Fremont Union high schools may be tough to get into, but on several campuses, it just became a little easier.

The school board approved the re-opening of intradistrict transfers at its meeting on Feb. 3, but the only schools open to accept such transfers are Homestead and Lynbrook.

Applications will be available starting March 1 in any school's principal's office or the district office at 589 W. Fremont Avenue in Sunnyvale.

All applications must be turned into the district office before 4:30 p.m. on March 31.

Oaks Center project is coming back

The Oaks Shopping Center project is not dead yet.

At its Dec. 15, 2003, meeting, the city council denied developer Regis Homes' proposal to demolish 13,700 square feet of commercial space and construct 49 townhouses on the shopping center's westerly section.

The proposal died mainly because of the protest from neighbors and the Concerned Citizens of Cupertino, a grass-roots organization that advocates restricting height and density of the city's developments.

Regis has filed for reconsideration. The hearing is tentatively scheduled for Feb. 17.

Regis Homes has come back with two alternatives: One is to build 36 units and keep the Tsunami Sushi restaurant. The other is to build 29 homes and move the restaurant to the front of the shopping center.

To win the residents' approval, Ken Busch, project manager for Regis Homes, arranged a community meeting at St. Jude Church on Feb. 4. About 25 residents showed up, expressing concerns from overcrowding of schools to the health of future residents living close to the highways. Neither proposal seemed to please the residents.

Busch said the mixed-use project will provide the retail businesses with the walk-in traffic they need.

Bridge Award given to the Lunar parade

At the sixth Chinese New Year luncheon, the Asian American Business Council of the Cupertino Chamber of Commerce gave the Business Community Bridge Awards to Chinese-language newspaper World Journal and the Lunar New Year Parade Committee for their efforts in building a strong multicultural community.

Jennifer Johnson of Coldwell Banker was recognized as the outgoing chairwoman of the Asian American Business Council.

The Asian American Business Council is charged with promoting, strengthening and enhancing the interethnic business environment in the Cupertino community. The AABC has recently published a bilingual brochure that lists contacts for business assistance in native languages.