About Delmas Park

Delmas Park SNI Plan

Launched in July 2000, the Strong Neighborhoods Initiative (SNI) was a partnership between the San Jose City Council, Mayor, residents, and business owners, with the goal to improve neighborhood conditions, enhance community safety, facilitate community services, and strengthen neighborhood associations.  The Delmas Park Area is one of twenty neighborhoods in San Jose that was designated as a Strong Neighborhoods Initiative district.

The SNI Neighborhood Plan process began with an initial
meeting of the Neighborhood Advisory Committee (NAC), made up of community members, in February 2001.  A SNI-related community-planning workshop held in April 2001 produced a summary list of neighborhood issues.  Over the course of the next nine months, NAC members refined this issues list and created a vision for the Delmas Park area that had a clear focus on neighborhood revitalization.  A total of twelve NAC meetings were held to evaluate issues and recommendations in detail, and to review and edit the Neighborhood Plan document.  This plan document addresses existing conditions, goals and objectives, specific improvement concepts, and an action plan.  The "Delmas Park Neighborhood Improvement Plan" was approved by the San Jose City Council in April 2002, and it is the basic blueprint to guide the neighborhood improvement efforts.  The plan document is in the Document Library.

An amended neighborhood improvement plan was issued in October 2007 as an update to the original, as eight of the Top Ten priorities were fully or partially completed.  The amended plan was created to guide neighborhood improvement efforts for the future.  It described a new set of actions that were adopted by the Delmas Park community.  The amended plan document is in the Document Library.

In June 2014, City Council approved the "Diridon Station Area Plan Final Plan Report", which lays out a vision and direction for development in the Diridon Station area, which includes Delmas Park.  The report, which is available in the Document Library, states that the Delmas Park SNI plan gives general guidance on the community’s preferred land uses, and desirable massing/heights/densities of buildings. The proposed uses, block and street patterns, and building heights indicated in the DSAP - Final Plan Report are intended to be respectful of and consistent with the community’s recommendations.

SJSU - CommUniverCity Neighborhood Assessments

During the 2017-18 school year, graduate students in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at San Jose State University, in coordination with CommUniverCity, a partnership of the City of San Jose, SJSU, and the District 3 Community Leadership Council, performed a broad assessment of Delmas Park, studying existing conditions, demographics, land uses, and planning and visioning.  The students did personal interviews of residents, organized an open house event and a pop-up park, and did numerous "boots on the ground" measurements and studies.  After the Fall 2017 semester, they produced a documentary video, "Now Arriving: A Changing Delmas Park", that portrays existing neighborhood conditions and what makes Delmas Park unique. It also highlights personal stories from community leaders and key stakeholders about community assets and needs.  A full community assessment report was issued after the Spring 2018 semester.  The report is available in the Document Library.

During the 2018-19 school year, a separate set of students in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning studied the connection between the Diridon Station transit hub and Downtown San Jose, in an effort to understand the status and needs of Downtown and its connection to Diridon Station.  They conducted community assessments of the urban form and transportation connections in Diridon and Downtown, with each semester class culminating in a community open-house event that encouraged attendees to share their thoughts and recommendations for connections within the study area.  Although the study did not focus directly on Delmas Park, the fact that Delmas Park lies in the geographic center of the study area meant that the neighborhood played an integral part in the study.  The full community assessment report, "Diridon To Downtown: A Community Assessment Report", is in the Document Library.