Photograph by George Sakkestad
A construction worker walks the scaffolding on a 709-unit apartment building under construction on Lawrence Expressway near U.S. 101.
By LESTER CHANG
In the 1980s, government leaders from Sunnyvale and other Santa Clara County cities joined forces to build thousands of homes and apartments in the region.
They sought to ease a severe housing crunch that was triggered by an economic boom in Silicon Valley. High-tech companies brought in more employees who eventually moved into new housing.
Now, more than 10 years later, with companies doing well and hiring again, Sunnyvale finds itself grappling with the same problem--high housing demand.
This time, though, the issue of whether to allow more high-density projects has split the Sunnyvale City Council.
Mayor Stan Kawczynski, Vice Mayor Jim Roberts and Councilman Landon Curt Noll would rather not have more high-density projects in the city, saying they generate noise and traffic and strain public services.
"We are at a crossroads," Roberts said. "We have to choose between maintaining the suburban character or moving toward an urban environment. I prefer the former. We sell out the quality of life with more units."
Councilmembers Jack Walker, Patricia Vorreiter and Manuel Valerio said they would support putting apartments in neighborhoods that already have them and would consider such proposals on a "case-by-case basis."
Councilwoman Robin Parker was not immediately available for comment.
In recent years, residents have lodged an increasing number of complaints about high-density housing with the council, Noll said.
"We have the highest density of any city in the valley, and people are saying enough is enough," Noll said. "It is time other cities do their share in generating more housing."
The city has more than 27,000 apartment units, accounting for more than half of the housing stock, including single-family homes, according to city documents.
High-density projects are those that have 36 units or more per acre.
Although some council members have publicly criticized these projects, developers continue to bring them before the council and the city's Planning Commission for approval.
In February, the council approved massive artwork for a 709-unit complex that Bay Apartment Communities is building along Lawrence Expressway.
In approving the artwork, Kawczynski lobbed a criticism at the complex, saying the series of boulders that constituted the art represented the massiveness of the housing project.
Studio West Hotel Co. got the green light in February to build a 126-room hotel on Mathilda Avenue to provide temporary housing for corporate employees.
Because developers want to reap the profits of meeting the demands for housing, they will continue to present such projects to the city for approval, said David Boesch, who heads the city's Community Development Department.
In other cases, landowners have torn down apartment complexes built in the 1960s and have proposed new ones with higher densities that are allowed under the zoning for their properties, said Councilman Jack Walker.
The owner of the King George Apartments near the intersection of Fair Oaks Avenue and old San Francisco Road, for instance, wants to replace a 220-unit complex with one having more than 300 units, said Planning Commissioner Mark O'Connor.
The city can initiate a zoning change to lower the density of a parcel, but it runs the risk of being sued by a landowner who wants the maximum density allowed, Walker said.
With 97 percent of the land for residential use built out, developers may have to look elsewhere to construct such projects, O'Connor said.
That place might be the portion of Sunnyvale north of Evelyn Avenue.
The city could rezone commercial and industrial lands there for residential use, Boesch said.
The city's general plan designates that area as the one most appropriate for rezoning, he said.
Should that happen, companies looking for new locations might bypass Sunnyvale for another city, Boesch said.
And the rezoning could force some companies to close, resulting in the loss of jobs, Noll said.
The city is home to 2,500 businesses, including high-tech companies, most of which are located in that area of town, said Trudi Ryan, a chief planner with the city.
Moreover, zoning changes would alter the way the city fashions its yearly budget, Noll said.
For instance, residential subdivisions, because of their size, generally require more fire and police services than commercial or industrial businesses, Noll said. As a result, more funds would have to be found to provide those services, he said.
Mary Bradley, director of finance for the city, said businesses help generate revenues for the city through sales taxes and from county property tax assessments on equipment and inventory companies own.
No breakdown was immediately available on how much Sunnyvale companies generated in property tax revenues for the 1996-97 fiscal year, but the city was projected to receive nearly $14 million in property tax revenues for all types of properties for the period, according to city documents.
Single- and multi-family homes have been built on 5,180 acres within the city, according to the documents. The high-density units have been built on 330 of those acres.
Most of the high-density units are found along El Camino Real, Mathilda Avenue and Lawrence Expressway, major roads in the city, Boesch said.
Such units enable people to become homeowners for the first time, said Dyane Matas, the city's housing and neighborhood preservation officer.
They buy condominiums, and some use them as a steppingstone to buying a single-family home, she said.
Contrary to popular belief among some residents, the projects do not contribute to traffic congestion, she said.
"There are more people working in Sunnyvale than there are living in this city," she said. "It is those people who are causing the traffic problems."
More than 73,000 people commute to Sunnyvale each day, city documents show.
Whether more of high-density apartments are approved will depend on public acceptance of them, Boesch said.
At that point, government, working with developers, will step in and try to fashion a project that will not generate "negative impacts," said Boesch, referring to traffic congestion, noise and taxing of roads and utility services.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, March 5, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.