Return to the CTRA Home PageStanford has received approval for the graduate student housing project at Escondido Village. Construction will be starting as early as June.
The final plans call for four 4-story buildings, two in the center of Escondido opposite Wellesley and two buildings on the far side, near Campus Drive. Since they've moved the buildings back, even the two nearer buildings will be almost invisible from our neighborhood.
Stanford will be adding new parking spaces along Olmsted as part of this project, but they've agreed to add some plantings to screen them so they'll also be largely invisible from our neighborhood. I'm also pleased to say that there will be a bike rack space for each unit, encouraging the students to use bikes.
Unfortunately, the construction phase is likely to be more of a problem for us than the end result.
The Santa Clara County Planning Office is holding an introductory meeting of the Community Resource Group, the first step in the process to prepare Stanford's new Community Plan. This meeting will be held on Thursday, June 3, 6:30 - 8:30 PM at the Lucy Stern Center Community Room. For more information, call Sarah Jones, 408.299.2454 X226.
Also mark your calendars for upcoming COMMUNITY FORUMS:
The locations and times for these forums will be announced in our local papers. NOW is the time to influence the future of Stanford development
Escondido School will be getting an update and some new classrooms beginning this summer.
Join Principle Gary Prehn for a community meeting to learn about the planned changes on Wednesday, June 2, at 7:30 PM in the multiuse room at the school.
Some neighbors have raised concerns about traffic safety issues resulting from the proposed changes. Take a look for yourself!
A new building is being planned for 1117 California. It will be an addition to the Wilson Sonsini building already at that address and will be located in the parking lot next to the current building.
A preliminary look at the plans indicates that it will be similar in feel to the existing building. The biggest concern is that it will have a row of parking stalls between the building and the street. There is also the issue of the extra car trips up and down the already-busy California Avenue.
This project is tentatively scheduled for preliminary review by the Architectural Review Board (ARB) on Thursday, June 17, at 8:00 AM. Plans are available for you to look at in the new building office across the street from City Hall.
There is also a plan to convert the church at 555 College (across from JJ & F) into yet another law office space. This also raises huge concerns about traffic and about the impact on parking in our neighborhood as well as parking for J J & F. Surely there are better uses for that property!
One of the ideas in the Mayor's State of the City speech this year was the concept of developing specific plans for some neighborhoods. Since College Terrace is such a well defined area, the new Director of Planning, Ed Gawf, thinks we would be a good candidate for such a plan.
Issues such as traffic calming, parking, noise, commercial development guidelines for the research park, residential design and special zoning restrictions could be included. The process would start with neighborhood input meetings and the plan would address areas of concern to the residents.
Printers Inc. is saved... but now we need to make sure it stays healthy. The management would like to form a group of "friends" to meet with them several times a year to exchange ideas about how to make the business better. We're planning the first meeting for late July. Send email to priag@ctra.org or leave a message at 493.2153 if you're interested in participating.
The preservation ordinance is scheduled for a final Council vote on June 7. It has been reduced to the point where it only covers a few hundred houses in the whole city but the opponents of the ordinance are still working hard to persuade the council to abandon it. So the Council still need to hear from those of us who are tired of watching our neighborhood destroyed! Speak up for the ordinance!
The PAST Heritage docents will be leading a special College Terrace walking tour on Saturday, June 26th. Meet at Amherst and California at 9:00 AM.
Some of you got a brief taste of the kind of things which will be featured on this tour when Ruth Sloan lead a mid-day walk featuring the cottage courts of College Terrace as part of Preservation Week earlier this month. By all accounts the walk was a smashing success.
at http://www.ctra.org. There's always room for more good ideas.
Return to the CTRA Home Page