Existing conditions
With the acquisition of the former San Jose City Hall site, Santa Clara County has a new opportunity to re-evaluate the Civic Center Campus and its relationship with the communities it serves. The County’s parcels encompass 55 acres and include County operations, administration, judicial and correctional uses. Over half the building stock is more than 40 years old, and many of those buildings require upgrades. The County also is on track to acquire a no cost Public Benefit Conveyance of the former Private George L. Richey U. S. Army Reserve site from the Federal Department of Defense. The property is to be used by the Office of the Sheriff and Emergency Management as an administrative headquarters and Regional Law Enforcement Training and First Responder Readiness Center.
Despite some of the Civic Center site’s constraints, the size of the site and its proximity to downtown San Jose, shopping, and access to transit provides a good opportunity for the County to create a new, sustainable master plan that can reshape the function and feel of the Civic Center as well as the local neighborhood.
At completion, the County desires that total civic center governmental office space (CCOB) to be in the range of 600,000 to 1,175,000 square feet, including retention of existing essential operations and parking. However, the County is open to entertaining any and all concepts for how, where, and in what form this County space need would be realized.
The principle private sector development opportunities are in the area bounded by North First, West Mission Street, North San Pedro Street, and West Younger Avenue. Occupying a portion of this area are the CCOB-East (1972), the CCOB-West Wing (1958), the former San Jose City Hall and Annex, and a County Health Building.
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