Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Council approves new incarnation of Village House as upscale eatery

Village Lane neighbors had appealed on basis of traffic

Short-term solutions sought

By Jeff Kearns

Councilmembers last week approved the transformation of the Village House into an upscale restaurant that operates at night, despite the protests of some business owners in the area.

The council denied an appeal of an earlier decision by the Planning Commission filed by Cafe Marcella owner Alain Staebler, whose restaurant is also on Village Lane.

Staebler's attorney, Therese Schmidt, said the new restaurant use could constrict circulation on the narrow street during busy hours, and asked the town to consider reversing the direction of traffic on Village Lane, which is currently a one-way street, heading northbound. Reversing it would be less confusing to out-of-towners and ease congestion, she said. She also asked that the Village House be required to provide valet parking for customers and reduce its seating capacity.

The council approved the conversion of the Village House as written and directed the Parking Commission to prepare some short-term parking solutions.

"It's an issue we need to resolve as a town and not put the burden on the applicant," Councilmember Steve Blanton said.

"If we want to be successful with this, we have to be proactive and start coming up with solutions," said Councilmember Joanne Benjamin, who has been prodding the council to discuss long- and short-term solutions to the parking crunch downtown.

The Village House is still owned by Eastfield Ming Quong but will be operated by first-time restaurateurs Bill Foss and Andy Welch. Foss said he would do whatever he could to make sure his restaurant didn't create a traffic jam in town, not just pay lip service to the idea. He said he plans to look at several solutions, including having his employees use the park and ride lot on the north side of Highway 9 (across from Village Lane), which many said was underused because too few people know that it even exists.

"I wouldn't have a problem parking in the park and ride lot if I knew where it was," said Terry DeVoe, who says he's a frequent visitor to downtown.

The council will be tackling the eternal issue of parking at its next meeting May 18. The Parking Commission on Thursday made several suggestions to the council as to possible solutions, many of which have been discussed before.

The list includes: paid parking; valet parking; an employee parking plan; reducing the number of long-term spaces in municipal lots; and turning the Peerless bus depot lot on S. Santa Cruz Avenue into a parking lot.

In other action, the council authorized the creation of a new parking assessment district for five businesses on N. Santa Cruz Avenue which were not given the chance to join other assessment districts formed in the area.

One of them, Laleh's Deli, doesn't conform to town parking codes because it has no on-site parking and currently operates as a restaurant. At $2,000 per space for 38 spaces, the fees paid by five businesses would bring in $76,000.

But a recent Planning Commission recommendation to put the in-lieu fees toward a shuttle bus for employees in the downtown area might be dead on arrival at the council chambers, because funds collected from in-lieu fees can only be used for capital improvement projects.

The council could use the funds to buy buses, but not to pay for a feasibility study or drivers.

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