A meeting on this subject was held on Aug. 11, 2004 at Castillero Middle School.  The audience was concerned about neighborhood degradation and noncompliance with code.  The State had passed a mandate which forces cities to provide for low cost housing by allowing secondary housing in the back of selected residences.  A vote at the meeting showed 60 people against and 2 people for the mandate.

The premise that the state can know the local housing market better than the city and one size fits all is a faulty premise.  The state’s mandate, AB 1866 and the proposed AB 2702, must be overturned, by civil disobedience if necessary.  The League of California Cities should use a Vietnam slogan, “Hell no; we won’t go” to express itself.

Beyond concern of the state’s mandates, it turns out that the city of San Jose has at least 2,700 illegal secondary units in existence now.  Clearly there is a market need for these secondary structures, and the illegal structures are an unhindered, free form attempt to fill that market need.  Much can be learned from them.  For example, are they for rent or are they in fact used as offices or extra rooms for relatives? ?  What are the physical characteristics of these units, and how are they situated on the lots.  The analysis of this phenomenon could make a good senior project for a student team at San Jose State.

It may be that these illegal secondary units tend to be located in certain types of neighborhoods, which could suggest that these types of neighborhoods be zoned for secondary housing while other areas of the city are excluded.  The type of codes would be influenced by the information gained from analysis of the existing units.

It is not productive to outlaw the existing structures, tear them down, and force families out on the streets.  If the neighbors have not complained and there are no dangerous situations, then amnesty should be declared.  It may be possible to make code changes to allow these structures to become legal based on the analysis obtained from the survey.

It is clear that it would be difficult to get people to adhere to code forced by the state if there are a large number of illegal structures in existence.  Vice Mayor Dando has stated that the illegal structure situation has to be cleared up first.

Finally, what does it say about our present code enforcement when there are so many visible structures violating city rules.