The city launched eminent domain proceedings against Homestead Studio Suites Hotel on Tuesday night, stepping up its efforts to extend Stevens Creek Trail across El Camino Real by December 2007.
A lawyer for the hotel protested the move, saying the presence of construction equipment would hurt business and that the city had not proven it was necessary. But the city council voted 6-0, with Matt Neely absent, to follow the staff’s recommendation, saying it was the only way to get the attention of the landowner.
City staff said they first made an offer to Homestead last fall about purchasing a piece of landscaping on the corner of the hotel’s parking lot, located at 190 E. El Camino Real, but the company never responded.
“If the property owner had responded to us a year ago, we wouldn’t be here today,” said council member Mike Kasperzak.
The city is taking 187 square feet of land, plus a temporary easement during construction.
The cost of the land, determined by an appraiser, is more than $70,000. The hotel operators now have thirty days to reach a settlement with the city or protest the move in court.
Just the phrase “eminent domain” has become increasingly politically charged since the U.S. Supreme Court decided last year that cities were free to take private property and give it to developers. City officials were quick to distance themselves from that decision at the time, and they made a point this week of emphasizing that the Stevens Creek Trail is a public project and is likely to benefit the hotel.
“What we’re doing is very different,” said Joan Jenkins, the transportation and policy manager in the city’s public works department. “This is for a public purpose, for public use, and it really does not impact their property at all. … It’s a very different situation.”
The city last used eminent domain in 2002 during the Evelyn Avenue widening project. The most recent move towards eminent domain is the latest evidence of the council’s ongoing commitment to the trail, which many members call “the jewel of the city.”
The plan to extend the trail all the way to Mountain View High School has been around for years. But numerous obstacles, mainly lack of funding, have seemingly conspired against the 1.7-mile extension.
In 2002, environmental groups attacked the trail’s proposed alignment, saying it would destroy too much vegetation and cause too much damage to the riparian habitat. The city came back a year and a half later with a revised plan that addressed those concerns.
In December, the council voted to realign the trail again, spending $1.5 million to purchase a property on Yuba Drive that would allow the city to build a new and improved trailhead on the north side of El Camino Real, eliminate some sharp angles on the proposed route and move part of the trail closer to the creek.
The next step is to get approval from CalTrans and then solicit bids for the project. Construction of the tunnel under El Camino, which will cost $3.5 million to build, should begin by September 2006 and continue for just over a year. The city has no timetable for extending the trail to Mountain View High School, a stretch that will cost an estimated $10 million more.
E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener@mv-voice.com
