Speak Out

Sunnyvale downtown plan smells fishy

The staff of the city of Sunnyvale is trying to promulgate a new, long-range plan for the development of downtown Sunnyvale, which will forever change the city from a suburban city to an urban city with a high rise, high density flavor. This will be similar to downtown San Jose except on a smaller scale.

The plan calls for six-story office buildings (100 feet tall) on the east side of Mathilda Avenue from the El Camino to Evelyn Avenue and four-story apartment buildings on the west side of Mathilda overlooking single-story houses to the west. Some have said walking on Mathilda Avenue will feel like walking on the bottom of the Grand Canyon. In addition the Town and Country center will be raised and redeveloped for mixed use, with stores on the first floor and apartments on the eight stories above the stores, for a total height of about 100 feet. You can look at the Santana Row across the street from Valley Fair, to get a feel for what this might look like. Two thousand dwelling units will be added in the downtown area. For reference the new Olsen Center has 300 dwelling units.

The plan was prepared by a consultant and a group of "stakeholders" in the downtown area. A majority of those people were property owners or business owners in downtown. Obviously, for those folks, higher density means more sales, more profits and higher property values. Unfortunately, the city has not had an outreach program to inform the balance of the citizens of Sunnyvale of the details of this plan.

The impact of all of this on traffic congestion, air quality and the city's feel is obvious. The plan will be submitted to the city council on April 23 for approval. It's important that you contact all the members of the city council to express your wants for the Sunnyvale of the future. Personally, I was raised in a very dense urban city and I much prefer the suburban feel of Sunnyvale. That feel has been eroding for quite some time but may be lost forever if you don't speak up.

A copy of the plan is available at the Sunnyvale Public Library.

Werner Gans
Sunnyvale

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