An ambitious project that has been a decade in the making on the border of Sunnyvale and Santa Clara needs a little more fine tuning, says the Santa Clara City Council.
A retail and residential redevelopment project at El Camino and Lawrence Expressway near Kohl’s was postponed by the council Jan. 20 based on concerns about lack of detail and the amount of retail.
The project known as Gateway Village could bring 476 residential apartment units and 86,000 square feet of retail and office space in the city of Santa Clara. The project could reach four to five stories high and would be located mere seconds away from Sunnyvale by vehicle.
The site is home to Kohl’s and a Taco Bell and has about 120,000 square feet of retail space.
The Santa Clara Council reviewed the project Jan. 20 but held off on taking a final vote. The council directed staff to work with the developer on possibly adding more retail and commercial space instead of residential. The council expressed a desire for business and retail in such a heavily traversed area.
“We’ve been talking about locating our retail on important major corners on El Camino, and I look at this particular property as a very major corner,” said Councilwoman Lisa Gillmor during the meeting. “I see we call it mixed use, but the majority of development is residential with minor retail.”
In addition to seeing see if more retail would be feasible for the site, Councilman Dominic Caserta said he would like to see more locally owned shops rather than chains.
Plans for the 12.6-acre site have been in the works since 2011, when Essex Property Trust took control of the property. The deal was part of a plan by the previous property owners, Santa Clara Square LLC, to get out of bankruptcy, according to city of Santa Clara officials.
Santa Clara Square LLC initially approached the city about redeveloping the site back in 2004.
Both the developer and city staff said they are in negotiations with Kohl’s to keep the department store at the site, but in a different layout within the project. The Taco Bell would be demolished.
The council’s request for a delay comes more than a month after the Santa Clara Planning Commission voted to recommend approving the project while also recommending a slight decrease in retail.
The project is expected to have traffic impacts on both cities. Some issues raised by the project’s draft Environmental Impact Report–which was released in November 2014–do make mention of some significant unavoidable traffic impacts to three intersections at El Camino Real and Halford Avenue, El Camino Real and Helen Avenue, and Lawrence Expressway and Homestead Road.
While there are proposed mitigations for those intersections, the impact will still not be reduced to “less than significant.”
Santa Clara city staff touted the financial positives for the city that would come from the project. According to the city, the property’s current assessed value is $19 million. Once completed, the project’s value is estimated to jump to $186 million.
While the shopping plaza is reported to bring about $150,000 in sales tax to the city as it now stands, estimates for the new development are in the range of $2.7 million.
About 15 residents spoke regarding the proposed project at the Jan. 20 meeting, the majority of whom expressed opposition to the project. Common concerns were about traffic and the impacts on local schools.
Sunnyvale resident Ed Goka expressed support for continuing to revise the plan.
“I think the developer has done a great job with this plan; he has integrated the community with this,” Goka said during the meeting. “It’s all about compromise. We’ve come a long way, I’m just hoping we continue along that path.”
The project will return before Santa Clara City Council at a later date.
For more information about the project, visit santaclaraca.gov and click on “Development Projects.” To view the draft EIR, visit santaclaraca.gov and search for “Gateway EIR.”
