Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Limit growth in Los Gatos? Think smart instead

By Mark Brodsky

Mr. Weissman and Mr. Mansfield, writing in the opinion pages in the June 3 issue of the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, are flat wrong. It is too late for local growth limits. The only hope to maintain our quality of life is to build more of the Los Gatos we love. And, if we are smart, we can use what we build to reduce congestion and provide additional local services.

Los Gatos is not an island. We are not a walled kingdom of privilege in an empty valley. We are a wonderfully designed community that happens to be located at the corner of the highest-technology capital in the known universe.

Our worry must not be focused on limiting less than 1,000 new locals. The biggest threat is the one million new South Bay residents that are coming in the next 20 years regardless of any local growth ordinance.

To meet this threat we must create plans to mitigate this impact on our community. To my logic this means doing everything we can to move cars, congestion and traffic away from our historic downtown. The way to do this is to make more downtown Los Gatos at the North 40 (the Yuki property on Los Gatos Boulevard and Lark Avenue). Specifically, we must build a second downtown, a North Los Gatos, at a place where practical transit and community services can be accessed.

Most towns in this valley have no options left. They destroyed their downtowns with wider boulevards, massive parking lots and malls. While there are nice places to shop and eat, no one goes to Cupertino to stroll. The valley comes here to walk and bike, and they will continue to come in droves.

Los Gatos has options because, luckily, there are about 60 acres of developable land located near a medical center at the intersection of two freeways. Los Gatos sits astride the only major transportation link between the Silicon Valley and silica beach. Some 100,000 drivers pass by this corner of the valley every day. The mountains make traditional rail impractical, while dozens of shuttles and buses run by this town with hardly a stop. These facts can be used to our advantage.

There is value to building quality if it can be done right. Dave Flick's Soda Works proved that. The economics of the Pacific Rim make options such as underground parking, open park space, mansion-like multifamily housing, five-star hotels and even transit affordable. Quality is not too expensive, just more expensive.

We are part of this valley. North Los Gatos can be made into a model for a new type of development--not suburban or big box, but not urban, either. It can be designed to serve the needs of the local community and those living well beyond the borders of the town. All that is required is the will to build more of the quality Los Gatos has come to represent.

I will be at the North 40 meeting on June 18 with pictures, maps and numbers. More importantly, I will bring a plan. Everyone who believes that we have the ability to create value and solve problems should be there as well.

Mark Brodsky is a resident of Monte Sereno.

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