A years-long battle over one of the hottest pieces of land in San Jose ended Thursday, and it appears almost everyone will come out a winner.
In the shadows of Santana Row, near the Winchester Mystery House, sits a mobile home park, where residents are breathing a sigh of relief after reaching a settlement they’ve been working six years to get.
"How do you deal with the fact that you are now going to have to change your lifestyle?" said Mari Jo Pokriots, resident of the Winchester Ranch Mobile Home Park.
Six years ago, Pokriots and her neighbors found out their homes were in the way of a new planned housing development. But, with the help of the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, the residents and developer Pulte Homes have come to an agreement.
"The developer will build housing on site that the residents can move into, at the same rate, and protections they had in their mobile homes," said Nadia Aziz, attorney with the foundation.
As many as 700 new apartments and condos are likely to go up in the new development, and thanks to the new deal, some of them are already spoken for.
"The main thing I’m looking at is we’ve got a whole group of people now who aren’t gonna get put out on the street," said Dave Johnsen, Winchester Ranch board president. "They’re gonna get put into housing; they’re not gonna be homeless."
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The deal still needs to get city approval, so there’s no date yet for construction to start.
