Largest-ever San Jose safe RV parking site could come to Berryessa neighborhood

San Jose’s Berryessa neighborhood could end up serving as the city’s largest-ever sanctioned parking site for RV dwellers, with up to 85 vehicles legally allowed to park in a highly industrialized spot along Coyote Creek as part of a larger strategy to reduce homelessness.

The San Jose City Council is expected to vote in early June on whether to lease the 6.3-acre parcel of land at 1300 Berryessa Road from Terreno Realty, which bought it for $23 million in 2021. If approved, the city would pay the real estate group $18.9 million for a 10-year lease.

The safe parking site — about a mile from the nearby Berryessa BART station — could exceed $24 million in costs over a half-decade if on-site improvements and service expenses are included. Though the parking lot would have no maximum stay rule, the ultimate goal would be connecting its residents with permanent housing, according to city officials. The city doesn’t currently have an estimated opening date.

Deputy City Manager Omar Passons said that RV residents in Districts 3 and 4 in North San Jose would get first priority for the site. Only homeless residents with RVs will only be allowed inside — but they will also have the option of bringing their cars.

“We’re going to offer everyone to get access to this location and help you get towed over,” Passons said. He added that the city is considering adding restrictions to streets where RVs were once parked but have now transitioned to the Berryessa lot — but those details are still being hammered out.

Currently, about 400 people live in RVs across the city, according to Passons, though a precise count hasn’t been done.

The Berryessa location is now surrounded by multiple recycling centers and construction company Graniterock’s cement processing plant — and the city will be conducting soil samples to ensure that there are no health risks. The city says any risks will be minimized after the land is paved.

The idea behind safe parking sites, a strategy that cities such as Mountain View and Berkeley have explored, is to get homeless residents living in RVs and cars off of the street and closer to housing or mental health services.

The Berryessa proposal is part of a larger push by San Jose to seek out interim options for the city’s thousands of unsheltered residents, a strategy that Mayor Matt Mahan argues will be the most effective when it comes to quickly clearing encampments deemed a public safety hazard to the entire city. The mayor has also considered implementing no-camping zones in parts of the city.

Overall, the region faces stubborn homelessness trends. Santa Clara County announced on Tuesday that its total unhoused population had decreased by 1% compared to last year, according to the latest “point in time” counts. In San Jose, the numbers were slightly better, with the total unhoused population down by 5%, to 6,340 people.

This month, the mayor has gone toe-to-toe with permanent housing advocates over how to spend tens of millions of dollars on housing solutions. Those who support permanent housing say interim options, such as safe parking and quick-build shelters, may be effective in certain cases but don’t make an actual dent in the larger issue of housing affordability in the region.

For close to half a decade, San Jose has explored the use of safe parking sites. In 2018, the City Council approved using Seven Trees Community Center on Cas Drive as the location for about 17 families to park from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. The following year, the city approved plans for 50 families to stay at Roosevelt Community Center on E. Santa Clara Street and the Southside Community Center on Cottle Road. None of those sites is open any longer, but certain nonprofits offer limited safe parking alternatives.