By Clarence Cromwell
Diane Ogilvie's plans to build a landmark hotel and shopping center at 210 E. Main St. faced yet another setback May 22, when the Planning Commission called for further changes to the design.
Ogilvie, who has made numerous appearances at Town Hall since she set out to build her dream hotel in the mid-1970s, said she was exasperated after commissioners asked her to make the building smaller and farther from the street and to redesign it in a style more befitting downtown.
Ogilvie completed a list of eight changes the commission requested in April and was surprised, she said, at being asked for further changes last week.
"The dream is leaving me," the septuagenarian said. "It's almost ruined now. I don't have the energy left or the time or the money to continue."
Ogilvie wants to demolish the Kerful Cleaners building and two restaurants at 210 E. Main and build a commercial building with a second-floor hotel and 13 townhouses on the 1.9-acre property just a half-block from the chambers where the commission met.
The commission voted 6-1, with Wes Peyton dissenting, to send the project back to the Development Review Committee for the changes. It is scheduled to return to the Planning Commission July 24.
Starkovich indicated that he and Ogilvie will probably refuse to change the project.If the Planning Commission denies the project at the July meeting, Ogilvie can appeal it to the Town Council, a body considered more sympathetic to large projects by numerous local architects, including Starkovich. One reason commissioners sent the project back to the DRC, rather than simply deny it, was to avoid an appeal.
Decker said a major reason she turned down the project was the lack of real parking spaces.
Ogilvie paid for 65 spaces in the downtown parking district to supplement the 48 spaces she plans to build on the property. Decker explained that Ogilvie will face the same dilemma other businesses now face; although she paid for spaces, the stalls may not be available when customers want to park.
"You have spaces," Decker said, "but you don't have spaces."
Planning Director Lee Bowman said later that the parking spaces aren't a legitimate cause for denying projects; if property owners paid for the spaces, the town, legally, must treat the businesses as if the spaces are available--even if they're not.
But members of the commission had other reasons to turn down the project.
Decker and Pacheco both said the building should be built farther from the street, even if it means fewer condominiums could be built.
Decker said the hotel ought to have an open plaza in front of it to mirror the nearby public spaces in front of the Civic Center, a half-block away, and the high school, across the street. Pacheco said that could also provide more parking for residents and for guests of the hotel.
Ogilvie said, "Financially, you can't do it." She can't make a profit with only six condominiums, she said.
The look of the building was an issue of contention as well. Both Pacheco and Decker called it too massive.
Decker said the hotel would be too tall, although Ogilvie cut it by four feet at the commission's earlier request.
Pacheco compared the building to the Byer Center on Blossom Hill Road, a large building close to the street which some neighbors have complained about.
"We already know how people feel about having their view blocked out by in-your-face buildings," Pacheco said.
Pacheco added that the design of the hotel is too flamboyant. He said an Italian Renaissance style would be more appropriate because the hipped Italianate roof would shorten the building, and its similarity to Villa Montalvo would give it a local flavor.
Both Ogilvie and her architect James Starkovich appeared ruffled at Pacheco's proposition.
Ogilvie said she's shown commissioners perhaps seven different plans for a hotel on the site since the mid-1970s.
"Everyone's cooperative, but they keep changing the rules," Starkovich said.
The last time commissioners rejected her hotel, in 1993, Ogilvie paid more than $700,000 to add a 75-foot strip of land to add to the Main Street property and make it large enough for her project. That was after commissioners said the project was too big for the site.
Then she brought the plan back to the town last April.
At the commission's request, Ogilvie removed a 50-foot clock tower, lowered all the buildings, separated the condos into four structures, and added more landscaping to the project, all in preparation for last week's meeting.
"I hope I live long enough to see it built," Ogilvie said. "I want to leave something beautiful behind."
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, May 29, 1996.
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