Old station lots await attention and development Old O

By Nick Casey, Special to the Town Crier

joe hu/town crier The site of the former Chevron gas station at First Street and San Antonio Road stands abandoned. City officials so far have no plans to develop the site.

Even downtown eyesores can eventually be forgotten - including the Los Altos gas station lots that have remained abandoned for years.

The former Chevron lot at San Antonio Road and First Street and a second lot at the San Antonio Road and Main Street remain undeveloped.

“I think we’ve given up,” said Julie Rose, president of the Los Altos Chamber of Commerce. “Some things you just get used to.” Rose said it’s been years since anyone seriously mentioned development of those sites to the chamber.

Local cleanups are generally performed by gas companies with oversight by the Santa Clara County Department of Environmental Health. According to Lani Lee, hazardous waste specialist with the department, the process can take as long as 20 years, depending on the type and amount of contaminants.

“Gas corporations realize what they’re sitting on,” Lee said.

To determine whether a site is safe, the department monitors levels of chemicals such as MTBE, tert-butyl alcohol, benzene and gasoline, and takes into account whether an area is residential or commercial.

A cleanup is going “very well” at San Antonio Road and First Street, Lee said, but she could not estimate how long it would take.

After decontamination, a lot must be sold to the city or a private developer, and any proposed use would have to conform to city zoning.

Even if the empty lots were redeveloped, the land below them would continue to hold some contamination.

Lee said the Chevron site contains 180 parts per billion of gasoline, 120 parts per billion of MTBE and off-site levels of benzene around 10 parts per billion. All three chemicals are considered potential carcinogens - benzene is no longer used as an additive because of its toxicity.

Although the amounts at the San Antonio and First site are approaching acceptable levels under the environmental department’s standards, Lee said, the land can never be fully restored to its original state.

“Unfortunately, the (cleanup) technology just isn’t good enough, and it’s not economically feasible,” she said.

In April 2002, a Town Crier survey found four empty gas lots in the city. Since then, lots at Sherwood Avenue and San Antonio Road and at Grant Road and Fremont Avenue, have been developed into housing.

The remaining sites located at the north and south entrances of the business district continue to be a subject of concern.

“Those empty stations are opportunities for beautification,” said Los Altos Mayor Ron Packard.

Packard said development of the San Antonio and Main site was discussed two years ago, but nothing materialized.

The chamber had tried to promote flying a city banner from the site on San Antonio and First, Rose said.

Although Chevron was willing to pick up the cost, the project fell through, she added. “I don’t know what happened.”

Los Altos Councilman Curtis Cole said that the city has done nearly everything it can to brainstorm development ideas, but in the end has no direct control over the lots because it does not own the land.

Because the city does not plan to buy the properties, Cole said, the only power it has over the lots is to change their zoning.

Packard noted that a recent revision of downtown zoning has changed the height restriction on certain new buildings from two stories to three, and was meant to allow developers greater flexibility as an incentive to build.

“But now it’s really up to them,” Cole said. “The city has done everything to prepare, now we just have to wait.”

And the waiting continues. The lot on Main and San Antonio is owned by Helen Wang, who has expressed no desire to develop it. The San Antonio and First site is owned by Chevron Corp.

Lee said that cleanup operations have improved significantly in recent decades.

“Back in the 1980s, the regulatory environment was more relaxed,” she said. “We’re more hands-on now.”