New El Camino hotel approved by commission

An ambitious proposal to replace Palo Alto Bowl with a four-story hotel and 26 new houses received tentative support from area residents and planning commissioners Wednesday night, though both parties agreed some kinks still need to be worked out.

The development, which drew mostly rave reviews from the Architectural Review Board a year ago, would be located at on El Camino Real, next to Mountain View and Los Altos city limits. It would feature 26 three-story and duplex-style condominium units, a 167-room hotel and a bike path winding along the northern edge of the site.

The Planning and Transportation Commission, much like the neighbors who spoke at Wednesday night’s meeting, agreed that the project skillfully and reasonably accommodates multiple land uses on the 3.6-acre site. The commission voted 5-1 (with Susan Fineberg absent) to approve the project, though members asked the developers to consider ways to reduce traffic around the site.

Karen Holman was the only commissioner who voted against the development, arguing that it will not fit in with the surrounding neighborhood. The project is too inward looking doesn’t do enough to interact with the public, she said.

The commission’s vote came after several neighborhood residents called for traffic measures to make the busy intersections around the site safer.

Linnea Wickstrom, president of the Monroe Park Neighborhood Association, said the 26 new houses would have a “fairly large impact” on the neighborhood. But she praised the developers for meeting with residents and revising the application to meet neighbors’ concerns.

The neighborhood’s main concern is traffic from the new hotel and houses, she said.

“I ask the Planning and Transportation Commission and staff to immediately plan for traffic-calming measures and commit to putting these measures in place in the next few months,” Wickstrom said.

The commission generally agreed with her assessment.

Vice Chairman Samir Tuma, who made the motion to approve the project, acknowledged that some traffic-mitigation measures will need to be adopted. But he said the project otherwise provides exactly what the city needs: a revenue-generating hotel that would provide a benefit to the neighborhood.

The applicant projects that the hotel would bring the city about $850,000 annually in transient-occupancy taxes.

“In my mind, this is one of those projects that is in part a byproduct of a lot of work that many people of this city have done over time,” Tuma said. “We encourage certain things through policy and planning and, lo and behold, we got what we wanted.”

The proposal represents a major reduction from the developer’s initial plans, which proposed 80 new houses. The project was scaled down to 28 homes last year.

The latest proposal eliminates two more houses and trims 11 units off the proposed hotel.

Architect Rob Zirkle of Steinberg Architects said the development team adopted a code of ethics that called for an open, collaborative process.

The project is scheduled to undergo another review by the Architectural Review Board in August. The City Council will then consider approving it in September or October.

“This is a great project being proposed,” commission Chair Daniel Garber said just before the final vote. “It’s a highly collaborative effort, which is great to see in the community and which is rarely celebrated or exercised.”

“When it does happen, thank you.”