Photograph by Kathy De La Torre

Discussing the Miles Avenue project are (from left) Bret Hancock of Thatcher & Thompson Architects, Bill Zavlaris, project manager for Community Housing Developers, and John Ordonez, chairman of the board, Community Housing Developers.

Construction begins on Miles Avenue

By Nathan R. Huff

'Affordable housing" will become more than just talk over the next six months, as Community Developers Local Development Company begins its 12-unit apartment development on Miles Avenue.

Los Gatos mayor Steve Blanton, who cast the tie-breaking vote on the project three years ago, and other town officials were on hand for the official groundbreaking on May 5. The project, dubbed The Los Gatos Creek Village Apartments, consists of 12 self-contained studios reserved for low-income individuals, couples and single parents with one child.

The project was approved in February of last year by the slimmest of margins. Critics argued the site at 71 Miles Ave., sandwiched between the town's corporation yard and a PG&E substation, was inappropriate for housing. Supporters repeatedly stated that any affordable housing is good affordable housing in areas with living costs as high as Los Gatos.

"When all is said and done," Blanton said, "it's going to be a very good project."

Bill Zavlaris, project manager for Community Housing Developers (CHD), the construction arm of Community Developers Local Development Company (CDLDC), said the groundbreaking represented the end of a long and arduous journey. Zavlaris said every affordable housing project runs into the same problems--finding suitable sites and funding--and the Los Gatos Creek Village Apartments were no exception.

"It's a long collaborative process involving the good will of a whole lot of people," Zavlaris said. The construction is being handled by Foster City's Trident Construction Company, and is scheduled to be completed by November 2000.

Who will get the coveted studios remains to be determined. Zavlaris said the CHD would begin taking applications in late August or early September, and predicted the company would not have any trouble finding tenants. The town plays no role in the selection process. Rent, determined by Federal Housing and Urban Development statistics on Santa Clara County, will be about $700 a month.

Much of the funding for the project comes from the housing set-aside fund of the town's Redevelopment Agency. The agency put up $430,276 from the set-aside and federal block grants, and Santa Clara County also contributed $250,000 from its own Community Development Block Grants. CHD financed the rest of the $1.5 million project, which was no easy task, according to Zavlaris.

"[Banks] want a big turnaround, and we are mandated to have low rents," he said, adding the organization finally received a loan from Midpeninsula Bank in Palo Alto.

CDLDC, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to building affordable housing, is responsible for two units in Los Gatos, one off N. Santa Cruz Avenue and another off Los Gatos Boulevard.

Councilman Joe Pirzynski, who opposed the project when it came to council on a Planning Commission appeal in June 1998, said that while he had the same reservations, he would support the project.

"Symbolically, I think it's a bad thing to separate low-income housing from other residential areas," he said. "At the same time, I'm going to support the project 100 percent, because we made the decision as a community to go this way."

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