The Campbell Reporter

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Final rendering has Winchester,El Caminito project at 2 stories

A couple dozen Campbell residents had reason to be encouraged after seeing the final rendering of a mixed-use development project at the corner of Winchester Boulevard and El Caminito Avenue.

The three-story building that residents vehemently opposed at a planning commission meeting in March has been reduced to two stories.

At a neighborhood meeting on April 7 at the Campbell Community Center, 1 W. Campbell Ave., residents got a chance to see the final design of the building, which will house six to eight retail units and five upscale rental apartments.

Project leaders wanted to give residents a chance to give their input before moving through the planning process.

"The reality is it's going to get developed; it's just a matter of how," resident Lee Ann Kuntz said.

Prior to the meeting, Pat and Joanne Danforth, who live on El Caminito Avenue, said they were happy with what they have seen and heard about the revised design.

"We've been involved with it for so long. We just didn't want the drop to drop at the last minute," Joanne Danforth said.

The building is situated on a 0.8-acre site and will include underground parking. There is a total of 6,800 square feet of retail space, and the apartments will be two- or three-bedroom units, 900 to 1,400 square feet each.

The businesses that will occupy the building are undetermined, but they will not require high-density parking, said project manager Stuart Giotta of Lexmar Development. Giotta also said the number of retail units could increase or decrease depending on the tenants' preferred unit sizes.

A lack of parking played a key role in the planning commission's unanimous decision to deny the project on March 25. But with the elimination of the third level, the project meets its parking requirement at exactly 46 spaces.

Architect Jim Fulton addressed as many questions and concerns as he could about the revised design, but he said any more major changes were unlikely to happen.

"All we can ask for is that we hope for your support. And if you're not on board, then it's up to the city council," he said.

One of the things residents didn't see changing was traffic.

"This project is a much better compromise than we had before," Kuntz said. "It addresses the scale and mass of the building, but it doesn't address the cut-through traffic concerns of a residential street."

Residents say traffic has been a problem in the neighborhood for years, and while the project is not the cause, it also doesn't help solve the problem.

Kuntz said the neighborhood will direct its traffic concerns to the city as the project moves forward.

Specifically, residents noted the project's only driveway on El Caminito Avenue that will bring traffic from Winchester Boulevard, a busy business corridor, onto a residential street.

But Fulton said the placement of the driveway was the only feasible location for the project. Otherwise, the building would be pushed further into the neighborhood, retail units would be limited and underground parking would not be possible.

The lack of a through area on the site prompted one resident to raise concern about trucks coming in for pickups and deliveries.

Giotta said that issue could be addressed by limiting pickup and delivery times in the leases with tenants. He also said he would restrict double parking on El Caminito Avenue.

Meanwhile, Lexmar Development is still crunching the numbers to see if the building will be financially viable without the third level, Giotta said. He hopes to have the exact figures by the time the project reaches the planning commission on May 27.