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Editorial A wall will never replace a bridge
The new buildings at Old Town were supposed to serve as a bridge between the shopping center on University Avenue and N. Santa Cruz Avenue businesses.
From the beginning, the new structures were envisioned with a 360-degree façade. There was to be no front--and especially no back. A back, after all, would suggest that Old Town was turning its back on downtown.
That's how the town saw it. And that's what the developers agreed to in the permit process.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the completion of the project. With the walls up and the pastel paint being applied, the "western elevation" facing Parking Lot 6 has come to look suspiciously like the back of the building.
What was supposed to be a bridge between Old Town and downtown looks instead like a big wall.
So the Planning Commission asked the developers to explain themselves. After the developers agreed to affix a couple of fake windows to the wall, the Planning Commission approved the changes.
We think this was a bad call.
Now, thanks to an unhappy neighbor, the decision is being appealed. Let's hope the Town Council will stand firm and insist that the developers adhere to the original plans.
The stipulation that the structure be welcoming from all sides was not made lightly.
Los Gatans care desperately about preserving the character of their community, and a big part of the community's charm is its downtown.
If there's one thing no one in Los Gatos bargained for when Old Town was approved, it was that the downtown would end up with a structure that looks--at least from one side-- like a big box retailer.
It may be inconvenient for the developer to go back and make the western elevation meet the requirements of the original application. But that's a chance any developer takes in deviating from the original agreement.
Too often developers take the tack that it's easier to ask forgiveness than to seek permission. It's happened often enough in Los Gatos.
Fake windows are no solution. The idea makes about as much sense as the pictures of shelved books stuck to the windows of Crown Super Books on Blossom Hill Road--another compromise made after a tenant disregarded the town's requirement that windows facing Blossom Hill show activity in the store.
Certainly, the developer must accommodate the needs of tenants to the degree possible. But tenants should not dictate the building's façade. The face that the western elevation presents to the public is part of the downtown streetscape.
It should not be one more thing that Los Gatans look at later and say, "Why didn't we do something about that while we still had the chance?"
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
