--- In BATN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "4/6 SJ Mercury" <batn@...> wrote: Published Friday, April 6, 2007, San Jose Mercury News Proposed new height limits near San Jose airport challenge developers HOW LOW CAN THEY GO? By Katherine Conrad Mercury News Developer Mike Kriozere had found a way to lop 10 feet off his downtown condominium towers to meet new height limits proposed by the airport -- without losing a floor -- when San Jose city planners came back last month and demanded another 4 feet. So Kriozere is making a demand of his own: He'll shave a floor off his project, but the loss of 20 condominiums will cost the city $1.3 million. That's the amount Kriozere says he will deduct from the $28.6 million he agreed to pay San Jose last June for the 1.5-acre site. Kriozere's City Front Square is just one of several developments already in the construction pipeline -- along with dozens more envisioned west of the downtown core -- that face "scalping" if San Jose bows to demands by several airlines flying out of Mineta San Jose International Airport to restrict the heights of proposed high-rises. The issue? Airport economics are clashing with business interests of downtown developers. Most of the time, planes at San Jose Mineta International Airport take off to the north, toward Santa Clara, where they have plenty of clearance from buildings. Fifteen percent of the time, however, wind conditions force planes to take off to the south, where they fly over the heart of downtown San Jose. But in newer jets designed with two instead of four engines, federal and international rules require planes taking off to have clear emergency routes in the event one engine fails. As a result, airlines already are forced to limit the number of passengers to reduce weight, cutting into revenues and profit margins. Cross-country and overseas flights, which carry the heaviest fuel loads, are most vulnerable. Airlines want a commitment from San Jose that it won't allow developers to build above a certain height in the land downtown and west of downtown. If no guarantee is given, the airlines will probably move their long-haul flights to other airports. Flying on one engine The San Jose City Council is scheduled to discuss the issue in August, after a second consultant hired by the airport and the local business groups weighs in on the conflict. The council will be asked to establish a policy on how to address the Federal Aviation Administration's "one-engine inoperative" requirement: Should San Jose adopt the lower height standard in certain areas of the city, or should it maintain the current height limit? The debate has pitted airport officials against downtown boosters, developers against planners, and even city officials against one another: How much money will San Jose lose if the airport drops international flights? On the other hand, how much will it lose if high-rises where people can live, work and shop have to be axed? No one, it seems, can agree on the answer. One thing everyone seems to acknowledge: It's an economic, not a safety issue. "A plane is not allowed to taxi from the terminal if there's a possibility of it crashing into a building," said Joe Horwedel, San Jose's director of planning. "The question is, `What type of service do we want to have?'" Without the city's commitment to a revised height limit, Aviation Director Bill Sherry said the airport simply won't be able to attract long-haul flights to Tokyo, Dublin and London. Even current flights to East Coast cities New York, Atlanta, Boston, and Newark, N.J., could be threatened, as well as Hawaii and Mexico, he said. "The city spent $100 million on runways and taxiways just for this purpose," Sherry said about the airport's Phase 1 expansion to handle long-haul flights. "This is a global city that is engaged in a global economy. We need an unrestricted, vibrant airport." Since the city began grappling with the height restrictions two years ago, a few developers have thrown in the towel and reduced their proposed projects. In addition to Kriozere, Kevin Sauser, an architect for the 1 S. Market condominium project proposed by KT Properties, reluctantly agreed to lop two floors off a 22-floor residential tower to accommodate the airlines. Compromise sought Adobe Systems, which last year paid $25 million for 5.5 acres near its downtown headquarters, is still searching for a compromise that would allow the software maker to develop all 1 million square feet of its newly acquired San Jose Water Co. property. Its solution? Ask the airlines to move their flights 12 to 13 degrees to the west. Even the city has a dog in this fight. San Jose has paid $17 million for three parcels of land near Diridon Train Station originally intended for a ballpark stadium. Officials said at the time of the purchase that if a stadium didn't materialize, 200-foot high-rise towers could be built. High-rises are exactly what developer Dan Hudson, of Hudson Properties, had in mind when he bought his two-acre property on Stockton Avenue in 2004. Under the proposed restrictions, however, high-rises in the entire neighborhood surrounding his site near Diridon Station and the HP Pavilion would be chopped down from 208 feet to about 105 feet. "This will have a huge fiscal impact on the city's ability to generate revenues from property taxes, from fees from construction, from people living there and shopping downtown," he said. Hudson said he and many others scoffed at a city report released in a December meeting by Paul Krutko, the city's economic development director, estimating that the loss of one future international flight could cost the city as much as $24 million in "economic impact," compared with the loss of tax revenues of up to $1 million a year if shorter buildings were built west of the core. "That economic impact has been massively minimized by the airport and ... Krutko," Hudson said. Krutko disagrees. "We have a significant number of the most important companies in the United States within three and six miles of the airport, who want intercontinental and international flights," Krutko said. "They are not interested in flying to Chicago to go to Japan. They'll just go north to SFO." Scott Knies, head of the San Jose Downtown Association, has another view. "Don't get me wrong, the airport is vitally important. But let's not toss out 20 years of sound planning just to make it easier to recruit airlines." Planning Director Horwedel believes a compromise is possible, but that would mean the residential units and office space contemplated for the Diridon-Midtown area west of Highway 87 would have to be reconfigured or moved farther south. The form of development in the Diridon-Midtown area would have to change, he said, so that in place of 20-story buildings, 10-story buildings would be constructed -- and stretched longer, to be rectangular instead of square-shaped. Plea for shift Farther south and west, around Race Street and Meridian Avenue, what was assumed to be four-story construction could be increased to 10- story buildings, he said. "With minor restrictions over the building heights in the downtown area, we can still have a very vibrant, dense downtown," Horwedel said. But it will come at a cost. Take Kriozere. After spending five years and more than $2 million before even a shovel of earth has been turned, Kriozere said he is ready to do what it takes to get the tower built. "If I accept" losing a floor, "the redevelopment agency has to understand the land price has to come down correspondingly. That's fair, I think." Redevelopment agency chief Harry Mavrogenes, who negotiated the deal with Kriozere, isn't willing to take a penny less. "This is an imprecise science," said Mavrogenes, "and I'm not going to sit here and let three or four feet ruin a multimillion-dollar project." Mavrogenes, who has spent his career in San Jose bringing downtown back to life, disagrees with Horwedel that downtown high-rises can be built elsewhere. "We can't afford too much of a haircut. It will affect the viability of everything we've been trying to achieve. We can't pick up and move downtown." Said Craig Aldinger, flight operations engineer for Southwest Airlines: "We know we have to be neighbors -- the airport, neighbors and the city. But it would be nice if living together we could come up with a compromise." Contact Katherine Conrad at kconrad@... or 408-920-5073. [BATN: See also: SJ hopes to avoid airport-related downtown height limits http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/33689 Airlines call for downtown SJ building height limits http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/33503 Airlines object to 309-foot downtown SJ condo tower http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/30051 SJ eyes conflict between air traffic, downtown height limits http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/29201 Airlines say downtown SJ buildings pose aviation hazard http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/27592 SJ trims $3b from grandiose $4.5b airport expansion plan http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/27429 San Jose's grandiose air terminal expansion plan shelved http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/27377 Airlines win cutbacks in SJ airport expansion grandiosity http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/25265 Airlines balk at cost of grandiose SJ airport expansion http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/23056 ] --- End forwarded message --- <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> If you wish to unsubscribe from the AIRLINE List, please send an E-mail to: "listserv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx". 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