The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

City agrees to keep its downtown developer

By Justin Berton

Sunnyvale councilmembers took a step toward cementing the plans for downtown redevelopment, despite their reservations about the developer's approach to the project.

The City Council, acting as the Redevelopment Agency board, voted 5-1 at an April 8 meeting to continue working with the Mozart Development Group, but not before airing a few grievances about the developer's preliminary concepts.

Councilmember Jack Walker tried to sum up the feelings of his colleagues, saying, "I feel a little like we're reluctant brides. We're committed to this, but we're just not really sure we want to go."

The council's concerns included the need for a major entertainment draw to the area and the amount of office space that will be built within the Evelyn-Mathilda corridor.

The concept proposed by MDG calls for three office buildings, two of which will be five stories high and one that will be no taller than six. The council's plan for its downtown, which it adopted in 1993, called for a downtown activity center that would offer noontime, evening and weekend entertainment and cultural events.

Kawczynski criticized the height and shape of the buildings, saying they betrayed the intention of the original downtown plan.

At one point during the lengthy discussions, City Manager Robert LaSala, who acts as the executive director for the Redevelopment Agency, reminded the council that to deny the motion would threaten the redevelopment process.

"At the risk of losing the faith of the developers and the window of opportunity, we can go back to the drawing board. I don't want the agency to feel like they are being pushed or dragged into this," he said.

Councilmember Julia Miller also voiced "major concerns" about the fact that MDG's proposal didn't call for a theater or nightclub. "You're going to have a mausoleum down there" without an entertainment venue, she said.

Citing the fact that the downtown specific plan was adopted five years ago, Miller said the guidelines may be outdated and that the new times called for the councilmembers "to be visionaries."

The council will have two other chances to review the developer's ideas before a detailed contract is brought before the city in July.

Before any major decisions can be reached on the final vision for the new downtown, the city this month will hire Community Focus, a nonprofit group that will hold public information forums and facilitate meetings between developers and the public.

The forums will provide citizens with concept drawings and assist in incorporating the community's ideas, according to a city report.

Nick Gera, the new owner of the Town and Country Village, told the council that his company, Dubrovnik Associates Inc., wasn't being treated fairly with regard to plans for downtown parking.

Gera said he supported the downtown proposal in general but had reservations about whether the Town and Country shops would receive adequate parking spaces.

The MDG proposal calls for Town and Country to share parking spaces with the Sunnyvale Town Center across the street, once the new offices take up a portion of The shopping center's current parking lot.

Councilmember Pat Vorreiter suggested that Gera draw up his own plan of how the shopping center could excel in the downtown area and return to the council when his proposal was complete.

Before Kawczynski cast the lone dissenting vote, he suggested the property owners in the area join forces and return to the council with a common goal for the area.

"Government is not the best methodology for the downtown redevelopment," he said.

Vorreiter said the lengthy discussions and hesitation were due to the gravity of the issues at hand.

"This is a very important step for our community," she said.

[ Back to Contents Page | Sunnyvale Sun Home Page | Archives ]

The Sun Sunnyvale's Newspaper

City agrees to keep its downtown developer

The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper