Inappropriate height.
The Alma Bowl project has two 11-story towers. These will be across the street from one-story bungalows.You won't find residential high-rise towers like these anywhere else but downtown.

Inappropriate design.
Alma Bowl puts generic modern architecture in a turn-of-the-century neighborhood. Its neighborhood contains Craftsman, Colonial, Spanish and Victorian homes, and an elegant Mission-style church, but you'd never guess that from the developer's proposal.

Inappropriate use.
The Alma Bowl project is residential only. It takes the Tamien site which is best suited for commercial uses (the corner of Alma and Lick) and converts it to residential. Since other developers won't want to situate commercial in the middle of the block on Lick, this probably kills the idea of retail commercial at the Tamien Station, and thus kills the whole transit village concept.

Terrible parking burden on
surrounding streets.
The Alma Bowl project has only about 320 off-street parking spaces for residents - way fewer parking spaces than bedrooms (400). Hundreds of cars will seek parking on surrounding streets - which already are overburdened with cars. Neighborhood-friendly - not!

BACK TO ALMA BOWL CENTRAL