Photograph courtesy of the Saratoga Historical Foundation

Saratoga High School helped provide a community focal point. Here, school board member Virgil Campbell, breaks ground for the new school in 1958.




Growing Pains

From the battle over playfields, to the frustration over traffic, Saratoga is coping with change

By Steve Enders

Hiking through the hills of Saratoga is one of the most pleasant things to do in this area. The exercise, coupled with the clean air, blue sky and outrageous views just can't be beat by any other outdoor experience, perhaps in the whole Bay Area.

Looking down from up there, Saratoga Avenue cuts like a faultline east into the Valley, and the cars look like ants. Starting at the foot of the hills, the road twists through oak trees and stretches across the West Valley Freeway, more commonly known as Highway 85.

Eventually, more and more pavement surrounds Saratoga Avenue until it becomes nearly invisible as it crosses Campbell Avenue and extends beyond shopping malls and into the dense, urban jungle over Interstate 280 and into Santa Clara.

The area where the highway and Saratoga Avenue meet, and in the neighborhoods that surround the intersection marks ground zero of the Silicon Valley hustle.

The crossroads are a perfect metaphor of all of the successes, failures, dreams, struggles and history of Saratoga. To say it's a perfect representation of the history of the valley as a whole wouldn't be too much of a stretch either.

Up Saratoga Avenue is where the valley's first dreamers came. They spread out in the hills as blacksmiths, loggers and farmhands and ran the economy of the valley. Workers then evolved into farmers and prune pickers, and have since evolved again into rocket scientists, computer engineers and CEOs of major global corporations. Saratoga residents still play a major part in the Valley's success.

Saratoga is where people still come to live, although now it's more for those who have achieved, and not much of a place for those who are beginning to look for success--they can't afford to live here.

On any given morning at the crossroads today, Mercedes' and BMWs intermingle with sports utility vehicles full of kids, old gardening trucks, beat-up VWs, city buses and delivery trucks.

Many Saratogans in their cars are trying to hop on northbound 85, and others come into Saratoga for work or morning classes at West Valley College.

Wherever they're going, traffic under and around the overpass becomes a snarled, tangled mess of exhaust fumes, honking horns and irate drivers.

The scene begins at about 7:30 a.m., lasts for a couple hours, and then plays itself out again in the afternoon and into the evening--only the direction of travel reverses itself. What was an easy drive from Fruitvale Avenue into Saratoga in the morning becomes congested in the evening, when everyone's returning home for the night.

The "Heritage Lane" sign, which so proudly identifies itself and Saratoga's long history at the entrance to the center of the Village on Saratoga Avenue seems more a marker for a major arterial route over the past few years.

In some of the quiet neighborhoods, the city has explored expansion and improvement of playfields, but most nearby residents oppose the anticipated congestion the improvements would bring. What to do? Some are suggesting ripping out the Heritage Orchard near City Hall to make room for youth sports activities, further signifying the shift from historical to post-modern views on what the city should strive to become.

All of this suggests change is in the air, and in a community prized for its slow pace and rustic charm, the very word is tinged with dark overtones.

The drastic change in Saratoga is population increase. In the 44 years since Saratoga became a city, it has seen a 260 percent rise in population--from just about 12,000 to more than 31,200.

Saratoga's population boom is most apparent in the city's elementary schools, where burgeoning growth is putting a strain on both the school district and the city.

According to Saratoga Union School District superintendent Mary Gardner, the population of the district today stands at 2,370 students. That number is expected to rise by about 4 percent next year, even outpacing the city's growth. By 2007, the district expects to have 2,722 students, a number schools haven't seen since 1977. The district reached its peak, however, in 1973, with 3,337 students.

If Saratoga keeps its current pace of turning over housing stock to younger families, the school district could see that peak population again in the relatively near future. Considering the anguish the community has experienced this past year over renovation plans at the elementary and middle schools and over where to expand playfields, it's clear that part of the pressure for change is inherent in the population shift to younger families.

What used to be a horse and buggy hillside hamlet of less than a couple thousand people has grown up with the valley and is now more of a suburban getaway that doesn't really feel like much of a getaway anymore.


Photograph by George Sakkestad

Those who drive into the Village on Saratoga Avenue, are reminded of Saratoga's past, thanks to the 'heritage lane' sign, while heavy traffic at commute time is a reminder that population growth is putting new pressures on the community.




Growing Pains?

Besides fancy cars, big and expensive houses and a relatively quiet downtown "Village," Saratoga suddenly has many of the same problems as towns such as Los Gatos or even--gasp!--San Jose.

One of the biggest differences, however, is that the city of Saratoga is reaping fewer benefits even though so many people live here. The town of Los Gatos pulls in large amounts of tax dollars from businesses. Because Saratoga has so few businesses, they contribute little to the relatively tiny city budget.

Saratoga's general fund budget this year has finally crawled past the $6.6 million mark--and that's a number City Hall considers to be very healthy. The city pulls in only about $1 million in sales taxes, though. Los Gatos' general fund stands at more than $18 million, with $5.7 million coming from sales taxes.

San Jose even attempted to annex the land now known as Saratoga once, but to no avail. The irony is that there's not too much that seems to separate the two cities anymore.

The split used to be very apparent, crossing over Lawrence Expressway into Saratoga. The sidewalks disappeared and the cars and houses suddenly became nicer. But there were fewer cars and houses, and trees still stood proud and the air just seemed more refreshing.

That's not really so anymore. The fresh, cool air now begins somewhere way up Highway 9.

Sure, crime is nearly non-existent in Saratoga, and we're lucky for that. When Highway 85 was built, many Saratogans were convinced that burglars were going to come from far and wide to pillage Saratoga's nice homes and flee easily onto the region's new fast and wide getaway route.

That hasn't happened either. Instead, we've got traffic congestion, air, water and noise pollution, super-high-priced rent and housing, overfilled schools, kids without soccer fields, a city with a shoestring budget and national chain stores creeping in.

Starbucks is coming. Rumors are flying that Blockbuster Video will be the next tenant in the newly renovated Argonaut Shopping Center, although city planners have yet to see an application from the entertainment outfit.

At a recent city planning commission meeting, residents near Argonaut shouted at planning commissioners, begging them not to let Starbucks open a patio for outside seating. Others pleaded for mercy from the blight that is sure to come along with the cookie-cutter coffee shop.

Many Saratogans are unhappy about other changes that have come with increasing valley growth which, in turn, has translated to Saratoga growth.

Most don't like the traffic backup that happens twice a day at every intersection up Saratoga Avenue. Many don't like the fact that two historic eucalyptus trees remain threatened with expansion plans for the city's namesake elementary school. Some want new fields to play on, and still, many others don't. Saratogans will get their coffee from the new Starbucks when it opens. Others won't, in protest that it's there.

Someone is going to live in a nice new house, tucked back near Mt. Eden Road, and passersby aren't going to like the fact that there's a new house there, where only weeks before stood old trees and untouched land.

Businesses and many residents want an exciting venue where they can enjoy a concert in the hills. Others don't, and fear the results of even more people trudging over their once-quiet streets each day.

Saratoga seems to be at yet another turning point in its history. While many say it's been steadily turning since the city's incorporation in 1955, others see more drastic changes in recent years, as good fortune in the rest of the valley translates into increasing struggles for Saratoga.


Photograph courtesy of the Saratoga Historical Foundation

This view of Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road as it enters the Village will remind old-timers of the way Saratoga used to be.




Living History

If there are any two families who have witnessed the changing of the Santa Clara Valley over the past century, it's the Cooper and Garrod families. Together, somehow they've managed to eke out a living for nearly a century while maintaining a rural, agrarian lifestyle.

And today, that's not supposed to be happening. Remaining orchards in the valley are falling and houses are being built faster than a city council can say "slow growth."

But still, somehow the families are managing, and they're a living vestige of days long gone. Maybe they're able to do it because of the nostalgic--and fun--draw of horseback riding in the hills. Just about anyone can visit the Garrod's stables, rent a horse and hire a riding lesson that will proceed to those commanding views of the hustle and bustle of the Bay Area from way up on high.

From up there it all seems so close, yet so far away. On a clear day, it's possible to see Morgan Hill to the south to San Francisco and Oakland to the north.

A photo hanging in the Saratoga Historical Museum shows that view, but from the 1940s, looking out over the multicolored springtime beauty of the valley's orchards. There was nothing down there but orchards, save for a few farmhouses and dirt roads.

That all began to change after the war, when business and technology began to boom.

"Things started changing in 1957," Louise Cooper says. "When Lockheed came, the canneries began moving away. That was the end of the agricultural era."

Cooper, the matriarch of the two families, was born in Saratoga 85 years ago, grew up here and today is the president of the board of the Saratoga Historical Museum. She's the sister of Vince Garrod, and together they still live on the ranch in the hills.

Above the valley, wide specks of hillside were once stripped of their native scrub brush to make room for orchards. Now, they hold choice vineyards. The Coopers and Garrods have found something of a niche in the boutique winery market--the wine does well when the people in the valley do well.

With the two businesses, the family has maintained a steady course during Bay Area history, and according to Louise Cooper, have never thought about turning back or succumbing to outrageous sums of money that may have been offered for their prized chunk of land. Tucked away and surrounded by hills, it would surely be a developer's dream.

"It's always been a ridiculous proposition," she says of attempts to buy the land.

Even still, she says, the Garrod farms were never fully self-supporting. Family members frequently had to take jobs outside the ranch to keep it going.

Instead, the most recent portion given up by the families went to the Midpeninsula Open Space District, to help Fremont Older Open Space preserve grow. It was a relatively rare gesture, but another expanse of hillside was spared from bulldozers.

"The fact that we're here and have managed to stay in agriculture sets our families apart," Cooper says. "And it was a challenge when I was a kid."

She says that the whole Saratoga existence revolved around the area's orchards. School didn't start in the fall until the harvest was in, because everyone helped with harvesting fruit.

Cooper says she only remembers one time that nearby hillside land was truly threatened by a developer who wanted to build golf courses. She used to cry herself to sleep at night worrying about it. Luckily, she says, that day never came.

She says that change is inevitable, but that she's seen more change in the community rather than change in the physical town. One change that came about in the years immediately after the city incorporated was the building of Saratoga High School (students previously attended Los Gatos High School). Louise Cooper says it's the best thing that ever happened to the community of Saratoga "It's like the glue that holds Saratoga together," she says

"If new people come in and are willing to work for the good of the community and not have an ax to grind, than change is a good thing," she says.

"Saratoga resisted change for a long time partly because of the principles they used to establish the city. Then people said you'd be able to see the difference after the city incorporated--and boy, could you see it."


Saratoga News file photograph

Highway 85 was a dotted line on maps for 40 years. It finally became an unbroken line five years ago. This photograph was taken in 1993. At that time, some Saratogans feared the new highway would provide a rapid getaway for burglars.




Time Change

What has come since incorporation is an overcrowded valley and a steadily rising city population. Over the last few years, however, Saratoga has seen slow but steady growth, at about 1 percent.

When Saratoga incorporated in 1955, it had an estimated population of 12,900 across 12 square miles. The boundaries haven't changed much to this day. Historians say in the 1940s, Saratoga's population was only around a couple of thousand.

"I'm confident that the Saratoga we love today is the Saratoga of tomorrow," former Mayor Don Wolfe says. "One of the reasons I wanted to live in Saratoga is so I could be a Saratogan."

That's why everyone else moves here as well. Saratoga just has a certain charm to it--the quaint Village, relatively quiet neighborhoods and the people who live here.

One of the things nearly everyone agrees on about what's contributing to the changing "feel" of the community these days are the "big houses."

On housing development and "big house" infill projects, Wolfe says property rights should prevail. If people want to put up a 6,000- square-foot house on an 8,000-square-foot lot, fine.

"There's not really a change in [city] policy," he says, "but people are exercising their property rights. The old homestead of single family homes with a couple of bedrooms now have five or six houses on the single piece of property.

"It may sound like I'm pro growth, but I'm pro rights and pro reality," Wolfe adds.

Wolfe says--and many Saratogans agree--that the pluses still outweigh the minuses here. While he acknowledges the problems a major highway brings, he also sees the upside. Business has been helped in Saratoga because of the freeway, and in turn, so has the city.

Saratoga's community development director James Walgren says that besides housing, the city is likely to see little change in the near future.

The land-use policies have remained almost intact since the city's incorporation, he says, and will probably change little.

Saratogans have made it a point to keep the city unique one way or another, and they sealed that desire even further when they passed Measure G in 1996.

The measure requires a vote for any proposal to change an area's land-use designation. Apple Computer couldn't relocate to the Garrod property, for instance, without winning approval on a city-wide ballot measure.

The city's commercial zoning laws aren't going to change anytime soon either, Walgren says.

"If the demands of the city change, maybe the priorities will change. But the city is doing a good job providing for basic improvements," he says.

"Sure, Saratoga is seeing some growing pains," says newly appointed planning commissioner Erna Jackman. "We're going to grow, but the best we can do is hope we grow in an orderly way."

She says the city is full of "density watchdogs" who are keeping tabs on growth and making sure City Hall realizes the citizens want managed growth.

"But one of the biggest problems is going to be: how do we be for both sides without damaging individual rights?" Jackman says. "Since we don't have big industry, we depend on homes. We're a minimal service city."

And that seems to be fine with Saratogans. As long as the overall quality of life isn't severely threatened, the future looks bright.

"Families moved here for the reason that Saratoga is low growth and very suburban," Jackman says. "It's never going to be a mini-Sunnyvale."

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