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Published on 11/30/1998 All articles from this issue

Gas station at Fremont demolished

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue / Town Crier Staff Writer

After 32 years at the corner of Fremont Avenue and Grant Road, the gas station is no more.

Demolition crews worked last week to tear down the buildings.

"We are very happy to see it gone," said Los Altos resident Mary Ann Larkin who lives in the neighborhood near the corner.

"It looks better already. It looked so shabby before the demolition. (The corner) already looks cleaned up," she said.

The city of Los Altos declined to renew the nonconforming use permit for the station last June, and gave it 30 days to close. The city rezoned the land for two single-family residential lots.

Some folks had hoped the corner would be incorporated into Marymeade Park, next to the former station.

But council members said the city did not have the money to do that since Los Altos currently is developing two parks, on the corner of Edith Avenue and San Antonio Road in downtown Los Altos and the former St. William School site at 401 Rosita Ave.

The former owner of the gas station sold the land and business in the fall of 1997 to developers from San Francisco.

They in turn leased the business to a Silicon Valley company that manages gas stations.

Now that the tanks have been pulled out, the Santa Clara County Department of Environmental Health will review soil cleanup, said Los Altos senior planner Jim Mackenzie.

"There have been been no reports of active soil contamination before the demolition," he said.

The next step for the property owners will be to create a subdivision map that actually creates the two lots, Mackenzie said.

To get the map approved by the city, the owner must show that any soil contamination has been mediated, Mackenzie said.