Commissioners deny plans for a 56-unit apartment complex

By Jeff Kearns

Planning commissioners shot down a proposal for a large apartment complex on Blossom Hill Road last week, leaving developers with the choice of filing another application, trying their luck with the council or abandoning the project altogether.

After the meeting, developer Bill Errico said he wouldn't know what was next until he talked it over with his partners at Cupertino Development Corporation.

Commissioners voted 3-2 to deny the apartment application, with Jim Lyon and Lee Quintana voting against denial and Laura Nachison and Kathryn Morgan absent.

The meeting, which was the third on the apartment proposal, was also the first time anyone spoke out against the project. A small handful of nearby apartment renters said they didn't want the new apartments to connect to the street using their driveway.

The proposed site is in a clearing next to the freeway and below two apartment complexes on Blossom Hill Road. Developers initially considered connecting the project to the end of Placer Oaks Road, but abandoned that idea after neighbors threatened to fight the project if it was connected to their neighborhood.

But Beverly Newton, president of the Oak View Terrace Homeowner's Association (above the proposed site), said the new apartments should connect to both Blossom Hill and Placer Oaks roads.

Most commissioners said the high-density project was the right plan for the area and that the town sorely needs more rental units, but two--Sandy Decker and Paul Bruno--seemed ready to push for lower density, something Errico says is financially impossible because of the high costs of developing the site.

"There's a lot of hardscape and very little open space," Commissioner Len Pacheco said, echoing the concerns of other commissioners who believe the site plan was covered with too many buildings and too much asphalt.

The sound issues that stalled the project last time didn't come up, after planning staffers revised their requirement that the project meet the town's 55-decibel level.

The commission put the application on hold in May to let the town work out the sound issues with the developer. Planners say the town guidelines come from the general plan, and are a goal, not a minimum level.

Noise was a major concern for the site, which is next to Highway 17 just north of the Blossom Hill Road overpass. A sound engineer hired by the developers says the project can meet the state's maximum noise level of 60 decibels with a 14-foot sound wall stretching along the property's 1,000-foot frontage on Highway 17.

Commissioners said they couldn't approve the wall unless it was moved back a few feet from the property line and screened with tall trees, which the developers said they were willing to do.

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