SummerHill granted final approval, plans June start

By Jeff Kearns

Planning commissioners on April 14 signed off on the final version of SummerHill's plan for its 40-unit housing development on Blossom Hill Road.

The approval, for architectural, grading and landscaping plans, comes after the commission sent SummerHill back for a minor redesign in February.

SummerHill changed some of the architectural styles of the four different houses proposed for the site, and moved the location of one house away from a neighbor's property line.

Development Director Elaine Breeze says SummerHill will submit its building permit application sometime this week, and that the company plans to start construction on three model homes in June--about a year later than the company had originally hoped.

After a long planning process that forced Breeze into the role of diplomat, SummerHill won approval to build 39 new homes and remodel an existing farm house on the site last July. The farm house will also be up for sale, and an adjacent barn will be restored.

SummerHill is in the process of preparing to dedicate 89 acres of the 103-acre property to the town as open space. But before that happens, SummerHill must get approval for a minor lot line adjustment on one of the parcels.

The company also will be building trails, putting in signs and garbage cans, and removing the remnants of a demolished house and swimming pool in the hills on the property. As part of its approval from the town, SummerHill will also pay for widening Blossom Hill Road near the development.

In other action, the Planning Commission:

* Denied an application for a new retail/office building at 16185 Los Gatos Blvd. Commissioners said the building's design didn't fit the Los Gatos small-town style.

* Asked for a redesign of a proposed 4,400 square-foot retail building in the parking lot of a shopping center at Union Avenue and Los Gatos-Almaden Road.

* Upheld the Planning Director's decision that vests a conditional-use permit for Calvary Baptist Church. Neighbors, who have fought Calvary at every turn, had appealed Planning Director Lee Bowman's decision to vest the permit. In order to keep its permit without coming back to the town, the church needed to start construction on the project, but neighbor Gail Brady, who filed the appeal, said she and other neighbors didn't think it was adequate work and that they didn't want to see the construction project drag on indefinitely.

Calvary plans to add a 39,000-square-foot multi-purpose building and a new parking lot. The Planning Department told Calvary that it would consider the permit vested if it started construction on footings for a retaining wall for the parking lot.

Brady says she doesn't plan to appeal the commission's decision to the Town Council.

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