By Editorial

On the surface, it appears the Los Altos City Council’s approval last week of an office building complex on Fremont Avenue at Loyola Corners is a commendable action. Developer Jeff Warmoth’s project includes eight units that qualify as affordable housing. This demonstrates Los Altos progress toward complying with a state affordable housing mandate. It allows employees in Los Altos with modest means an opportunity to live in the place they work.

That said, the developer received a larger office complex because of the affordable housing than he would have received otherwise. As a result, the approved project, now 6,000 square feet, appears out-of-scale with the site - the chief concern of nearby residents opposed to the project.

The city’s 11-year-old Loyola Corners Specific Plan, which cost $78,000 to complete, recommended a maximum 2,000-square-foot office building and three townhomes for the site. The council, in approving this development, not only disappointed surrounding residents, but also went against the city’s own plan. Some councilmembers dismissed the Loyola Corners plan as outdated, but does this justify tripling the size of an office building?

That these affordable units are here at all results from the fact that they were removed from the Marriott Residence Inn hotel development along El Camino Real. The city complied with hotel developers’ wishes to move the affordable units elsewhere. The city says it’s not about the money, but the fact remains that more hotel revenues will be generated without the affordable units there.

It seems to us the affordable units still make more sense in the El Camino corridor, where high-density housing units already populate spaces behind businesses facing El Camino. City officials say it makes better land-use sense to put the affordable units at Loyola Corners than attached to a hotel surrounded by retail. But the proposed affordable units hardly benefit from a better neighborhood experience by being attached to an office building.

Even a closer look at those benefiting from the affordable units is discouraging. Most teachers and law enforcement personnel will make too much to qualify. So who will move into these units?

Although residents will ultimately benefit from increased services funded by hotel taxes, those in the Loyola Corners area are surely not happy over a project that would have been smaller in scope if the affordable units stayed where they belonged on El Camino.