By Linda Taaffe

Los Altos

Retail-housing project would provide more downtown parking

Hotel vs. theater

The city chose Rapp’s boutique hotel plans over another hotel project and a movie theater proposal during a competitive bidding process last year, after the city solicited developers for land-use ideas. Despite a public opinion survey indicating that a majority of the community wanted a theater, council members said the .78-acre property was too small for a theater and chose the 90-room hotel.

“I believe the process was flawed when we chose a hotel … I voted for a hotel because I thought it was a bad place for a theater,” Councilman John Moss said.

Part of the council’s First and Main street decision last year included developing a land-use plan for downtown that would examine alternative sites for a theater.

More parking

City officials last month targeted the parking lot next to Bandera restaurant as an appropriate site for a theater.

A preliminary study shows that the city may have to come up with 150 new parking spaces to accommodate theater patrons and to make up the approximately 70 spaces that will be lost with the theater’s construction.

Lear said a mixed-use project with retail shops and housing at First and Main could provide as many as 300 parking spaces, about twice as many as the hotel project. A retail building could reduce the cost of developing the site and increase the value of the property by as much as $2.7 million, he estimated.

Housing and retail

The Los Altos City Council could scrap downtown hotel plans to make way for a project that can accommodate parking for a nearby movie theater. Council members said last week they plan to reopen the bidding process on the city’s First and Main street property following a special study session to establish criteria for a new retail-housing project with underground parking. Such a project could provide the funding and space needed to replace parking that downtown will lose at its Third Street plaza if a movie theater proposal that the council approved this summer materializes, the council said.

The decision comes nearly three months after the city’s negotiation deadline with Palo Alto developer Roxy Rapp expired. Council members said last week they were willing to continue negotiating with Rapp but wanted to keep their options open.

A retail project would also fit the criteria in the city’s 1999 Urban Design Plan, Lear said, which suggests adding more retail in the downtown core to promote pedestrian traffic.

The city could turn First Street into a “copy” of Main Street, with wider sidewalks, shops and pistachio trees, he said.

“More people will come here (to shop) if they feel like they have more options,” Lear said.

Moss cautioned the council about moving forward with a project until the city determines when the land will be free for development.

The Home Consignment Center and Nielsen’s Martinizing Dry Cleaning currently have leases on the site that don’t expire until 2006.

“We need a definitive plan for our current tenants,” he said.

The city purchased the First and Main street property in 1995 with the long-term goal of improving the appearance of Main Street and creating more parking.