More than 1,000 homes are eyed as replacement for San Jose golf course

SAN JOSE — Well over 1,000 homes could sprout on the site of a shuttered San Jose golf course, an ambitious project that could address a wide range of housing needs in the Bay Area.

The development is being planned at the site of the former Pleasant Hills Golf Course in east San Jose, according to documents on file with the Santa Clara County Planning Department.

Tony Arreola and Mark Lazzarini, who are veteran South Bay real estate executives, have proposed the housing, would effectively become a new neighborhood at 2050 South White Road near Tully Road.

The project would consist of 1,716 housing units, Lakeside Communities, which Arreola and Lazzarini head up, stated in the documents Lakeside filed with the county Planning Department.

The 113-acre development site is located in a pocket of unincorporated county land that the city of San Jose borders on all sides.

As a result of this unique location, both county and city elected officials and city staffers will have the opportunity to weigh in on the project and decide its fate.

The project is poised to be a massive addition to the area near Lake Cunningham in east San Jose.

“The proposed development achieves a balance between the community’s interests, the county and city’s housing objectives and the developer’s goal of creating a world-class development plan,” said Tony Arreola, a principal executive with San Jose-based Lakeside Communities.

The 1,716 housing units consist of 1,374 market-rate houses that will be for-sale residences. The project also envisions 342 high-density affordable rental apartments for seniors and the local workforce.

“Our proposal reflects exactly what residents want to see at this site, a development that respects the neighborhood’s character and also delivers a significant number of new homes to help the county and the city achieve their housing goals,” said Mark Lazzarini, a principal executive with Lakeside Communities.

The proposed development also includes up to 50,000 square feet of neighborhood-serving retail that would be built next to a large public plaza. The plaza could accommodate community events, economic activity and the arts.

The development could benefit from the current capital markets, in the view of Arreola and Lazzarini, even though stubbornly elevated inflation and sky-high interest rates have unleashed a plague of financial uncertainties.

“The project can be built now and avoid sitting on a shelf for years accumulating dust,” Arreola said.

The developers used numerous meetings and other forms of communication to engage with the local community as well as government officials to gauge what neighbors preferred for the project.

“Our proposed development enhances the existing community by respecting the character of the neighborhood and by providing quality amenities, such as significant public park areas, community gathering space and authentic, neighborhood-serving retail,” Lazzarini said.

Lakeside Community’s executives believe the project is poised to draw broad support from the community.

“We listened carefully to what residents wanted to see in a future development,” Arreola said. “We have delivered a project consistent with those guiding principles.”

While much of the development will include single-family residences that will be sold, a significant portion of the project will include high-density housing.

Yet even with higher density as part of the development, the proposed project will avoid taller buildings of four or more stories.

The proposed residential units would be one, two, or three stories high, the developers stated.

The developers hope Santa Clara County will approve the project by the end of 2024 and that San Jose will give its approval sometime in 2025.

“Residents have invested heavily in the community engagement process, not only in terms of their time but also with their faith that their voices would be heard at the end of the day,” Lazzarini said.