Developer outlines six‑story 22 Washington project in Santa Clara; neighbors press parking, traffic and annexation questions

Steve Lee, senior planner for the City of Santa Clara, opened a community meeting for a proposed mixed‑use development at the corner of Newhall Street and Washington Street, telling attendees, “This is the first community meeting. Project's in the early stage.”

Developers presented a six‑story building called 22 Washington that would contain roughly 194,000 gross square feet, about 124 residential units (a mix of studios through three‑bedrooms) and ground‑floor commercial space. Chris Sanders of ARP Architects, representing Capital Partners (the developer), said the design has two levels of podium parking beneath four levels of units, a private center courtyard, roughly 13,000 square feet of open/amenity areas, and about 2,900 square feet of interior amenity space. Sanders said the project footprint is about 1.24 acres and the team expects an average unit size near 800 square feet.

Why it matters: neighbors who live in streets behind the site said existing parking on nearby narrow residential streets is already constrained and warned that overflow parking and traffic cut‑throughs from Washington and Newhall to Park Avenue could endanger children and destabilize adjacent blocks. The developer and city staff said off‑site improvements would be studied and could be required as conditions of approval.

Key project details and developer commitments - Units and size: Sanders said the project would propose about 124 rental units; the team said sales vs. rental status and exact rents were “not specified” at this stage. - Affordability: Sanders said the proposal would include 15–20% affordable units, determined by area AMI levels. - Parking: The team said all required…