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Ave. rezoning creates talk
By Kate Carter
San Jose city planning officials hope the San Jose City Council next month will approve a new designation to make Willow Glen's business district more pedestrian-friendly.
But some Willow Glen business owners are concerned the change would create more paperwork for their businesses, prevent them from responding to growing demand and not address pressing concerns for more parking in the business district.
A section of Lincoln Avenue between Coe and Minnesota avenues is one of three districts whose commercial zoning classification could be changed by the council at an Aug. 14 meeting. The San Jose Planning Commission will also hold a public hearing July 25. The change would make it easier for the city to enforce its land-use goals for the neighborhood business districts.
At a July 19 community meeting, Senior Planner Jean Hamilton, planner Pankti Shah and District 6 City Councilman Ken Yeager's aide Denelle Fedor discussed the proposal with neighborhood residents and business owners. The new zoning classification would require a maximum front setback of 10 feet and a minimum rear setback of 25 feet, to encourage parking behind businesses. It would also restrict vehicular-related businesses.
Lincoln Avenue property owners said they were most concerned about new restrictions to square footage for different business types. The new zoning limits personal service shops, like hairdressers or drycleaners, to 2,500 square feet, restaurants to 5,000 square feet and other shops to 15,000 square feet.
Businesses can apply for conditional use permits to have larger spaces, but business property owners said they didn't want to have to go through another process to attract tenants. Cara Finn, co-owner of the Grapevine wine shop, said she didn't want to have to wait months, losing business, for such a permit.
Hamilton said the space change would be included in any conditional-use permits businesses must already apply for and said the permits should be approved in a timely manner.
Steve Hanleigh, who owns the Vin Santo restaurant building, said he wanted any changes to the business district to include provisions for more parking.
"I like the idea of a pedestrian neighborhood," he said, "but (the pedestrians) are going to drive downtown. You've got to have a place to put them, the cars. I can only support this if there's a parking plan. You guys have had six months to come up with this, and we have six working days to digest this. I would suggest that this be slowed down a little bit."
The Glen restaurant owner John Karamanos agreed that it would be better to make a decision about the rezoning after a city study of the avenue, funded by San Jose Redevelopment Agency money, was complete and after the Willow Glen Business and Professional Association and Willow Glen Neighborhood Association's have also had a chance to be involved.
Hamilton said the parking issue and redevelopment study were not part of the rezoning process and that the rezoning would not prevent new plans for the street.
"I don't want this to inhibit that or vice versa," she told The Resident. "They're really not connected."
She said zoning reclassification is the result of the more than three years of work by city officials to establish new zoning codes that conform to the city's general plan categories. Currently, the codes in neighborhood business districts do not necessarily promote buildings, businesses or streetscapes encouraged by the city's vision for them.
"It brings it more into the public arena," Hamilton told The Resident. "The city can really exercise more regulatory control and help maintain the right balance for that district. We're rezoning it, but putting in place the zoning it was designed for."
The new codes, approved by the council last December and effective last February, are designed to reinforce that vision.
Lincoln Avenue, a stretch of Willow Street from Prevost Street to Highway 87 and W. San Carlos Street from Lincoln Avenue to Interstate 880, were areas chosen out of the city's nine neighborhood business districts as priorities to receive the new designations.
Lincoln Avenue, Willow Street and parts of W. San Carlos Street are now zoned Commercial Neighborhood and are proposed to be zoned Commercial Pedestrian. The types of businesses allowed in those classifications are similar, Hamilton said, but in commercial-pedestrian zonings, building entrances must be near the street and pedestrian walkways not be broken by obstacles such as driveways or parking lots.
In addition, the new zoning would not support businesses that install automotive accessories or perform any other automotive work that could create a "pedestrian-vehicular conflict," Hamilton said.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
