The Sun Sunnyvale's Newspaper Sunnyvale and Dubrovnik reach land deal Lot completes downtown puzzle By JUSTIN BERTON The owners of a small piece of downtown land finally agreed to sell to the city, avoiding a costly legal battle and allowing the city to move forward with the development of the new downtown. Sunnyvale City Council members voted 4-1 with two abstentions at the Nov. 17 meeting to purchase the lot for $1,077,000 from Dubrovnik Associates Inc. The city also agreed to provide new parking spaces in the area during the expected four years of downtown construction, and implement a signage program to advertise the Dubrovnik-owned Town and Country Shopping Village. At Redevelopment Agency meetings earlier this year, councilmembers voted to begin eminent domain proceedings to acquire the land after lengthy negotiations between the two sides had failed. The half-acre lot connects two larger parcels owned by the city and represents the final piece to the land puzzle for the new downtown. Now, the city can sell the land to the developer, The Mozart Group, which plans to turn the area into a thriving civic center complete with office buildings, retail shops and a public plaza. "It was never a monetary issue," Nick Gera, spokesman for Dubrovnik, said. "It was about trying to create excess parking to survive during the construction years." Gera said his group was relieved to avoid a prolonged legal squabble that could potentially have left both sides bitter in the long run. "We wanted to work with the city to establish a good foundation for our future relationship," Gera said. The purchase brought some objections from members of the Bicycle Advisory Committee, who claimed future changes in downtown traffic flow were never open for public dialogue. In the deal, the city agreed to demolish the city-owned Hill Building to make way for additional parking spaces and to create 27 new parking spaces along Washington Avenue. City planners said the 27 spaces along Washington Avenue will be striped at a diagonal angle, which bicycle advocates said was inconvenient for commuting. The city said it will evaluate the effects of the 27 diagonal spaces after 18 months to determine whether they should stay or be removed. Resident Tim Risch said, "It goes beyond the inconvenience for 18 months; it could be lost forever." Risch later added, "There has not been enough public comment on this." City Manager Robert LaSala, who brokered the deal for the city, said the city was facing a deadline before the new year to purchase the property and had little time to clear the proposal through public forums. "I certainly would have liked to have had more dialogue. The more dialogue, the better. But we didn't have the luxury of time," LaSala said. LaSala added the city could have spent legal fees approximating "thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars," during the eminent domain process. LaSala also said a timeline had not been set for the destruction of the Hill Building, which currently houses the Mid-Peninsula Alano Club. Tenants of the Alano Club have been on a month-to-month lease for close to a year, well aware that their building stood in the path of the new downtown. Councilmember Stan Kawczynski, who abstained in the vote, used the opportunity to voice his opposition to the commercial development of the downtown. "We don't need office buildings. The people have spoken," he said. Councilmember Jim Roberts abstained from the vote, citing a potential conflict of interest. [ Back to Contents Page | Sunnyvale Sun Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, November 25, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.