I’m a freshman at Los Gatos High School, and, as part of a Boy Scouts project for Troop 339, I’ve decided to contact you about a subject of concern: the ongoing housing developments in Los Gatos.
Many of Los Gatos’ citizens feel these developments are negatively impacting the town, creating a lower quality of life in the area through increased driving times and other factors.
Los Gatos has always had a unique charm, with open spaces and old-timey feelings. However, with these big changes—from the seven-story apartment building that’s proposed, to the hundreds of units being built at the North 40 site along the highway—I’m worried the identity of our town will be forever altered.
As teenagers, we see this affecting the time it takes to get to school, with an increased possibility of being late for class (having to sit in a car for 20 minutes just to go 2-3 miles).
The scale of the proposed development will create many hassles and could ruin the “mountain feel” that we all enjoy.
Arnav Singhal
Los Gatos High School student
I couldn’t agree more. It’s becoming a residential suburb that is crushing the very thing that was so attractive about it and that the housing developments are exploiting and trampling the towndown at the same time.
What if Santa Cruz tore down the boardwalk and put in seven story senior units to enjoy the towns recreational vibe?
I’m hearing from out of towners that Los Gatos doesn’t have all the good places that it used to i.e.; Hannigan‘s Steamers, California Café Mountain Charlie’s.. that it ain’t what it used to be and now the hot ticket is down next to great America (the next place to get trampled).We used to protect against cookie cutter developments and we were like Hill Valley in “Back to the Future.” the building, inspector left in disgust about 10 years ago for seeing what was happening,… bending the knee to the state.
There’s kind of a sell out to profiteers who are trying to to squeeze the most profit out of the amount of Los Gatos space so they have to divide things up into microcells, all in the name of “affordable housing”, which usually starts at about $1 million apiece. and puts a tremendous burden on our roads and parks, etc..(that which we, not the developers ultimately share and pay for).
Trouble is everything that’s done is gonna be permanent.