Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Commissioners pre-empted on cupola

Council likes historic connection of architecture

By Clarence Cromwell

Planning commissioners didn't want any more domes, turrets or cupolas blocking out the hills over Los Gatos. But they were overruled last week when the Town Council directed them to accept plans for a research and development facility on Los Gatos Boulevard.

The Oct. 20 council agenda included a zone change for the 3.1-acre property that used to be Woodworkers Lumber Company, but did not include architectural approvals on the 48-foot building developers want to put there.

Birk McCandless and Steven Sund were willing to lower the building by removing the cupola, as the Planning Commission requested Sept. 24.

But the councilmembers agreed that the turretlike cupola should be left alone, after Councilmember Steve Blanton broached the subject. Blanton said he wanted to keep the structure for "purely aesthetic reasons."

He explained, "I thought the cupola had a nice historic feature. A lot of buildings used to have those."

Blanton said he also appreciated the pewter-colored roof.

It's not the last tall building slated to go up in the area: The historic cupola proposed for Sue Farwell's downtown office building may be taller than 35 feet, Mayor Joanne Benjamin said.

The issue of that building's design had not yet officially reached the council.

The commissioners are still scheduled to examine new drawings of the building at their next meeting. They can still reject the turret, but the developer would have the right to appeal the decision to the council.

McCandless and Sund got Planning Commission approval Sept. 24 to build a two-story, 61,000-square-foot research and development building on the property. The project required a zone change from light manufacturing to planned development for the 3.1-acre property.

But the commissioners, somewhat sensitive after communitywide criticism of "The Dome" (the moniker that attached itself to the Los Gatos Pavilion at the corner of Los Gatos Boulevard and Blossom Hill Road), asked the developers to redesign the building, without the turret and with natural materials that will fit in with other buildings in the area. McCandless proposed a metal roof that will eventually weather to a pewter color.

The building and 233 required parking spaces would be constructed on the property, leaving 35,000 square feet of landscaped area.

The developers already have a prospective tenant, a software company, that wants to rent about 44 percent of the building, McCandless Companies owner Birk McCandless said.

McCandless said the area needs more buildings suitable for office space or research and development because many firms employ high-tech experts who live in the West Valley or in Santa Cruz County.

"It's neat to have people who live in town work in town," said Steven Sund, McCandless' partner in the project. Both McCandless and Sund live in Los Gatos but rarely get a chance to build office buildings here, they said.

"There are no manufacturing sites in the West Valley that you can do this on," Sund said.

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