Spruce Apartments Development
The Spruce Apartments is the large complex directly across the street from Cherrywood along South Fair Oaks Avenue. Our exit is from Garland Avenue onto South Fair Oaks. Expansion of the apartment complex will mean additional traffic in this same area in the near future. It is therefore in our best interest to keep an eye on their progress.
Neighborhood/Community Outreach Meeting
The meeting was on Thursday, January 16, 2020. It was an informal one. Both Michael Ducote (the Prometheus project overseer) and Chris (the onsite apartment manager) were there with architectural pictures of what the area and buildings might look like when completed. Some of the bullet points from the meeting are:
This is all in the preliminary stages. Nothing is expected to happen for at least 2 maybe 3 years.
Under the new California state infill law that went into effect recently, Prometheus (the real estate group that owns Spruce Apartments) is planning this expansion.
Because they already own the property, and also because it is an infill project, they only need Sunnyvale Planning Commission permission. This will not have to go before the full City Counsel.
To qualify for this under this new law, the complex will have 43 below market units.
They anticipate presenting their proposal to the Planning Commission sometime between March and May of this year.
Once they get Planning Commission permission, they have 2 years (with an option to extend it out to 3 years) to apply for permits.
Once they apply for permits, the deadline clock stops ticking. It takes approximately 1 year to obtain all of the appropriate building permits.
They wouldn’t immediately break ground on the buildings. They would have to perform all of the utility (water, sewer, etc.) upgrades first. They also plan to reconfigure the existing parking lot that circles the property.
They will be removing 2 of the pools and their tennis courts to erect 3 buildings. The 2 buildings in the back (replacing the pools) will be 5 stories each and contain 39 units each. The building in the front (replacing the tennis courts) will be 5-1/2 stories, have partially underground parking and 82 units.
They don’t anticipate the 3 new buildings being 5 stories a privacy issue for the surrounding area homes. The buildings currently on the property are already 3-1/2 stories (with partially underground parking), and the extra 2 stories will be well back from the property edge.
Please contact Michael Ducote at 650-931-3457 or MDucote@prometheusreg.com with any questions.