Plans to spruce up Gateway area receive positive public response
Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road to be pedestrian friendly
Plan heads to city council
By Oakley Brooks
Saratoga residents got their first chance to look at comprehensive plans for improving the area of the city known as the Gateway region. City staff and consultants say that a general blueprint for the project, aimed at making the Gateway a more pedestrian-friendly, leafy area, could be before the city council for approval by late February.
The broad approval from some 50 members of the public, who attended an open house at city hall Jan. 10, marks another significant step for a coalition of local business owners and residents who've pushed for years to spruce up Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road between Prospect Road and the Union Pacific Railroad tracks.
A task force for the area formed as early as 1996, but the repeal of Saratoga's utility user tax that year froze new city-sponsored projects. In 2000, Caltrans gave $2 million to Saratoga as it handed over the maintenance of Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road to the city. But high city staff turnover that year put Gateway improvements on the back burner.
Finally, this past summer, the city hired an architect to work with the revived task force to refine the guidelines it developed in 1996.
The latest scheme would narrow Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road by installing an oak-tree-lined median and bike lanes in both directions of travel. While four car-travel lanes would be retained, the speed limit would be dropped to 35 mph, from the 40- to 45-mph range currently posted in the area.
Task force members and consultants are hoping narrower road and reduced traffic speed, along with new sidewalks, will make the area more conducive to foot traffic. They are also planning to control the flow of traffic between the region's parking lots and Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road by closing off some entrances and by placing new signal lights at Kirkmont Drive and Seagull Way.
Current plans show extensive landscaping along both sides of the road as well as within the median.
"It won't look much like a slum anymore," said task force member Carl Orr, who owns the Colour Shoppe Draperies and Interiors. "I think everyone seemed happy with the program. Let's hope that improved business will follow."
Additional improvements along Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road include a new entrance monument or sign at Prospect Road, and a new crosswalk area near Saratoga High School at Herriman Avenue.
The task force is also working with architects from Greg G. Ing & Associates in San Jose and Design Studios West Inc. from Denver to develop new guidelines of architectural style for Gateway buildings. Future planning for area buildings may also include reforming the zoning code to enforce some uniform size and shape.
"What typically happens is that each new building is a little bit larger than the existing code," architect Steve Kikuchi, of Greg G. Ing, said. "If that happens then it's time to re-evaluate the zoning code."
Not all business owners in the Gateway support an overhaul of the area, and the biggest source of contention is the consolidation of entrances and exits onto Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road.
John Keenan, owner of Advanced Logical Design Inc., believes that fewer exits will mean more traffic will flow through the parking lots, making it dangerous for pedestrians and cars pulling out of parking spaces and underground lots.
Al Pansaro, who runs the French Roast Coffee House, says his business might be hurt by the addition of a median and the loss of an entrance just in front of his shop. Under the current plan, Pansaro's customers headed from Saratoga to Highway 85 to his shop would either have to turn into the parking lot well before his shop or make a U-turn at Kirmont Drive and come back up Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road.
"There's not one person in Silicon Valley who does such a turn to get a cup of coffee," said Pansaro, who estimates that 80 to 90 percent of his customers are commuters headed to Highway 85.
Architect Don Brandes, of Design Studios West, acknowledged that change is difficult.
"But this is not a pleasant environment right now," he added.
Task force members themselves were taken aback by consultants' suggestion at a recent meeting that the eventual state of the Gateway could be a high-density, live-and-work area. A vision of that future--multilevel buildings fronting directly on Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road--was also on display at the city's open house.
"I think people were a bit surprised," said Cary Bloomquist, the city's liaison to the task force. "I don't think they were ready for it."
Carl Orr isn't worried about the high-density area of the future. "I'll be long gone," he said. He mostly focused on the upcoming adjustments that he and other business owners will have to make if and when construction finally begins sometime in early 2003.
"I think most people agree that we have to bite the bullet," Orr said.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
