Santa Clara high-rise project would displace businesses to provide affordable housing

AFFORDABLE HIGH-RISE HOUSING is closer to sprouting along El Camino Real in Santa Clara, but it would displace numerous local businesses.

Pennsylvania-based developer Toll Brothers wants to replace more than a dozen stores in Santa Clara’s longstanding Moonlite Shopping Center with 601 homes at 2610 El Camino Real. The development proposal includes a trio of six- to seven-story buildings, divided between market-rate condos and 166 affordable apartments. The 14.3-acre project also includes plans for 159 three-story townhomes, 60,000 square feet of open space and thousands of square feet of commercial space.