Dear All,
My family and I have lived on Oak St since March ’08. Last September at a BBQ, a friend and neighbor mentioned that it would be a good idea for me to learn about plans for the future of the village after I expressed my interest in opening a business in Saratoga. Since then, I’ve been reading up on all of the participant inputs and suggestions with great pleasure.
I teach basic engineering skills to school age children (1st – 5th), which I’ve been doing for the last 2 years. Initially, I taught in various school Enrichment programs; this lead to successful offering of classes in several city community centers. After receiving great feedback from parents, repeat students, schools and community centers, I decided to open my own workshop.
Naturally, our charming village was very appealing and my first choice of location for my business; I found a vacant location on BBW. I called the city to discuss my plan; however, I was greatly disappointed when the city planner told me about a $4,500.00 non-refundable fee just to review my plan.
I have seen very interesting postings from the majority of people who are interested in having non-franchised, specialty and unique businesses to be added to existing village shops and restaurants. Unfortunately, the high fee for reviewing business plans will create an obstacle for most small businesses, prohibiting them from doing business in Saratoga and this is not in line with what SVDC strives to achieve.
Naima
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Naima, the zoning rules of commercial areas in any city vary. In Saratoga, on Big Basin Way, if you want to open a retail store of some kind, you would pay minimal fees. Because the citizens of Saratoga have expressed the desire to keep Big Basin Way as a retail type of environment, if you want to open a non-retail establishment at street level, it requires a conditional use permit, which is granted by the planning commission and will cost more due to the extra staff time and planning commission hearing. The City Council formed a Village Economic Development Committee to look at these kind of issues. One of the areas that we have started to look at is the types of business where conditional use permits are required. It’s a very long discussion, which is best suited for another venue. Perhaps you could provide an email message with specifics to Jill Hunter and me (cpage@saratoga.ca.us), the 2 council members on the committee. I don’t have Jill’s email address on me, but you can get it from the city of Saratoga’s website (www.saratoga.ca.us). I can’t promise you that anything will change, but we will look at it as it will help in our review of types of businesses requiring conditional use permits. -Chuck (Vice Mayor)
Thanks for responding Chuck. That makes a lot of sense to me. Here are html links to both the city web site and Jill. Her email is jhunter@saratoga.ca.us