03-05-20 Minutes - GPAC
110 E. Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 ● 408-354-6832
www.losgatosca.gov
TOWN OF LOS GATOS
GENERAL PLAN UPDATE
ADVISORY COMMITTEE REPORT
MINUTES OF THE GENERAL PLAN UPDATE ADVISORY COMMITTEE
SPECIAL MEETING
MARCH 5, 2020
The General Plan Update Advisory Committee of the Town of Los Gatos conducted a Special
Meeting on March 5, 2020, at 7:30 p.m.
MEETING CALLED TO ORDER AT 7:30 P.M.
ROLL CALL
Present: Chair Melanie Hanssen, Vice Chair Kathryn Janoff, Vice Mayor Barbara Spector,
Committee Member Kendra Burch, Committee Member Todd Jarvis, Committee Member
Steven Piasecki, Committee Member Ryan Rosenberg, and Committee Member Lee Quintana.
Absent: Mayor Marcia Jensen, Committee Member Susan Moore Brown, Committee Member
Carol Elias Zolla.
Staff present: Jennifer Armer, Joel Paulson, Laurel Prevetti, Rob Schultz, and Matt Morley.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Committee Member Ryan Rosenberg led the Pledge of Allegiance. The audience was invited to
participate.
VERBAL COMMUNICATIONS
None.
CONSENT ITEMS (TO BE ACTED UPON BY A SINGLE MOTION)
1. Approval of Minutes – January 30, 2020
MOTION: Motion by Vice Mayor Spector to approve Consent Item with one
modification. Seconded by Committee Member Rosenberg
VOTE: Motion passed unanimously.
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SUBJECT: MINUTES OF GENERAL PLAN UPDATE ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON MARCH 5,
2020
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DISCUSSION ITEMS
2. Review and Discussion of the Initial Draft of the Open Space, Parks, and Recreation
Element
Jennifer Armer, Senior Planner, presented the staff report.
Rick Rust of Mintier Harnish, spoke about the process for reviewing and revising the
goals, policies, and implementation programs.
Open and Closed Public Comment.
Committee further discussed the matter and provided the following comments and
direction:
- Provide clarification of terms, for example the difference between “open space
preserves” and “open space areas.”
- Provide references to information available in the Background Report, where
applicable, for example, Background Report Figure 6.3-3, Park Service Areas,
which shows areas of Town that are not within half a mile of an existing park.
- Provide references to other elements when a policy includes topics that are
discussed further elsewhere in the General Plan.
- Improve language used in goals, policies, and implementation programs for
simplicity and consistency. For example, the language in Goal OSP-1 has action
words, rather than a statement of the final goal.
- Consolidate policies where repetition and overlap occurs, both in this element
and in future elements prior to GPAC review. For example, OSP-4.2, OSP-4.5,
and OSP-4.9 are inconsistent and/or overlapping. Policies under Goal OSP-8
should be consolidated.
- Remove detailed information about existing parks and facilities that may change
over the 20-year life of this General Plan, and provide reference to information
in the Background Report instead.
- Add a new policy, possibly under OSP-3 and/or OSP-8 to increase distribution
and visibility of parks throughout Town and maintain the current ratio of park
area to Town population.
- Consider a new policy to support new parks in areas that don’t have parks within
half a mile.
- Goal OSP-2 should be simplified, consider deleting “open space.”
- In Policy OSP-1.2, delete “promote.”
- Delete Policy OSP-4.7, as it is no longer applicable to the Town.
- Convert Policy OSP-4.10 to an Implementation Program.
- Combine Goals OSP-5 and OSP-6.
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- Create a policy to address the Committee members’ concerns about the use of
paved areas, including driveways and private roads, to qualify as open space or
kids recreation areas. Possibly through an edit to Policy OSP-8.9.
- Delete Implementation Program K.
- Edit Implementation Program J to include information on accessibility or level of
difficulty.
- Consider changing the timeframe listed for Implementation Policy L.
- Add an Implementation Program to maintain an inventory of parks and open
space.
- Share the analysis in the desk item with the Parks Commission.
The next GPAC meeting will be on Thursday, March 19, 2020.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 9:06 p.m.
This is to certify that the foregoing is a true
and correct copy of the minutes of the
March 5, 2020 meeting as approved by the
General Plan Update Advisory Committee.
/s/Joel Paulson, Director of Community Development