Officials Sketch Out Development Plans

Neighborhood gears up for continued development

Anthony Alegrete
Associate Reporter 
February 7, 2019

Due to the rapid growth of the city of Santa Clara, major structural and development changes are set to occur both on and off campus in coming years.

The Neighborhood University Relations Committee (NURC) hosted a forum meeting so concerned residents of the city could hear updates spanning from construction to police report on Monday, Feb. 4.

This meeting, which included a collection of city government officials like Vice Mayor Patricia Mahan, delved into topics such as university and city development as well as the city’s cleanup and yard policies.

Representatives also detailed upcoming construction possibilities to be conducted on campus.

These updates included approved projects such as the completed Charney School of Law, the currently under construction Finn Residence Hall and the incoming Sobrato Campus for Discovery and Innovation.

Additionally, projects that have yet to undergo city review were also discussed.These included a Benson Memorial Center addition, another residence hall, as well as an extension to the law library.

As scheduled, there is one project intended to come under review by the city in the coming months. City of Santa Clara Planning Manager Reena Brilliot shared updates on these developments.

“The athletic building is under the city’s review in the planning division,” Brilliot said. “It includes a new 48k square foot building including basketball and volleyball courts, academic advising offices and a juice bar. It is tentatively scheduled for our architecture committee on March 6.”

City development plans were also discussed. This plan would reinstill a downtown area to the Santa Clara community.

While the city has gained around 130,000 square feet to rebuild a new downtown, Brilliot believes that this plan has a more important purpose.

“What this precise plan is really going to do is figure out what this community’s vision is for this downtown and what is the right size of development to fulfill this vision,” Brilliot said.

This plan intends on bringing a new grid to downtown Santa Clara to replace the former downtown.

While construction on this site has yet to begin, much of the legislative planning and approval has been undergone or at least is planned to be completed.

The NURC hosted key members of both the city and the university this past meeting, allowing for this transition period of growth to be as comfortable as possible for both the residents and the students of Santa Clara.

Contact Anthony Alegrete at aalegrete@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.