SB-9 Urban Lot Split yielding 4 primary dwelling units. The front parcel retains the existing 784 SF structure as the primary residence and the rear parcel adds a new 2-story duplex containing two primary dwelling units. The lot split satisfies all SB-9 ministerial criteria, the resulting 4-unit density makes economic sense, and the design preserves the existing structure for owner-occupancy compliance.
Recommended path projected exit value range: $2.8M to $3.4M gross across 4 units (existing plus duplex), against an estimated all-in cost (acquisition at current market plus construction) of approximately $2.1M to $2.4M. Indicative gross margin window: 18 to 28 percent on an 18-to-24-month timeline.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Lot Size | 11,779 SF / 0.270 acres |
| Lot Dimensions | Approximately 88 ft of street frontage by 133 ft deep |
| Zoning | R-1-10 (Single-Family Residential, 10,000 SF minimum), conforming |
| General Plan | Residential (aligned with zoning) |
| Overlay(s) | None identified at this stage. Verify Specific Plan and any neighborhood overlay with City prior to entitlement submittal. |
| Year Built | 1948 (78 years) |
| Existing Structure | 784 SF, 2 BR / 1.5 BA, raised foundation, composition roof, central forced air, 1 story |
| Improvements | Detached 2-car garage, RV access, gated frontage, fruit trees on lot |
| List Price / Last Sale | Acquired 2023 in the mid $900,000s via estate sale, 8 offers received. (Exact price, date, and MLS number redacted.) |
| Flood Zone | Verify against FEMA panel. Street name suggests adjacent drainage feature. Preliminary title pull recommended. |
| WUI / Fire Hazard | Not in Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone. South San Jose floor, away from foothills. |
| Seismic Hazard | Not in Alquist-Priolo active fault zone. Hayward Fault trace is in the east hills. Standard CGS seismic shaking susceptibility applies. |
| HCP Fee Zone | Verify with City prior to permit submittal (Santa Clara Valley Habitat Conservation Plan). |
| Site Development Permit Status | No active permits identified at this stage. Verify with San Jose Public Property Search. |
| SB-9 Eligibility (preliminary) | QUALIFIED. See Section 3 and Section 4 for full analysis. |
| Access | Direct street frontage. Not a flag lot. Existing curb cut in place. |
| Utilities | Public sewer connected, public water (District), electricity on site, gas service assumed (verify). |
| Ownership / tenure notes | Last transfer 2023 via estate sale (prior seller deceased in home). Property vacant at last listing. Owner identity pending title pull. |
Single-family residential. One 784 SF 1948-era detached structure on an 11,779 SF lot. Significantly under-utilized for the lot size and the South San Jose rental and resale market.
The highest and best use is Scenario A: SB-9 Urban Lot Split with the existing 784 SF structure retained on the front parcel and a new 2-story duplex (two primary dwelling units) on the rear parcel. This balances four important factors: maximum legal density under SB-9 (4 units), preservation of the existing structure as the owner-occupied primary residence (satisfies the 3-year affidavit requirement), lowest demolition and abatement cost, and shortest construction timeline. Scenario C (full demolition with two matched duplexes) is the alternative if the owner prefers a fully new-construction product mix.
Concept site plans are scaled massing studies for discussion. They are not engineered drawings. Final unit count, footprints, and setbacks are confirmed at the planning-application stage.
| Path | Viable | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| SB-9 Urban Lot Split | YES | Lot is conforming (R-1-10, 11,779 SF) and exceeds the 2,400 SF statewide minimum by 4.9 times. No fire, fault, historic, or environmentally-sensitive exclusion applies. Owner of record must be a natural person. |
| SB-1123 Small Lot Subdivision | NO | SB-1123 requires multifamily-zoned or commercial-flex parcels above 5 units. Single-family R-1-10 is outside SB-1123 scope. |
| State ADU (1 attached + 1 detached) | YES (alternative) | Property qualifies for one detached ADU plus one Junior ADU under state law. Lower-density alternative to SB-9. |
| Condo Map (no lot split) | Conditional | Air-space subdivision allows multiple owners under one parcel. Useful only if the design favors stacked or attached units with shared land. Less common for this lot geometry. Requires a Tentative Map then a Final Map under discretionary planning review, plus an HOA and CC&Rs. No owner-occupancy affidavit required, and it scales past two units if more are added later. |
| Conventional Subdivision (Tentative Map) | No (oversized for value capture) | The lot is too small to subdivide into more than 2 parcels under R-1-10 minimums. SB-9 achieves the same 2-parcel outcome ministerially and faster. |
| Hold | YES | Property cash-flows weakly as-is (784 SF rental). Hold is the no-action baseline. |
Wording note: Under SB-9 the second dwelling on each parcel is a primary dwelling unit, not an ADU. The ADU pathway listed in this table is a separate service track with different size caps.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Total units | 4 (1 existing retained + 3 new primary dwelling units) |
| Rough hard cost | $950,000 to $1,200,000 (new construction + light renovation of existing) |
| Rough exit value (gross) | $2,800,000 to $3,400,000 |
| Margin signal | Build-to-sell: 18 to 28 percent gross margin. Hold-and-rent: blended cap rate target 5.5 to 6.5 percent. |
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Total units | 2 (1 existing + 1 detached ADU at 1,200 SF max) |
| Rough hard cost | $220,000 to $320,000 (ADU build only) |
| Rough exit value (gross) | $1,500,000 to $1,750,000 (combined property as duplex-comp) |
| Margin signal | Hold-and-rent only. Cap rate target 5.0 to 5.5 percent. Lowest leverage path. |
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Total units | 4 (2 duplexes, 2 units each, all new construction) |
| Rough hard cost | $1,400,000 to $1,750,000 (full new build + demo + abatement) |
| Rough exit value (gross) | $3,200,000 to $3,700,000 |
| Margin signal | Build-to-sell: 18 to 25 percent gross margin. Hold-and-rent: blended cap rate target 5.8 to 6.8 percent. |
| Risk | Impact | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| Santa Clara Valley Water District easement along the street frontage | Medium. Could reduce buildable area on the western lot edge. | Pull preliminary title report before offer or design start. Confirm any recorded easement width and adjust setback assumptions accordingly. |
| 1948 structure: lead paint, possible asbestos, dated electrical and plumbing | Low-to-medium on Scenario A. High on Scenario C (full demolition triggers abatement). | Phase I environmental and asbestos survey before any demolition or structural renovation. Budget $5,000 to $15,000 for abatement on Scenario C. |
| Soil condition not stated on last MLS | Medium. Affects foundation cost on new construction. | Geotech report before any new construction design. Budget $3,500 to $7,000 for the report. |
| Nearby light-industrial area west of Highway 87 (specific street names redacted) | Low-to-medium. Potential historical contamination exposure. | Phase I environmental sweep before purchase. Most south San Jose residential parcels return clean. |
| Owner-occupancy 3-year affidavit (SB-9 requirement) | High if owner is an LLC or investor without an occupant. | Title to a qualified natural person before SB-9 application. Identify the occupant up front. |
| Last sale was an estate sale with no seller disclosures available | Medium. Buyer purchases without standard disclosures. | Full buyer due diligence package required (inspection, geotech, environmental, title) before contingency release. |
| PG&E service sequencing and utility separation (standard row in every ClearPath report) | High on timeline. Each new legal parcel and each new primary dwelling needs its own electric service, and PG&E processes the application on its own clock, separate from the city permit. Projects that sequence it late routinely lose 2 to 6 months at the end, when carry costs hurt most. Wet utilities (water, sewer, gas) carry their own separation requirements on the new lot line. | Engage PG&E service planning in parallel with entitlement, not after it. Confirm panel and meter specifications against the current Greenbook before submitting. Map the wet utility separation on the site plan at design stage. |
Scenario A: SB-9 Urban Lot Split with retention of existing structure and addition of a 2-story duplex on the rear parcel (4 total primary dwelling units).
| Horizon | Action |
|---|---|
| This week | Pull preliminary title report (First American or Stewart). Confirm any Santa Clara Valley Water District easement on the western lot edge. Order Phase I environmental site assessment. |
| This month | Order geotech report. Engage architect for SB-9 design package targeting the Scenario A layout (existing retained + rear duplex). Confirm the owner-of-record entity meets the natural-person requirement. Execute deed to natural person if needed. |
| This quarter | Submit SB-9 ministerial application to City of San Jose Planning Division. Target Planning approval within 60 days of submittal. Begin building permit package in parallel to compress the timeline. |
Not every owner wants to build, so every ClearPath report closes with all five paths, ranked for this parcel. ClearPath is a feasibility advisor, not a brokerage. We say plainly which path the numbers favor and refer you to the right professional to execute it.
1. Build it yourself (the ranked path here). Scenario A: split, keep the existing house, build the rear duplex. Capital need roughly $0.95M to $1.2M, 18 to 24 months, exit value $2.8M to $3.4M across the finished parcels. First step: the title report and Phase I this week, then the SB-9 design package.
2. Sell entitled. Carry the parcel through the SB-9 split and approvals, then sell the shovel-ready project without building. Lots with approved SB-9 splits in this zip trade at a development premium of 8 to 15 percent, and the approval cost is a small fraction of construction. First step: same as path 1 through Planning approval, then list with a development-aware agent.
3. Sell as-is, with this feasibility attached. This report itself becomes part of the sale package. A buyer who can see the verified paths pays for potential instead of discounting the unknown. First step: hand this report to your listing agent and price the SB-9 story in.
4. Partner or joint venture. The land is your contribution, a builder brings the capital and the construction. The split typically tracks the land value against the build cost, which this report quantifies for the negotiation. First step: a one-page term sheet anchored to the Scenario A numbers, reviewed by your attorney.
5. Hold. The existing structure cash-flows weakly at 784 rentable square feet, so holding is a bet on land appreciation, not income. What would change the math: rate cuts lowering carry, or further state streamlining. Watch both, and keep the 3-year owner-occupancy requirement in mind if you ever pivot to path 1.
| Confirmed Fact | Source | Date Verified |
|---|---|---|
| Address, APN, lot dimensions, lot size, year built, MLS history | MLS record via Realist (MLS number redacted) | 2026-06-01 |
| Zoning R-1-10 | MLS Zoning field (cross-verify at SJ Public Property Search before submittal) | 2026-06-01 |
| Last sale price and date | MLS sale record (figures redacted in this sample) | 2026-06-01 |
| Public sewer and water connection | MLS Utilities field | 2026-06-01 |
| San Jose SB-9 ordinance language and qualifying zones | City of San Jose Planning Division, Ordinance 30706, SB-9 Objective Design Standards page | 2026-06-01 |
| LLC applicant ineligibility under SB-9 | California HCD Determination memo (cross-referenced in ClearPath jurisdiction rules library) | 2026-06-01 |
| Comparable sales on the same street | Zillow, Trulia, Realtytrac aggregated public records | 2026-06-01 |
| Assumption | Next Step |
|---|---|
| No Santa Clara Valley Water District easement on western lot edge | Pull preliminary title report |
| Not in FEMA flood zone | Cross-reference FEMA flood map panel for the subject zip code |
| Not in Santa Clara Valley HCP fee zone | Verify at San Jose Public Property Search portal |
| Soil bearing capacity sufficient for 2-story new construction | Geotech report |
This analysis is advisory in nature and based on publicly available data and professional judgment as of June 1, 2026. Final feasibility is subject to verification with the City of San Jose Planning Division and consulting engineers, including title, geotechnical, environmental, and survey reports. ClearPath Development makes no representations as to the marketability, value, financing availability, or final development outcome of the subject property. Buyer, owner, or investor due diligence is required before any binding commitment. Cost ranges and exit value estimates shown in this report are preliminary indications, not appraisals or guarantees, and are subject to construction-market, capital-market, and entitlement-outcome variability.