Developer outlines plan for new apartments and townhomes at 451 El Camino Real; neighbors raise traffic and design concerns

Bixby-affiliated developers presented a proposal to redevelop the office complex at 451 El Camino Real into new housing at a Santa Clara community meeting, and residents pressed the team about traffic, architecture and construction hiring commitments.

Developer Eric Morley, of the Morley Brothers, speaking on behalf of Bixby Capital Management and Bixby Land Company, said the project includes a five-story apartment building wrapped around a six-level parking garage and a separate townhouse component. "We will be contributing just under, about $17,000,000 in park fees that that will be contributed to go to nearby parks and and other amenities in the city," Morley said during the meeting. He said the project would meet the city's affordable housing rules by providing 15% affordable units for both apartments and townhomes.

The developer described two building typologies: a 5-story, 297-unit apartment building (studios through two-bedrooms) along El Camino Real that wraps a multi-level parking structure, and a collection of townhomes (the team described 111 townhome units in presentation slides). Morley also said, inconsistently in the presentation, that the project total was 498 units; the application materials list 297…