Upcoming Downtown Changes

Old space to hopefully see new renovations in the coming years

A meeting was held to gain insight into what the Santa Clara community hopes to see implemented in Santa Clara city’s new downtown. 

The downtown will be located across from campus near Franklin Square. 

Attendees were encouraged to raise their concerns and contribute ideas to WRT Design, the urban planners in charge of the downtown project. 

This is not the first time the city of Santa Clara will have a downtown. 

The major retail area of Santa Clara was vibrant during the sixties. 

However, it was torn down to make way for a new mall, a project which never happened. 

“We now have an area that is very under-utilized in comparison to what it could be for our community,” James Stickley, WRT landscape architect and urban designer said.  

To inform community members on the progress of the downtown, the Santa Clara Downtown Precise Plan was presented at the meeting. 

The meeting took place from 12 - 1 p.m. in the de Saisset Museum, on Wednesday, Jan. 29. 

The new downtown Santa Clara will be in the space currently occupied by Franklin Square, which is the square area contained within Monroe Street, Benton Street, Lafayette Street and Homestead Roadd, and a stretch of Franklin Street.

This outlined the main priorities that will be considered when building the new site.  

The first goal of the planners is to ensure the best utilization of the area. 

Builders want to make the best use of the space available to create a location for people to enjoy themselves. 

The planners hope to make a cohesive downtown space that will appeal to the community. 

One method to accomplish this is to bring in new retail stores. 

Connectivity also stands out as a prominent aspiration. 

Due to Santa Clara’s close proximity to public transportation, the downtown crew wants to ensure that the space remains connected to surrounding neighborhoods and has a number of mobility modes.  

A third concentration is environmentalism. 

City planners are paying close attention to any environmental impacts to avoid leaving a harmful footprint. 

Additionally, the notion to utilize green infrastructure technology is of interest to ensure that the downtown site is sustainable.  

With the intent to completely transform the downtown area, planners must also remain realistic. 

To ensure the downtown will happen, feasibility will remain a priority. 

“We can’t just build anything we want. It has to be contractable and affordable” Stickley said.  

Santa Clara has developed from an agricultural farm town to sitting at the heart of Silicon Valley. 

In an area of innovation and growth, city planners hope to play off of the 

They hope to make a downtown that will fit positively in the regional picture.

While this project is a continuation of a process that the city has been thinking about for several years, the catalyst for many changes in 2021 surrounds the expiration of leases of several city-owned properties.

Planners hope the downtown will help provide more off-campus opportunities for students and enrich their Santa Clara experience.   

“As a freshman, it would be nice to have more to do closer to us because currently you have to go off campus if you want to do anything fun,” Lauren Stein said.  

 When given the chance to contribute ideas, maintaining art was at the forefront of the Santa Clara community’s minds. 

Several representatives from the arts department raised the concern that a new downtown would put the university’s arts district in jeopardy-—a grouping of buildings which serve as Santa Clara’s northwestern boundary.

City planners assured the public that there have not been any final decisions made and that they are truly open to listening to community desires.  

At this time, plans for the new downtown are just coming to the end of phase two and designers are hoping to get more input from community members regarding what they hope to see. 

When the downtown was demolished in 1960 using federal urban renewal money, many Santa Clara City residents were greatly upset. 

While renovations were planned, the current space is taken up by an office building, the Santa Clara County Courthouse, an apartment complex and some parking space.

Two men with Santa Clara roots, Rod Dunham and Dan Ondrasek are the organizers behind a Facebook group called “Reclaiming Our Downtown.”

Their group has attracted more than 1,000 followers.

Their goal is to restore the original eight-block downtown grid that stretched from Franklin Street and ran west from the edge of the university.

While this overhaul may seem unfeasible, renovations are beginning to become a reality.

Proposals are expected to be implemented beginning Jan. 2021.  

Contact Madeline Gile at mgile@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.