Emboldened by a new state law, the developer looking to renovate the former Antonio's Nut House building on Palo Alto's California Avenue has proposed revised plans that remove most parking spaces and expand its dining courtyard.

Hayes Group Architects, which is designing the project at 321 California Ave., received formal approval in October 2022 for its plan to demolish the building's rear addition and create a dining pavilion and a courtyard topped by a trellis.

The same month, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law Assembly Bill 2097, legislation authored by Assembly member Laura Friedman, D-Glendale, that eliminates parking requirements within a half mile of a transit station.

While the bill, which took effect on Jan. 1, 2023, was lauded by housing advocates for reducing the cost of building residential projects in transit-friendly areas, its provisions are equally applicable to commercial areas.

In advocating for the bill, Friedman argued that the legislation would allow property owners "to decide on their own how much on-site parking to provide, instead of requiring them to comply with a one-size-fits-all mandate," according to a report from the Legislative Analyst's Office.

In the case of the former Nut House building, which is a block from the California Avenue Caltrain station, the property owner is suggesting that it doesn't require much parking at all. Because of the legislation, the Nut House does not need to provide the parking spaces that it otherwise would have been required to include to meet the city's zoning code.

The previously approved application included 11 on-site spaces, an already significant reduction from the 31 that a restaurant of that size would normally be required to offer under the zoning code. The property owner met its obligation for another 18 spaces by paying into the California Avenue Parking Assessment District. Then city also granted its request to reduce the parking requirement by another two spaces in exchange for site upgrades that improve circulation or help meet waste-management objectives, bringing the parking requirement down from 13 to 11.

The new plan, which Hayes submitted on Oct. 16 on behalf of the property owner, Stormland LLC, eliminate most of the prior plan's off-street parking spaces. In invoking AB 2097, the amount of proposed parking is now zero, though the developer has agreed to include three spaces at the rear of the property, near Jacaranda Lane: one for a van, another for an electric vehicle and a third, between them, that would function as a loading zone.

The design of the restaurant was also revised to retain the 1969 building addition, which will no longer need to be demolished to make way for parking spaces. The plan also eliminates the dining pavilion that was included in the prior design. Now, the courtyard would be extended and covered with a larger trellis.

"The courtyard and trellis provide an open-air dining space located centrally to the existing building," architect Ken Hayes wrote in the new application. "A low, multilayered landscape wall circumscribes the courtyard, mediating the boundary between an active street and outdoor dining room."

As in the prior design, the renovated restaurant would include an outdoor lounge at the building's entrance in which guests could linger temporarily before moving on to the restaurant or courtyard, Hayes wrote to the city.

The existing building would also be repainted and refurbished, with worn-down stucco patched, Hayes wrote. The original entry into the building facing Birch Street would be in-filled with a frameless glass door and a narrow vertical window, he wrote. The plan also calls for replacing the doorway from California Avenue with a vestibule, also enclosed with frameless glass.

The building has been vacant since the Nut House — a popular bar and restaurant known for booze, bites, pool tables and abundant peanut shells — shut down in 2020 after 49 years of operation. Hayes noted in the application that a tenant has not yet been selected for the new restaurant.