Keep Santa Clara on track to restore its downtown
In the 1960s, a wrecking ball crushed the last of downtown Santa Clara. Citizens looked on in bewilderment and sadness. Within 10 years, any hope of promised benefits of urban renewal were dashed with the result — a two-block concrete strip mall. Only 13 of the 120 original merchants returned. The Mercury News called the demolition of downtown Santa Clara one of the “Worst Decisions in Silicon Valley in the Last 50 Years.”
What followed was even worse. The city engaged in parcel-by-parcel development. This approach replaced the charming downtown with a jumble of unrelated office buildings, strip malls, a 1980s apartment complex and a traffic court — surrounded by a sea of surface parking lots.
It left many Bay Area residents wondering if Santa Clara had a downtown, and if so, where is it?
Santa Clara is on the verge of fully restoring its downtown, but it will only happen if the City Council stops parcel-by-parcel development and fully funds an integrated plan.
The effort to restore downtown began two years ago.
Rod Dunham got things started by posting a Facebook page called “Reclaiming Our Downtown.” What began with a meeting attended by five Santa Clara natives has now grown into a force of more than 3,000. All want Santa Clara’s heart back. Past bickering has been replaced by unity among a diverse group of residents and groups working to plan and build a nationally significant and economically viable downtown.
Our group has enjoyed support from Santa Clara’s leadership and council, the city management and planning departments, neighborhood and community groups, and current merchants. All have unified around our vision, including a return of the original downtown street grid.
Our team’s core group has put in hundreds of hours surveying and talking with citizens. Current polling indicates that over 4 of 5 Santa Clarans not only want the rebuilding of the downtown but also see it as a top priority for the city. They want a downtown to be planned that is a “place,” not just a series of projects.
There is also great deal of excitement within the design and planning community, giving us access to scores of the nation’s best urban planners, architects and city managers who know both the successes and failures among cities that have tried to restore their downtowns. They identify having a “precise plan” as the common thread of success.
One city manager told us, “The downtown is the city’s ‘living room,’ but the plan must consider and protect all of those areas surrounding that room.” Last month, Santa Clara’s city management agreed by proposing that the City Council allocate $400,000 for a downtown precise plan. A packed council chamber broke out into applause.
But old habits die hard. Unbeknownst to this crowd was that one more “parcel-byparcel” move was in the wings.
The original plan called for a return of the original 75-foot width of Franklin Street. The latest move would only offer about 35 feet. Reclaiming Our Downtown is firmly against such a half-measure and implores our City Council to vote against this. We believe that it is essential to combine a fully restored Franklin Street and any development within half a mile of the downtown into an integrated precise plan.
The downtown’s neighborhoods and transit gateway are of incredible importance and must be a part of the downtown plan. Parcel-by-parcel development that deviates from the plan is nonstrategic, 1960s thinking.
We implore the City Council to fully fund the precise plan process. Let’s continue to look 50 years ahead and not regress to what broke Santa Clara’s heart 50 years ago.
Santa Clara is on the verge of fully restoring its downtown, but it will only happen if the City Council stops parcel-byparcel development and fully funds an integrated plan.