REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Action on an Update to the City Council’s Public Notification, Outreach & Engagement Policy for all Planning Applications
Report
BACKGROUND
On June 27, 2017, the City Council adopted a policy for public outreach for a wide range of Planning applications with the goal to enhance community engagement and ensure transparency throughout the planning process. The Community Development Department (Department) is responsible for implementing this policy and continually improving public engagement activities. The City of Santa Clara is one of the few cities to have a formal policy in place, whereas most cities follow State law. Either way, the City must, at a minimum, provide the noticing required by State law and by the City Code. In its current 2017 form, the Policy already goes beyond the requirements of both.
The purpose for updating the policy now is due to several factors:
• The pandemic and post-pandemic conditions,
• New State laws for housing applications, and
• Rapid adoption of new technologies to bridge communication gaps
As a result, these factors have significantly impacted how the Department conducts business and processes housing and other applications. These changes have prompted a review and update of the policy.
Efforts to update the policy began in 2022 as initiated by staff, with community meetings held in December 2022 and July 2023. The updates to the policy primarily focus on three key areas:
1) Notification Activities: Enhancing how and when the community is informed about planning applications.
2) Outreach Activities: Improving methods to reach out to the community and gather input.
3) Engagement Activities: Ensuring continuous and meaningful engagement with the community throughout the planning process.
Since 2023, the draft policy has been updated based on public feedback, undergone internal review, and been reviewed by stakeholders. On February 19, 2025, the Planning Commission held a noticed public hearing regarding the policy and recommended the updated policy for adoption by the City Council with the following changes:
1) Increase the notification radius from a staff recommended ¼ mile (1,320 feet) to ½ mile (2,640 feet) for large/significant interest proposals;
2) Increase the notification radius from 500 feet to ¼ mile (1,320 feet) for standard proposals; and
3) The Planning Commission will review how the Policy is functioning after four community meetings or six months, whichever is first.
Updating the policy requires a recommendation from the Planning Commission and adoption by the City Council. The Commission voted 6-0 to recommend the updated policy to Council with changes described above. Staff does not concur with the Commission’s recommendations on increasing the notification radii beyond staff’s recommendations. A description of the updated policy is provided below; for a more detailed background, see the Planning Commission staff report in Attachment 2.
DISCUSSION
Since 2017, the City of Santa Clara has had a formal public outreach policy that outlines specific processes for informing the community of development proposals, with increasing requirements for larger proposals. This adopted policy goes beyond State requirements. Most cities in the South Bay do not have formal public outreach policies and, instead, rely on State law, which defines a standard noticing requirement of 300 feet for most development proposals. This is the most prevalent practice in the State. In 2017, after providing feedback, the Santa Clara City Council viewed the adoption of our Public Outreach Policy for Planning Applications as a beneficial tool to enhance community notice of upcoming projects of interest. The community meeting aspect of the policy was seen as a success, allowing for an additional format for receiving feedback. Prior to the pandemic, these meetings were conducted in person, however, because of the pandemic, the meetings were conducted virtually. Consistent with existing policy, meetings continued post pandemic to be conducted virtually but are encouraged to be hybrid. As a result of the post-pandemic practice and more robust engagement methods using technology, staff is now bringing updates to the policy.
Summary of Changes
At the February 19, 2025, Planning Commission hearing, the Commission generally supported staff’s recommendation of the updated policy that included more robust outreach and a balance between maintaining a streamlined development review process and greater notification to the public. Highlights of the staff recommended updates are as follows:
Staff Recommendation to Planning Commission
• Each project would provide notice to the public at least twice: once near the beginning of the process and again towards the end of the process prior to the hearing.
• “Large” and “Significant Projects” notification radius increased from 1,000 feet to ¼ mile (1,320 feet).
• Community meetings will be available in a hybrid format.
• Identifying what types of outreach efforts are required by entitlement type or type of project.
• Requiring an initial visioning meeting for general plan amendments where a project is changing from non-residential to residential; general plan amendments when residential density changes; and long-range planning projects initiated by the City.
Planning Commission Recommendations
The Commission supported the revised policy, but also made three additional recommendations, which are discussed in further detail in this section. Staff does not concur with the increased notification radii recommendations.
1. Increase Notification Radius from staff recommended ¼ mile to ½ mile for Large / Significant Interest Proposals
Large Development Proposals are defined by the current policy to include proposals that involve over 49 dwelling units, 30,000 square feet or more of commercial uses, or 50,000 square feet or more of office or industrial uses. A Significant Interest Proposal, as defined in the policy, includes proposals that the Community Development Director determines have a high potential for a large degree of interest at a citywide level. The updated policy designates “data centers” and “drive-in/drive-through establishments” as large and significant interest projects.
The existing policy requires a notification of 1,000 feet for large / significant interest projects. Most data centers and drive-in projects are currently subject to a 500-foot notification. Data centers would now be considered a significant interest proposal and would be notified with a quarter-mile. The Planning Commission’s recommendation increases the notification radius to 2,640 feet (half-mile). The Community Development Director may increase in any case the notification radius to incorporate more notice.
Staff time and additional costs
As part of the protocol, the Department will prepare up to 200 notifications in-house. This covers most small projects (300-foot radius that include single-family residence projects). Due to staffing limits, anything over that amount, the City outsources to a third-party vendor to prepare and mail notifications. In preparation for additional costs that the increased notifications would create, staff included an update for notification mailings in the City’s FY 2025/26 Municipal Fee Schedule, adopted by the City Council on April 29, 2025. This new fee was effective July 1, 2025, and would be cost-recovery-based and borne by the applicant.
There is an economy of scale where more mailings result in a lower cost per notice. Based on past projects and invoices from the third-party preparer in the last year, this cost ranges from 52 cents per notice for a 6,000-count mailing ($3,120) versus $1.53 per notice for a 200-count mailing ($306). In general, where there is additional noticing required, the cost per unit will go down, however, the overall cost will increase. Some projects may go to multiple commissions, for example a Historic Landmarks Commission, Design Review Hearing, Planning Commission and City Council. In addition to public hearings, there are also community meetings that are conducted. The cost for the noticing should be expected to increase with the new proposed policy.
2. Increase Notification Radius to ¼ Mile for Standard Proposals
Standard Development Proposals, as defined by the policy, include projects between five and 49 dwelling units, up to 30,000 square feet of commercial, or up to 50,000 square feet of office or industrial use. Most Conditional Use Permit projects and all Variance projects would be considered standard development proposals.
The existing policy requires a notification of 500 feet for standard development projects. Staff’s recommendation on the updated policy was to maintain that radius, and the Commission’s recommendation increases the notification radius to 1,320 feet. Staff is in not in support of the increase.
For example, under the current policy, the recently approved carwash at 2455 Lawrence Expressway would require a notification radius of 500 feet. That results in 1,000 notifications to be mailed out. Under the Commission’s recommendation (1/4-mile), this results in 2,260 notifications to be mailed out. See Attachment 3 for maps related to this notification for reference. Staff’s additional time and costs are described in the previous section and borne by the applicant.
A second example for a significant project, under the City’s current policy (and the standard notice defined in State law), would require a notification radius of 500 feet, which results in 617 mailed notifications. Under staff’s recommendation (1/4-mile), there would have been 2,158 mailed notifications. Under the Commission’s recommendation (1/2-mile), there would have been 4,074 mailed notifications. See Attachment 3 for maps related to this notification for reference.
In addition to the increased costs, there will be additional burden on staff to coordinate the notices with outside vendors and verification. There is significant administrative costs to adding more noticing, and the additional noticing may not result in additional interest from residents.
3. Additional Review by the Planning Commission
Since there are some new criteria included in the updated policy, the Commission wanted to revisit the policy after at least four community meetings or six months, whichever is sooner. This will allow the Department to provide an implementation summary on the updated policy to the Commission for feedback.
What are Other Jurisdictions Doing?
There are limited examples of other local jurisdictions with adopted public outreach policies for Planning applications, including the City of San José, City of Sunnyvale, City of Cupertino, and the City of East Palo Alto. Similarly, these policies address types of projects and the extent of outreach. Based on the research, Santa Clara has the most robust policy. Cupertino’s policy mentions “advise”, “collaborate” and “team up” for projects of different size and entitlement type. Otherwise, does not specify requirements. East Palo Alto’s noticing maxes out at 600 feet. San Jose’s policy maxes out at 1,000 feet for notifications for significant projects and allows the Director to increase the notifications as necessary.
As recommended by the Planning Commission, Santa Clara will be an outlier regarding processing applications if the outreach and engagement requirements are onerous compared to the requirements of other surrounding jurisdictions.
Summary
Updates to the policy are necessary to reflect changes and emerging trends. The proposed changes are the culmination of outreach efforts and represent best practices moving forward. The early notification update is a direct result of stakeholder input and would result in better outreach and earlier feedback to staff and the applicant on a pending project. While the increases to the notification radii as recommended by the Planning Commission would result in additional property owners/tenants being notified, it is not certain if that would necessarily lead to increased feedback or participation from the public. Increasing the notification radii would increase costs to the applicant and increase the amount of time staff would spend on notifications.
Based on surrounding jurisdictions noticing and outreach, the City of Santa Clara would be an outlier. An alternative to increasing the notices to the level recommended by the Planning Commission is to allow staff to gauge the interest of the public from the early notification and allow the Community Development Director to adjust the notification radius based on community interest. As recommended by the Planning Commission, the Department would return with a summary of the implementation for feedback and potential further updates.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
The policy is not a project as defined by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no fiscal impact to the City for processing the requested application other than administrative time and expenses typically covered by processing fees paid by the applicant, which were recently updated to account for these costs. As mentioned in the discussion section, additional mailings per project and increased notification radius requirements would increase the amount of time and cost per project to process depending on the project type and the number of public hearings.
COORDINATION
This report has been coordinated with the City Attorney’s Office.
PUBLIC CONTACT
On December 1, 2022, the City conducted an in-person community meeting at the Central Library and followed this up with a virtual community meeting on December 8, 2022. On July 12 and July 17, 2023, the City conducted virtual community meetings. Those in attendance included residents, neighborhood organizations, and engagement organizations.
Following these meetings, a public draft of the policy was available for comment through an online platform, Konveio, where the public provided comments. In summary, public comments included: increasing the radius for notification; a preference for hybrid meeting format over virtual format; add community events in addition to community meetings; and developers should partner with community-based organizations. As a result of public feedback, the draft policy was updated as follows:
• The notification radius was increased for large and significant projects;
• Community meetings are proposed to be hybrid;
• Participating in community events, such as the Art and Wine Festival or farmers’ market, and partnering with community-based organizations are encouraged.
Catalyze SV, a stakeholder provided some feedback that was not included in the draft policy. They suggested that the City provide child-care services, food, and translations during meetings. Santa Clara, nor our neighboring communities, regularly provides these items for all development proposal meetings. A general response to their feedback is included as an attachment to this report.
Notice of this City Council meeting was advertised on the City’s social media accounts and sent to the City’s e-notify list. There were two social media posts on various platforms (Facebook, Instagram and NextDoor) resulting in 3,401 views, however, only four views resulted in clicks to the City’s project page with the policy updates. A publication took place in the Santa Clara Weekly on August 6, 2025.
Public contact was made by posting the Council agenda on the City’s official-notice bulletin board outside City Hall Council Chambers. A complete agenda packet is available on the City’s website and in the City Clerk’s Office at least 72 hours prior to a Regular Meeting and 24 hours prior to a Special Meeting. A hard copy of any agenda report may be requested by contacting the City Clerk’s Office at (408) 615-2220, email clerk@santaclaraca.gov or at the public information desk at any City of Santa Clara public library.
ALTERNATIVES
1. The Council may decide to not change the existing Public Outreach Policy for Planning applications.
2. The Council may decide to make additional revisions to the updated Public Outreach Policy for Planning applications.
RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
Adopt the updated Public Notification, Outreach & Engagement Policy for Planning Applications, as modified by the Planning Commission, except for increasing the notification radii beyond staff’s recommendation for large and significant projects.
Staff
Reviewed by: Afshan Hamid, Director, Community Development
Approved by: Jovan Grogan, City Manager
ATTACHMENTS
1. Updated policy
2. Weblink to 2-19-25 Planning Commission Packet, Updated Policy with redlines and project page
3. Example Notification Maps
4. Catalyze SV Feedback Comments