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  The property is “so big that I have to show it in my Jeep — or as we call it, the Jurassic tour,” said co-listing agent Holly Hatch of Calabasas-based Holly and Chris Luxury Homes Group at Coldwell Banker Realty. (Photo by Everett Grabeel)

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  Krishna Venta and his wife, Ruth, in Feb. 1949. (File photo by Denver Post)

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  An aerial view of the 16.5-acre property formerly known as the site of the Fountain of the World, now for sale at $4.8 million. (Photo by Jack Spitser of Epic Drone Tours)

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  The property boasts 4,000 square feet of living space across several modest houses and a lodge. (Photo by Everett Grabeel)

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  The property boasts 4,000 square feet of living space across several modest houses and a lodge. (Photo by Everett Grabeel)

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  A bust of the assassinated leader Krishna Venta is displayed in the lodge. (Photo by Everett Grabeel)

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  The property boasts 4,000 square feet of living space across several modest houses and a lodge. (Photo by Everett Grabeel)

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  “If you’re touring the property, you’ll see carvings in the staircase of (Venta’s) teachings,” said co-listing Holly Hatch of Coldwell Banker Realty. (Photo by Everett Grabeel)

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  The property features sandstone rock formations and caves. (Photo by Everett Grabeel)

A fabled West Hills compound in rustic Box Canyon, once home to a cult leader and his barefooted followers in robes, is on the market for $4.8 million.

Set on 16.5 acres, the property branded “Xanadu” and promoted for its “boundless potential” boasts 4,000 square feet of living space across several modest houses and a lodge. Combined, they offer seven bedrooms and seven bathrooms.

It was here that Krishna Venta, a small-time criminal born Francis Hernan Pencovic, proclaimed himself the second coming of Jesus Christ and established his WKFL (Wisdom, Knowledge, Faith, Love) Fountain religious sect in 1949. He predicted a global war and set out to gather 144,000 people to rebuild afterward.

In all, there were about 100 members who lived at the Fountain of the World.

Charles Manson and his inner circle of his clan often visited the commune in 1968 for food, shelter and worship. The story goes, the cult leader tried to take over but was asked to leave.

Unlike the Manson Family, Venta’s group was peaceful and dedicated to service. An article that appeared at LAist.com in 2018 described how they came to the aid of stranded motorists and disaster victims, including a deadly plane crash in Chatsworth that killed 35 of the 48 passengers and crew on board.

At the commune, followers lived and worked on grounds “so big that I have to show it in my Jeep — or as we call it, the Jurassic tour,” said co-listing agent Holly Hatch of Calabasas-based Holly and Chris Luxury Homes Group at Coldwell Banker Realty.

The oak-laden landscape features include a natural amphitheater, sandstone rock formations and caves, and a hidden waterfall.

Hatch, who shares the listing with Chris Johnson, said she has heard from potential buyers interested in turning the property into a yoga retreat, a music festival or even a Jewish camp.

“It’s a cool place, and the history is interesting,” she said.

The property was also the site of a double-suicide bombing in December 1958.

Venta and seven followers were killed in an explosion carried out by two disgruntled ex-cultists. The two men left recordings in which they accused Venta of fraud and having sex with their wives.

According to news reports, the blast also decimated a stone monastery and triggered a brush fire.

Still, much of the compound remains as it was.

“If you’re touring the property, you’ll see carvings in the staircase of (Venta’s) teachings,” said Hatch, although she couldn’t remember any off the top of her head during the brief phone conversation.

A bust of the slain leader is on display in a wall alcove in the lodge. It also has a tunnel, which leads from the pulpit.

Hatch said Venta used it to suddenly appear and disappear before his followers.

While some people find the history of the property fascinating, others are drawn by its tranquility.

As Hatch put it, “It’s similar to Topanga in that it feels like you’re far from L.A. even though you’re very close to it.”

Founding member bassist Phil Lesh rented the home, and fellow band member Bob Weir once lived in the garage. In the legendary band’s early days, the garage was used as a rehearsal space.

Located in “Professorville,” near Stanford University, the compact home has two bedrooms and one bathroom. It features an eat-in kitchen, abundant natural light and a large outdoor space.

Helen Lippert with Compass is the listing agent.

Coincidentally, the house is just blocks away from the Hewlett-Packard Garage, where the tech company was founded.

There was an era when the cavernous structure, one of three hangars at Moffett Field between Mountain View and Sunnyvale, had the attention it deserved. Inside its historic wooden walls, generations of proud servicemembers moored and maintained the aircraft that defended us from predators.

But time has overtaken Hangar 3. Built during World War II, the blimp hangar has long stood idle and empty. Decaying and dangerous, it would cost a fortune to fix.

Its death has been years in the planning, but now it is time. Demolition is systematic and controlled, slicing the building from north to south. A quicker strategy, using explosives, could stress adjacent structures. It will be gone by next March.

“There is a deep sense of loss,” said Jonathan Ikan, cultural resources manager at NASA Ames Research Center, which owns and operates Moffett Field. “It has had, and will always have, an everlasting mark on our history.”

Hangar 3 and its two siblings have been a famed part of the Peninsula’s landscape, punctuating the eastern horizon like giant gray anvils. Hangar 1 is easily viewed from Highway 101; Hangars 2 and 3, more distant, are best seen from the public Golf Club at Moffett Field.

Built in response to the escalating war in Europe, they are among a handful of surviving U.S. blimp hangars — and are among the largest free-standing wood structures in the world.

Moffett’s largest and oldest, massive Hangar 1, was built with steel framing in 1933. Hangars 2 and 3, built between 1942 and 1943, are both wood framed and more vulnerable. As part of Google’s deal with NASA to lease parts of the facility, the company is restoring Hangars 1 and 2 for use in private projects.

Once Hangar 3 is leveled, only five of the original 17 hangars nationwide will remain, said NASA historian James Anderson. Last November, a Tustin-based hangar ignited with such fury that firefighters just let it burn.

The news hit hard in Hangar 3’s close-knit community of veterans, now retired and scattered across the United States, who are connecting online to share photos and memories of a place that irrevocably changed their lives.

They are sharing painful memories of friends who died in the skies, and the relief of watching others return safely. Inside Hangar 3, murals of each squadron’s mascot — a marlin, a black cat, a phoenix, and more — were proudly painted on walls.

They recall winds so fierce that once a giant door blew down, damaging a plane and crushing a truck. An earthquake so strong that it triggered waves, like water, across the concrete floor. An oxygen tank that exploded, soared through the air and pierced a hangar wall.

Aviator Larry Beck was on duty on August 5, 1962, the day actress Marilyn Monroe died. “Somehow people got the notion it was a security threat,” he wrote. “We were inundated with phone calls.”

Hectic during the day, Hangar 3 could feel haunted at night. There were owls in the rafters — and a visiting fox.

“It was an awesome place to work,” said 68-year-old John Arthur Davis, of Klamath Falls, Oregon, who cared for the wheels, bearings and tires of surveillance aircraft Lockheed P-3 Orions. When on midnight “hangar watch,” he would pedal the vast perimeter in the dark on his bicycle.

Chris Oman, 77, of Grants Pass, Oregon, a field engineer for the hangar’s Lockheed P-3 Orions in the 1980s, feels “a lot of nostalgia. It served a really special time in history for the San Francisco Bay Area.”

“It felt like family. There was camaraderie there,” said Charles Marotta, 71, of Las Vegas, a medical corpsman who tended to Hangar 3’s sick and injured. “We got them ready to go. We got them fixed when they came back.”

Hangar 3 was built in a hurry, without rigorous research and testing, according to NASA historian James Anderson. The United States desperately needed blimps to conduct submarine surveillance operations along the Pacific Coast.

The original plan called for Hangar 3 to be made of steel, like Hangar 1. But metal was needed for shipbuilding and weapons.

So, instead, it was built of less durable wood. More than 50 arches of Douglas fir, like a giant rib cage, were curved to accommodate the giant blimps.

The size of six football fields, Hangar 3 could house six to 12 aircraft. Flared outer walls provided space for offices, a lab, a shop and storage.

Huge 121-foot-tall doors, rumored to be resistant to nuclear blast, rolled on rails.  A pair of catwalks, 15 stories high, provided access to vast upper reaches.

“It was so big that it would have its own fog up there,” recalled Davis. When a cold front rolled through, “it would drizzle inside.”

After the war, the blimps were replaced by Military Air Transport Service planes, whose mission was to deliver cargo, personnel and mail to armed forces across the globe.

The Cold War brought new responsibilities. Part of Moffett Field’s so-called “Orion University,” it housed P-3 Orion patrol squadrons, which flew long, slow and low missions in search of Pacific threats.

“The job was to keep watch over the Soviet navy — both their surface ships and, especially, their submarines,” said retired Captain Tom Spink, board chair for the Moffett Field Museum.

It later housed C-121 Super G Lockheed Constellations, which transported military personnel and their families, then Lockheed C-130 Hercules, which moved cargo. The routes went to Pacific Island nations, as well as the Philippines, Japan, South Vietnam, Thailand, India, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia — “very interesting places,” recalled retired pilot and Navy Lieutenant Glenn Cribbs, now 87, of Hollister.

One of its last roles was to provide around-the-clock mechanical support to the 129th California Air National Guard.

“The place was busy 24 hours, seven days a week. There were always planes that needed maintaining,” said 57-year-old Tony Divito of Burlingame, who worked on planes’ weapons systems. “We were never closed.”

The beginning of the end came with the 1990 Base Closure Act when Moffett Field was shut down to save money. The Navy transferred the hangars to NASA, which then leased them to Google subsidiary Planetary Ventures.

Hangar 3 has outlived its design lifespan, said NASA’s Trina Meiser, an architectural historian. Even when young, it needed work, such as a new roof, stronger trusses and bracing.

Despite such efforts, its roof sagged. Timbers fell on the hangar deck. Air conditioners and heaters quit working. During storms, the floor needed mopping.

“The thing that got me the most was the two to three inches of wood splinters and dust” atop offices and catwalks, recalled fire inspector Rick Say, 68, of Union, Washington. “If any little spark happened, the whole thing could go up.”

For several years, Google tried to slow its decay.

“But shoring would be installed for one location and then damage would happen in another location,” said Andres Estrada, Ames environmental protection specialist. “It became this progressive problem.”

Officials gave in to despair. In a report, NASA concluded that repairs would be “extensive, undefinable, and cost-prohibitive.” Hangar 3’s last resident was the National Guard’s engine shop.

“Finally the word came out that it just was not possible to save it,” said Spink.

“It’s going to be really hard when it all comes down,” he said. “We’re going to have to raise a glass to Hangar 3.”

Learn more about Hangar 3’s legacy at NASA’s new educational website: https://historicproperties.arc.nasa.gov/h3historysite/initial/

It is Disneyland…for kittens. They’re racing in a wheel, climbing towers and playing hide-and-seek inside tunnels.

On this rainy Saturday in May, over 40 cat lovers made a reservation and paid $15 to attend the grand opening of an unusual San Jose venue in the Cambrian Park Plaza — the Itty Bitty Orphan Kitty Rescue Cafe, known as IBOK.

“It’s been something I’ve wanted to do for a long time,” said Laurie Melo, co-founder and president. “We hope that this cafe will give the kittens a chance to find their forever home.”

For Melo, it’s an urgent mission. Melo hopes that the cafe will help save lives by raising additional funds to support rescues.

Since IBOK’s founding over  20 years ago, it’s expanded from adoptions to placing pairs of kittens in foster homes. “The main goal of IBOK rescue has always been to find loving forever homes,” Melo said.

Customers slipped off their shoes before entering the two-room cafe as kittens zoom underfoot, some so tiny that they fit into the palm of a hand. The cafe offers a range of drinks, including teas, apple juice and coffee but the star attraction was kittens.

Each playroom is uniquely decorated with illustrations of cats, futon couches and toys.  At feeding time, kittens paused from playing while others napped after the first few adventurous hours.

This cafe, located at 14420 Union Ave. in San Jose, is open on weekends from 12 to 6 p.m., accepting walk-ins and room reservations, $10 for children ages 5–11 and $15 for those older than 12 years old.

Behind the cozy atmosphere lies a tale of compassion and dedication. Itty Bitty grew out of  a chance rescue by a creek in 2002 . Melo and her husband Luis Melo had been volunteering at animal rescues, helping to socialize and care for animals.

In the spring of 2002, one of the groups discovered a litter of kittens by a creek in San Jose and asked Melo to temporarily care for them. Bottle feeding the abandoned kittens sparked her passion for saving newborn litters.

She initially created the Itty Bitty Orphan Kitty volunteer group that helps rescue newborn kittens, nurture them, find them a foster family and, if possible, a forever family in Santa Clara County.

Unlike other rescue organizations, IBOK focuses on caring for and finding homes for pairs of abandoned kittens.

Melo and Melissa Lisbon created the Facebook group  “Save a Kitten” to gain followers and overall support for moving kittens out of adoption centers and into homes. Currently, Itty Bitty has about 47 foster kitty caregivers for over 60 kitties.

The inspiration for the cafe took shape two months ago. Melo set out to find a larger space for IBOK where people could socialize with the kittens without any commitment to adopting them and she had support.

“I have a new board with more ideas,” said Melo, who was surprised when she quickly secured a lease for the space.The group has raised $10,000 through  a GoFundMe campaign to buy cat beds, litter boxes, food, pet tunnels and other necessities for the cat cafe.

Since opening day, the cafe has been completely sold out resulting in nine pairs being adopted. “It’s been an incredible three weeks. Our guests are happy and really enjoying the experience,” Melo said.

Jennifer Philips, a San Jose resident, found her new kittens at the cafe.  “IBOK is a wonderful kitten rescue agency and the addition of a kitty cafe is a lovely idea,” Philips said.

After her previous cats died, she started searching for a bonded pair of kittens and came across IBOK’s cafe. She visited the cafe twice: the first time to bond and solidify a decision and the second to meet the pair’s foster mom.

“This provides kittens a chance to socialize with humans, future adopters a chance to meet and interact with kittens they may want to adopt,” Phillips said. Even if visitors aren’t looking to adopt, she said, the cafe still offers an opportunity for play and snuggle time with a room full of adorable little fur balls and also to donate to IBOK.

Rashel Naranjo Arellano is a sophomore at Eastside College Preparatory School in East Palo Alto.

Then finally, she was handed a lifeline.

The family moved into a Sunnyvale apartment in 2020 owned by Aresa Properties — whose mission is to provide housing to low-income families on their property sites and is creating affordable ADUs, also known as in-law units or backyard homes, in the city and elsewhere.

“It’s important to be able to give people a place to call home,” Inukihaangana said Friday, surrounded by Aresa Properties owners, their supporters and local leaders to celebrate the opening of their first ADU at Helen Avenue, located north of El Camino Real.

Three other ADUs are in the works at Aresa’s existing properties around the city and another will come to West San Jose in 2025, according to Teresa Agustin, principal partner at the company. They partner with local housing agencies — including Santa Clara County Housing Authority, Life Moves and Sunnyvale Community Services — to find families in need to fill their units. The company especially has a soft spot for single mothers with young kids.

“We believe stable housing can help minimize trauma for children and youth,” Agustin said. “They can focus on their education and ultimately change the trajectory of their future in a positive way.”

The market price for a Sunnyvale duplex like Helen Avenue’s, which is a one-bedroom that can fit two to three people, is around $2,600. Aresa works with the agencies and individual families to negotiate a price that works for them, Agustin said.

The units are becoming popular building options for Californians. In 2023, one out of every five homes built in the state was an ADU, according to recently released state data. Only three years ago, they represented one in every 10 new units.

Aresa Properties CEO Arman Bashi said he encourages other landlord to build ADUs for local low-income families to help the region’s growing housing crisis.

“We want people to see that they can be done, and that it can be successful for both parties,” Bashi said Friday.

The California state Legislature previously passed several bills lowering barriers to building ADUs to encourage more housing projects. AB 68, which passed in 2019, sped up the approval process from 120 days to 60 and prohibited local officials from imposing requirements around lot size and parking. AB 881 passed the next year and prevented cities from requiring owners to live on the property, opening up the possibility for landlords to build rental ADUs.

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors recently allowed residents two sets of pre-approved plans for building ADUs on their residential property by the end of the year. The streamlined process is intended to open up more affordable housing in the region, according to District 3 County Supervisor Otto Lee.

Nearby, the City of Milpitas has also launched a program to speed up the ADU permitting process. In Walnut Creek, the City Council approved amendments to the city’s ADU ordinance allowing religious leaders to help residents struggling to secure affordable housing.

“There’s no one silver bullet to solve the problem,” Lee said Friday. “But having ADUs can help us.”

“It is going to be illuminated and it’s gorgeous,” Kolette Simonton, the city’s director of recreation, said of the city block-letter sign. “Just to see the word ‘Pittsburg,’ it means a lot. For Pittsburg people, we stand tall and proud.”

Interactive 3D signs bearing city names have long been common in tourist destinations, but in the age of social media, smaller cities like Pittsburg also are beginning to see the branding value of such signs to inspire civic pride. City leaders are hoping people will take photos by the sign and post them, helping to spread the word about their town.

“It’s gonna be one of those monuments that’s going to be here forever,” Simonton said. “It’s going to be the one where each graduating class is probably going to go there to take pictures.”

They also might want to take photos at the city’s new “Old Town Pittsburg” gateway sign being installed this week in the downtown, the first such sign since the 1950s.

Funding for the $3.3 million beautification and sign projects comes from a $2.9 million Caltrans’ Clean California Local Grant Program, which will also cover the costs of the parklet where the block-letter sign is being mounted, street landscaping and other beautification work. The grant, awarded in 2022, required a match of $413,137, which the city got from American Rescue Plan funds.

The awards are part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Clean California Initiative, a $1.1 billion multi-year cleanup effort led by Caltrans that aims to remove trash, create jobs and transform public spaces.

Dubbed “The Reviving the Heart of Pittsburg Pride,” the Pittsburg beautification project aims to revitalize “the pride of people to take ownership and to stop littering,” project manager Zuna Barker Portillo said.

“The goal is for us to care about the surrounding areas,” she said.

Nearly complete, the block-letter sign and base, which cost $325,000, is located on what was long an empty lot at 1595 Railroad Ave., where a new pocket park with walkways and benches is now being built. Barker Portillo said the city chose the location because of its proximity to the high school, which is only a block away.

Gates and Associates of Walnut Creek designed both signs, the parklet and some dry-creek landscaping along Railroad Avenue after getting input through surveys of residents on the beautification projects.

Designed after the Pismo Beach seaside block-letter sign, the 3D Pittsburg sign with 6-foot-tall letters will be illuminated at night, though the silhouette of the letters will be orange and black, same as the high school’s colors, according to Barker Portillo.

City staff will have the ability to change the colors of the lights depending on the season or occasion, she said.

“The idea of the entire project is just taking ownership and pride of the city,” she said.

Down the road at Railroad Avenue and Eighth Street, the new $350,000 gateway sign also offers photo opportunities. Nearly completed, the sign features white “Old Town Pittsburg” letters set on an orange metal archway stretching across Railroad Avenue with colorful porcelain panels attached to concrete columns at each side. The panels, inspired by images from the Pittsburg Historical Society Museum, show the former U.S. Steel plant – once the city’s largest private employer — the marina, Mt. Diablo and the award-winning Pittsburg High School Marching Band.

“The design was inspired by the community,” the project manager said, noting the city sought input at events and on social media.

The city is planning a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the gateway sign at 5:30 p.m. on June 13 to celebrate the entire beautification project. A car show with live music by Bob Kinney and the Livin’ Daylites will follow.

The modern 2,696-square-foot home has three bedrooms and three bathrooms. The kitchen is fit for a professional chef with two industrial sized faucets and a butcher block workspace. The primary bedroom has lavish updates including a walk-in rain shower and jetted tub. Or step outside onto the adjacent patio to soak in the hot tub. The home’s two decks also offer stunning bay views.

There is plenty of room to entertain or relax on the lush sprawling 12,393-square-foot lot. It’s something that McKee, a Sonoma County native, could appreciate:

“I think the thing I enjoyed the most was simply to sit outside on the front porch and watch the sun set behind the San Francisco skyline as the red tail hawks left their perches for the day and were replaced by the great horned owls that call to each other into the night,” he wrote in a release.

He says he has made memories at the property he will always treasure. “From recording segments for cooking shows with Ming Tsai and Paris Hilton in the professional quality kitchen, rolling out dough on the butcher board counter tops, to composing music with the doors open to a refreshing breeze, enjoying the quiet solitude of a dead end road in the hills, there have been so many things that I look back on with fondness.”

Sharon Ho with Compass holds the listing.

Imagine Dragons is one of the world’s best-selling music artists and the first rock band to have four songs — “Radioactive,” “Demons,” “Believer,” and “Thunder” — surpass 1 billion streams each.

Councilmember Omar Torres has crafted a memo that, if approved by a key San Jose panel, would clear the way for a City Council study session to delve into how blight afflicts numerous properties around the city.

“The City Council will learn what happened over the last several years that led to historically abandoned and neglected buildings staying in their current state and what direction (city staff) received from various departments,” stated the memo.

An abandoned historic church and a fire-scorched old hotel in downtown San Jose are just a few of the problem spots, according to an array of political and business leaders in the city.

“When I came into office, I received numerous complaints from residents regarding historically neglected and blighted buildings,” Torres said.

The complaints were widespread enough that they alarmed the councilmember, who began to seek ways to combat the blight.

Torres enlisted the support of Mayor Matt Mahan, along with councilmembers Pam Foley and Sergio Jimenez, in efforts to tackle the problem.

The next official step in the process is to gain the approval of a key San Jose city panel for a full-fledged information-gathering effort.

“I submitted a memorandum to the Rules Committee, along with Mayor Mahan, Councilmember Foley, and Councilmember Jimenez, asking for a study session to understand the process for getting these buildings into compliance and identify where the breakdowns occur,” Torres said.

While blighted buildings – and even large sections of blocks – can be found in multiple sections of San Jose, two of the most notorious examples of neglect haunt the city’s downtown, which is battling to rebound from the economic maladies arising from the coronavirus pandemic.

In January 2021, a fire scorched and gutted the old Lawrence Hotel at 71-81 East San Fernando St.

More than three years after the disastrous fire, no work has occurred to repair the damage or preserve the remnants of the hotel, which was constructed well over a century ago in 1893.

The First Church of Christ Scientist building at 43 East St. James St. is seen by neighbors as an eyesore as it sits neglected next to a weed-choked field.

An affiliate of China-based Z&L Properties owns the site and has proposed a project to salvage and restore the historic church as part of a development of two housing towers. But the company has failed to renovate or restore the church and has yet to break ground on the towers.

Mahan, who has joined forces with Torres in the fight against blight, referenced the blight problems in his budget message.

“I want to see us do a complete review and overhaul of the code enforcement process,” Mahan said. “The fact that we have over 4,000 code enforcement cases in the backlog is unacceptable.”

The assessment of code enforcement efforts should be wide ranging, according to Bob Staedler, principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy, a land-use consultancy.

“This is the right time to have a broader discussion on blight,” Staedler said. “Code enforcement needs to be independent and have the tools needed for this important work.”

Jim Salata, a construction executive and San Jose commercial property owner, worked with subcontractor BrandSafway to attempt to address some of the problems at the historic church.

Last summer, the Salata-led crew patched up the rooftop dome, removed a tattered tarp and cleaned up small bits of plastic that would have become a pollution threat during the rainy season.

Since then, the city has not taken any major steps to ensure the protection and renovation of the old church, or to force the Z&L Properties affiliate to keep the site up to code.

“The city is not doing its job,” Salata said. “Why doesn’t the city levy fines? They say there’s not enough staff. But there are too many excuses about why they can’t do the job.”

Years after the fire at the Lawrence Hotel, the structure, which survived the monster earthquakes of 1906 and 1989, is fenced off with its second floor gutted and open to the sky.

“The Lawrence Hotel is a burned-out hulk for more than three years now,” Salata said.

San Mateo-based Eagle Hills Property I LLC, whose principal officer is Bay Area real estate executive Kevin Louie, owns the Lawrence Hotel site.

Salata’s big concern is that the problems extend well beyond downtown San Jose and these two buildings.

At 552 South Bascom Ave. near Interstate 280, the historic Burbank Cinema movie theater lingers in years-long disuse, with no final decision on its fate. The “C” in the Cinema on the sign hangs loose and swings in the wind. Below the sign, a camp bed and an office chair flank the shuttered entrance. Graffiti mars the walls of the well-known building.

Across the street, at 534 South Bascom, an entire strip mall has been emptied out, boarded up and fenced off. In 2014, a Mexican market and taqueria, toys and collectibles outlet, comic book store, dry cleaners, and a kids and baby store operated at the retail center. Parking was tough to find.

But by 2015, a chain link fence blocked access to the empty commercial complex, a review of Google Street View’s history shows.

City leaders and municipal staffers must step up to make progress in the battle against blight, in the view of Torres.

“I want to thank Jim Salata for taking the initiative to help First Church of Christ Scientist, formerly known as ‘the trash bag church’,” Torres said. “However, it should not fall to individuals to improve our city. Our city needs to be proactive and hold property owners responsible.”

The development company N17 proposed the massive new development. To get approval for its project, the company is invoking a provision of state law called the builder’s remedy, which allows developers to propose projects that exceed local zoning in cities that lack a state-approved housing element, so long as 20% of the homes in the development are deemed affordable. Menlo Park did not have an approved housing element between January 2023 and March 2024, allowing N17 to propose its initial plan in July 2023.

To meet the requirements of the builder’s remedy, 133 homes in Willow Park will be offered to those making up to 80% of the area median income, “making much needed strides to help provide stable, affordable homes for low-income residents,” N17 stated in a press release.

Those making 80% of the area median income in Menlo Park would hardly be considered “low-income” though. The median household income is $145,388 in San Mateo County, meaning that a household making an income of $116,304 could meet the threshold for one of the apartments.

“As a local resident, I have a vested interest in helping the community grow in a way that matches the needs of today’s Californians,” said N17 Founder Oisín Heneghan in the release. “While the magazine offices were an appropriate land use when it was constructed in 1951 and the population of California was one-fifth of what it is now, today people need and deserve housing in prime locations, not vacant office buildings or long commutes. California’s housing crisis requires all of us to embrace change.”

The development has changed shape several times since it was first announced in July 2023. At the time, N17 envisioned a 328-foot tower with over 20 stories. Then, in December, a new proposal showed three towers with 805 housing units grouped across three buildings.

The property’s owners are a group whose principal executives include Vitaly Yusufov, son of a former top Russian government official with close ties to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, the New York Times reported in 2019. Operating as Willow Project LLC, they bought the former Sunset Magazine site for $72 million in 2018, according to documents on file with the San Mateo County Recorder’s Office. The purchase was an all-cash transaction, the county files show.

Sunset Magazine left the Menlo Park site several years ago, saying in 2015 that it would relocate to Oakland’s Jack London Square.

Knott’s Berry Farm will celebrate the 90th Anniversary of Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant with a series of fried chicken feasts that stretch from Memorial Day Weekend to New Year’s Day.

“We just stuck with what Cordelia Knott did because that makes us unique,” Knott’s Marketplace director Melissa Laviano said. “We haven’t changed the recipe. None of it’s changed. It’s all the same. It’s the same recipe that we’ve carried on this whole time.”

Cordelia Knott served her now famous country-fried chicken for the first time on June 13, 1934 at the family’s roadside produce market to make ends meet during the Great Depression.

The Knott’s Berry Place market sold fruit and plants next to a small tea room where Cordelia offered sandwiches and hot biscuits along with homemade pies and preserves made from the family farm’s signature boysenberries.

While the pies and jams proved popular, it was the 65-cent chicken dinners served on Cordelia’s wedding china that put Knott’s Berry Place on the map and brought Depression Era diners flocking to the farm in droves.

Cordelia’s first fried chicken dinners were served with a salad, side of rhubarb, mashed potatoes with gravy, biscuits and a slice of berry pie.

As word spread, customers were soon waiting up to three hours in line to get a plate.

Cordelia’s tea room quickly grew from 20 seats to 40 and then 70 before expanding to a full-fledged restaurant with room for 350 people.

But the lines didn’t get any shorter. The crowds kept coming.

Those long lines convinced Walter Knott to build novelties and amusements to entertain the crowds while they waited for his wife’s fried chicken.

Walter built a rock garden with a waterfall and then a replica of George Washington’s fireplace from Mount Vernon. Then he started thinking bigger.

Construction began in 1940 on what would become Calico Ghost Town — which still serves as the heart of Knott’s Berry Farm today.

Walter bought pieces of old Wild West buildings and used them to build a sheriff’s office, barbershop and hotel. Actors were hired to populate the faux Western town and amuse the diners.

Soon people were coming as much for Walter’s ghost town as Cordelia’s fried chicken. A loudspeaker system was installed to call diners back to the restaurant when it was time for their reservation.

In the 1950s, the Calico Saloon, Ghost Town & Calico Railroad and Bird Cage Theatre were added to entertain the growing restaurant crowds. In the 1960s, the first true theme park attractions were introduced with the Calico Mine Ride and Timber Mountain Log Ride.

By 1968, Knott’s Berry Farm was enclosed and the new theme park began charging a $1 entrance fee. Today, what began as a roadside berry stand and chicken dinner restaurant attracts 3.9 million visitors a year to one of the nation’s largest theme parks with more than 40 rides and shows.

In the coming months, Knott’s is poised to become the flagship park in an $8 billion merger that would combine Cedar Fair and Six Flags into a North American amusement park juggernaut.

And to think it all started with a 65-cent fried chicken dinner dreamed up by Cordelia Knott as a way to make ends meet during the Great Depression.

Today, Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant serves 2,500 fried chickens on a busy weekend and up to 2 million pounds of chicken per year. The eatery bills itself as the world’s largest, full service, single location chicken restaurant with seating for nearly 900 people.

“We have guests that have been coming for 40 or 50 years,” Laviano said during an interview at the restaurant. “I love when they say, ‘It tastes like I remember when I came with my great grandma or when my parents brought me here.’ Now they’re bringing the next generation of their family and they want that same taste. You might not remember what the place looked like, but you remember how that chicken tasted or made you feel.”

Obviously, chicken dinners don’t cost 65 cents anymore.

Today, Mrs. Knott’s chicken dinner runs $20 at lunch for two pieces with mashed potatoes and gravy, biscuits and a side that still includes a rhubarb option. Dinner comes with four pieces of chicken and a slice of pie for $26.50.

After 90 years, there’s more than just fried chicken on the menu. Mrs. Knott’s offers other burgers, pasta, fish, BBQ pork and steak — but 90% of the customers still order chicken.

You can get your chicken fried, roasted, with waffles or dumplings, as tenders, wings or on a slider, in a pot pie and even as a plant-based chik’n.

“You’ve got to stay up with the trends and the fads if you still want guests to come in and come back,” Laviano said.

The long lines of the past were replaced by a reservation system in 2016 with a virtual queue that can stretch to two hours on busy weekends.

“Guests come in and they’re like, ‘Where’s the line?’” Laviano said. “I’m like, ‘Well, it’s virtual now.’ We’ll put you on our waitlist and we’ll reach out to you via text.”

The restaurant has a celebrity following that includes Nicolas Cage, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr., Mel Gibson and Tiffany Haddish.

No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani has been coming to Mrs. Knott’s restaurant for years — and now brings husband Blake Shelton along for the feast.

In the 1990s, the park experimented with Mrs. Knott’s Restaurant and Bakery locations in Irvine, Rancho Cucamonga and Moreno Valley — but they’re all closed now.

There used to be a few spots throughout the theme park where you could grab fried chicken, but now you’ve got to head over to CDR if you want to satisfy the urge.

Throughout the rest of 2024, the restaurant just outside the theme park front gates will offer a Berry Family Breakfast during the summer, a Midnight Breakfast Buffet during Knott’s Scary Farm, Cordelia’s Tea Party during the Thanksgiving season and Santa’s Breakfast during Knott’s Merry Farm.