Palo Alto Online : Residents seek more retail, parking at Cal. Ave.

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Uploaded: Wednesday, June 24, 2009, 10:58 AM

Residents seek more retail, parking at Cal. Ave.
Workshop on 'concept plan' for area brings different visions for neighborhood together

by Gennady Sheyner
Palo Alto Online Staff

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Larger stores? Denser housing? More garages? Status quo?

Residents and business people around the California Avenue area in Palo Alto have no shortage of ideas when it comes to the future of their neighborhood -- one of two areas city officials have identified as ripe for change.

Tuesday night, about 40 area residents gathered at the Lucie Stern Community Center and used colored cards, glue sticks and zoning maps to illustrate what they want their neighborhood to look like years from now. Split into groups of roughly six, residents debated the merits of parks versus parking lots, offices versus industrial centers and retail versus housing.

Though the wide range of opinions made any clear consensus unlikely, the majority of those in attendance agreed on a few key points:

* The city should try to keep Fry's Electronics at its current site, encourage more retail and avoid dense housing.

* If more housing needs to be built, many said, it should be encouraged near the Caltrain tracks and above the businesses in the Caltrain corridor.

* Most importantly, the city should try to preserve California Avenue's clean, simple character.

The meeting was the second workshop about the 115-acre area, which is bounded by Alma Street on the north, El Camino Real on the south, College Avenue on the west and Lambert Avenue on the east. Palo Alto is creating a "concept plan" for the area, which is part of the city's amendment to its Comprehensive Plan -- a guiding document for land use and planning.

A specific portion of the California Avenue area -- near Fry's Electronics -- as well as the neighborhood around East Meadow Circle/Fabian Way farther south are both being evaluated for major land-use changes.

The first meeting on the California Avenue area, which took place in February, ended in a shouting match between several residents, some of whom felt the facilitator misrepresented the community's views (others in attendance felt the critics protested too much). Tuesday's meeting, by contrast, was cordial, constructive and respectful. Residents divided into groups based on how much housing they want too see the Comprehensive Plan encourage: same as now, more or less.

Each group then submitted a map of the area with glued-on cards designating the land uses it wants to see and presented its map to the rest of the attendees at the end of the meeting.

Terry Holzemer said his group wanted less housing density, more parking lots and, if possible, more retail along Park Boulevard. Irvin Dawid said more housing would make sense if it's part of mixed-use developments along the Caltrain tracks.

"I see no reason why people shouldn't be able to live above stores," Dawid said.

Winter Dellenbach, meanwhile, said she opposed any new housing near California Avenue that would discourage new retail. Joy Ogawa, who was in her group, said that if Fry's were to leave, she would support creating a zone that would only allow stores (as opposed to one that allows both retail and housing).

Workshop moderator David Early, who heads the Berkeley-based consulting group Design, Community & Environment, said he was happy to see some overlap between groups with widely varied viewpoints. Early, whose company is consulting the city on both concept plans, is scheduled to return to the community in September with renderings of various options for the neighborhood. Residents will then have a chance to provide feedback on these options.

"I'm really impressed that even though you began in different groups, there's a lot of commonality between the groups," Early said toward the end of the meeting.

Comments

Posted by Sarah, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Jun 24, 2009 at 12:37 pm

I think the California Ave. retail area is having a hard time attracting customers because it is cut off from most of the rest of Palo Alto, including the huge nearby customer base in midtown and south Palo Alto. Pedestrians trying to walk from midtown to California Ave. have to cross three barriers: Oregon Expressway, then the Alma Expressway, then the Caltrain tracks. There is a narrow tunnel near the Caltrain station, but that has a well documented crime problem and pedestrians still must take a convoluted route (including walking across Oregon Expressway) to get the tunnel.

A good way to encourage California Ave. customers is to build a new bridge or tunnel from midtown Palo Alto to the California Ave. area. The county is currently building a new sidewalk along the south side of Oregon Expressway. Maybe they can extend that over the train tracks? I would use it all the time.