High-density list shapes up, public will now have chance to review
State says that Saratoga needs 539 more units
Council spreads the 'pain'
By Oakley Brooks
After much debate over whether to focus the "pain" of potential mixed-use projects in Saratoga on one area of the city, or to spread that "pain" throughout the city, city council members settled on spreading it.
The recent decision, as Saratoga works to finalize its housing plan, means that the city will notice neighbors near at least 56 different commercial properties--with more to be selected--that could be identified to the state housing office as potential high-density, mixed-use housing and commercial development sites.
Already under consideration are properties in the Gateway region, in or near the Quito Village area, in the Prospect Shopping Center region and across from Argonaut Center.
The mixed-use sites are the final piece of Saratoga's housing plan, in which the city must show the state where 539 new units have been or could be placed between Jan. 1, 1999, and the end of 2006.
Within its new plan, known as a housing element, the city has already accounted for 426 units from recently approved homes (including tear-downs and re-builds), the Saratoga Retirement Community revamp, and Montalvo's expanded artist's colony.
Another 71 will come from future home construction over the next five years and a new program to encourage the construction of "granny units" or the legalization of existing second units.
The city projects that the remaining 42 units, 16 of them affordable to people earning $38,600 or less, would have to come in new high-density housing. City officials have agreed the ideal place for those units is within Saratoga's commercial zones, as part of mixed commercial-housing developments.
Despite the relatively low number of potential mixed-use units, and the fact that the state requires cities to plan for the units, not build them, city council members have agonized over releasing potential mixed-use sites to the public.
Community Development Director Tom Sullivan took to calling the mixed-use units "the pain" in a handout during a joint city council-planning commission session on Jan. 22.
And when Sullivan gave council members a tentative list of sites, Vice Mayor Evan Baker grew frustrated, saying that all commercial areas in the city weren't considered evenly for designation.
"I'm seriously upset by this set," Baker told Sullivan.
Council members told Sullivan to add sites in the Village and nearby Neale's Hollow shopping center to the master list and then to send notices to surrounding residents of every property on the list. The city council expects to hold a public hearing on the issue at an upcoming regular session.
Sullivan estimated the number of residents noticed will be in the thousands.
"Just psychologically, if there are five properties and I was behind one of them I'd be more incensed than if there are 50 and I was behind one," Councilwoman Ann Waltonsmith said. "We've got to go in for all the folks."
Council members also instructed Sullivan to put the burden of demands for low-income housing on the state in an explanatory letter he plans to send out with notices to residents.
City officials protested housing numbers assigned to Saratoga throughout much of 2000 and into the beginning of last year, saying the allocation was based on inflated job and population projections for the city over the 1999-2006 period.
And throughout the past year, they have continued to criticize the housing process--the state's regional assignment of housing numbers, and then the Association of Bay Area Government's assignment of units to individual cities and counties--as being a flawed, top-down system.
But Saratoga officials have also committed to getting the city's housing plan approved by the state. That commitment has been driven in part by legislation moving through the state Assembly that might financially penalize cities like Saratoga--those without an approved housing element.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
