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Published on 05/25/1998 All articles from this issue

Gas station appeal continues on June 9

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue / Town Crier Staff Writer

Gas-N-Save service station on Fremont Avenue in south Los Altos just received a two-week reprieve.

The Los Altos City Council voted 4-1 on May 26 to continue the public hearing regarding a use permit for the station until June 9.

The Los Altos Planning Commission had denied a non-conforming use permit for the station at its meeting April 16. The station owners appealed the denial to the city council but requested an additional two weeks to "to finalize plans," said the owner's attorney, Cecily Talbert, in a letter to the city.

Councilman John Moss agreed to the continuance, "to be fair to the appellants. They run the risk of the station being closed down."

According to Talbert, the applicants have been in touch with "various property owners in the vicinity of the service station who support the continued operation of the station at the existing site."

The applicant is also having architectural drawings prepared "showing proposed improvements to the station," Talbert said.

At the planning commission hearing, neighbors on nearby Estate Drive strongly opposed the station, citing noise, fumes, hours of operation, traffic, lighting and loss of property values, for continuing in its current location.

City staff supports the planning commission's decision to deny the use permit, said Los Altos Senior Planner Jim Mackenzie and interim city manager Bill Zaner in a May 26 staff report.

The station, built in 1966, has been operating under a non-conforming use permit that expired in 1994.

The existing station is non conforming because it was legally constructed but does not conform with the current zoning or general plan land use, Mackenzie said in a staff report.

According to neighbors, when they moved into their homes during the 1980s, they were told that the station would close when its permit expired in 1994.

Instead, the station continued and was sold to new owners in 1997.

When the zoning changes, a business owner is allowed time to recover an investment so the owner will not suffer economic hardship from a zoning change, planning commissioners said.

But "new owners are not entitled to an additional time period because they purchased a non-conforming use that has reached the end of its amortization period," Mackenzie and Zaner said in their staff report.

The appeal will be on the Los Altos City Council agenda for the 7:30 p.m. June 9 meeting, held in city hall, 1 N. San Antonio Road.