Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Office space now nibbles where once only retail was permitted

Council allows Sue Farwell to develop office building

Some residential planned

By Clarence Cromwell

Storefront office spaces are no longer forbidden on a one-block section of W. Main Street between N. Santa Cruz Avenue and Victory Lane.

The Town Council's unanimous ruling (with Jan Hutchins abstaining) on the matter means that Sue Farwell can continue with her plans to construct a 14,250-square-foot office and residential building at 223 W. Main St.

Farwell's property is within the downtown commercial zone, where ground-floor offices are forbidden. The proposed amendment will lift that ban from five W. Main Street parcels.

Farwell argued that her request is consistent with previous decisions to allow office space on the fringes of the downtown core. There's not enough foot traffic in the area for a retail business, and offices would fit in better with the residential neighbors nearby, Farwell said.

No one spoke against the amendment during a public hearing.

The town code will still forbid ground-floor offices on the parts of N. Santa Cruz, Main Street and University Avenue that lie in the downtown area. But offices are permitted on upper floors.

The ban on ground-floor offices downtown originated in 1990: When landowners renovated quake-damaged retail buildings, town officials worried that small offices could compete with merchants for the space. On July 16 that year, the Town Council enacted an emergency ordinance that banned such office uses for a year. The council extended the ordinance an additional 12 months in 1991 and made it permanent in 1992.

This is the third amendment lifting the ground-floor office ban from an area once reserved for retail businesses.

Past code amendments have allowed ground-floor office space on Lyndon Avenue, Pageant Way, Wood Road, Victory Lane, Los Gatos Road and S. Santa Cruz Avenue.

Councilmember Jan Hutchins said he decided not to vote because his wife rents a Main Street retail space from Farwell. Linda Lubeck, who leases space on the corner of N. Santa Cruz and W. Main Street, said she would vote because she didn't believe it to be a conflict of interest.

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