Browse archives: 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 | 1995

Published on 11/02/1998 All articles from this issue

No city is an island

printer friendly version

By Carol Tiegs

Special to the Town Crier

Officials, activists keep eye on developments that impact Los Altos area

It sometimes seems like residential design and development issues are the only stuff Los Altos and Los Altos Hills city council meetings are made of. In this heavily developed area, however, pressures come from without as well as within. And outside influences come with blessings as well as curses.

Take housing, for example. Rural communities once transformed into California ranch-house communities are experiencing a new wave in home style preferences.

The growth and success of Silicon Valley firms is reflected in "peoples' wants and desires in terms of houses," said Los Altos City Manager Phil Rose. "Most of what we're dealing with is a sign of success.

"We still have the 35 percent density rule (for how much of a site may be developed), but a lot of lots weren't built out before," Rose said. "There's the two-story issue. The town is being built out."

Housing development outside city borders can have a direct impact as well.

Joanna Medin is one of 600 south Los Altos residents who formed LAROAR, a neighborhood action group opposed to allowing Cupertino residents road access through St. Joseph Avenue where it connects to The Forum retirement community and Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve behind Montclaire School.

The issue arose in the mid-1990s when the Diocese of San Jose wanted to develop seminary land at the west end of St. Joseph Avenue within the Cupertino border. Part of the land was incorporated into Rancho San Antonio Preserve, and some leased to developers of The Forum.

According to the Rev. Michael Mitchell, the diocese had a right of access to St. Joseph Avenue dating to 1924, before Los Altos was incorporated. It appeared that access might be necessary for construction vehicles.

St. Joseph Avenue "was not designed to be a major throughway," Medin said. "It's a residential street.

With Montclaire School there, if the gate gets open, it's an invitation for a child to get killed."

Development was accomplished without using the street, but the diocese maintains its right to access. Currently, Mitchell said, the diocese is awaiting a definition of emergency access from the city of Los Altos, to assure emergency access to The Forum and the open space preserve. Neighbors continue to monitor the situation.

On the other end of town, neighbors share concerns about the Skyview Apartments development proposed for El Camino Real near San Antonio Road in Mountain View.

The 10-story, twin-tower project would include 127 one-bedroom, 95 two-bedroom and 16 three-bedroom apartments. Both Los Altos Mayor Kris Casto and Planning Director Larry Tong have written to the city of Mountain View asking that the traffic analysis "consider additional traffic through Los Altos on Jordan Avenue.

Zoning issues in neighboring cities do impact Los Altos, Casto said, citing commercial zoning along the city's creekside border with Palo Alto on El Camino Real as another example.

State and federal mandates can exert strong pressure on a community. A California requirement that each municipality meet a predetermined "fair share" of affordable housing, for example, may mean greater housing density.

"It's hard to access the state imposed impacts of affordable housing requirements," said Bob Johnson, mayor of Los Altos Hills, where secondary dwelling units are the chief means for complying with the affordable housing mandate. "It has some impact we would not have chosen ourselves. The inevitable result is that every secondary building you build gives a more urban look to the town."

State and federal mandates affect our school systems as well. Marge Gratiot, superintendent of the Los Altos School District, said these mandates "may be contradictory."

Being in a school district that crosses municipal boundaries presents particular challenges, Gratiot said. While 2,370 of the district's nearly 4,000 students come from Los Altos, the district includes approximately 700 students from Mountain View, 750 from Los Altos Hills and 30 from Palo Alto.

"We must look at the planning commissions and city councils in each city in doing our planning," Gratiot said. "We can be an afterthought in the thinking of municipalities other than Los Altos. We are not in the loop there as early as we are in Los Altos. Our opinions are not sought the same way."

New residents at the southern end of Los Altos are often surprised to find that they are part of the Cupertino Union School District, Gratiot said.

It's difficult sometimes for parents to understand the difference between school district and city boundaries, she said. "What they understand is crowded schools."

Gratiot estimates that 50-100 new students could enter the Los Altos School District from the proposed Skyview Apartments. "But the bigger concern," she said, "is children crossing El Camino Real to get to school." The district offers no cross-town bussing.

"Traffic patterns and housing prices affect us," Gratiot said. "Teachers can't afford to live here and must travel long distances. And traffic on city streets could be dangerous for our children."

As teachers must come from farther away, Casto said, they may be tired and less likely to be involved in the community. That could affect the quality of education, she said.

Rose sees traffic problems as another result of Silicon Valley success.

"Los Altos was built with neighborhoods designed to be self-contained, not a grid city," he said. "Construction of Interstate 85, for example, has changed the traffic flow."

Rose hopes to look at what can be done with roads between major traffic arterials, using "redesign as an alternative to more and more traffic enforcement."

Both Casto and Los Altos City Council member Francis La Poll, a member of the Valley Transportation Authority, believe transportation issues must be addressed regionally.

"(Transportation) is a major regional issue, but it could be our salvation," La Poll said. "We need to find ways to move people to where they need to be rather than bringing new people in."

The potential overhead impact of noise from cargo flights considered at nearby Moffett Federal Air Field, as well as the possibility of commercial air service at the field, has prompted both Los Altos and Los Altos Hills city councils to pass resolutions opposing such uses.

"We're ever watchful, but uses like air cargo seem to have been put aside," said Los Altos resident Carl Orta, a member of Alliance for a New Moffett Field. The citizen watchdog group is opposed to cargo and commercial air flights from Moffett.

NASA has announced the beginning of an astrobiology center at the field, Orta said. And according to Linda Forsberg, Mountain View deputy city manager, NASA and the cities of Mountain View and Sunnyvale have moved "one step closer to reality" in establishing a California Air and Space Center and educational foundation at Moffett Field.

But, "as long as those air strips are there, there's a threat," Orta said.

Nearby facilities such as an air and space center demonstrate the benefits a land-locked community like Los Altos can derive from its neighbors.

"You have to look at the positives," said Casto, mentioning that Los Altos has no sewer treatment plant - it's in Palo Alto. Also, Los Altos is void of a dump site, jail, airport or bus station.

The ability to partner with other municipalities and agencies allows Los Altos and Los Altos Hills to provide services they couldn't handle alone, Casto, Rose and Peterson agreed. Examples they cite include the services available through the county library system, the countywide police handling of domestic abuse, stolen car and high risk sexual predator task forces and the new 24-hour paramedic service available through the County Fire Department.

There are similar advantages to the town's contract with the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department.

"We can contract for the amount of service we need, and pay for additional services as we need them," Peterson said.

"If we want to continue to be a great place to live and work, we need to work together regionally while retaining our own identity," Casto said.