SUNNYVALE HAS BEEN STRUGGLING to preserve grocery stores in its northern neighborhoods, and residents are frustrated with plans to build more housing that would push the area toward being a food desert.
True Life Companies has plans to develop 101 townhomes that would replace the Lakewood Shopping Center, which includes New Wing Yuan Market, one of the only places to get groceries in North Sunnyvale. While the plans include a 10,000-square-foot retail building, residents say that’s not enough to sustain the neighborhood.
“It’s a balance between the housing we need and the retail we need, trying to get both is tricky,” District 6 Councilmember Eileen Le, who represents most of North Sunnyvale, told San José Spotlight.
The Lakewood development still needs approval from the city council. It’s considered a village center — one of seven aging sites the city wants to redevelop with mixed-use buildings where restaurants and shops operate on the ground floor and residents live above.
The city published its draft village center master plan May 23, with guidelines on how much retail space is needed in the redevelopment. The draft master plan increases minimum density from 18 homes per acre to between 22 to 56 townhomes. The plan will be discussed by the Planning Commission June 16 and City Council July 1.
Almost all village center proposals the city has received so far are for townhomes with little to no retail, such as the approved village center at Fremont Corners and plans for Fair Oaks Plaza. In March, the city council approved an incentives plan to allow specific developers the opportunity to provide less affordable housing in exchange for more retail space.
Developers ‘not thinking about the long term’
Neighbors living near Fair Oaks Plaza are organizing around the possible loss of their shopping center. Christina O’Guinn has lived in the San Miguel neighborhood for 27 years, within walking distance from Fair Oaks Plaza. The shopping center is slated for demolition to make way for 81 townhomes, including the Taj Mahal Fresh Market where O’Guinn regularly shops for groceries. The project is being developed by Wood Rodgers and the latest proposal has no space for any businesses.
There are a handful of small markets and only one large grocery store, a Lucky’s Supermarket, north of the Caltrain tracks. The shopping center where Lucky’s is located is also slated for redevelopment. O’Guinn said her biggest concern is turning North Sunnyvale into a food desert.
“(The developers) are not really thinking about the livability for the people, for the residents, they’re not thinking about the long term,” O’Guinn told San José Spotlight. “If you’re a resident, you don’t wanna live in a neighborhood that’s just housing.”
O’Guinn said neighborhood residents have organized a petition asking for an exemption from Senate Bill 330 — a state law that makes it easier to build affordable and moderately priced housing — to protect Lakewood Shopping Center and Fair Oaks Plaza. They’re also asking city officials to preserve Lucky’s Supermarket.
Kelley Rutchena, director of entitlements for True Life Companies’ Bay Area branch, said the developer is aware of resident concerns about the loss of local grocery stores. She spoke to the Sunnyvale Planning Commission during a May 12 presentation on the Lakewood development. She declined to comment for this article.
While plans are early in the process, Rutchena said they’re considering making the retail building two stories, bringing the total space to 23,000 square feet.
“We are considering and analyzing this alternative to try to enhance the commercial portion of this site,” Rutchena said at the meeting.
Contact B. Sakura Cannestra at sakura@sanjosespotlight.com or @SakuCannestra on X.
This story originally appeared in San Jose Spotlight.