Town considers plan to replace mobile home park with houses

By Gloria I. Wang

A new development threatens to displace the Los Gatos Mobile Home Park, but the town doesn't want to lose the low-income housing offered by the park.

Although Barry Swenson Builders promises to make 16 of its total housing units affordable, the Los Gatos Town Council says that it's not enough to justify the replacement of 71 mobile homes.

Council members came to that consensus at an Oct. 1 study session that addressed rezoning the Woodland Avenue site, where representatives from the San Jose-based Barry Swenson Builders gave a brief presentation on its project.

Project manager Jeff Major said that the firm was in a dilemma: The town wanted a development with an equivalent number of housing units, but stressed the fact that traffic should not increase from the development. Building 53 units was the highest density that would not exacerbate the traffic condition in the area, Major said.

Of those 53 units, Major said, 45 were to be two- to three-bedroom, single-family detached homes. The remaining eight would be "granny" units; one-bedroom apartments of about 600 square feet located above the garages of the larger homes. The granny units and eight of the homes would be entered in the below-market-price program, a town regulation that ties housing rates with household income. Major did not specify what the market-priced homes would cost.

Major pointed out that Swenson is dedicating 16 units to below-market-price, seven more than required by town ordinance.

Councilman Randy Attaway asked why Swenson could not build 70 units to replace the 70 existing mobile homes in the park. Why the same amount of housing units increase traffic. Attaway asked why the same amount of housing would increase traffic.

Bud Lortz, director of community development, said that it depended on the type of housing that was built. Single-family homes, Lortz said, should not "significantly" increase the traffic in the neighborhood. On the other hand, Lortz said, the nearby intersection of University Avenue and Los Gatos-Saratoga Road was already extremely busy.

Major also explained that, from discussions and meetings with the immediate residents, cut-through traffic--from drivers that drive through Chester Street as a way to get onto Los Gatos-Saratoga Road--was a major concern. As a result, Major came up with a plan to make Woodland Avenue a cul-de-sac and make Wraight Avenue an exit-only street.

Councilman Steve Glickman had issues with Major's plan. Glickman said that although the neighborhood's streets would be protected, traffic would be "dumped" onto Los Gatos-Saratoga Road, which he said is congested enough as it is.

Reactions from the public were mixed. Sandra Foster, a Chester Street resident, focused not on the project but instead on the streets surrounding the project. Foster pointed out that many families with children live in the vicinity, and yet there were no sidewalks in most of the neighborhood. The cut-through traffic, Foster, said, presented a danger to the residents.

"I see absolutely no community benefit to rezoning this property," said former Councilwoman Linda Lubeck. Lubeck reminded the council that in a 1999 report, town staff had found that the minimum number of units in a development should be 54 or 56 units.

Mobile home park resident Steve Carlson, who had spoken at previous meetings, reiterated that Swenson had never included the park's approximately 40 residents in any of its meetings with the neighbors. Carlson stated that each of the mobile home households fell under the legal definition of low-income in Santa Clara County.

While council members agreed that the mobile home park was likely not going to stay at its current location--citing the park's poor condition and lack of maintenance--they said that Swenson's proposal was not an appropriate replacement.

Mayor Joe Pirzynski said he was most concerned with traffic. "You're looking at probably the most impacted roadway and intersection mix in the entire town," Pirzynski said. He said he did not know how to solve the problem, but that increased housing in the area would not be the ideal solution.

Councilwoman Sandy Decker reminded the group that teachers in Los Gatos make between $39,000 and $44,000 annually for the first few years, and that it is people in such professions who need low-income housing. "I'm looking for an opportunity for not only teachers, but for people who work on our staff and for your children and for my children to at least get a toehold here and add to the vitality in this community," Decker said. "This is all we've got. It does not compare ... to build homes."

Because the meeting was merely a study session, no decision was made. Instead, Lortz will take the council's suggestions and work with Swenson on refining the project before returning to the Los Gatos Planning Commission at an unscheduled date.

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