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It is not every day that an affordable housing development breaks ground on the site of a mortuary. But after 66 years as a family-owned business, The Cusimano Family Colonial Mortuary will close its doors on Aug. 31, and a six-story apartment building will rise in its place.
For Sherri Cusimano, it is a bittersweet ending to a lifetime of work. As a child, she lived on the residential floor of the mortuary and helped her parents, Joseph and Sue Cusimano, with the family business before taking it over with her brother, Matthew Cusimano.
“I spent 56 years in the building on a daily basis, living and then working. I don’t live here now, but I’ve worked here every day for 43 years,” Cusimano said. “It’s hard to imagine that I’m not going to be coming into this building on a daily basis.”
It was a family decision to sell the property on El Camino in Mountain View, Cusimano said, adding that it was an honor and privilege to serve the community. But while a chapter closes for The Cusimano Family Colonial Mortuary – which will join Lima and Campagna Mortuaries in Sunnyvale – an opportunity has opened up for the city.
In June, Mountain View approved a new affordable housing development at 96 W. El Camino Real. The project was set in motion last February when the council allocated $8 million to Danco Communities, an affordable housing developer, to build a 79-unit apartment complex on the 1.15-acre site.
Subject to AB 2162, which streamlines the approval process for affordable housing projects, the development will have apartments available to households earning up to 60% of the county’s Area Median Income (AMI). It will also set aside 20 apartment units, as permanent supportive housing, which will be available to those earning less than 30% AMI.
More than half of the apartments will be two- and three-bedroom units, which will help augment the studios and one-bedrooms that make up the majority of the city’s affordable housing stock, according to the council report.
The project qualified for additional density under state housing law, and received development waivers to add more height to the building and reduce setbacks. It also received a concession to cut down on parking too, which helps bring down the cost of the project, said Community Development Director Aarti Shrivastava.
Additional funding for the project includes $6.9 million from the County of Santa Clara, which pitched in housing funds from the 2016 Measure A affordable housing bond. Because the city allocated more money than the county, it eventually will have ownership of the property, according to the council report, which cited Measure A funding stipulations.
Danco spokesperson Laura Berreth confirmed this arrangement; the city will take the fee title to the property and will lease it back to the development at $1 per year for 99 years, she said in an email. “This is a common standard practice for cities within the Bay Area … cities own the land and lease it back in exchange for their financing to help get projects done,” she added.
Other sources of funding include an acquisition loan, tax exempt bonds and low-income housing tax credits at the state and federal level, Berreth said in the email.
Construction for the project likely will begin in November 2024 and will take about two years to complete, falling well within the timeline of the city’s recently approved housing element that identified sites that could add more than 11,000 new housing units over the next eight years.
“It’s a pretty impressive line-up that we have,” Shrivastava said, referring to the city’s plans for building more housing.