By Clarence Cromwell
Some Los Gatans were surprised to hear of the proposal by Summerhill developers to build some 42 homes near Blossom Hill Road and Union Avenue. Many considered the apricot orchard and the hills behind it a part of the landscape that would never change.
In fact, the Planning Department has been involved with the project for several years. Activity increased when Summerhill brought in a proposal last November.
Here is the history of the property:
* Inventor Raulph Heintz owned more than 100 acres with a frontage on Blossom Hill Road, where he kept an apricot orchard and his laboratory.
* In 1979 Heintz gave the steepest 79 acres of his property to the University of California. He kept the lower portion of the property along Blossom Hill Road, but promised that the university would have it after he and his wife died. Heintz specified that the land given to the university was to be sold and the money used for eye research. He also gave five acres to Angie Ayala, the orchard's caretaker since the 1960s.
* In 1990 Sophie Heintz died, and another 24 acres, including the orchard, went to the university. (Raulph Heintz died before his wife.)
* 1992 UC took action to change the orchard's status as an agricultural preserve. By filing a "notice of non-renewal" on its Williamson Act preservation contract--a deal signed by Heintz and the town--the university ensured that the lower portion of the property would no longer be protected after the year 2000.
* In1992 UC proposed 58 houses and 32 apartments on less than 40 acres of the Heintz property. The remaining acreage would have been donated to the town.
* On May 16, 1995, a developer proposed a 10,000-square-foot conference center and 25 houses on the orchard lands. The town didn't like the project, and UC didn't want to sell to that developer, said Gary DeWeese, assistant treasurer for the UC Regents.
* On Oct. 16, 1995, UC asked for permission to build 39 houses and dedicate 82 acres of land to the town. The application wasn't pursued further than Conceptual Development Advisory Committee meetings because the UC Regents submitted the proposal solely to hear what the town wanted built on the land.
* On May 31, 1996, the Greenbriar development company proposed building 12 houses on Ayala's portion of the orchard. Town records show that this application was withdrawn a month later. Town planners say approval for more than two houses on the lot is extremely unlikely.
* On Nov. 1, 1996, Summerhill Homes notified the town of plans to build 42 homes on the UC property. If the plans are approved, it could mean lifting the preservation contract even earlier than the date the university requested.
* On March 26, 1997, Summerhill filed an application for approval with the town Planning Department. The application included a request for withdrawal from the Williamson Act agricultural preserve.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, April 16, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.