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San Jose Plans For Future By Putting Jobs Ahead Of Housing

SAN JOSE (KCBS) — In an effort to avoid another housing bubble, the City of San Jose will begin to create a plan on Tuesday that will set aside more land for employment rather than housing.

Under the Jobs First General Plan, residential conversions won't be allowed to proceed ahead of job creation.

San Jose Plans For Future By Putting Jobs Ahead of Housing

"We're trying to avoid creating a bunch of housing without getting the jobs," Mayor Chuck Reed said.

"It's a matter of phasing and timing and we want to make sure that the employment plans are used to generate jobs and help our tax base before we start adding a lot residential capacity, because we already have more housing units than we have jobs for people who live in those housing units. That balance is out balance we're trying to get back to where it's even."

City Councilmen San Liccardo said that, over the years, there's been a steady erosion of land that was previously being used for industrial and commercial use that has been converted for housing. That, he said, exacerbates problems with traffic among other things—like the city's budget.

"The long-term impact is that we'll have a lot more people to serve and fewer taxes tax revenues to serve them with." Liccardo said.

(Copyright 2013 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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