Los Gatos Weekly-Times Council OKs North Forty project Hirschman to build office and retail By Jeff Kearns Councilmembers on Jan. 4 approved Bill Hirschman's proposed office/retail complex on the North Forty, paving the way for the first major round of development on the orchard property owned by the Yuki family. The two buildings, at 15089 Los Gatos Blvd., will form a gateway to the road, Bennett Way, that serves a handful of residences behind the project. And, Hirschman hopes, set a good example. "We started off with the Los Gatos Boulevard Plan standards as our bible," Hirschman said. Now, however, his project may wind up becoming the bible for other developers hoping to build in the area. Some councilmembers, however, said the design ignored some parts of the Boulevard Plan. The project is fronted by a parking strip and a wide, tree-lined sidewalk, which is one of the features other developers could emulate, Hirschman said. He suggested that if the next development continued the same model, something akin to a frontage road would evolve. "That area could eventually be connected all along Los Gatos Boulevard, without [cars] having to come back onto Los Gatos Boulevard and back off again," he said. The project originally had two rows of parking in front, but planning commissioners asked Hirschman to remove one of the rows, leaving just 22 of 113 parking spaces along the boulevard. The rest would be in another lot behind the buildings and in a garage tucked under the larger building. One of the primary purposes of the Boulevard Plan was to get buildings back out along the street--instead of hiding behind several acres of parked cars--to avoid the dreaded "strip mall" effect. When some councilmembers said they weren't comfortable with the parking strip in front of the buildings, Hirschman argued that the spots were necessary to draw people into the retail shops included in the project--because new retail space, he said, was also one of the goals set forth in the Boulevard Plan. Existing buildings, which include three homes (one of which is abandoned), a studio and a locksmith shop, are in a state of disrepair, according to a planning staff report, and will be demolished to make way for the project. "What we didn't want was a giant shopping mall in the middle of the North Forty surrounded by a sea of parking," Lubeck said. Hirschman originally brought an early version of the project to the Conceptual Design Advisory Committee in March 1997. Committee members encouraged him to include retail uses. After that, Hirschman put the project on the back burner, until the final version of the Los Gatos Boulevard Plan came out late that year. The Planning Commission saw the plans first in August 1998, and forwarded the project to the council for a recommendation on how it should be handled while the North Forty Specific Plan was still in the works. Councilmembers let it proceed, but told planning commissioners to pay close attention to how it would fit into the eventual shape of future development on the North Forty. The process was somewhat simplified because Bennett Way, the street that runs through the middle of the project, is technically an easement, not a street, and most likely would never end up as a main access point to the North Forty. The Planning Commission, after requesting some design changes at another meeting in October, approved the project Dec. 9. Last week, the council voted 3-2 (Jan Hutchins and Randy Attaway voting no) to give Hirschman the planned development zone change that he needs to build the $10 million project. Attaway said he wasn't comfortable giving his blessing to the project before the final North Forty Specific Plan was out. "I'm concerned that without the specific plan for the area we could be making a big mistake," he said. "It needs really good planning, and we should err on the side of caution." Hutchins had concerns about the parking layout, which he called "strip mall" parking. "It's not what the Boulevard Plan says," Hutchins told the Los Gatos Weekly-Times. "We want parking in the back, buildings close to the street with varied setbacks so it's not like a wall, so we can create that small-town feel for the gateway to town." Hirschman says he'll probably submit his Architecture and Site application by the end of the month. Some of the comments on the architecture still need to be worked out, but the application will probably be submitted mostly unchanged, he said. Hirschman says that he has been approached by prospective tenants, but has not yet made any final agreements. Other Action In other action, the council rejected a planned development application for five homes at 130 Niña Court, which was an appeal of an earlier Planning Commission denial. Some neighbors of the project showed up to complain that the new homes would create traffic hazards and that cars driving into the development would shine their headlights in windows, and could possibly roll down a steep embankment in front of the proposed homes. [ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, January 13, 1999. ©1999 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.