02-18-21 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
FEBRUARY 18, 2021
The General Plan Update Advisory Committee of the Town of Los Gatos conducted a Regular
Meeting on February 18, 2021, at 7:00 p.m., via teleconference.
This meeting was conducted utilizing teleconferencing and electronic means consistent with
State of California Executive Order N-29-20 dated March 17, 2020, regarding the COVID-19
pandemic and was conducted via Zoom. All committee members and staff participated from
remote locations and all voting was conducted via roll call vote. In accordance with Execut ive
Order N-29-20, the public could only view the meeting online and not in the Council Chamber.
MEETING CALLED TO ORDER AT 7:00 P.M.
ROLL CALL
Present: Chair Melanie Hanssen, Vice Chair Kathryn Janoff, Council Member Mary Badame,
Council Member Maria Ristow, Committee Member Joseph Mannina, Committee Member
Steven Piasecki, Committee Member Ryan Rosenberg, Committee Member Emily Thomas, and
Committee Member Lee Quintana.
Absent: Committee Member Susan Moore Brown, Committee Member Todd Jarvis, and
Committee Member Carol Elias Zolla.
Staff present: Jennifer Armer, Joel Paulson, Laurel Prevetti, Matt Morley, Sally Zarnowitz, and
Rob Schultz.
VERBAL COMMUNICATIONS
None.
CONSENT ITEMS (TO BE ACTED UPON BY A SINGLE MOTION)
1. Approval of Minutes – January 7, 2021
2. Approval of Minutes – January 21, 2021
3. Approval of Minutes – February 4, 2021
MOTION: Motion by Council Member Badame to approve Consent Items.
Seconded by Committee Member Mannina.
VOTE: Motion passed 8-0-1 with Committee Member Thomas abstaining.
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DISCUSSION ITEMS
4. Revised Initial Draft of the Community Design Element.
Jennifer Armer, Senior Planner, presented the staff report.
Open and Closed Public Comment.
Committee discussed the matter and provided the following comments and direction:
- Variety and diversity of styles is ok in most areas in Town, as long as neighborhoods
are cohesive; the primary issue is mass and scale.
- Add “high quality and inclusive living environment” to Goal CD-1.
- Inclusivity/welcoming should be included in Policy CD-1.3.
- Start Policy CD-1.4 at “Enhance…” (delete “Preserve, protect, and”), and change title
to “Enhance Neighborhood Character.”
- Consider adding a definition of Livability and include sustainability and resilience in
the definition.
- Remove “protect and preserve” throughout the General Plan as appropriate in goals,
policies, and introductory/description sections, use “enhance” or similar wording.
- Consider changing the title of Section 4.1 to better reflect new goal/policies, maybe
“Neighborhood Cohesiveness.”
- Consider an implementation measure under Section 4.2 to consider a form based
code.
- Reduce the number of policies in Section 4.2 to one or two under each topic.
Policies that duplicate content in existing guideline documents can be removed.
- Remove more objective details in order to reduce length of Element, for example
percentage in Policy CD-2.3 and amount of open space in Policy CD-2.36, but retain
draft language so that they can be incorporated into future Zoning or guidelines
document updates.
- Policy CD-2.3 should be about activating the street in commercial zones.
- Introduction to Community Form should reference the existing design guideline
documents.
- Policy CD-2.6 – Remove “while acknowledging the different programmatic and
design considerations for private sides.”
- Could combine CD-2.35 and 2.36 with something like “we encourage balconies and
ground floor open space.”
- Remove objective language in CD-2.36, but discuss the size of open space in
updating of Zoning Code.
- Keep most of the images, or relocate to Key Terms, as appropriate.
- Community Place Districts should not have special signage.
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- There is too much signage in “Community Identity and Gateways” section. Consider
retaining some policies, possibly CD-2.58, CD-2.60, and CD-2.68, but others could be
removed.
- Goal CD-2 mentions sustainable design principles, but there weren’t sustainable
design principals incorporated in the policies.
- Next meeting will start with a discussion of Section 4.3 (page 4-24).
The next GPAC meeting will be on Thursday, March 4, 2021.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 9:09 p.m.
This is to certify that the foregoing is a true
and correct copy of the minutes of the
February 18, 2021 meeting as approved by the
General Plan Update Advisory Committee.
/s/Joel Paulson, Director of Community Development