Four San Jose council members move to streamline housing approvals

San Jose
City Council Meeting
April 20, 2026

TL;DR

• No votes were taken. This was a study session on how the city's permitting system works and where it gets stuck.
• Councilmembers Tordillos, Campos, Cohen, and Kamei filed a memo last week asking the council to expand a faster, rules-based approval path for housing across the whole city. Councilmember Casey pressed staff on the same idea from the dais.
• Developers detailed the cost of delays. Overton Moore is 19 months into planning a 130,000 square foot project and has added nearly $1 million in carry costs.
• The city's coordinated review pathway for affordable housing has processed more than 20 projects without missing a state funding deadline. Staff said it does not scale to all projects.
• City review time is roughly under 20% of a major project's total life cycle, per PBCE Director Chris Burton.

What happened

1. Four council members already moving to streamline housing approvals
   1. Councilmember Casey pressed staff on shifting multifamily housing approvals away from case-by-case discretionary review and toward a faster rules-based process, where projects that meet the city's written standards get approved without further judgment calls. Councilmember Tordillos then disclosed that he, along with Councilmembers Campos, Cohen, and Kamei, filed a memo last week asking the council to expand the city's rules-based approval program citywide. PBCE Deputy Director Manira Sandhir said the city adopted a similar process for designated growth areas in December 2024, and that two projects have moved forward under it. Staff is preparing code amendments to allow rules-based approvals downtown as the next step.
   2. What this means for you: The council is signaling a shift on how multifamily housing gets approved, but no vote was taken at this meeting. A rules-based path removes most discretion, which can mean faster timelines and fewer chances for the public to weigh in or appeal. Sandhir said ordinance changes typically take at least a year.
2. Developers detailed what permitting delays actually cost
   1. Jennifer Friedman of Overton Moore told the council her company is 19 months into planning a roughly 130,000 square foot advanced manufacturing project. She said carry costs are $60,000 a month and that delays have added nearly $1 million. She singled out a 17-week wait for initial environmental review comments, against the city's stated 5-week timeline. Chris Neale of The Core Companies said Gateway Tower, a 220-unit downtown affordable project, faces a $1.5 million cost for a fire air replenishment system he said only San Jose requires. He also cited months of delay coordinating with PG&E on transformer placement.
   2. What this means for you: Several developers said they are still investing in San Jose, but Councilmember Tordillos noted he has already heard from at least one applicant who said they would not invest in another San Jose project. The reputational cost was raised on the record.
3. Comment inconsistency was the recurring complaint
   1. Multiple customers said they receive new substantive comments late in the review process, sometimes when a new reviewer takes over a project. David Mulvihill of Nobu Hospitality, who developed the Press Room restaurant, said this has happened to him more than once and called it gut-wrenching. Councilmember Mulcahy and Councilmember Tordillos both pressed PBCE Director Chris Burton on whether guardrails exist to prevent it. Burton said the department handles it through internal management and training, and acknowledged a long comment letter today can run to 70 pages.
   2. What this means for you: Staff said projects can move through 5 or 6 rounds of comments. Burton said the department is working on consistency but did not commit to a specific rule against late-cycle comments. This is one of the top complaints staff said it hears.
4. Affordable housing pathway works, but does not scale
   1. PBCE Deputy Director Lisa Joiner walked through the city's coordinated review pathway for affordable housing projects on a state tax credit clock. More than 20 projects have moved through it. None has missed a state funding deadline. Gateway Tower used this pathway. Plans went in mid-June 2025 and technical reviews finished on January 23, on schedule. Joiner said the same model has been tried on market-rate projects with tight timelines and has not worked, because there is no equivalent external deadline.
   2. What this means for you: The pathway is resource-heavy. Joiner said running four affordable housing projects through it at once delays other projects in the queue. Staff said expanding it across the system would require more staffing.
5. Most permits are simple. The complicated ones are where the time goes
   1. Burton said PBCE issues more than 36,000 permits a year. About 20,000 are self-issued online in under 15 minutes. About 50 projects a year reach the city council. He estimated city review time is under 20% of a major project's total life cycle. City costs are roughly 10% of overall project cost, and city fees are about 1%, per a recent cost of development study.
   2. What this means for you: Most homeowner and small business permits are not the bottleneck. The friction sits in the middle and high end, where projects need coordination across planning, building, public works, fire, and outside agencies.

What residents brought up

• No public comments were provided at this study session.

Also happened

• City Manager Jennifer Maguire said a Development Services delivery optimization and realignment effort is underway, led by a rehired retiree, looking at how to make the process more efficient across departments.
• PBCE said it currently has 10 vacant inspection positions and that hiring is a priority.
• Staff said a standardized CEQA mitigation package update is scheduled for council on May 19.
• A CEQA handbook is coming to the Planning Commission soon.
• Burton said the city's General Plan 4-year review is underway, with the next housing element targeted for January 2031.
• New building permit web pages launched last week, organized by project type.

For any updates or corrections, please email steven@polisdesk.com