Saratoga works to revitalize downtown amid budget constraints

City strives to maintain 'standard' of locally owned small businesses.

Saratoga restaurant owner Nick Miller has fond memories of growing up in the city, spending time with family in its downtown area, trying out restaurants and attending community events.

Miller eventually left Saratoga for college, but it was those memories that brought him back to the South Bay city to open up Mangia Mornings, a new brunch spot in downtown Saratoga, also known as the Saratoga Village. But three months in, business has been slower than he’d hoped it would be, and he’s been surprised by a lack of foot traffic and the general absence of the community in an area that once thrived.

Miller is among a cohort of new and longtime Saratogans and city officials who have been working to help revitalize the roughly 1% of the city that’s zoned for commercial use and revive a sense of community in the area.

The city council authorized the formation of an ad hoc committee in May to promote economic development in the city’s commercial areas. The group met in June for a listening session, drawing dozens of residents and business owners who turned out to provide suggestions on how the city might help solve this problem.

The city’s small town charm has drawn people in over the years, but as change comes to the once rural area in the form of proposed housing developments and the departure of beloved businesses, the desire to keep up has come to a head.

The parklet problem

Saratoga is a strikingly rural city in an area now known for being a hub of tech and innovation, and that history still echoes in the city today. The well-known Mountain Winery was established in Saratoga over a century ago and has maintained its presence, along with the fruit orchards that made the area a popular trading post in the past.

That enduring small town feel is especially palpable in the Village. Saratoga’s downtown covers less than a mile along Big Basin Way and is dotted with small businesses and restaurants on either side.

“Saratoga’s dedication to retaining its small-town feel means that smaller, locally owned shops aren’t the exception; they’re the standard,” the city’s website on economic vitality reads.

It’s been decades since people like Miller who were born and raised in the area can recall a thriving, buzzing Village. But others have said the COVID-19 pandemic was unexpectedly a source of liveliness in the area, largely the result of the proliferation of parklets, or outdoor dining areas for local businesses that took over portions of Big Basin Way.

“I know that without those parklets, there were several restaurants that told me that they wouldn’t have survived if it weren’t for that,” said councilmember Chuck Page, who was president of the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce during the pandemic.

But as the parklets came down, foot traffic in the Village waned accordingly.

Residents have said reinstalling the parklets is key to revitalizing Saratoga’s downtown, but Big Basin Way is part of Highway 9, which is owned and managed by the state, and so the parklets need state approval.

Saratoga’s community development director Bryan Swanson said at a city council meeting in May that since Big Basin Way is also an important thoroughfare for emergency vehicles, the state is often cautious when it comes to approving permits to block parts of the street.

Resident Kelly Ciccone said she’d love to see more businesses in the Village that cater to the younger population that’s nearby – Saratoga High School is about a 15-minute walk from the area – in addition to the higher-end restaurants that don’t quite make for a casual, after-school hangout spot.

“It almost feels like there’s an old community and then there’s the young community, it’s like, that’s B.S.” she said. “I feel like there should be a place to embrace anybody.”

Vibrancy takes effort

Some of the institutions that contribute to Saratoga’s small-town feel haven’t been able to withstand the test of time. Saratoga Dry Cleaners, a family-owned business that had been on Big Basin Way for nearly 40 years, closed in April due to the lingering financial impact of the pandemic. The dry cleaners’ storefront remains empty.

The Chamber of Commerce is limited in what it can do to attract new businesses, as its budget is earmarked primarily to promote its member businesses. The Chamber does contract with the city to maintain an office that’s open 35 hours a week to serve as a visitor’s center for the city, but it requested in April a 15% bump in the funds it receives from the city due to local businesses increasingly relying on the Chamber’s services.

Jim Cargill, the Chamber’s president-elect, said the group has contributed to economic vitality in Saratoga in the past in the form of the free events it puts on every year, like the annual Classic and Cool Car Show. But even the efficacy of those events in drawing people to the city has been limited by the lack of volunteers to help put those events on.

“While there is a desire from the community to host regular events to draw foot traffic to our city, this only happens when the residents support these events with their time, talents and ideas,” Cargill said. “Our vibrancy and economic development is directly proportional to the effort we put forth.”

Next steps

Efforts are being made to revitalize the Saratoga Village.

Vice Mayor Belal Aftab, a member of the ad hoc committee on economic vitality, said the committee and city staff have been working to figure out how to bring back outdoor dining, reaching out to stakeholders like Caltrans. They’re also working on a survey to collect data from local businesses and landlords in the city’s commercial areas to gauge their interest in expanded outdoor dining, with plans to wrap that up by the end of the summer.

“We just want to make sure that we’re listening to everybody as part of this,” Aftab said.

The committee has also been explicit about focusing their efforts on revitalizing all of Saratoga’s commercial areas outside of the Village, although residents have largely expressed an interest in focusing on the downtown.

Aftab said the intersection of Prospect Road and Lawrence Expressway, which is already close to hubs like Prospect High School and the El Paseo de Saratoga shopping center, is another potential space for commercial growth.

“We’re trying to take an expansive approach here to figure out what Saratoga can look like more broadly,” he said.

Dozens turned out to the committee’s first listening session earlier this summer, and business owners like Miller of Mangia Mornings want to get more involved either through the committee or by hosting events on their own.

“I’m not worried that it’s going to move in the right direction, and I know that things are going to take time,” Miller said. “I just feel like in the meantime…we need to do something.”