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Published on 10/28/1996 All articles from this issue

Sanwa Bank California considers retail use in former drive-up area

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue / Town Crier Staff Writer

What began as a possible crisis turned into a positive solution by the end of a recent city council meeting.

In response to "new information," Los Altos Mayor Patti Williams pulled an item off the agenda of the Oct. 22 meeting that could have created an interim zoning ordinance, prohibiting new or replacement office use on the ground floor in the downtown area.

Representatives of Sanwa Bank California, who have a lease to move into the vacant, former location of first Interstate Bank at 176 Main St., heaved a collective sigh of relief.

The interim ordinance, which they said they learned of three days before the council meeting, could have derailed their plans. Now they can move ahead as scheduled.

"This is a fabulous site," said Cynthia May, vice president, senior property manager for Sanwa Bank California. "We are very happy to be in such a thriving downtown and pleased it (the zoning ordinance change) is now a non-issue."

Sanwa will take possession of the location in mid-November, do some minor refurbishment in December and open officially in mid-January, May said.

But Sanwa Bank California came close to losing its site.

City folks want continuous, contiguous retail space along Main Street, said Los Altos City Planner Larry Tong. "Banks do not have active windows."

Williams agreed. "At that end of town, there's a big gap in contiguous retail - a brick wall, the road turns and there is no encouragement to go on down to the further end of Main Street."

Council members had asked Tong earlier this fall to look into the current ordinance, which requires ground-floor retail space in downtown Los Altos.

By Oct. 10 an interim ordinance was scheduled for the Oct. 22 council agenda.

Tong reported to council in an Oct. 22 staff report that currently there are nine office tenants in the commercial, retail zone, including the spot Sanwa California has leased.

Since the former business on the site was a bank, and the new business will be another bank, this use was allowed as "a continuation of a nonconforming use."

But council members said they were concerned about a new 20-year lease that would keep retail out of that space.

At the Oct. 22 council meeting, Sanwa representatives agreed to consider a retail use in the former drive-up banking area in return for a nonconforming-use permit and 20-year lease.

"We have no idea what can be done there," May said. "A lot of research has to go on. We will study the needs of the bank and the business plan of the branch."

And everyone went home, for the moment, satisfied.