportation infrastructure also includes the Los Gatos Creek Trail. This trail runs for a dozen miles and comes within a few blocks of the Diridon Station before the creek is lost in a culvert. In 2014, when the City Council accepted the Diridion Station Area Plan, it agreed that, when the area was to be redeveloped, it would consider the day-lighting of the creek (the restoration of a more natural creek channel) and the extension of the off-road Los Gatos Creek Trail. (The City Council affirm[ed] that the language in the Plan 2-103 relating to day-lighting of Los Gatos Creek remains in place for any funding opportunities that may arise. see June 17, 2014, Synopsis: http://www.sanjoseca.gov/documentcenter/view/32924 ) As I wrote back in June 10, 2014, The Los Gatos Creek flows from the Santa Cruz Mountains, through the project area, and on to its confluence with the Guadalupe and thence to the Bay, lined much of the way with a very popular off-road trail system. Roughly half a century ago, when city planners thought that cars were king and the environment was to be ignored, the City of San José did an injustice to the Los Gatos Creek here by burying it in a culvert. We now have an opportunity to right that past wrong. But if we do not seize this opportunity, the Los Gatos Creek will likely remain entombed in its culvert for another half century. Besides all the environmental advantages of freeing the creek from the culvert, this can also help with the region s transportation issues. By moving pedestrians and cyclists to the off-road trail, there is reduced congestion at the signalized intersections and so vehicles can move more freely. Additionally, by providing a safer way for folks to reach the Diridon Station Area, more would be willing to walk or cycle which further reduces the traffic impacts. The Google campus will be an exciting addition to the Diridon Station Area and to all of San José! It also provides an ideal opportunity for us to restore the nearby Los Gatos Creek habitat to a far more natural condition (by any of several possible alternatives), and also to provide for safe off-road pedestrian and non-motorized transportation to the campus and to the transportation hub. I would welcome an opportunity to discuss the technical details with the appropriate planners.
Thank you, ~Larry Ames (appointed by Zoe Lofgren to the Los Gatos Creek Streamside Park Committee, 1984) cc: SJ Parks, Recreation & N hood Services (PRNS): Dir. Angel Rios, Matt Cano, Yves Zsutty Diridon Good Neighbors Committee District 6 Neighborhood Leaders Group (D6NLG) Adina Levin at Friends of CalTrain SJ Riparian Advocates Alice Kaufman, Committee for Green Foothills Save Our Trails
From: Rob Steinberg < > Sent: Monday, June 19, 2017 5:45 PM To: Rob Steinberg Subject: Agreement with Google for Acquisition and Development of Properties in the Diridon Station Area June 19, 2017 Mayor Sam Liccardo and Members of the City Council City of San Jose 200 East Santa Clara Street, 18 th Floor San Jose, CA 95113 Re: Item 4.1 Agreement with Google for Acquisition and Development of Properties in the Diridon Station Area Dear Mr. Mayor and Council Members, For over 60 years, my father, my partners and myself have been active supporters and contributors for an urban downtown mixed-use core. It has been our firm s policy to not only promote good planning, but we have actively participated in leading community efforts including the Guadalupe River Park, Urban Design Review Committee and the original Board Chair of SPUR of San Jose. As a business owner in Downtown, we should take pride in all that we have accomplished as Urbanists. In that spirit, I would like express my enthusiastic support for the Google project referenced in item 4.1 on the agenda for the June 20, 2017 City Council meeting. Sincerely, Rob Steinberg, FAIA Chairman Steinberg Architects