Photograph by George Sakkestad
Los Gatos Boulevard residents Michael Weidman and his mother, Lucille Weidman, study an aerial view of the street before the May 28 public hearing.
By Clarence Cromwell
After viewing the first example of pedestrian-friendly planning, some Los Gatos Boulevard-area residents and business owners said they've seen enough.
About half of the 35 people who attended the May 28 public hearing--including a strong showing of Los Gatos Boulevard auto dealers--came to protest the town's plans to convert Los Gatos Boulevard to a pedestrian-friendly parkway, with clusters of businesses and miniparks called nodes at major intersections.
Many who opposed the plan apparently did so because they equate it with the bold presence of the Byer Center, the shopping center under construction at the corner of the boulevard and Blossom Hill Road.
"What are you going to do, have a node right in front of that dome so we can sit there and say 'Isn't this the greatest thing since God knows what?'" asked Lucille Weidman.
Now the General Plan Committee, whose task was to address policy and land-use issues for the boulevard, will have to decide at a June 12 meeting whether to ignore the fundamental differences with the boulevard plan that surfaced at the hearing or go back to the drawing board.
The Architectural Standards Committee presented design standards the group formulated for the boulevard. When completed and approved, the design standards would be presented to prospective developers to give them a better understanding of what kinds of designs and materials would be acceptable to the town. Planning Commission Chairwoman Marcia Jensen said such a set of policies could prevent objectionable buildings from springing up along the boulevard in the future. The next meeting of that group is June 19.
The current working plan for the boulevard--A Vision for Los Gatos--is the product of a November 1994, all-day design forum, attended by some 200 residents and business owners, and followup meetings. The general consensus of those early meetings was that the boulevard should become more pedestrian-friendly, with buildings close to the curb and parking lots hidden behind buildings. Individual property owners would pay costs related to the plan; they would be asked to build mini parks on their own property and construct new buildings close to the street.
Town officials consider a pedestrian-oriented plan the best way to improve business in the area. They hope it will encourage residents to stroll to the nearest cluster of shops, or convince motorists to visit more than one business before driving away.
A number of residents responded to the plan by reiterating their complaints about Byer Center at the May 28 meeting, saying it's too big, too close to the street and blocks the view of the hills.
Planning commissioners say they situated the building that way because they wanted to incorporate pedestrian-friendly design that had been so strongly endorsed at the all-day design charrette in November 1994 when they reviewed Byer Center.
When town officials asked at the May 28 hearing who opposed their pedestrian-friendly designs, about a dozen of the participants raised their hands. About 10 people--roughly the same group--also raised hands to indicate that they don't like the idea of the nodes either.
While neighboring residents had their own reasons for opposing the plan as presented, Jim McHugh, who spoke for several auto dealers, explained why that group doesn't want to encourage shoppers to walk.
"This is so much the antithesis of what we're trying to accomplish," McHugh said. "We're trying to get people to come from outside Los Gatos."
McHugh explained that people rarely walk onto a car lot to buy a car. He said he would prefer simple improvements such as street and sidewalk repairs.
The objection to nodes was apparently based on whether they would be located at intersections or not.
Whole Foods Manager Tim Gates said traffic noise and exhaust will make nodes unpleasant if they're put at major intersections.
Los Gatos resident Muffet Brown, a Byer Center basher, replied that nodes should be at shopping centers, not on street corners.
Lucille Weidman argued that the node areas would be magnets to vagrants.
Architectural Standards Committee member Len Pacheco, also a planning commissioner, said he thinks the plan's opponents are over-emphasizing the importance of Byer Center.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, June 5, 1996.
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