BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
A resident is suing the city of Los Altos for approving what would become the city’s tallest building on El Camino Real.
Anatol Shmelev, who lives next to the site for the eight-story, 85-unit apartment building reaching 110 feet in height, said the city didn’t study the impacts of the development in violation of state environmental laws.
“Cars, people, babies in strollers, mothers and so on and so forth – there’s going to be a lot of people there, and it’s going to cause a lot of problems,” Shemelev said at a Planning Commission meeting on Nov. 6.
Shemelev is one of about a dozen neighbors who are fighting the project at 4898 El Camino Real, next to Jack in the Box.
He lives in a two-story building at 897 Jordan Ave.
Other neighbors pointed out that Jordan Avenue is designated by the city as a “suggested route” for students walking or biking to Los Altos High School and Egan Junior High School. They said more parking should be included or cars will crowd the streets.
In response to the complaints, developer Navneet Aron said sidewalks along Jordan Avenue will be added to the plans before they’re complete.
Aron also pointed out that the proposed building is shorter than the Avalon Mountain View apartment building across the strect. Aron’s plans include nine studios, 47 one-bedroom units and 29 two-bedroom units. Ten of the apartments will be subsidized as low-income units. The building will have a 95-spot parking garage with an automated elevator to sort the cars.
At the mecting, commissioners said they were bound by state law and had to approve the project, even if they didn’t like the look or the size of the building.
“I’m sorry to all the people who came to object … Our local code doesn’t actually control very much of anything that is going on here,” Commissioner Eric Steinie said.
Commissioner Joe Beninato encouraged Aron to work with his neighbors, even if he’s legally entitled to move forward.
“I’d hate to see you be the guy when you’re walking around town they all say, ‘That’s the guy who built that monstrosity on El Camino Real,'” Beninato said.
In his lawsuit, Shemelev said the city should’ve followed local zoning rules that limit the size of developments and require more parking.
Shemelev also said the city and Aron were required to evaluate the impacts of the project in a study required by the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEOA.
But city planners said the project was exempt from CEOA because of state “density bonus” laws that fast-track developments with affordable housing.
“The city strictly followed state and local laws at the Planning Commission and the City Council for this application,” City Manager Gabriel Engeland said in an email to the Post, declining to comment further on the lawsuit.
Council will consider an appeal of the project on Jan. 27.
Shemelev said property values will go down if the project gets built. He’s asking a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge to suspend approval of the project and order the city to pay his attorney’s fees.
“His interest in the continuing quality of the local environment will be harmed by, among other things, increasing traffic congestion in the area, reducing access to parking, and increasing residential density in an already-dense neighborhood of Los Altos,” Shmelev’s attorney Shona Armstrong wrote.
How do we protest this ridiculous building? I live in the neighborhood in a four-story condominium. We have enough population density here already. If anyone knows, please post.
We live close to a Bullis school(no parking was designated for the school) and next to it Egan Junior High. Some parking, but not enough. We are parked in every morning and afternoon. East Portola is full of cars, kids walking, biking around the parked cars.
It’s dangerous and crazy. More and more trucks are cutting through to avoid the intersection of El. Camino and San Antonio. The Wholefood store access added to the traffic. There are not good sidewalks and huge amount of traffic. How about thinking less about the money and listening to the residents??? We live here!
not only is it a gross insult to Los Altos/Palo Alto, but it looks like a d*** prison
whatever happened to the art of architecture? it used to be that builders, owners would take some pride in their work — even for just high density housing projects like this
if an enemy army erected such a monstrosity, the local populace would rise up as one and tear it down, rectangle by rectangle, brick by brick
Susan it’s over. The Developers won at the state legislature, and their YIMBY allies have ensured anything remotely near Caltrain will allow this by later this year. The only thing to do is grin and bear it.
Can you clarify? Caltrain is almost a mile away from this location
[Portion removed — Terms of Use violation.]
Boomers need to get over themselves and get out of the way as the rest of the world wants to build something. Let alone how the density will help reduce emissions and provide more affordable housing. I’m really happy they are building this bulding.
Bet you don’t live anywhere near a tall building. The ones
Ok with this type of monstrosity are typically those that never get affected by it.
The YIMBY’s are SO well-financed they think they’re immune to logic and have even ensured that discussions of their housing targets can’t even be discussed / reconsidered for 8 — EIGHT — years.
Do they and/or their enablers care that communities in high-fire zones find roads are ALREADY too crowded for safe evacuation?
NOPE. Instead they try to take over the Sierra Club to try to further weaken environmental protection.
In every election watch the candidates’ funding. You’ll see freshmen politicians with NO government experience raising the most money BECAUSE they’ll unquestioningly serve as developers’ mouthpieces. Vote accordingly.
Oh my stars, this eight-story behemoth on El Camino Real is just too much! I’ve lived near this street for decades, and I can tell you—the traffic is already a hot mess during school peak hours, and this building will turn mornings and afternoons into nonstop gridlock. Parents walking with their kids, students biking to school, neighbors just trying to get to work—we’re all going to be stuck in that mess far more often than not!
And goodness gracious, windows and balconies staring right into our backyards?! That’s not progress — that’s privacy invasion with a side of congestion. I don’t care how you dress it up with fancy plans, folks deserve peace, safety, and a neighborhood that doesn’t feel like a freeway corridor.
City Council, please pause and reconsider before you green-light something that will harm quality of life around here. We want responsible growth — not towering traffic nightmares and no respect for those of us who call this place home.
Oh my stars, this eight-story behemoth on El Camino Real is just too much! I’ve lived near this street for decades, and I can tell you—the traffic is already a hot mess during school peak hours, and this building will turn mornings and afternoons into nonstop gridlock. Parents walking with their kids, students biking to school, neighbors just trying to get to work—we’re all going to be stuck in that mess far more often than not!
And goodness gracious, windows and balconies staring right into our backyards?! That’s not progress — that’s privacy invasion with a side of congestion. I don’t care how you dress it up with fancy plans, folks deserve peace, safety, and a neighborhood that doesn’t feel like a freeway corridor.
City Council, please reconsider before you green-light something that will harm quality of life around here. We want responsible growth — not towering traffic nightmares and no respect for those of us who call this place home!
This is what progressive liberalism looks like. City, county and state leadership are all more interested in making their areas richer than the neighbors and disregard the very reason their constituancy decided to reside here in the first place. Crossing over Alma and the train tracks, you used to be able to see all the way across the Santa Cruz/San Mateo mountain range. Today, due to the greed of the developers and local leadership there is just a sliver of mountains visable, directly down the centerline of San Antonio Road. That’s not progress, that’s asphyxiation of the human spirit and destruction of well being. It’s no wonder we are seeing the massive lack of respect for the rights and responsibilities to and for our fellow man (and women) today. We let in the evil elements of greed and now we are paying the price. We all need to sit back and think about how we let emotions lead us to a false prophecy. It’s all just common sense.
Personally I’m OK with tall buildings, so I’m an outlier here. But man, that building is UGLY! I agree with Dave on that one.
If you’re going to do a tower building, at least spend some time on the design!