Milpitas, California

Located at the southern tip of the San Francisco Bay, the City of Milpitas is a progressive community that is an integral part of the high tech Silicon Valley. With a very diversified resident population of 65,000, Milpitas features quality schools, conveniently located neighborhood parks and shopping centers.

Milpitas is an affluent and well-educated community with an average household income of $98,979. More than 65% of Milpitas households have an annual income that exceeds $75,000. The homeownership rate is close to 70% with a median home value of $745,000. Milpitas¡¦ housing market remains affordable relative to the majority of Santa Clara County.

Milpitas is often called the ¡§Crossroads of Silicon Valley¡¨ with most of its 13.63 square miles of land situated between two major freeways (I-880 and I-680), State Route 237, and a County expressway. A new light rail line opened for service in 2004 and an extension of BART including a major multi-modal station is in the planning stage. There are approximately 1,790 acres, or 2.9 square miles, designated for various industrial uses. About 271 acres are vacant and available in parcels ranging from ½ acre to 75 acres. There are eight existing industrial parks and 550 manufacturing plants in Milpitas.

An additional 350 acres are dedicated to regional and community retail centers supporting 3.5 million square feet of commercial shops. The Great Mall of the Bay Area is the largest enclosed mall in Northern California, with approximately 1.1 million square feet of leasable space for retail and entertainment operations. Several local shopping centers serve regional needs for Asian-oriented retail and services.

The two largest employers in Milpitas are Cisco Systems and Lifescan, Inc., with over 2,500 employees each. Other major employers are Solectron Corporation; LSI Logic Corporation; Linear Technology; KLA-Tencor Corporation; Maxtor Corporation; Xicor, Inc.; Seagate Technology, and the newly relocated SanDisk. Several of these top employers have made the City of Milpitas their corporate headquarters as well. Given the City¡¦s desirable location for high-tech industry, the daytime population of Milpitas doubles to 130,000.

Milpitas is rich in diversity. In 2000, Asians constituted 52% of the population with Filipino the largest Asian group at 15%. Caucasians were 24%; Hispanic 17% and African-American were 3%.

Thirty-one community parks are maintained by Milpitas, in addition to one dog park and 24 tennis courts. The City provides a multitude of outstanding recreational opportunities, including aquatics, cultural arts and theater, sports leagues and activities, youth programming, and senior activities and services.