True Life Companies proposes townhomes in Milpitas

Project’s 57 units will range from 1,400 to 2,100 sf

True Life's Scott Clark and rendering of 612 S Main Street, Milpitas (Linkedin, Getty, Milpitas.gov)

Feb 21, 2023, 3:47 PM

The True Life Companies has proposed a residential project in Milpitas with townhomes, according to plans filed with the city.

The project would be located at 612 South Main Street and require the demolition of an existing commercial building. The development will bring 57 units in nine, three-story buildings.

The townhomes would range from 1,423 to 2,092 square feet with each having three bedrooms and three or three-and-a-half bathrooms. Some would offer private open spaces, patios and balconies. In total, the multifamily building will account for 118,000 square feet.

Denver-based True Life is moving forward with this project after offloading another residential project a few months ago. The developer sold a 1.23-acre parcel in Milpitas to KB Home for an undisclosed amount. Plans call for 32 townhomes that are three and four stories.

Another townhome project in the South Bay is SummerHill Homes planning to replace an office building with 48 townhomes in Palo Alto. SummerHill paid $27.5 million for the property and obtained a $45 million loan.

The townhome trend bucks the recent priority of building smaller units in larger quantities to satisfy state housing quotas. Gov. Gavin Newsom has put forth programs to incentivize cities to build a lot of homes fast, including the awarding of $1 billion in state funds to cities to build 2,800 new homes.

California cities feel the political pressure more than ever to meet their housing element deadlines or risk losing local control on their ability to approve or deny projects that have a certain threshold of affordable units. A 1990s provision in state law, known as builder’s remedy, has been invoked in the South Bay calling for hundreds of residential units without local oversight.

These pressures encourage cities to pursue projects with smaller units to have a greater number of units that meet state criteria. Milpitas’ townhomes, on the other hand, seem tailored to families, rather studios or one-bedroom units for single individuals or couples.