CivicFM
San Jose

From the meeting · Planning Commission, · 1:09

Should data center appeals skip the Planning Commission?

Staff propose sending appeals of data center special use permits straight from the director's hearing to the City Council, and a commissioner objects that this removes a place where residents are heard.

a commissioner, a speaker and city staff

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a commissioner So what I'm concerned about in this process is that you are taking the Planning Commission out of a process, which is we're the first level of land use where residents can come in and give us input.

a commissioner So if you're taking us out of the process, then that's one less opportunity for the residents to have input on the process.

a commissioner So normally the process would come to us and then go to the council.

a speaker So just to clarify, the one change we're proposing is for special use permits.

a speaker And those special use permits that would go

city staff to directors hearing, continue to go to directors hearing.

city staff If there's an appeal on the permit, the land use permit, that typically would have went to Planning Commission.

city staff We're proposing to go to council.

city staff And actually the reason we're proposing that change is because we are trying to be responsive to the community that they do feel if it's a controversial data center project, that should be ultimately a council decision on the land use.

Where it's from

From the public recording of the Planning Commission, October 23, 2026. Picked and described with AI; the words are the meeting's own. Remove this clip