Letter to the Editor: Against 4-Story Buildings For Los Gatos Albright Way Project

Editor's Note: The following letter was written by longtime Los Gatos resident Maria Ristow to the Los Gatos Town Council.



Please do not approve the Albright Office Park as proposed.

Some compromise is necessary for this project to be acceptable in Los Gatos.



I appreciate that your upcoming decision on the Albright Office Park proposal has to take many factors into account.

Redevelopment of this outdated office park is inevitable, and appears necessary. My biggest concern is the height and mass of the proposed four-story buildings. 

While Class A office space is desirable for Los Gatos, it does not require four-story buildings per se.

We have a General Plan and building guidelines that limit the height of buildings in our town and which highlight the preservation of the hillside views. While there can be reasons to grant exceptions to certain restrictions, this sets a serious precedent, taking something away that can't be restored.



As a parent of R.J. Fisher Middle School and Los Gatos High School students, I am surprised and disappointed by the letter that appeared on Los Gatos Patch and the Los Gatos Weekly-Times this week and was sent to the Council from a group of school volunteers leading We Support Los Gatos.

While I can respect that we might all have differing views on how the Albright Way project should be allowed to be developed, and whether exceptions to the General Plan should be granted to this developer, I strongly object to their allusion that their view to support this project as proposed is shared by the families of the 5,000 students at the Los Gatos public schools.

This is completely untrue. 

I am opposed to this project as presented, and I agree with the last Los Gatos Planning Commission decision two weeks ago that a compromise could be reached.

The developer refuses to consider a compromise, pushing for four four-story buildings, at 65 feet in height per building. This requires a huge exception to the General Plan, which was just revised in 2010 and should be the guiding document in planning for our town.



Certainly the families that live in Charter Oaks do not support this project.  They bought houses near an existing office park in a town known for preservation and which prohibits buildings above 35 feet high. They "knew" the limits of what could be redeveloped next to their properties.

Now the developer insists he must have four stories for all four buildings. Mr. John Shenk is refusing to compromise. It's hard to believe Netflix couldn't occupy a three-story building.

Netflix is only committing to one building, yet Mr. Shenk wants to have permission to eventually build four four-story buildings.

The tax revenue that was cited in the We Support Los Gatos letter will not be completely realized for many years, and the buildings will be phased in. As I understand it, only the first building, ¼ of the project, will initially go forward.

So don't plan on that $1.4 million annually for a while. Additionally, they  worry about the revenue the schools will lose without the four-storied buildings. At 350,000 square feet, the schools will not get $178,910 of developer fees and annual tax revenues that 550,000 would.

However, with the North 40 soon to be developed, their developer fees and annual tax revenues will dwarf the loss of the $178,910. When you add in the fees and taxes of all other projects, such as Swanson Ford, Laurel Mews, Blue Bird, Palo Alto Medical Center, the Convent, etc., etc., we’ll have more money for the schools than ever and will not have had to sell out the character and soul of our small town.



People who think, really think, about what the implications could be of granting this height exception are also opposed. At the Planning Commission meeting two weeks ago, there was a representative of some office properties on University near Lark Avenue. He spoke in favor of this project, citing a need for more Class A office space.

You must realize that when Mr. Shenk gets his height and density exceptions, the office park owners on University will be asking for theirs at some point. The North 40 developer, Grosvenor, will also be watching this. 



We all rely on some form of protection to maintain the quality and sanity of our neighborhoods. I don't want the Toll House to expand further into my residential neighborhood or begin outdoor amplified music.

I expect the rules and regulations of our town to remain consistent and not change for the momentary financial windfall. 

The Blossom Manor neighborhoods likely would not appreciate a huge four-story office complex to replace the Nob Hill shopping center.

People in the College Avenue neighborhoods were opposed to development of Dittos Lane and are wary of what could be built in the soon-to-be-developed Convent property.

Those on Loma Alta can assume that Eastfield Ming Quong could not expand substantially. The Marchmont neighbors were not in favor of expansion by Hillbrook School.

We should not be pushing to have the rights of the Charter Oaks neighborhood crushed for this project.



All of these projects impact the immediate neighbors, the traffic throughout town, and the number of students and amount of revenue for the school. 

There have been a number of projects approved that are not good for the schools (Laurel Mews, Bluebird Lane, Swanson Ford), and we are all dealing with the problems these high-density, family-filled homes will cause traffic and schools.

But to jump at another project, with so many new problems and precedent-setting issues, all because we can get more money for the schools concerns me.
Money does not buy happiness. 

Albright can and will be developed.

Mr. Shenk came to Los Gatos and is now demanding that we change our rules for him. I think we could lose more than we will gain if we allow him to dictate what gets built in our town.



My experience is that the more people learn about this project, the more they support a compromise. 

I wish We Support Los Gatos had pushed on both sides for this compromise.

This is not an all-or-nothing issue. 

Please require the Albright project to comply, at least more closely, with existing building restrictions.