To all,
In her Op Ed piece in the Los Gatos Weekly Times and again at the Monday
council meeting, Linda Lucas brings up hy housing was not part of the
General Plan for the North 40.
She is right that it would be wrong if Los Gatos were to :
1. Build the crowded multi family dwellings like Campbell ( built off
Highway 17 just past Camden on the left). Architects refer to this kind of
site as a "train wreck". There is little sense of community, few usable
open spaces and far too much population in an isolated space.
2 Isolate any housing into a North 40 ghetto. If Los Gatos Boulevard
speeds remain high with more than 4 ea 12" freeway width lanes, then the
residents of the North 40 become surrounded by a automobile "moat". It
would even be unsafe for kids on bicycles to cross.
3. Create monolithic low or high priced homes. Low priced homes bring are
typically low quality. Low quality attracts problems. Building nothing but
high end zero lot line boxes (like Cupertino) brings in too many students
than our schools can handle while also destroying any sense of neighborhood
or community.
However, there are other ways to provide homes in the North 40 which will
add value to the community.
1. Build main street style, Just like the Los Gatos chamber of commerce
brochure
The attached photo is a copy of the front page the brochure which is
supposed to show our most attractive features. If we build such mixed use
commercial along the west side of Los Gatos Boulevard, (and into the
property for 200 feet) we get the following benefits.
A. An acceptable number of housing units which do not overcrowd the
streets or schools
B. A mix of rentals and condos which do not create a monothic block of
dwelling types
C. Affordable housing mixed in with luxury condos
2. Build additional multi family, Los Gatos housing on the East side of
Los Gatos Boulevard.
One key flaw with the General plan is that it tries to isolate the North 40
from the Samaritan nieghborhood. Instead we coul be building 15 multi
family buildings which are designed to look like our best Los Gatos
Mansions (http://www.northlosgatos.com/page7.html).
3. Keep Los Gatos Boulevard a maximum of 4 lanes
Eliminating the proposed frontage road, reducing lane width to 10' (similar
to Bascom), and adding on-street, tree deliniated parking, naturally slows
auto speeds while still moving traffic. The result will be:
A. An additonal mix of affordable housing with luxury housing and
B. A blending the North 40 to the Samaritan neighborhood
C. Traffic on Los Gatos Boulevard which is pedestrian safe.
There are other benefits build the limited housing described. It helps
support ta west valley regional transit center, reduces pressure to build
high density homes at the light rail terminus, provides 24 hour security to
anything we finally build close in to the freeway, and creates an instant
"gateway" to town which does not look like a gas station.
It may also be elitest to believe no one wants to live next to a freeway.
People in this town and valley often pay nearly a million for the
"priveledge". In the North Los Gatos design, the housing is moved away
from the freeway and toward the neighborhood so the problems of noise is
greatly reduced.
So Linda is half right. Some housing plans are wrong for the North 40.
The other half of the coin is that the integrated North Los Gatos housing
plan is right for Los Gatos.
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