Seven residents demanded that their names be removed from any endorsement of the highly contentious guidelines after the Gateway task force, which consists of members from both interest groups, failed to reach an agreement on the plan presented to the commission.

"The plan really disappoints those of us who spent a lot of time only to find out we did not make as much of a contribution as we thought we would," said Jack Mallory, who has been a resident of Kirkdale Drive since 1967.

Mallory, who has been part of the task force since its inception in 1995, submitted a letter to planning commissioners with the names of residents who he said join him in requesting full disassociation from any endorsement of the guidelines.

Among the names that appeared on the list was that of Bill Guthrie of Seagull Way.

"These guidelines are taking from the residents and taking from the businesses," he said before the planning commission.

Zoe Alameda-Farotte of the Saratoga­Cupertino Funeral Home, who represents the commercial property owners, said she is happy with the guidelines as they were submitted to the planning commission.

"With anything, you have to give and take. I felt that it was a very good compromise," she said, adding that, in her estimation, the city staff and planning commission did a good job of working with the task force.

The inability of the task force to come together Dec. 11 proved a disappointment for Kristin Davis, a longtime resident and executive director of the Chamber of Commerce.

"I knew it was important for the task force to be in agreement when we went before planning," she said last week. According to Davis, task force members had decided prior to their presentation to the planning commission that they would present the plans united.

Davis acknowledges that her own background as a former business owner in the Gateway district leads her to sympathize with commercial property owners, who have "just as much right to their land as anyone else."

The problem, Mallory said, is that the guidelines continue to largely serve the interest of business owners over those of residents. In the proposed guidelines, the maximum allowable height of a building in the area is 26 feet—an increase of six feet under existing regulations, Mallory said. Residents also took issue with the proposed measurements for setbacks and buffers.

Both Alameda-Farotte and Davis have noted that the area was designed to be a business district before homes were built.

"You can't change it—this is a commercial area," Alameda-Farotte said.

Besides what is actually proposed in the guidelines, Mallory also lays blame on the city for what he called a failure to appoint representatives to the task force from the beginning.

The task force formed in 1995 to discuss ways of improving the mixed-use zoning area between Prospect Road and the Union Pacific railroad tracks, which Mallory refers to as "the San Jose area of Saratoga." But funding issues and high city staff turnover in following years thwarted the group's efforts until two years ago, when participants resumed discussion.

Because of its informal membership, the task force has witnessed a flux through the years as participants leave and new ones enter midway through discussions, both sides agree. This inconsistency in the planning process has only added further strain to an already tense situation, residents say.

With so much unresolved, two members of the public suggested that, rather than putting the guidelines to a vote by the commission, the task force should continue to hack away at it for another year.

But the planning commission decided in a 5-0 vote to push the guidelines through to the city council for review, with additional language added to provide potential variance to property owners and other minor revisions. Commission Chairwoman Erna Jackman said she was interested in hearing the opinions of the two new council members.

Unhappy with the vote, Mallory believes the planning process of the guidelines should be scrutinized by the city council.

"There has not been good planning," he said. "This is the type of planning we would expect of another city, not Saratoga."