On May 11, the City Council approved the construction of an 84-space recreational vehicle storage facility near First Street despite concerns over RV traffic coming down residential roads to access the business.

Councilmember Steve Sojka apologized to residents, acknowledging it's not an ideal situation for the council or the neighborhood.

"We tried to come up with a solution and, sorry to say, I think this is the best use we can come up with," he said. "There are landuse rights; we have to respect that. . . . Begrudgingly, I support this project."

The council was hearing the proposal because Sojka and fellow council member Michelle Foster had appealed a previous decision by the planning commission to approve the project.

When the project came before the city in April, the council's main concern was that motor homes, travel trailers and boats towed by trucks would have to access the site through the singlefamily residential neighborhoods east of First Street and south of Cochran Street.

The project site is at the southwest corner of Callahan Avenue and Alviso Street, and the driveway into the facility would be on the curve that joins the two roads.

The council held off voting on the proposal in April in order to hear from more residents who would be impacted by the project.

During last week's meeting, only three residents addressed the council; all three were opposed to the project due to the type of traffic it would bring down their streets.

While the council members expressed a desire to deny the project because of the access issues, the city attorney advised the council that it must allow some type of use on the property that would be consistent with its light-industrial zoning since it is a legal parcel with legal access off Callahan.

The council decided that the RV storage facility would be the best use because it would generate the least amount of traffic compared to other allowable uses in that zone.

To allay some of its misgivings about the project, the council placed three more conditions on the applicant's conditionaluse permit.

The conditions require that there be onsite management during hours of operation, that the business open at 9 a.m. (instead of 7 a.m.) Monday through Friday to avoid having RVs traveling down Callahan while children are being dropped off at Park View Elementary School, and that if the property to the west buys out the new facility, the two parcels will be merged and access limited to First Street.