Top-floor unit at Cupertino Bank will be used for commercial space, not housing
by Peter Gauvin
When developer Ed Storm got permission to build the new Cupertino National Bank and Trust building downtown, he planned to provide a spacious, luxurious housing unit on the top floor. The mixed-use project at the corner of Emerson Street and Lytton Avenue pleased the City Council, which is always eager to see housing created.
But plans have changed. Storm, who originally intended to use the unit himself when he's in town, decided against it.
So why don't they just rent it out? The unit is 2,594 square feet, larger that many three-bedroom homes. And officials say it would be difficult to rent.
The bank, which is changing the name of its Palo Alto office to Greater Bay Private Capital Banking, decided it could use the space for its new corporate headquarters.
As a result, the City Council last week reluctantly agreed to allow the unit to be converted to commercial space. Many were miffed about it, however.
"My first reaction is we've been hoodwinked," Council member Micki Schneider said. "Twenty-five hundred square feet of luxurious housing in the downtown doesn't make sense. In this case, I think we sold ourselves down the river. I never thought it would work as housing."
The housing portion of the bank building at 400 Emerson was seen as a bonus by some council members in meeting the city's public benefit requirement for "Planned Community" projects.
The actual "public benefit" for the project was an art niche--a hole in the wall for an art figure--and a public drinking fountain, which haven't been installed yet. There are also two Greg Brown paintings--a pelican in the window sill facing Emerson and the trench coat man on the back of the building--which replaced two of his murals that were lost when other buildings were torn down.
In this case, the PC zoning was required because Storm couldn't provide enough parking on site and the city hadn't yet adopted its in-lieu parking ordinance. The ordinance, adopted in 1995, allows developers to pay into the downtown parking assessment district for each required space that is not provided on site.
Another reason for putting in the housing originally was that it only requires two parking spaces. Office space developers, by contrast, have to provide parking at the rate of four spaces per 1,000 square feet.
"I will support this," said Council member Gary Fazzino, "but I'm disillusioned that we can't make (housing) a reality here."
The vote was 8-1 in favor of the conversion, which requires the owner to pay for one additional parking space at a cost of $17,800--the in-lieu parking fee.
But, as Midtown resident Lynn Chiapella pointed out to the council, that is short of the actual cost of providing parking. According to the city's recent study of building two parking garages downtown, it will cost from $24,000 to $34,000 per space.
Council member Ron Andersen, who voted against the conversion, said the Planning Commission had recommended the unit be divided into three smaller units, which would have been more viable, but the developer wanted one large unit.
Council member Jean McCown said the project complies with all the underlying zoning on the site and saw no legitimate reason to oppose the conversion.
"I think the PC (zoning) would have been approved without the proposed housing," in the original vote, Council member Dick Rosenbaum said after the meeting.
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