Het verhaal
Residents of Palo Alto’s Ventura neighborhood, just south of Page Mill Road and east of El Camino Real, are again facing a site-specific upzoning. On Sept. 8 the City Council will consider rezoning 470 Olive Avenue so a residential project could exceed today’s 35-foot, single-family rules. The proposal would raise the allowed height to 55 feet and place the lot in the NV-MXM mixed-use zone that already covers the El Camino parcels in front of it. The owners, the Agramonte family, want to join 470 Olive with three adjacent El Camino lots for a larger development at 2571 El Camino Real.
In a letter to the council, Thomas Agramonte and Jessica Rose Agramonte said rezoning is needed to put housing on the site. They also pointed to Senate Bill 79, which relaxes standards near transit and could let them exceed local zoning with or without a city vote.
Neighbors object to handling Ventura lot by lot. Matthew Bryant of Pepper Avenue, who spoke at the July 8 Planning and Transportation Commission hearing, said projects already in the pipeline — including Acclaim Properties’ 368 apartments at 3150 El Camino Real, the former Fish Market — risk overwhelming a single micro-corridor. Jason Robinson asked for a cumulative traffic and safety study before any more density on the corridor.
The commission deadlocked. Commissioners Bart Hechtman and Cari Templeton and former commissioner Forest Peterson found the rezoning largely consistent with city plans for Ventura. Chair Bryna Chang, Vice Chair Kevin Ji and Commissioner Allen Akin wanted to keep the current zoning; Akin said state law leaves a huge range of possible building sizes. The split means the council will decide without a commission recommendation. Other Ventura changes already under way include Sobrato’s work on the old Fry’s/cannery campus and Charities Housing’s 129-unit affordable project at 3001 El Camino Real.