Santa Clara’s Tasman East Specific Plan Reaches Major Construction Milestone
3D rendering of newly proposed housing. Photo provided by Steinberg Hart
The skyline of northern Santa Clara has undergone dramatic changes, with residential towers now standing tall where industrial warehouses once stood. This marks the debut of one of the Bay Area's most ambitious housing developments in decades, as the Tasman East project enters its final phase of construction.
The Tasman East Specific Plan, a transformative housing development in northern Santa Clara, is entering its final stages as the community prepares to welcome thousands of new residents. This marks a new milestone in addressing Santa Clara County’s continual housing challenges. The project is poised to deliver up to 4,500 new homes by the end of 2025, with developers already seeking approval for an additional 1,500 units. The new housing intends to bring much-needed relief to the region’s housing crisis.
The plan, adopted in November 2018, envisions the redevelopment of a 45-acre industrial area into a high-density, transit-oriented urban neighborhood. This development coincides with Santa Clara County receiving state approval for the housing element on Jan. 28, 2025, following nearly a two-year delay. In response to the timeline, developers in Santa Clara, including Ensemble Investments, have accelerated their project timelines. Vice President Steve Edwards of Ensemble told the San Francisco Chronicle, “We wanted to find a use that would activate the district and be a neighborhood amenity but wasn’t so expensive that we couldn’t tear it down in five or 10 years in order to build more housing.”
Key components of the plan include:
Developing a transit-oriented design framework
Establishing a livable neighborhood with housing near jobs
Improving connectivity for various transportation modes
Upgrading infrastructure to meet future needs
Implementing urban design standards for walkability and livability
Several housing projects are nearing completion. Mainline North, a 151-unit affordable housing complex managed by USA Multifamily Management, is set to open in early 2025. Ensemble Investments' AVE Santa Clara, an eight-story residential mid-rise with over 300 homes, is also slated to open in January 2025.
Three additional apartment communities will contribute to a total of 1,358 units and are said to open in early 2025. These include Related California's 509-unit Clara and 176-unit luxury senior project Ellore, as well as Summerhill Apartment Communities' 347-unit Tasman East.
Affordable housing is a focus of the development. The plan requires every residential project to include an affordable component, adhering to section 17.40.080 of the Santa Clara City Code. Two dedicated affordable housing projects are currently under construction: Mainline North and St. Anton apartments, which will prioritize applicants who live and work in Santa Clara County. The tallest building in the next wave of openings is Ellore, Related's 20-story senior living tower, which overlooks the San Francisco 49ers' practice fields and will be operated by Oakmont Management Group.
Despite the Tasman East development's effort to mitigate Santa Clara County's housing crisis, concerns persist among housing advocates and community stakeholders over whether the development will meaningfully address the region’s affordability crisis.
Tasman East will add to Santa Clara County's housing supply, with approximately 675 affordable units included in the development in compliance with the Santa Clara City Code, which requires 15% of all new housing developments to be affordable. This aligns with Santa Clara County's 2020-2025 Community Plan to End Homelessness, which established a goal of creating 6,000 new housing opportunities.
With more than 9,000 people experiencing homelessness in Santa Clara County, and thousands more at risk due to high living costs, the influx of new housing units helps to ease the pressure on the existing housing market. Additionally, this development converts an industrial area into a high-density residential neighborhood, taking advantage of the limited amount of land in a highly populated city.
Organizations like Silicon Valley at Home are pushing for more robust affordability measures., “In place of the normal State density bonus, which allows increased density in exchange for more affordable homes,” wrote Silicon Valley at Home on their website. “City staff have proposed allowing developers to actually decrease the percentage of affordable homes they are required to build in exchange for increased density and more units overall (to as low as 8-10%).”
Silicon Valley at HomeThey specifically requested that at least 20% of new homes be deed-restricted for low, very low, and moderate-income residents, challenging the current grandfathering provisions of the Inclusionary Zoning ordinance.
“This model of public-private partnership will have a transformative impact not just on the community,” Raquel González, Bank of America Silicon Valley president, told Affordable Housing Finance. “But also for the residents with the on-site services to help them gain financial strength. We have worked with USA Properties Fund on many projects over the years, and this one is ideally located near mass transit, major employers, and retail and public amenities.”
The development faces scrutiny over its potential to address housing inequities, with pushback from advocacy groups in Santa Clara County centering around whether the current plan sufficiently balances increased housing density with meaningful affordability, while also addressing potential environmental impacts on local ecosystems.
As the project nears completion, it offers the potential to reshape north Santa Clara, bringing forth new opportunities for residents and contributing to the region's housing solutions. Its proximity to Santa Clara University may also attract students and faculty looking for new housing options, allowing for more affordable housing options for students. Dean Ross, the Assistant Dean of Off-Campus Living, declined to provide an interview at this time.