By Linda Taaffe

Larger shops and more takeout restaurants are among the suggested changes the Los Altos Downtown Zoning Committee will recommend that the Los Altos City Council consider as part of the city’s push to improve downtown’s shopping district.

The eight-member committee is scheduled to hold a public study session to hear resident input Thursday before bringing a list of recommendations to the council for final approval.

The committee has been working on a plan over the past several months to revamp the Commercial-Retail-Sales (CRS) zoning district that covers most of the downtown shopping area between San Antonio Road and First Street from Whitney Street to about one block beyond State Street. The CRS zone is the first of 10 downtown zones scheduled for changes.

Councilman and committee member Ron Packard said the committee has looked at several city studies and reports spanning back to 1992 in its effort to improve the area’s zoning laws. The intent is to preserve downtown’s character while making it attractive to new businesses.

The biggest changes on the list of 19 suggestions are to allow larger developments on lots, to loosen restrictions on takeout restaurants and to collect parking fees.

The committee suggests doubling the allowed lot coverage and combining lots to allow one shop to have more than 25 feet of storefront area.

The Downtown Revitalization Task Force earlier this year suggested dropping the conditional use requirement for restaurants larger than 3,500 square feet.

“Anytime a business sees a conditional use permit, it sends up all sorts of bells and whistles and frightens them away,” Packard said.

The task force identified chain stores as key to livening up the city’s commercial district. Parking restrictions and limited building size have discouraged that type of retailer from opening downtown in the past, members said.

The zoning committee unanimously agreed to lift a law that bans takeout restaurants from being located closer than 150 feet from one another. The council added that restriction to the law book last fall after two national sandwich shops planned to open downtown within weeks of one another.

Part of the committee’s suggestion to allow larger developments includes a provision for the city to collect parking in lieu fees that the city could designate for the construction of additional parking.

The committee wants to change the zoning district’s boundaries to exclude lots along Second Street, south of the parking plaza. Packard said the boundaries would be more consistent with the parking district.

To offer input, attend the public study session at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Conference Room at the Los Altos main library, 13 S. San Antonio Road.