More Photos and a Petition here
http://40mainstreet.info/40mainstreet.info/40_Main_Street_Los_Altos.html
Letter From Sorensen –
As I am sure you are aware, over the past five years my brother and I have been working to develop a small office building in downtown Los Altos. Our goal was to build a small building that would help support the revitalization of downtown Los Altos.
We believe the building we have proposed is beautiful, and fits in extremely well with the fabric of downtown. It was designed right out of the resources that the City provided us as guidelines, and we have gone so far as to have consulted with the architectural historian that wrote the book The Buildings of Main Street. The city references his book in their Design Guidelines.
The building will be only the second, class-A office space built in downtown in the past ten years, and is the first building built on either State or Main Street in the past thirty years.
I am asking all of my friends, that if at all possible they could come out to the City Council meeting, Tuesday June 12th, at 7:00, to support our project. We have been made aware that Councilman Ron Packard (no relationship to the Packard Foundation or the David and Lucille Packard family) is attempting to flood the Council room with opponents of the building, and sadly we need to bring as many building proponents to the meeting as well, as the Council does in fact keep score.
The Background
Unfortunately we chose to propose a new building next to Councilman Ron Packard’s three-story office building, and despite having been a proponent of development throughout Los Altos, he is adamtly opposed to a new building next to his building. He claims that no building should be allowed to be “taller or prouder” than his building.
Mr. Packard has used his power and influence within the City Staff and key members of the Planning Commission, to delay and obstruct our proposal, at every step. What should have been a six month process is now in its 18th month.
We are at the final step of the approval process; a hearing before the City Council on Tuesday June 12th at 7:00PM. Because we have ultimately prevailed at every step in the process, and have now met every hurdle that was put in front of us by the Planning Commission, Mr. Packard has now been forced to fully reveal himself. At a recent Council meeting he violated the Brown act, and spoke directly to the Council, telling them that he did not want our building built. (he thinly disguised this by telling them that he was not talking about our building, and then described our building) This week he has sent letters to the City threatening legal action if the Council approves our building, and this past weekend he has anonymously leafleted the downtown and surrounding residential neighborhoods with a flier that contains false and misleading statements about our building, as well as his digitally altered photos, that grossly misrepresent the building. This is a sad comment on his personal character.
A few facts about our building;
It is a 38′ tall building, (this is a two-story building envelope) which is what is allowed by the zoning code,
Mr. Packard claims that the building is monumental, and is five feet taller than the code allows. This is based on the interior ceiling height, which no one on the Planning Commission, or Architectural and Site Committee believes is relevant because pedestrians cannot see inside the building.
By comparison, Mr. Packard’s building next door is 34′ tall with a 36′ peak, the new building at 240 Third St. is 53′ tall, the proposed hotel across the street is 37′ tall, and the new Safeway is 45′ tall. These are all buildings that Mr. Packard enthusiastically endorsed and voted for.
Our 38′ foot wall that is exposed to the public, is a beautiful windowed wall that is primarily obscured from view by trees and other buildings.
Our building will cover Mr. Packard’s 35′ blank block wall.
We have proposed a beautiful pedestrian paseo/walkway between parking plaza ten and Main St. which is a desired element of the City’s Guidelines.
Mr. Packard claims that the most important issue regarding our proposal is parking. Our building will create a demand of an additional 32 parking spaces and only 25 additional spaces at the peak lunch hour. As part of the plaza district the Assistant City manager has informed us that the building is entitled to a credit of 40 spaces. In addition we have offered to build an additional 16 spaces in plaza ten, and have shown the City how they can add an additional 16 spaces on the street surrounding plaza ten. In fact we are the first building in downtown Los Altos in more than a decade to offer to add more parking to the supply than demand created, and in fact are the only project to offer to build public parking spaces (Safeway’s stalls are for 90 minutes only).
Mr. Packard has tried to obstruct our offer to build these additional spaces. So all the while he claims parking is an issue, he has worked over time to be sure the City cannot add any additional parking in the area, and in fact has voted to remove more than 100 parking places from the City’s inventory over the past three years.
I would greatly appreciate your support on Tuesday night. It has been a long fight, and I hope my friends can help rally to support the building and prevent this single person from using their power and influence malicously in our town.
For photos of our building and to sign an on-line petition, you can go to, www.40mainstreet.info/40mainstreet.info.
The following are a few talking points you might consider expressing to the Council.
I/we support development in downtown Los Altos
Specifically we support the proposed building at 40 Main Street.
This is a very small project and much needed in our town to help support the retail businesses in our town.
40 Main street is a great building, that fits in beautifully with our historic downtown.
40 Main Street is a wonderful, traditional downtown building, similar to the style of the 34′ US Bank building.
I/we support the proposed parking solution. This is the first project in a very long time to actually offer to build more parking than it will use, adding public parking into our town.
The Councilman’s threat to pursue legal action against our City is reprehensible and I/we don’t believe it is an appropriate action for a City Council member.
Thank you for considering.
If you are not able to attend, emails of support can be directed to, City Manager, Marcia Somers at msomers@losaltosca.gov
Ted and Jerry
