Special to the Town Crier
The largest development in Los Altos history received final design approval at the Nov. 22 Los Altos City Council meeting.
The Tree Farm is located on El Camino Real between Los Altos Avenue and San Antonio Road. The 4.5-acre project includes a three-story 95,000-square-foot office building, a 131-room extended-stay Marriott Residence Inn, and eight below-market-rate rental condos.
"We're anxious to have the office and residence inn up and running," said Councilman John Moss, who was elected Los Altos mayor on Nov. 23. "It will be generating revenue and keeping Los Altos green," he said.
"The city is ready for this project to go forward," said Councilman Francis La Poll.
The city approved plans that were first presented to the planning commission in April 1998.
Some details are still to be worked out. "We do intend to comply with the planning commission request to make the inn more residential (looking)," said Richard Campbell, the project architect.
Faux balcony details were added to the office building to soften its appearance. Some would like that detail continued at the inn.
"But Marriott prefers not to have faux balconies," Campbell said. "They don't want elements where someone can gain exterior access."
Peter Pau, owner of San Mateo-based Sand Hill Properties that is building the project, said he expects the inn to open early in 2001. At an earlier council meeting, he said he hoped the office would be complete by October 2000. He has a prospective tenant, Rambus of Mountain View, for the whole building.
The council asked that the 2 feet of wooden trellis, approved two years ago, be added to the top of the stucco wall around the project.
Should there be any significant or substantial changes to the project, it would come back to the council, said Jim Mackenzie, senior planner with the city of Los Altos.
"We are not planning to sneak any substantial changes through," Pau said.
"I felt pretty good about it," Councilman King Lear said. "We're approving what we see."
Construction began in November on the two levels of underground parking.
It took the Tree Farm project a long time in getting to this point. The first group of developers worked with the city for two years getting concept approvals and designs going. However, they ended up suing each other and facing bankruptcy charges. That brought the project to a halt in October 1998. Now under new ownership, Sand Hill Properties is picking up where the first developers left off and is moving ahead quickly.