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Item 2 - Desk Item and Attachments PREPARED BY: JENNIFER ARMER, AICP Senior Planner 110 E. Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 ● 408-354-6832 www.losgatosca.gov MEETING DATE: 03/18/2021 ITEM: 2 DESK ITEM TOWN OF LOS GATOS GENERAL PLAN UPDATE ADVISORY COMMITTEE REPORT DATE: March 18, 2021 TO: General Plan Update Advisory Committee FROM: Joel Paulson, Community Development Director SUBJECT: Review and Discussion of the Revised Initial Draft of the Community Design Element. REMARKS: Attachment 33 contains comments from a Committee Member. Attachment 34 includes a letter from the GPAC Chair with comments and direction for the meeting. ATTACHMENTS: Attachments previously received with the November 5, 2020 Staff Report: 1. June 11, 2020 Community Workshop and Online Survey Summary 2. Initial Draft of Land Use Element 3. Initial Draft of Community Design Element 4. Public Comment received by 11:00 a.m., Friday, October 30, 2020 Attachments previously received with November 5, 2020 Addendum: 5. Committee Member Comments 6. Public Comments received between 11:01 a.m., Friday, October 30, 2020 and 11:00 a.m., Wednesday, November 4, 2020 Attachment previously received with the November 5, 2020 Desk Item: 7. Committee Member Comments Attachments previously received with the November 19, 2020 Staff Report: 8. November 17, 2020 Town Council Staff Report with Attachments 1-7 9. Committee Member Comments PAGE 2 OF 3 SUBJECT: Revised Initial Draft of the Community Design Element March 18, 2021 N:\DEV\GPAC\GPAC Staff Reports\2021\03-18-21\Item 2 - Desk Item.docx ATTACHMENTS (continued): Attachments previously received with the November 19, 2020 Desk Item Report: 10. Committee Member Comments 11. Public Comment Attachments previously received with the January 7, 2021 Staff Report: 12. Revised Initial Draft of Land Use Element 13. Comment Response Summary Table – Land Use 14. Revised Initial Draft of Community Design Element 15. Comment Response Summary Table – Community Design 16. Updated Potential Housing Production Table Attachments previously received with the January 7, 2021 Addendum Report: 17. Committee Member Comments 18. Public Comment Attachments previously received with the January 21, 2021 Staff Report: 19. Maps of the Area Described in a Public Comment 20. Committee Member Comments Attachment previously received with the January 21, 2021 Addendum Report: 21. Historic Preservation Committee Comments Attachment previously received with the January 21, 2021 Desk Item Report: 22. Committee Member Comments Attachments previously received with the February 4, 2021 Staff Report: 23. Updated Comment Response Summary Table – Community Design Element 24. Committee Member Comments Attachment previously received with the February 4, 2021 Addendum Report: 25. Committee Member Comments Attachments previously received with the February 18, 2021 Addendum Report: 26. Committee Member Comments 27. Public Comment Attachment previously received with the March 4, 2021 Addendum Report: 28. Committee Member Comments Attachment previously received with the March 4, 2021 Desk Item: 29. Public Comment PAGE 3 OF 3 SUBJECT: Revised Initial Draft of the Community Design Element March 18, 2021 N:\DEV\GPAC\GPAC Staff Reports\2021\03-18-21\Item 2 - Desk Item.docx ATTACHMENTS (continued): Attachments previously received with the March 18, 2021 Staff Report: 30. Community Place Districts Introduction 31. Committee Member Comments Attachment previously received with the March 18, 2021 Addendum Report: 32. Committee Member Comments Attachments received with this Desk Item: 33. Committee Member Comments 34. Letter from the Chair This Page Intentionally Left Blank 4. Community Design Element 4.5 Community Place Districts CD-7 Goal Enhance specific districts and areas to guide redevelopment of unique places in the community to promote sustainable growth of livable, walkable neighborhoods. Add policy specific to promote sustainable residential growth through the use of mixed-use and plexes. Downtown District CD-8 Goal Change preserve to another verb - see notes from Chair CD-8.2 Exterior Building Materials -Encourage the use of sustainable building materials that compliment and blend with surrounding buildings. CD-8.4 Decorative Bollards - Downtown District - Encourage the use of decorative bollards at all pedestrian crossings at street intersections to improve pedestrian and bike safety in the Downtown District. CD-8.5 Add picture of one of our parklets in Downtown CD-8.7 Maintain Existing Downtown Buildings - Can we require consideration of restoration/rehabilitation/reuse before approval of demolition? Lark Avenue District CD-9 Goal Encourage the development of a diverse lark Avenue District that supports updated office and industrial complexes and buildings,access to multimodal transportation, and creates a connection to the Los Gatos Creek Trail. CD-9.2 Subterranean Parking - change from encourage to require CD-9.3 Connection to Los Gatos Creek Trail - change language to specifically require planning for support of multimodal transportation in conjunction with the use of the Creek Trail CD-9.4 Linkage - add to reduce vehicle use and promote walking and biking. North Santa Cruz Ave District ATTACHMENT 33 This Page Intentionally Left Blank ATTACHMENT 34 GPAC Chair Additional Comments and Direction for tonight’s (March 18) meeting I would like to thank GPAC members for continuing to make positive contributions to our General Plan 2040 update. With that in mind, as Chair, I would like to provide some additional direction for tonight’s meeting. (1) Urgency to complete review of Community Design Element at tonight’s meeting (March 18) As GPAC members well know, we have been meeting for over 2 years to prepare and review the update to the General Plan that will guide our Town direction to 2040. The GPAC has been working on reviewing the Land Use and Community Design Elements starting in November 2020 and continuing to tonight’s meeting. We are in a situation now where there is urgency to finish our review of the Community Design Element tonight. Staff will share the overall schedule to complete the General Plan update work of the GPAC but suffice it to say that we must finish our review of Community tonight even if it means we need to extend the meeting until 10 pm or later to do so. In addition to getting comments from a majority of GPAC members since November, we have also completed review of the Community Design Element through section 4.4. As of tonight’s, meeting, all that is left to review is 4.5 Community Place Districts and the Element’s Implementation programs. So, it does seem realistic that the review of this Element can be completed at this meeting. To expedite this process, the Vice Chair and I did spend time over the past two weeks since our March 4 meeting, editing the existing conditions and the Vision 2040 sections of each of the eight Community Place districts, incorporating previously submitted comments from committee members. This was included as part of the GPAC agenda packet that was distributed on Friday March 12. We did receive comments from Committee Member Zolla in the addendum that was distributed yesterday that included recommended edits to the document that the Vice Chair and I submitted. The Vice Chair and I reviewed the addendum and we believe these are quite valuable comments. We are asking GPAC members to focus their review on the edits submitted by the Vice Chair and Chair as well as Committee member Zolla to determine if the GPAC can accept this as sufficient input to staff to prepare the next draft of the Community Design Element rather than working from the original draft received in November. Then the focus can be on the Goals and Policies of the eight districts as well as the Element’s implementation program. For the Goals and Policies and Implementation Programs, the GPAC should use the original draft received in November with the except of the Downtown District, which goal and policies had a suggested re-write from Committee Member Quintana, which the Vice Chair and I are recommending the GPAC consider accepting. This new goal and recommended policies were incorporated into the comments that the Vice Chair and I submitted as part of the agenda packet distributed March 12. (2)Suggested streamlining of Goals and Policies of 4.5 Community Place Districts To further expedite the review of 4.5 Community Place Districts, the Vice Chair and Chair, along with staff, discussed the potential of streamlining the Goals and Policies of the eight community place districts. Amongst the eight districts, there some commonalities amongst some of the districts that can enable combining of goals and policies for a group of districts. For example: (1)Union, Harwood and Pollard—these three districts are very similar in that they are anchored by a large neighborhood shopping center and have single and multi-family residential nearby and each is very close to a public elementary or middle school. Because these three districts are similar today and the proposed vision for each area is similar, we believe it is possible to create one goal and one set of policies for these three districts. We are asking the GPAC members to consider whether this is possible and come to a resolution during tonight’s meeting. (2)Winchester and Lark—these two districts are very similar in that they are dominated by office uses with nearby residential and both border the Los Gatos Creek Trail. There may be an opportunity to create one goal and one set of policies for these two districts. (3)Downtown District and North Santa Cruz—There are likely arguments for keeping these separate but there are also similarities in these two districts, not just because of their proximity to each other. Here again, there may be an opportunity to create one goal and one set of policies for these two districts. (4)Los Gatos Boulevard—This district seems quite different from any of the others, so needs its own set of goal(s) or policies so we are asking the GPAC members to review the proposed goal and policies in the draft of the Community Design Element provided by staff back in November. Once again, I want to thank GPAC members for their contributions and patience during this lengthy process of reviewing the Land Use and Community Design Elements. With your continued contributions and patience, the GPAC will be successful in completing its work in the near future.