Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Los Gatos Weekly-Times file photograph by Ken Kwok

For some 40 years, Villa Felice was a popular dining and eating spot. Now that the restaurant has closed, the site has become a prime spot for development.

Developers eye Villa Felice site

By Jeff Kearns

Developer Marshall Torre of the Danville-based Braddock & Logan Group came to the April 8 Conceptual Development Advisory Committee meeting with preliminary plans to build 41 homes on the site of the Villa Felice restaurant and lodge--and came away with a lesson in town politics.

Even though Torre envisions an upscale little community of single-family homes that would be of lower density than the surrounding townhouses on Winchester Boulevard, the committee said it most likely wouldn't fly with the Planning Commission or Town Council.

"There's been a shift in public perception that we're building too many dense projects," Planning Commissioner Laura Nachison said. "Even though it's less dense [than surrounding developments], it's not going to look like that to the layman."

The rest of the committee agreed, citing the recent anti-growth trend in town among residents worried that the town is going to be filled up with new high-density projects. And with three council seats open in the November election, it's a hot topic that's bound to get hotter this summer.

Schools, too, were identified as a concern.

"All this has an impact on the infrastructure," Nachison said. "We have to think of the effect on schools." Kids from the development would attend the already crowded Daves Avenue School, she said.

Nachison, however, said she would be more likely to support the project if it offered affordable housing. "This could bring new families into the area, which I think we need, because otherwise it stagnates."

Torre said it definitely wasn't going to be affordable housing. "These homes are going to be expensive," he said. "I know I can't satisfy everyone, but all I hope to please in the end is three council people."

On the plan's design, Mayor Linda Lubeck, who sits on the CDAC, said she would prefer to see more open space and greenery and less pavement.

Planning Commissioner Sandy Decker, another committee member, said she, too, would like more open space, maybe even clustering and underground parking. "This is a piece of property that rolls to an incredible vista," she said.

Another developer came to the CDAC last August with a plan for 61 townhouses or 51 detached homes, which was pitched as affordable housing and had the committee behind it, but the project never went anywhere after that.

The 6.1-acre site is currently a planned development, which means that any new development would require an updated planned-development ordinance, which the Town Council ultimately must approve.

Councilmember Randy Attaway said he couldn't vote for the project as a planned development unless its benefits to the community could be clearly demonstrated. "With this kind of high-density development, nothing compels us to allow it."

What's Torre bringing back to the town?

"They want to see fewer houses, so that's what we're going to give them," he said.

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