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Published on 03/03/1997 All articles from this issue

A fuzzy parking picture

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By Clyde Noel

Town Crier Staff Writer

With so many different opinions, a solution in downtown

Los Altos remains elusive

The subject of whether the city needs additional parking has produced a mountain of opinions. But a definitive plan on which merchants, residents and city officials can agree remains elusive.

In December, the Los Altos Village Association and the Los Altos Chamber of Commerce, representing merchants' interests, wrote a letter to the City of Los Altos emphasizing the lack of adequate parking in downtown Los Altos.

The letter was signed jointly by Joe Renati, president of the chamber, and Conrad Heintzelman, president of the downtown association.

The boards of directors jointly recommended the City of Los Altos include, as a priority solution, the availability of downtown parking and a conceptual plan for a parking structure to be developed in the downtown area.

Bruce Bane, director of public works, said the Los Altos City Council responded in January by listing downtown parking among its top priorities in developing a strategy for a two-year budget plan.

"Virtually everyone sees the parking problem in a different light," Bane said. "Restaurants want parking spaces from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the other businesses want parking spaces at the same time.

"There is no problem at other times in the day," Bane said.

Wyatt Allen, former president of the Chamber of Commerce and vice president of Bank of Los Altos, said the downtown needs more parking during peak usage times or people will take their shopping elsewhere.

"We certainly do need help at certain times and I favor a parking structure," said Dennis Young, owner of a business on El Camino Real. "We don't come downtown during the peak hours. Maybe the city should consider valet service. They should really consider it during the holiday season."

"The city council has the ultimate control and they have nothing to work on," Bane said. "We are guided by the downtown merchants, but the city hasn't received any suggestions other than the Parking 2000 Committee (formed through the city to look at parking) and that is not active."

Most downtown merchants cite a parking problem and want the city's help. But city council members are elected and influenced by residents like Tom Anderson of the Los Altos Homeowners Association.

"I never have a parking problem when I come downtown," Anderson said. "If you increase parking spaces, then you increase traffic. Then the increased traffic will make parking become so difficult it will limit what businesses would want to be downtown."

Resident Dolores Norton also doesn't have a problem with downtown parking. "If they want to increase the parking spaces, let them open the loading zones between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.," she said. "Vendors can deliver at other hours."

However, Palo Alto resident Fred Hodge wrote to the Parking 2000 committee 15 months ago from an entirely different perspective.

"The time has come. Something must be done to alleviate the increasingly difficult, if not, at times the impossible parking problem in downtown Los Altos," he wrote. "We have lived and shopped in local stores for 25 years, but if you don't analyze and take immediate steps to recognize and correct the overcrowding, I will be forced to stop patronizing the local merchants."

Landlords, property owners and local businesses united back in 1952, when the city of Los Altos was incorporated, to address the early downtown parking problems. At that time, parking facilities in the downtown triangle comprised an assortment of private parking spaces on individual properties and parking in front of businesses on Main and State streets.

Alan Cranston, a former U.S. Senator who still lives in Los Altos and owned land in the downtown area, formed a committee that took action.

"Parking was becoming a problem in 1954. There were septic tanks behind the stores and no one could park behind the businesses," Cranston recalled. "They were starting to build the Stanford Shopping Center and Rancho Shopping Center, and we had to do something. We decided to develop an outdoor mall with easy access.

"Fred Mack, Larry Nelson, Sammy Kahn, E. O. Huttingler and George Ramsey, and I probably forgot a few, decided to have a downtown assessment district. A bond issue was floated to install sewers behind store fronts and establish a parking mall. We hired an architect and told him to put in plenty of trees and landscaping. That program saved Los Altos."

Today's business community appears anxious to get something done. Kent Nelson, past president of the Village Association, said the time is now. "Our shopping is in the most dynamic period of our history and we need additional parking," he said. "Service is what Los Altos is all about, and we don't want to see that disappear."

Cranston favors an underground parking structure. "Los Altos is a beautiful place and we don't want to see that beauty destroyed," he said. "It has to be done tastefully and someone should step up and be creative."

Ron Gruenwald, a civil engineer working with the City of Los Altos, said underground parking is an expensive proposition.

"It must be well lit and well designed and conform to the American Disabilities Act," he said. "Safety conditions must be considered and that's not a cheap operation."

A Parking 2000 Committee, comprising city officials and downtown business leaders, was formed in March 1994. The purpose was to evaluate alternative solutions and select the best options to meet the parking needs in downtown Los Altos by the year 2000.

Mel Kahn of Kahn's Corner Pharmacy, who has headed the committee since its inception, said the city cannot afford to stall much longer on additional parking.

"We did our homework and we can't pussyfoot anymore," Kahn said. "We need to develop the property at First and Main streets, and we have to do something about employee parking to free-up customer parking spaces."

Bane said the property, which includes the former Kentucky Fried Chicken and Nielsen's Cleaners building, is under lease and there are no plans for any development. The buildings on city property are not coming down because they have a valid lease and their rent helps pay the debt service, he said.

"I heard there is a move to put underground parking there with a group of retail stores on the first floor of the property, but I have seen no plans," Bane said. "We have to develop a strategy for the area and no strategy has been started by anyone."

Recent efforts to generate additional downtown parking have been relatively modest.

In 1986, a full-time community service officer was hired for parking enforcement because of increasing enforcement needs. Today, all fine money goes into the general fund and not earmarked for any parking improvements.

In 1958, there were 1,008 stalls for public parking in the 10 city blocks. At the end of 1996, 38 years later, there were 1,160 stalls - the increase coming from decreasing 10-foot stalls to 9 feet and reducing compact spaces to 8 feet.

In November 1995, the city acquired property at 230 First St., and repaved and redesigned it to provide 58 public parking stalls.

Last year, the city installed five "duckouts" along downtown streets at a cost of $3,000-to-4,000 a piece. Officials estimate room for another 40 duckouts throughout the triangle, but there are currently no plans to make them.

The only current activity regarding the parking problem is a monthly parking count. The city conducts the count on a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The count is taken at noon and again at 1 p.m. by volunteers. The object is to evaluate the average annual percentage of occupancy levels during mid-day peak.

Meanwhile, city officials wait for direction while merchants and residents remain polarized in their views of the downtown parking picture.