Milpitas

City, Santa Clara County

© McCormack's Guides

 

Zip Codes: 95035, 95036

Family, hi-tech town rising up the scale as more professionals move in. Housing a mix of old and new suburbia. Fast commute to Silicon Valley and practically speaking Milpitas should be considered a Silicon Valley town. Shopping greatly improved with opening of mall. www.mccormacks.com

School rankings middling to high with over half the schools scoring in the top 30 percent of the state. Crime fairly low.

Increased its population by 29 percent in the last decade and now claims 69,419 residents (including 2,850 inmates).

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In 2004, commuters got a break when light-rail line was extended to Milpitas and beyond. The line runs to downtown San Jose and many job centers of Silicon Valley and to Campbell.

Milpitas is located near the bottom of San Francisco Bay, on the east side. Towns north of Milpitas need to cross bridges to get to the thousands of jobs across the Bay. The local major bridges are bottlenecks. At peak hours they usually get more traffic than they can handle and all have toll booths.

At the bottom of the Bay, the state built Highway 237. Not a bridge. No tolls. This highway starts in south Milpitas, runs through north San Jose (many jobs) and then to the high-tech cities of Santa Clara, Sunnyvale and Mountain View, connecting to other freeways along the way. www.mccormacks.com

Highway 237 runs east to west. Milpitas has two other freeways that run north-south, Interstate 880 and Interstate 680, both of which lead down to downtown San Jose and its airport.

Interstate 880 intersects with Highway 237 in a new interchange that makes the transition easy.

Interstate 680 also intersects with Highway 237 but no interchange. You have to drive cross town on Calaveras Boulevard until it blossoms into the parkway 237 — irritating! Many of the streets dead-end at the freeways or rail line, which makes getting around the town a chore.

Over the past 10 years, Milpitas has built office and research parks west of Interstate 880. Between the freeways, Highway 237, the light rail and buses, the location, the local jobs, the commute for many has become delightfully short.

Milpitas started out as an industrial community, home to a giant Ford auto plant, but switched gears in the 1980s when the old industries declined and high-tech took off. www.mccormacks.com

The city began the 1960s with 6,572 residents. In that decade, it added about 20,000 and in the 1970s about 11,000. The 1980s saw another jump, 13,000 people, and in the 1990s Milpitas added about 14,500 residents. Between 2000 and 2006, Milpitas took on 2,600 more people.

Because of this rapid growth, a great deal of Milpitas is new or fairly new, especially between Milpitas Boulevard and Interstate 680. The new sections mix single homes, townhouses and apartment complexes and almost all have some kind of built-in maintenance, either homeowner associations or property managers.

Walls surround many of the tracts, decreasing (somewhat) street noise and routing arterial or through traffic away from the homes — modern planning. The homeowner tracts and some complexes are equipped with pools or small rec centers.

On the east side of Interstate 680 you will find many of the homes built before and just after 1960, when the boom started. These homes were built in tracts, no walls, and sold as individual units, the maintenance up to the homeowner. Most have done a good job, a few haven’t.

The new housing often has small front yards, the easier to care of with both parents working. The older housing, built in an era that assumed more time for mowing and raking, runs to larger yards. www.mccormacks.com

The older housing spans several decades. The home built in the 1950s will often be smaller than the one built in the 1970s.

Milpitas is a fragmented town, divided not only by the freeways, Highway 237 and the light-rail line but also by an active railroad line (with switching yard) that runs down the center of town. Old housing and new predominate in some neighborhoods but show up all around town.

In 2006, construction began on a gated neighborhood — 683 homes, townhouses, condos — next to the county jail, 2,850 inmates. Also nearby, Interstate 880 and two light-rail stations and a mall.

Homes and a jail — doesn’t sound like a happy marriage. But Silicon Valley is desperate for housing land. Many workers are commuting 50-70 miles one way. Given the choice between a long commute and living close to a jail, many people, developers are betting, will take the jail.

Good housing mix, 19,073 residential units — 11,061 single homes, 2,225 single attached, 5,198 multiples, 589 mobile homes (2008 count). www.mccormacks.com

Children attend the school of the Milipitas Unified School District (K-12), enrollment about 9,600. The newer residents tend to be high-tech workers and college educated and this is reflected in the school scores. Most of the regular schools are scoring in the 70th 80th and 90th percentiles, about the top 30 percent in the state. The remaining schools are landing in the 40th and 50th percentiles. See Schools.

In 2002, Milpitas High opened an Academy of Engineering and Technology. In 1996, the district passed a $65 million bond to build and renovate schools.

Despite the bond, the district is struggling financially. A parcel tax, which would have raised money for salaries and programs, failed in 2005; needing a two-thirds approval, it drew 60 percent. The district levies fees to new developments to pay for some facilities. In the works, a second high school.

Zero homicides in 2005, 2004, three in 2003, zero in 2002 and 2001, one each in 2000 and 1999, zero in 1998, two in 1997, 1996 and 1995, three in 1994. See Crime.

Lots of family activities. Twenty-two parks, including a large county part with public golf course. 11 playgrounds. Long linear park popular for hiking. Community center and library. Senior center. High-school swimming pool open to public in summer. Soccer, tennis, baseball, ping pong, Little League, racquetball, basketball, softball, volleyball, hang gliding, day camp, movies, bowling, roller skating, billiard parlor. Sports center with gym and playing fields. After-school programs for kids. India Community Center. One fellow took over a warehouse and converted it into a badminton club called Smash City. www.mccormacks.com

Kids and adult theatricals staged at the community center. 2007 productions include “Grease” another musical and a murder mystery. Art and Wine Festival was changed into Celebrate Milpitas, more family oriented.

The old Ford assembly plant was transformed into “The Great Mall,” specializing in outlet stores. A big plus for Milpitas, providing not only tax revenues but also many entry-level and part-time jobs for local residents. Movie complex, 20 screens, at the Great Mall.

In the late 1990s, Milpitas jumped over Interstate 880 into McCarthy Ranch and built a giant mall — Borders Books, Best Buy, Office Max, Wal-Mart, two hotels, restaurants, variety of stores — and row upon row of office-research buildings. Also located west of I-880 are other hotels, some large.

When Milpitas boomed, its old Main Street, the downtown, got lost in the shuffle. City hall and the library were relocated to a mall on Calaveras Boulevard (Highway 237).

Main Street is making a comeback. Large apartment complexes have opened on the street, bringing in customers for the stores. Also opened, a striking marble edifice, the Jain Center of Northern California. Marble imported from India. The city plans to build parks and trails in the old downtown and bring in more stores and housing. www.mccormacks.com

Chamber of commerce (408) 262-2613.

• City plans to rip out industrial buildings near rail lines and replace with homes, stores and commercial. Anchoring the new development would be a BART station, long awaited in Santa Clara. It is to run from Fremont (now end of line) to San Jose. Big job, years away.

• Many homes are built near the rail line. Check out noise.

• Many Asian restaurants, a few haute cuisine. The malls have introduced a mix of restaurants, most fast-food or family (Hucklebees and Marconi Grill). Starbucks, cafes.

• New planning puts the housing next to stores and amenities so people will shop locally and not drive as much. Milpitas has encouraged housing next to its city hall and main library and across the street from neighborhood mall.

• City has established “urban boundary limit” to discourage more housing in hills. www.mccormacks.com

City web site: www.ci.milpitas.ca.gov