By Clyde Noel

Plans to replace downtown Los Altos’ post office with an upgraded postal center and housing complex is scheduled to come before the Los Altos City Council for approval Tuesday night. The proposed plan includes renovating the existing post office, adding a 15,498-square-foot second-story office addition, a two-level parking structure and 20 loft-style, multiple-family residential units over the garage.

The planning commission is recommending that the council approve the proposed mixed useproject, with a few modifications, even though it exceeds floor area, height and parking requirements. The commission recommended reducing the floor area, looking at parking and modifying the roof design.

The project as proposed exceeds the city’s permitted floor area by 50 percent, falls 30 parking spaces short of the city’s requirements and contains three stories where two is the limit, said Los Altos Planner David Kornfield. In exchange, the developers plan to provide two affordable housing units.

City officials said such a project is key in the city’s quest to bring more housing and parking to an area where available space is limited. The city this month launched a permit-parking program in an attempt to control its parking shortages and is looking for places to add 114 below-market-rate housing units by 2006 as required by state law.

Juli Rose, president of the chamber of commerce, said she was “favorably impressed with the concept” last March when developers White Tiger Properties LLC released the plans.

White Tiger owns the postal building on First Street as well as the adjacent property with the historic Spanish-style home, slated for demolition as part of the project.

The home is on the city’s Historical Resources Inventory but not eligible for landmark status.

If the project remains a postal facility, White Tiger plans to extend its lease with the post office for an additional 30 years after it expires in 2010.