Rebuilding the Santa Clara Downtown
Moc up design of what Santa Clara’s downtown be. Graphic provided by Butch Coyne
Within the 10-block area behind the Louis B. Mayer Theater and bordered by Benton, Lafayette, Homestead, and Madison, lies historic Downtown Santa Clara. The original downtown was torn down in the 1970s, but there are plans to rebuild the downtown and bring in a variety of businesses and activities into the city.
However, the Santa Clara downtown still has a long road ahead when it comes to being fully implemented, as it awaits developers to begin working on the project.
The Downtown Precise Plan was approved by the Santa Clara City Council in December 2023 after being drafted and presented by the Downtown Community Task Force, a group representing downtown to the city. The plan highlighted the full outline of the 10-blocks holding downtown including the area it would be in, what would be in each part of downtown, and a plan for potential phasing. It was approved in conjunction with the Form Based Code, which outlined specifications of what the buildings in the downtown would look like.
One of the outlined plans included the integration of housing into the downtown area.
“One of the biggest things we heard from faculty, staff, and some students is we need housing,” said Butch Coyne, Performing Arts Center director and a member of the Downtown Community Task Force.
There were also ideas to add small 50-by-50 retail spaces made for temporary university projects. Some examples may include galleries, pop-up offices, and tutoring, according to Coyne.
“The possibilities, depending upon what your area is, are numerous,” said Coyne. These spots would “give the students an opportunity to be entrepreneurs and do these types of things that give them the space and the resources to be able to do it.”
There were some limitations that the task force kept in mind when creating the plan.
“The last thing we want to do as a part of the Downtown Community Task Force is to displace our restaurants and businesses,” said Coyne. “We specifically wrote the precise plan to make sure those mom-and-pop Italian restaurants, Thai restaurants, massage parlor type, bookstores, whatever it may be, are local and friendly and community-based.”
This type of implementation would not only protect small businesses in the city, but would also make the area more unique to Santa Clara, according to Coyne. Additionally, it would serve the task force’s goal of making the downtown a place that is authentic, adaptable, and affordable.
Yet, despite the plan being approved by the Santa Clara City Council, the site is still very early in development. One issue is that the area would need to be economically appealing to developers in order to come to fruition, according to Associate Vice President of University Operations Sean Collins.
“Developers are not building much of anything these days,” said Sudanshu Jain, a councilmember for the City of Santa Clara. Despite this, Jain said that the city has “created the conditions for developers to come in,” by having already approved zoning and design guidelines, reducing uncertainty for developers.
Additionally, the city will need to initiate redevelopment proposals with property owners in the area. However, the city also owns some of the land in the area, and “is considering the next steps for the land it owns,” according to an email sent by the City of Santa Clara.
Leadership also plays a role in the development, as the plan “relies totally on the university administration and the city administration,” said Coyne. “They’re the ones that are going to decide and know when this project could start and when this project could finish.”
There are some concerns over having a downtown area so close to the university.
“I personally don’t like crowded areas too much,” said Collin Strong ‘26, who had concerns over an increase in traffic near the area because of a downtown. However, he added that there’s an importance in giving students a “spot to hang out in” off-campus.
The addition of a downtown would have a “tremendous” impact on students, according to Collins, specifically in the recruitment and retention of students, faculty and staff “It’s going to address the lack of amenities around the university and it’s going to be a vibrant, active, destination containing retail entertainment, restaurants, housing, and other amenities that students want,” said Coyne.
The downtown would also have positive impacts to the City of Santa Clara as a whole.
“We need pride, we need a heart,” said Mary Grizzle, co-chair of Reclaiming Our Downtown, an all-volunteer organization dedicated to bringing downtown back to Santa Clara, “There is so much that is needed here and it all starts with the downtown.”