Planning/Zoning Report November 25, 2013 To: AVCA Board of

Planning/Zoning Report
November 25, 2013
To: AVCA Board of Directors
Copy: AVCA Committee Chairs
From: Bob Strain
Subject: Planning and Zoning Action, October 18, 2013 – November 25, 2013
Since the last Planning/Zoning note, activity has commenced at Almaden Ranch, and the
old Almaden Feed and Fuel building has been demolished. The latter action was
approved on October 8, 2013. The Almaden Feed and Fuel site is shown below, using an
image from Google Maps.
Almaden Crossing (PD07-064-01) is a housing neighborhood that will replace Almaden
Feed and Fuel, and it is moving forward. This is a matter of some personal distress. I
had hoped to lodge a complaint because the 2007 site plan showed one of the homes
abutting Almaden Expressway in the same intrusive way that one of the homes in
Fleetwood Almaden Estates abuts the northbound Expressway. I had been waiting for
new drawings, and they were received by the Planning Department on August 30 and
approved on September 9. The project was regarded as exempt from the CEQA, and that
was ratified as a Consent item on the Planning Director’s calendar on August 14, 2013.
As approved, and as it is moving forward, Almaden Crossing will be 13 single-family
homes on 1.24 gross acres. While there were earlier plans, one proposing 16 homes on
the same site in 2005, and the 2007 plan in which one of the 13 homes was to be a
remodel of the 2780 square-foot Almaden Feed and Fuel building, the current plan is all
new construction. The 13 homes will have five different floor plans:
A.
Historic Unit: 2026 square feet in two stories.
B1.
2013 square feet in three stories
B2.
2000 square feet in three stories
C.
1732 square feet in two stories
D.
1913 square feet in two stories
The Historic Unit will have a front porch that emulates the original 1934 portico of the
gasoline station, without the pumps of course, and it will have this placard:
The site plan is a bigger concern. This is the August 30 version:
The two three-story homes are highlighted in color. While the site is 1.24 gross acres, the
triangular tab to the right will be used for a storm water percolation pond. That leaves
about 1.15 acres, so we will have 11¼ homes per acre. Lot 8, in the upper left hand
corner, has the house positioned 6 feet from the sound barrier, and the corner bend is
another 10 feet away, the width of the sidewalk. That puts it a total of 16 feet away from
the turning lane. The six homes along Almaden Expressway are all at least 15 feet from
the sound barrier, so they are probably 25 feet from the road. To give a sense of how
tight this plan is, the closely spaced homes are just over six feet apart.
All in all, Almaden Crossing does not look as intrusive as Fleetwood Almaden Estates.
This picture is the lot next door to Almaden Crossing, 18966 Almaden Road.
This site immediately to the southwest of Almaden Crossing is also in the permitting
process. The requested permit proposes to build 10 single family homes on a 0.87 acre
site. That is 11½ homes per acre. The existing use is multi-family housing, and there has
been a preliminary application to demolish the existing buildings on this site. I have not
yet been able to find a site plan.,
The corner of Almaden Expressway and Almaden Road is building up to some very high
residential densities, but there is precedent; immediately south of 18966 Almaden Road,
Almaden Village Lane is lined with apartments, probably 40 or more residences. Those
apartments are visible in the Google Maps picture on the first page; they have orangish
roofs and a swimming pool.
There is a permit (SP13-069) under review for 16801 Almaden Road (midway between
Redmond and Camden, west of Expressway). This is a request to demolish a 78-year-old
residence on the property. There is another permit pending on that property; it is a
request to subdivide the present 0.65-acre lot into three lots. That is consistent with the
R-1-5 zoning in the neighborhood, so the lot division is likely to be approved. The
challenge may be saving the nice trees on the lot. (Trulia published the current property
taxes, about $2,000. That could go up by a factor of 15 or 20 with three new homes on
the site.)
There is a new issue percolating, and I am still getting up to speed on the issues involved.
SummerHill Homes has some control over 365 acres of the Santa Teresa Ridge. This
land generally lies on the north and east side of the ridge line, and it runs southeast from
Almaden Lake, for about 1.6 miles on the far side of the hills. This land first passes
beside Boulder Creek Country Club, then above Foothill Drive, and finally above Coleen
Drive. The 365-acre tract is not, strictly speaking, within Almaden Valley. However,
SummerHill has three different proposals for this land, one of which is very much within
Almaden Valley:



Selling the 365 acres of hillside to Santa Clara County for $16 M.
Doing a trade with Santa Clara County, swapping the 365 acres of hillside for
seven acres of Almaden Quicksilver Park, that area lying right at the end of
Hidden Mines Road. Those seven acres would be divided into 25 lots and
developed with 25 “high end” homes.
Doing a more complex swap for multiple, presumably smaller tracts of land, land
upon which homes could be built.
There are other goodies proposed by SummerHill, like a trail connecting Santa Teresa
Park and Almaden Lake. That would be roughly a three-mile trail, and it is not clear if
right-of-way would be available for the entire stretch.
The image on the following page shows the 365 acres in a view from the far side of the
Santa Teresa Ridge. The region in the bottom of the image is Blossom Valley, and
Almaden Lake is visible at the extreme right-hand edge of the image, marked AL.
Sunrise Almaden is marked, and Pfeiffer Ranch is marked “P.”
At this stage, it is difficult to evaluate either the first or the third option, but the second
option is very much in our back yard. If I may express a personal opinion, granting seven
acres of Almaden Quicksilver Park for residential development appears to be a dangerous
and foolish option. My late neighbor, Bob Amyx, would turn over in his grave. Besides
the added load on Hidden Mine Road and Leyland Park Drive, the concept of carving off
a sliver of the county park establishes a very bad precedent. As an organization, we have
been adamant about preserving the South Almaden Valley Urban Reserve. Carving up
Almaden Quicksilver Park would be a more audacious move.
The 365 acres are outlined in black above, and they are on a slope above Blossom Valley.
At the District 10 Leadership Coalition meeting on November 16, Mike Wasserman,
County Supervisor for our district, announced his firm opposition to swapping the park
land at the end of Hidden Mine Road for anything. We can hope the other supervisors
share his opinion. There are reports that Wasserman may assist SummerHill in trying to
realize tracts that can be developed, perhaps within the 365 acres. If I hear that
Quicksilver swap proposal is coming back to life, I will do my best to keep AVCA fully
informed.