Photo by Monique Schoenfeld, Town Crier
Another change in ownership of this service station, at Fremont Avenue and Grant Road, has prompted more anxieties from residents about possible expansion of the station.
Town Crier Staff Writer
Neighbors are waiting to discover what plans the new owner of the service station at the corner of Fremont Avenue and Grant Road has in mind for the station, which has been a controversial subject since it was built in the 1960s.
"There was controversy. The community didn't want the station at the time," said Sister Mary Pritchard of the Medical Sisters of Mercy.
The Fretz family, original owners of the property that now includes the service station, Marymeade Park and Estate Drive, donated eight acres to the Medical Sisters in the 1950s, Pritchard said.
The convent gave the corner parcel to Paul Fretz when he wanted to build his gas station in 1966, she said.
According to Jim Mackenzie, senior planner with the Los Altos Planning Department, Santa Clara County approved the station in 1966 before the property was annexed to the city. At the time of annexation, the gas station was grandfathered in as a nonconforming use.
Mackenzie said the station's use permit, which expired in 1994, was not renewed by Richard Rogers, who owned the station then. Rogers sold the station to Steven and Nancy Meyer of San Francisco for approximately $785,000 in October 1997. That's when the neighbors on Estate Drive got interested.
Fritz Liepertz, a member of the Estate Drive homeowners association, said that when he and his neighbors bought their homes they were "told the land (under the station) would revert back to public use (in 1994). We thought Marymeade Park would be extended."
The land is zoned PCF - for public and community use - in the Los Altos General Plan, Mackenzie said.
He said the planning department contacted Meyer by letter Dec. 9, 1997, and has had conversations with Steven Meyer and his architect. The department expects the Meyers to apply for a use permit soon.
"Then it's a question of whether the station should be allowed to remain and under what circumstances," Mackenzie said.
"We've told (the Meyers) it would be very problematic to do anything major to the station."
"We are strongly opposed to any further development of a gas station," Liepertz said.
He mentioned neighbors' concerns that an expanded station operation could compound traffic problems and serve as a magnet for crime.
As for the city acquiring the land as an extension of Marymeade Park, Mackenzie said many issues would have to be addressed first.
"Most of the city reserves were spent on 401 Rosita," he said.