Preliminary plan for mobile home park is revealed by Swenson Builders
Below-market-rate would include 16 of the 53 units
CDAC review set on Jan. 10
By Nathan R. Huff
The owner and developer of Los Gatos Mobile Home Park have completed the preliminary design of the latest development proposal for the park, and are banking on neighborhood support to help drive the project's approval.
After six months of design and redesign that included seven meetings with the Twin Oaks neighborhood, Barry Swenson Builders has come up with a 53-unit proposal that mixes one-, two- and three-bedroom rental and for-sale units. The project would include 16 below-market-price units of various sizes.
The project, which has generated significant community interest in the past, was set to go before the conceptual development advisory committee on Dec. 6, but a lack of a quorum forced the meeting to be canceled. The application has been rescheduled for the CDAC's Jan. 10 meeting.
This is the first time the park's owner, Doug McNelly, will meet with the city since March, when a divided council voted to award mobile home owners displaced by any possible conversion, compensation at the highest appraised level. The town has been vague on what it will require of any new development plan, asking that McNelly submit a plan first.
According to project manager Mark Hansen, the developer chose to work with neighbors from the beginning, rather than waiting until the project reached the planning commission before addressing neighborhood concerns.
"We worked for years with the town trying to create something," Hansen said. "But we've found it to be much more productive not to be working in a vacuum. We took input from the neighbors over 10 to 12 iterations of this project, and this plan was the result." He added that a group of about 30 residents regularly attended the meetings.
According to McNelly, Twin Oaks residents--which includes Chester Street and Wraight, Bird and Woodland avenues--had three major requirements. They wanted the project to be of similar density to their neighborhood, not to worsen the traffic problem, and to preserve the heritage oaks on Woodland Avenue.
According to Hansen and McNelly, the project does all three. Woodland Avenue would become a cul-de-sac, Wraight Avenue would be narrowed to an exit-only road at Highway 9, and a new access drive would lead to the development.
The 53 units would be fewer than the 72 units once present in the mobile home park, but more than the 40 units that remain today. McNelly has been removing mobile homes from the park when tenants leave, in an attempt to reduce the number of tenants at the time of conversion.
The new units would range in size from 600 to 2,400 square feet, all designed in a craftsman style. The one-bedroom units would be placed over three-car garages that would serve the studio and neighboring home. These units would be rented, while the detached homes could be sold or rented.
Whether the 16 below-market-price units will satisfy the town depends on how the town's conversion ordinance is interpreted. If it were a new development, nine affordable units would be required. However the ordinance states that any conversion of a mobile home park must provide one-for-one replacement of affordable housing. According to McNelly, the 14 privately owned mobile homes--which operate under rent control--are the only units that meet the affordability criteria and would need to be replaced. In the past, town officials have given conflicting statements about the number of affordable units McNelly will be required to provide.
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
