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Residents, planners meet to share vision
By Scott Steinberg
They whispered the names of their favorite cities--Portland, New York and Aix-en-Provence. It sounded like someone was planning a trip.
Not so, as the Stakeholders Advisory Committee agreed with Sunnyvale residents on Sept. 26 that shaping downtown will be an exercise in moving back to the future.
"We are envisioning a traditional, lively downtown," said Robert Paternoster, director of community development for Sunnyvale. "A place to shop, dine, work and live."
A handful of residents, two dozen city workers and a few consultants gathered at the Del Monte Building, equipped with their opinions and their innovative powers in order to iron out downtown's larger picture.
Some residents said they feared the future downtown, which would run north to south, from Evelyn Street to El Camino Real, and east to west, from Mathilda Avenue to Sunnyvale Avenue, might become a behemoth thorn in the side of the city, and a more disjointed downtown than already exists.
Architect Barry Elbasani of ELS Architects said the goal of the plan is connectiveness.
"We are thinking of downtown as a walking experience," he said. "There is no pedestrian experience currently in Sunnyvale except on Murphy Avenue."
But making the connection, Elbasani said, is paramount to expanding downtown. To fill space, the city is hopeful for an upscale supermarket to compete with what some called "the tired" Nob Hill Market, an opening up of the Murphy Avenue side of Town Center Mall, new walkways and high density residences on the west side of Mathilda Avenue.
But the crucial swing project is traffic and parking. Tommy Carnig, who lives on Washington Street, said he already sees shoppers parking in front of his house. He said he fears his street will have to turn to permit parking.
"We don't need more rules, we need more order," he said.
City officials acknowledged this is a time of transition. The city is in the process of building several parking lots--a 900-space lot at S. Murphy Avenue; a 1,300-space lot at Washington Street and Sunnyvale Avenue; and 400 additional spots at the Caltrans station.
Paternoster said the key to parking is making it accessible and clearly marked. If people feel inconvenienced by the new lots, he said, they will continue to park on the streets.
But Sept. 26 was a day for big ideas. The committee will address details--including parking, landscaping, zoning, public transportation, plazas and lighting--at the following three stakeholders meetings, the next one scheduled for Oct. 9.
After the third meeting on Dec. 12, the committee said it would put its findings into a document for the city council to review. The projection for the review is February. Once that is approved, developers will approach the planning commission and council for the go-ahead, on a project-by-project basis.
But despite all the talk, the Specific Plan of 1993, although deemed a reality by consultants, still appears very unspecific to residents, an idea without definition or timeline.
"It seems like we're trying to get 19th-century charm, but we're living in the third millennium," Carnig said.
Sonia de Hazes, who has lived in Sunnyvale for 43 years and is the president of Gavello-Glen Neighborhood Association, said she's watched the city build and destroy things many times, and she understands that charm doesn't have to be manufactured.
She said she wants to see gorgeous trees and to see responsiveness from city workers toward the citizen voice. She said she is hopeful of former but skeptical of the latter.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
