Council passes resolution allowing city to sell or lease hotel-zoned site

By Linda Taaffe, Town Crier Staff Writer

Whether Los Altos should sell or lease the city-owned property at the corner of First and Main streets appears to be the key unanswered question in the development of a downtown hotel at the site.

The city already has a preferred developer, project and appraisal for the site and recently cleared the legal hurdles required to dispose of it as surplus property. The Los Altos City Council last week passed a resolution stating that the development of a boutique hotel on the site is consistent with the city’s General Plan and would be in the public’s interest. The resolution leaves open the option to either sell or lease the 0.78-acre site to the developer as part of the final negotiation phase.

The city did not release the recent appraisal or the amount it would receive through a lease deal.

Los Altos Mayor David Casas said the resolution was designed to give the city the flexibility to negotiate the best possible use of the property.

“If a hotel is built on the site, we need to have mechanisms in place for the council to ensure that the outcome is what we’ve intended,” Casas said.

City officials have been working over the past three years on a deal with developer Roxy Rapp of Apricot Inn Associates to build a boutique hotel at the site.

Property title appears to have been the holdup in the deal. Rapp had initially offered to purchase the property for $3 million in 2001. The city wanted to keep title and lease the site. Selling the site only recently became an option.

Rapp told the council last week, “I am very eager to get started. I look forward to a positive vote to negotiate the sale of the property.”

The city purchased the land more than 10 years ago with the goal of adding more parking downtown. The hotel development will add 75 midday parking spaces, according to the conceptual plan. But some say that is not enough compared with developing the site as a parking lot.

Part of the resolution requires the city to take any proceeds from the sale or lease and put it in the general fund for “essential city services.”

Councilman Ron Packard asked the council to consider putting the money in a special fund earmarked for parking. His request remains an option.

Councilman King Lear was the lone no vote. against the resolution.

The public does not want a hotel at that site, based on public surveys, he said.