By Dale Bryant
The streetscape plan that will be presented to the Town Council March 18 may look like a formula to enhance the beauty of downtown, but at its heart, it's a bottom-line measure intended to enhance the business district's economic development.
Everything about it--from the redwood trees in the median in front of the Toll House to the crosswalk lights that will shine down on pedestrians--is intended to encourage pedestrians to come to downtown and stay a while.
The $9,000 design by Santa Cruz landscape architect Paul Rodrigues is Phase II of the streetscape plan. The first phase was a decision on standards for benches and trash receptacles. The Redevelopment Agency, created following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake to assist in the recovery of the downtown business district, footed the bill for the design.
Among the design elements in the plan are:
* Medians on S. Santa Cruz Avenue to slow traffic coming off the freeway;
* New concrete planters to replace the current wooden ones. The new planters will be set back farther from the street than are the wooden ones and will run from Highway 9 down N. Santa Cruz Avenue, to be repeated at the corner of Main Street and University Avenue and again at Main and College Avenue;
* Improved street lighting, with an emphasis on illuminating pedestrian crosswalks;
* A planned pattern for crosswalks;
* The conversion of several side streets into one-way streets and widening of the sidewalks on those streets.
A second part of the plan calls for dramatic changes at the corner of Highway 9 and N. Santa Cruz Avenue, but because those changes will require an environmental plan, it will be considered separately, so as not to slow down the momentum on the first part of the plan, according to Planning Director Lee Bowman.
Proposed changes at that corner include landscaping and the elimination of free right turns.
Once the first part of Phase II is approved, work can begin in bits and pieces, according to Bowman.
A number of local citizens have already responded to an appeal by the Los Gatos Downtown Association to adopt benches, but until the plan, including location of benches, is adopted, benches cannot be placed.
Bowman said he hopes not only benches, but trash receptacles will also be adopted by local citizens.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, March 6, 1996.
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