The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Photograph by Robert Scheer

'[The development] will be stunning,' Deborah Olsen, pictured here last year, said of her family's proposed housing project.

Olson's cherry orchard facelift pending

By Steve Enders

Many citizens stuck it out at a late-running City Council meeting last Tuesday to watch the next act in the ongoing saga of the Olson family orchard.

The issue came to the council after the Planning Commission denied plans to build a Target store on the site about a year ago.

The council rezoned the land to fit in with the El Camino Precise Plan, which specifies the type of development the city would like to see on the heavily traveled street.

The zoning change allows the Olsons to comply with the city's recommendation to build a minimum of 30 percent commercial/retail space on the site. The Olson family had asked the council to give them the go-ahead for a mix of 25 percent retail and 75 percent high-density housing.

The council did not specify what percentage of the site could be used for housing.

The Olsons decided to develop the land in 1985 after discovering their cherry trees were diseased. They want to build a combination of high-rent luxury apartments and commercial/retail stores on the land.

The family's builder, Will Thompson of Irvine Apartments, said the council's direction suits him just fine.

"Speaking on behalf of the [developer], I'm pleased with the council's decision for 30 percent retail," he said. "We're looking forward to meeting with the Planning Commission and the community."

Thompson said the developers are now preparing their design application for the site.

The council on Tuesday also accepted an environmental impact report (EIR) on the building of a Target store on the land, indicating that a large-scale development on the site would be appropriate. The Planning Commission prepared the report a year ago, before the council decided that a Target would not be appropriate in that spot. When other building plans are submitted to the city for the site, another EIR must be completed.

City spokesman Dave Vossbrink said the zoning change doesn't constitute a final policy decision on the site.

"More zoning clarification is going to be needed by the council," Vossbrink said. "This is just the first round."

He added that the council is still split on what it really would like to see on the site.

In addition to the decisions rendered by the council, Vossbrink said, the doors are now open for public hearings and a Planning Commission hearing. The issue will eventually come back to the council, which will then decide what mix of commercial/retail and residential space is acceptable on the site. Vossbrink guessed that all this will occur "within several weeks, at least."

The 15-acre property, located at the corner of El Camino Real and Mathilda Avenue in Sunnyvale, is the last standing orchard of its kind in Sunnyvale. It is watched closely by many residents because of its history, its central location, its traffic volume and its potential for retail success.

The owner of the property, the seven-member Olson family, has a history at the corner that's as deep as the city's. Deborah and Charlie Olson still run the 60-year-old fruit stand that exists on what remains of the 100-year-old orchard.

Calls to the Olson family from The Sun were not returned.

Deborah Olson told the council her family plans to leave many trees standing around any new development as a testament to times past.

The Olsons were joined at the meeting by representatives of Irvine Apartments and family attorneys.

"[The development] will be stunning," Deborah Olson emphatically told the council. "People will see trees and a beautiful development. We want to retain its historic properties."

The Irvine Group, the parent company of Irvine Apartments, recently completed a project on the corner of Pruneridge Avenue and Wolfe Road in Cupertino. Councilmember Julia Miller and at least one other person who spoke at the meeting urged developers not to duplicate the building, calling it unattractive.

"Irvine needs to have vision and make it lasting," Miller said before the 5-1 decision.

Charlie Olson told the council that the family has denied requests by bigger, nationally recognized developers and store chains because the Olsons want to remain the owners of the land. They also were unwilling to take on the financial risk of having a business fail on the site, he said.

Another option for the Olsons was to lease the land to a large, single-tenant office campus--most likely in the high-technology industry--on the site. That's also too risky for the family, Charlie Olson said, because of the volatile nature of the industry. Such a company would also likely ignore the wants and needs of the community, Olson added.

According to Irvine's Thompson, the project will provide a buffer around any development with orchard trees. It will also create less traffic than a large business and will serve as a transition from low- to high-income residential family housing.

"We're really looking forward to this," Thompson said. "It's going to be a fun project."

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, March 4, 1998.
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