Google gets the go-ahead to build a mega-campus in San Jose with 4,000 homes, office space, and shops

• San Jose city council on Tuesday approved Google's plans of building a mega-campus in the city.
• "Downtown West" will cover 80 acres and offer thousands of offices, houses, and shops.
• Google will provide $200 million in community benefits and 1,000 homes will come under an affordable housing program.

San Jose city council gave Google the green light on Tuesday to build a huge campus in San Jose, California's third-largest city, according to official documents.

The nod of approval means that Google can now move forward with its "Downtown West" project which will stretch over 80 acres of land, the council documents showed. This will become one of Google's biggest campuses in the world.

The mixed-use mega-campus promises 7.3 million square feet of office space to accommodate 20,000 workers, 500,000 square feet dedicated to shops, restaurants, and other space, 15 acres of parks, and 4,000 new homes.

Out of the 4,000 housing units, 1,000 of them will be designated under an affordable housing program, according to the documents. Officials said housing prices had not been decided yet.

Google will also provide $200 million in community benefits, including money for job training, homeless aid and support for small businesses, the documents said.

On top of this, the tech giant will fork out roughly $890 million for investment in infrastructure improvements around the area, according to the documents.

Insider has reached out to Google for clarification on the costs of the Downtown West campus, a project which was initially planned in 2017.

Downtown West will also offer up to 300 hotel rooms and 800 short-term lodges for Google's corporate guests, the council documents showed.

A Google spokesperson told the San Francisco Chronicle that it aims to start construction work in 2022 and plans to inject $3 million to San Jose within 30 days of the project's approval.

In the city council meeting, Alexa Arena, director of Google's San Jose mega-campus, described the project as a "social infrastructure plan," which is expected to offer more than $1 billion in public investment, per the San Francisco Chronicle.

"This is about the long haul," Arena said. "We are not a developer that is coming in for five years."