Pasarelle proposal to acquire City parking land behind 170 Main St, prior furniture store
Highlights of the Next Couple of Weeks
Banks can stay on Main … no eminent domain lite for downtown, first meeting of new Design Review Commission, a new video game arcade across from Safeway, Safeway interior to be boutiquey-extra large upstairs patio, Pasarelle makes a second presentation to Council with a more concrete concept proposal for Plaza 9, some news on the city website upgrade, Carpenter and Satterlee present their in-depth conclusions about the Downtown Survey (Saterlee has access other city council candidates don’t [yet]).
Los Altos City Government slows down during the summer months. City Council meets only once a month. The ad hoc retail committee has its last meeting July 16.
July 16, 8 am, Packard Law Offices: City Council’s ad hoc contiguous retail committee reviews the language of its recommendations to city council. Key result – no amortization of banks or anyone else at this time. Instead encourage private developers to collaborate with owners and tenants of the downtown “triangle” retail dead zone between Third and Fourth Streets to rebuild the triangle holistically for a win-win. The draft language is here. We read the draft language and it agrees with our account of the decisions taken at the July 2 meeting. [LALAHPOLITICO: It looks like a happy ending, a small victory for democracy and for market-forces … for now. Too bad democracy is so much work.]
July 16, 5:30 pm, Neutra House, Financial Commission
July 18, 7pm, Chamber, Design Review Commission. First meeting – selection of the chair and vice-chair; review of the design review requirements, guidelines, and best practices.
A larger upstairs patio when Safeway swaps the locations of elevators and escalators
July 19, Planning and Traffic Commission– Two items on the agenda.
- Staff is recommending that a video game arcade be approved to occupy 151 First St., formerly Peggy Health Food across from Safeway and next to the Bumble family eatery. Normal closing time is 8 pm, but events might go to 10 pm.
- Safeway wants to swap the locations of the elevator and the escalators in its elevated podium plan for the downtown Safeway. The change will make for a larger second floor outdoor patio at the southeast corner as well as permit redesign of the store interior as a series of boutiques, more along the lines Whole Foods is organized.
Logo of new Videogame Arcade at 151 First
July 24 tentative City Council agenda
6 pm, Study Session: Pasarelle will make a second presentation to Council about its proposals for converting parts of Parking Plazas 9 and 4 to private parklette space. On June 26 Council said it was interested in principle, but asked Parsarelle to come back with a outline of something concrete. For Plaza 9, the city would swap or sell parts of the lot it owns there. More details and diagrams are here.
7 pm, Regular Session: The recommendations from the ad hoc contiguous retail committee might be presented, award of the contract for the Parking Management Plan development, some news on the long awaited website upgrade, Downtown survey conclusions from Carpenter’s and Satterlee’s review of the 1,000 pages of crosstabs.
The Downtown Survey can tell if Republicans or Democrats "like the look of downtown"
LALAPOLITICO COMMENT: City Council candidates and friends of City Council candidates should watch carefully for the survey results and for public access to the crosstabs. Your most serious competition – incumbent Megan Satterlee – has had ample time to study them. Because the survey is based on the City Voter File, it could contain useful information for crafting campaign strategy and election management. It is not fair for the incumbent to have this tool and for the other candidates not to.
It is not fair for the incumbent – Satterlee – to have this tool and for the other candidates not to.
