But next door at the 62-unit Orchard Gardens—a low-income housing complex developed by First Community Housing, a local nonprofit developer—residents weave through a parking lot full of family vehicles on their way to work, shopping or school.

Orchard Gardens is just one of a dozen First Community developments in the South Bay, all built for families that make less than the area's median income.

And by the summer of 2006, First Community plans to have "rehabilitated" the Best Western property into 42 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, available to families that make between 20 and 40 percent of the area's median income. The median income for a single person in the South Bay area is about $43,000, and for a family of four, it's just over $105,000.

For a single-bedroom apartment, monthly rents in the Best Western development would range from $395 to around $750, with the three-bedroom units going for between $548 and $1090.

First Community Director of Housing Development Thomas Iamesi said that although many families want to own their own homes, having rental units cuts costs, allowing families to begin saving.

"By relieving the burden of housing costs, our tenants are able to save money and in the future put a down payment on a house and move on to home ownership," Iamesi said.

In addition to the property's accommodating low-income residents, 30 percent of the new units will be set up for special-needs residents, including battered women and children, physically or mentally disabled individuals or people coming out of rehabilitation programs.

"We really look at what the market is in a particular city and then try to build to fit that need," Iamesi said. In this area alone, the special-needs population is almost 16,000 people strong. "It's a dramatic need throughout the South Bay, not just in Sunnyvale," Iamesi said.

The project and its necessary amendments and permits were approved at the April 13 city council meeting, for which a number of groups came out in unanimous support of the project.

Shiloh Ballard, housing & community development director for the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group—a group that promotes socially and environmentally conscious development—attended the meeting to speak on behalf of SVMG's Housing Action Coalition.

"I think Sunnyvale was really forward-thinking with this; it really serves a needed niche in the affordable-housing market," Ballard said.

Most importantly, the project will serve extremely low-income levels and accommodate larger families in the area.

"It's really rare that we see affordable housing in this income level," Ballard said. "And on top of that is the fact that it's three-bedroom housing, and we don't see that a lot either."

Ballard also praised First Community's dedication to environmental concerns, including the installation of photovoltaic solar panels on top of the carport areas to collect energy. In addition, all tenants of the complex will be given "eco passes," annual passes to use all Valley Transit Authority and light-rail services at no cost.

Iamesi said First Community is able to provide housing at such low costs for a number of reasons. Because it is a nonprofit organization, it can file for tax-exempt status from the IRS and use funds from the sales of tax credits to pay for projects. In addition, $4.5 million of the $13 million project is coming from Proposition 46—the Housing and Emergency Shelter Trust Fund Act of 2002—funds.

After meeting Best Western owner Vimal Kumar while working on the Orchard Gardens project, Iamesi said his company approached Kumar about purchasing the property to redevelop.

Iamesi said the property appealed to his group for a number of reasons, including its proximity to Orchard Gardens and to a nearby park and the possibility of preventing the property from degrading. Kumar reported that the motel was averaging only 20 percent occupancy.

"We were worried that the property could have fallen [in quality] or been to converted to an hourly-rate use," Iamesi said. "It could have been used for a less socially conscious use."

Through the recycling of old properties, new apartments can also be built within existing city limits, preventing the spread of the city into already crowded surrounding areas.

"One of our primary concerns is about the efficient use of land, and we believe that the better we use the land in our environment, the less the pressures on the fringe areas to sprawl," Ballard said.

Nancy Tivol, executive director of Sunnyvale Community Services who has spoken out several times regarding the need for low-income housing in the area, is also behind the project.

"There's such a large need for affordable housing, it sounds like a wonderful project," Tivol said. "We could probably use 15 more."