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Published on 02/02/1998 All articles from this issue

Council's limit on restaurant a good start

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Editorial

We're glad to see Los Altos City Council trimmed back seating on a proposed downtown restaurant. Members voted Jan. 27 to reduce seating at the Satkar Indian Restaurant, 233-235 State St., from an original 70-seat plan down to 50.

We hope this scaled-back approval is a sign the council will not only scale back seating, but consider closing the door on additional downtown restaurants, given the lack of available parking.

The council rejected city staff and planning commission recommendations that the 70-seat proposal go as-is. Staff pointed out that council had approved large restaurants in the recent past, and this proposal was consistent with those approvals.

This time, the council put its collective foot down.

Members had good reason. It's apparent that even combining the former Daily Grind and Tri-City Lock spaces, as this proposal offers, doesn't amount to a lot of space.

Recent city counts indicate 93 percent of downtown parking plazas are occupied between noon and 1 p.m. Monday through Friday. City staff also noted "very few vacant spaces available" near the proposed restaurant.

In addition, a Dec. 4, 1997, letter from the Los Altos Village Association suggests that the restaurant "is likely to draw its own customers into the downtown area. As a result, a greater demand will be placed on limited and already overburdened parking ..."

This was a good first step. The next will be harder: consideration of a moratorium on new downtown restaurant locations.

The trend downtown has been more and more restaurants, which draw lunch-time crowds that take up the bulk of parking spots. We only need take a look at Castro Street in Mountain View to see where this is headed.

The success of the Los Altos downtown has been its charm, created by locally owned shops with a diversity of good and services. The bombardment of new restaurants could undermine that charm.

City officials, local business people and residents have worked hard over the past few years to come up with some parking solutions. The city did add 58 spaces, for instance, with a 1995 purchase of the former Kentucky Fried Chicken site. But it doesn't appear enough.

Until we come up with the definitive plan that will address downtown parking for years to come, we should hold the line on conversion of any more retail space into restaurants. This latest council action is a clear step in the right direction.