True Life cites builder’s remedy for approval of 85 homes in San Jose

True Life Companies has employed the state’s “builder’s remedy” legal provision to seek automatic approval to bulldoze a 67-year-old swim and tennis club and build 85 homes in San Jose.

The Denver-based developer has used the housing loophole to trigger approval for plans to replace the San Jose Swim & Racquet Club at 1170 Pedro Street in Willow Glen with housing, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

The legally untested builder’s remedy lets developers skirt local zoning rules in cities that haven’t received approval for their state-mandated housing plans as long as the projects include affordable housing for low- or middle-income families.

This week, the San Jose City Council approved a plan to build at least 62,200 homes — more than half of them affordable — by 2031. But the plan, which blew past its Jan. 31 deadline, hasn’t been certified by the state, which leaves San Jose open to the builder’s remedy.

Developers are already citing it in trying to push through at least 14 projects in the South Bay city, according to planning officials.

Only about a quarter of the Bay Area’s 109 cities and counties have had their “housing elements,” as the plans are called, signed off by state regulators, according to the Mercury News.

In April, True Life filed plans to build 85 “attached homes” on the 3.3-acre recreation complex, founded in 1956 and owned by San Jose-based Norman Laviere Trust. Its seven tennis courts and two pools have been used by generations of local residents.

True Life had previously notified San Jose planners of its intention to use the loophole in state housing law to seek expedited approval for the project, of which 20 percent would be affordable. 

The city’s general plan land use for the swim club site is “private recreation and open space,” which typically doesn’t allow residential development.

But the builder’s remedy strategy could fast-track the housing development — and not require a change in the general plan.

In a March letter to the city, an attorney for True Life said that because San Jose had not adopted a state-mandated plan to add more housing, the developer was filing an application “pursuant to the builder’s remedy.”

City planners say the project violates the city’s general guidelines and would be too tall, could harm Los Gatos Creek and isn’t in an area targeted for future city growth. More than 400 local residents have signed an online petition to oppose the project.

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— Dana Bartholomew