Staff Report with Attachment.Consulting Architect Review
PREPARED BY: SEAN MULLIN, AICP
Associate Planner
110 E. Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 ● 408-354-6874
www.losgatosca.gov
TOWN OF LOS GATOS
HISTORIC PRESERVATION
COMMITTEE REPORT
MEETING DATE: 10/27/2021 ITEM NO: 5
DATE: October 22, 2021
TO: Historic Preservation Committee
FROM: Joel Paulson, Community Development Director
SUBJECT: Consulting Architect Review of Historic Preservation Committee Projects
REMARKS:
The Town Council has recently updated the enabling resolution for the Historic Preservation
Committee (HPC) through Resolution 2021-043 (Attachment 1). As with the previous enabling
resolution, this resolution states that the members of the HPC, chosen by the Town Council and
Planning Commission Chair, may be a combination of professionals and lay members with
interest, competence, or knowledge in historic preservation. While there is a stated intention
to include professional members from among the disciplines of architecture, history,
architectural history, planning, archeology, or other historic preservation related disciplines, the
level of professional expertise on the HPC will vary overtime.
Projects that are referred to the HPC for review are received at different stages, from
preliminary review to requests for a formal recommendation, and under a variety of
applications, including Building Permits and discretionary Planning applications. For
discretionary applications which involve historic resources the HPC is tasked with architectural
peer review in conjunction with review for impacts to the resource in place of a review by the
Town’s Consulting Architect, which would otherwise have been required for these applications.
The Town’s Consulting Architect provides architectural peer review of discretionary Planning
applications to ensure a project is consistent with the Residential Design Guidelines and the
selected architectural style, and compatible with the immediate neighborhood. The Consulting
Architect’s report identifies issues and concerns rooted in the Residential Design Guidelines and
provides a set of recommendations for project revisions to increase consistency and
compatibility. Applicants are tasked with responding to all recommendations of the Consulting
Architect either through design modifications or written justification. Their response is
evaluated by staff and used to inform staff’s recommendation on the application.
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Report.Consulting Architect Review of HPC Projects.docx
REMARKS (continued):
The Community Development Director is exploring how the Consulting Architect could support
the HPC’s review of projects involving historic resources. Projects would be routed to the
Consulting Architect ahead of the HPC’s review and the report forwarded to the HPC in support
of their review of the project. The cost associated with the Consulting Architect’s review would
be paid by the applicant.
CONCLUSION:
The Community Development Director requests feedback from the HPC on the potential
referral of discretionary Planning applications for properties involving historic resources to the
Consulting Architect to support the HPC’s review through architectural recommendations.
ATTACHMENT:
1. Historic Preservation Committee Enabling Resolution 2021-043
ATTACHMENT 1