By Natasha Collins
With much to gain and nothing to lose, the San Jose Planning Commission--over the objections of Cupertino neighbors--unanimously approved on March 26 the development of a 106,000-square-foot Home Depot store on De Anza Boulevard.
The site is located in a pocket of San Jose surrounded by Cupertino residents, but the store's estimated $70,000 to $100,000 in sales tax per quarter will be deposited into the San Jose general fund.
Commissioners said the project, located in the former Kmart center on De Anza Boulevard, was beneficial for the community. They were impressed with Home Depot's efforts to work with neighbors and pleased with a redesign of the layout of the store.
But neighbors were having none of that. "Large trucks, forklifts and beep-beep-beeps early in the morning are going to adversely affect property values," said Dana Grover, a real estate appraiser.
But Norm Matteoni, an attorney representing Home Depot, said the project was overhauled to meet the neighbors' needs. Loading docks were placed on the north and south sides of the building instead of the back, and the driveway for delivery trucks on Bollinger Road was moved away from homes and closer to De Anza Boulevard. The back alleyway will only be accessible to emergency vehicles. Speaker volume in the garden center will be monitored, and the speakers will be facing away from the neighborhood.
Because of the changes in the location of the loading docks and the speaker arrangements, a wall higher than 11 feet was not necessary, Matteoni said. The site will be graded so the Home Depot side of the wall will be two feet lower than the neighbors'.
"The noise met the Cupertino and San Jose noise requirements before the redesign," Matteoni said. "The taller wall is not needed because the sound has been mitigated by the redesign."
Residents fear the 11-foot wall will not be tall enough to reduce the sound generated by delivery trucks. "The trucks are 14 feet high. They will be taller than the wall," said Warren Mine, a resident who lives next to the project. "The sound mitigation study was based on noise affecting the first floor. There is no protection for someone standing on my second-story balcony or the second floor of my house."
Residents have asked Home Depot to install double-paned glass and air conditioners in the homes next to the site. "The double-paned glass will help cut the noise tremendously," Mine said.
Traffic on Cupertino city and residential streets was also a concern. "The amount of traffic in the community is already heavy with people cutting over to [Highway] 85," neighbor John Chang said. "When the Home Depot opens, people will be cutting through to get to the store. The lives of the people in the community need to be considered."
The Cupertino City Council feels the development is the wrong use for the property. Although Home Depot is considered a commercial business, the council feels it should be classified as industrial because of its size and heavy use, said Robert Cowan, director of community development for Cupertino.
"We realize Home Depot is a heavy sales-tax generator, but we hope you will consider the concerns of the surrounding community," Cowan said.
Home Depot hopes to have the store operational by the end of 1998.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, April 9, 1997.
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