Los Gatos has launched plans to make the town a festive hotspot for locals, while detouring cut-through traffic away from downtown.

Starting on Memorial Day, the town will close South Santa Cruz Avenue at Wood Road, effectively stopping beach-bound drivers from using downtown Los Gatos as a cut-through to southbound Highway 17. The Saturday, Sunday and holiday closures continue through Labor Day weekend.

The closures will be in effect from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Northbound traffic on Highway 17 will still be able to exit at South Santa Cruz and head downtown, parks and public works director Matt Morley said.

On April 4, the town council approved spending up to $300,000 to set up a traffic control circle at South Santa Cruz and Wood Road, and to collect data and pay staff overtime.

The town will likely use traditional and social media outlets to notify the visiting public about the Los Gatos closures, and app providers Apple, Google and Waze will be alerted to the change.

“I think our lessons learned from last year were that Apple and Google are a little bit more difficult to connect with, and so we’ll work hard to get that information (to them) early so they have that and can add it to their maps,” Morley said. “Last year, they added it to the mapping program, so that it shows up during the hours that the streets are closed and that helps tremendously. Waze is a little easier. We actually have access to program the closures ourselves, so we can put those in proactively and make sure that they’re in there and stay there.”

Drivers will be allowed to turn right from Highway 9 onto Massol and Tait avenues, Morley said, but if traffic starts piling up in the Almond Grove neighborhood those streets can easily be closed on summer weekends, Morley said.

Event Plans

To further discourage cut-through traffic, the town plans to hold a variety of events at the Town Plaza this summer, including a July 1 “Red, White and Blue Block Party.”

And the annual Fiesta de Artes art and wine show will be held downtown Aug. 12-13, instead of at the civic center.

The first big downtown event is “Spring into Green” on April 23 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Town Plaza, corner of North Santa Cruz and Main Street. It’s really Earth Day, Arbor Day and Keep Los Gatos Beautiful Month rolled into one.

“It’s a kick-start to spring and summer,” Mayor Marico Sayoc said. “We’ve tried to think of everything we can to make it a family-friendly event.”

There will be lots of free children’s activities, from a rock climbing wall to face painting and a photo booth.

“We’ll have a Mother Nature character and Smokey the Bear, so kids can come and have photos taken with them,” organizer Shelayne Hammack said. “The whole event is environmentally focused. Our goal is to bring in sustainability partners to celebrate the environment and Earth Day.”

An Arbor Day tree planting ceremony is scheduled for 11:30 a.m., which coincides with Sayoc’s State of the Town address. Before coming to Los Gatos, Sayoc worked in Washington, D.C. for the EPA and the Natural Resources Defense Council, so she said the natural setting complements her background.

“I’ll be emphasizing that we as a community are responsible for our successes, so I’ll emphasize our accomplishments and talk about what we’re working on,” Sayoc said. “If there are some commission members there, I’ll introduce them to the community, so the community knows who’s working on town issues.”

It’s also a fun event, the mayor said, with a host of organizations participating. They include Happy Hollow Park & Zoo, Youth Science Institute, Girl Scouts, county parks and Silicon Valley Clean Energy.

The fire department will be on hand, too, and Goodwill plans to have a trailer to collect donations.

The band Hootenanny! performs throughout the event, and the Farmers’ Market will be open as well.

A complete list of participants and activities for the spring event is available at losgatosca.gov, or call 408-354-6834 for more information.