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Published on 08/31/1998 All articles from this issue

Planning Commission considers housing density in Sherwood area

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue / Town Crier Staff Writer

After six months of meetings with a 16-member task force and a $25,000 budget for a consultant, the resulting draft of the Sherwood Gateway Plan has prompted reaction that has focused on one item: housing density.

The task force recommends a change in density from multi-family of 38 units per acre, to single family with seven units per acre.

The Los Altos planning staff recommends a density of 20 units per acre.

The Los Altos Planning Commission was scheduled to consider the full draft of the Sherwood Gateway Specific Plan, including the density question, at its meeting last Thursday.

Part of the reason for the task force recommendation for a lesser density, "was traffic," said task force chairman Dennis Young. The task force also wanted "to maintain a village atmosphere without high density housing there."

Seven units per acre is "low density condos, not a big apartment house," Young said.

Ruth Koehler, a former mayor of Los Altos and longtime resident, said she believes the Sherwood area is exactly where high density housing should go.

She was part of the general plan review committee in 1987, and the committee agreed that the two areas for high density housing in town are in the downtown triangle and the El Camino corridor.

"These are the areas the density needs to be put, not the middle of a residential area," she said. "The plan is to put the traffic onto El Camino."

Plus, she said, that location is across the street from a north county transit spot, a focal point for all the buses to the area.

"So the area is convenient for public transit," said.

Koehler said she planned to speak at the planning commission meeting in favor of keeping the housing density at 38 units per acre.

The task force recommendation to a density of seven units "would result in a net loss of 18-24 potential residential units," said senior planner Jim Mackenzie in a staff report.

"The loss of residential development potential will affect the housing element of the city general plan," Mackenzie said.

The Sherwood Gateway includes the area at San Antonio Road and El Camino Real and along both sides of San Antonio, south to Paso Robles Avenue and Chester Circle.

The purpose of the specific plan is to address land use issues; to encourage long term, healthy commercial activity in the area; to provide a harmonious relationship between commercial land uses and nearby residential land; and to implement the policies of the general plan and develop new policies reflecting the city's vision and goals for the Sherwood Gateway area., Mackenzie wrote in his staff report.

The specific plan must be consistent with the city general plan, city staff said.