Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by George Sakkestad

The historic cupola that once topped the Lyndon carriage house is stored at the town's corporation yard. If she receives the town's blessing for her proposed building, Sue Farwell wants to incorporate the cupola into the building's design.

Some businesses cry foul over Sue Farwell proposal

By Jeff Kearns

Voices from the downtown business community are grumbling about plans for a mixed-use building downtown because of what they feel should be the deciding issue of the project: The site adjacent to Lyndon Plaza currently serves as a parking lot.

A consultant hired by the town, however, issued a negative declaration on Oct. 29, which says the project would have no significant impacts on the area around the site, located at 223. W. Main St. The plan goes to the Planning Commission Dec. 10.

The two-story, 8,400-square-foot building would have four office spaces at street level and four apartments upstairs. The owner, Sue Farwell, also hopes to incorporate the historic cupola from the Lyndon carriage house. Twelve parking spaces will be located to the rear of the building, and Farwell has already paid for 29.5 additional spots in the town's parking assessment district.

The Town Council granted a zoning change in October that allowed Farwell's building to have offices at street level.

She has been leasing the adjacent property to Lyndon Plaza's owners, Irvine-based Amresco Management Corporation, for use as extra parking. Lyndon Plaza also has paid for 176 spaces in the assessment district.

Ed Rathmann, general partner of Willow Street Pizza, thinks that Farwell's building could mean the Lyndon lot would lose 30 to 40 spaces. "Without the spots, people are going to be parking in residential streets and in other city lots," he said. "When the Old Town lot closed, ours filled up dramatically. The town should consider a general parking plan and not just allow growth without one," Rathmann said.

Farwell, who co-owns the lot with her mother-in-law, Louise, says that Lyndon Plaza would still have more than the required number of parking spaces on site.

"We're not jeopardizing anyone's right to do business," Farwell said. "The first thing we did was go down to the Planning Department and ask if there are any conditional-use permits for our lot. The lot is separate; [Lyndon Plaza] doesn't own it, and they don't have a right to use it under their conditional-use permit, which is not for our parcel. I don't think it would create any more parking problems than already exist, and the negative declaration supports that claim.

"Lyndon Plaza has a right to use the property under the terms of the current lease, but under the same lease, we have the right to develop our property," Farwell added.

While the legality of Farwell's building hasn't been called into question, many wonder if the proposal makes sense for the town.

"I don't think anyone has a right to tell someone they can't develop their property to its fullest potential," Larry Arzie of Los Gatos Porch said. "I'm all for the Farwells doing what they want, but I think that what they're doing is stupid. Since there's no parking, how can we have more growth? It's the town's fault for not doing anything to discourage high-density [development] when they don't provide parking."

Many of Lyndon Plaza's tenants, fearful of the effects the lost parking spaces would have on their businesses, held a meeting last week to discuss their plans to deal with the new building and possibly to set up a meeting with Farwell.

"Initially, we were all stunned. We were trying to figure out as a group if there was a way we could express our concerns to the Town Council," said Rochelle Stone, whose business, Starker Services, is in Lyndon Plaza. "It seems the town's direction right now is to build double-decker parking structures, but we don't want to turn our whole town into the Valley Fair parking lot."

Kris Linder, owner of Interior Design Source, also in Lyndon Plaza, shared Stone's concerns about the small-town charm of downtown Los Gatos. "This doesn't just involve people in Lyndon Plaza. Turning this lot into a building when we already have a severe parking problem has far-reaching effects for all the retailers and the entire town," Linder said. "If retail starts to suffer, the town starts to suffer because of lack of foresight on the issue, and then the whole town is impacted because it affects the equity of homes."

Linder added, with a trace of irony, that her business recently had to relocate from Old Town, and she was drawn to Lyndon Plaza because of the better parking situation.

Though it appears the parking issue may overshadow the building itself, Farwell is proud of what's been proposed for construction.

"We felt mixed-use fit better with the area's past and present, like Dave Flick's building at Main and College," Farwell said. "We tried to create something that would fit with the old style of Los Gatos and took great care with the architect to design a building that looked like Los Gatos, which is why we wanted to restore and incorporate the cupola on a beautiful building that we feel everyone can see and appreciate."

Farwell is currently negotiating with the town and the Los Gatos Community Foundation to obtain the cupola and has offered to repay all restoration costs. The cupola is currently in storage at the town corporation yard, but the foundation has expressed interest in displaying the cupola in Vasona Park.

A public-comment period on the proposal that allows residents to offer opinions about the project to the town planning department will end Nov. 20.

The Planning Commission will consider Farwell's project at its Dec. 10 meeting, and the public will be offered a chance to address the commission about the plans. The meeting starts at 7:30 p.m. in the Town Council Chambers.

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