Attachment 8 - January 12, 2022 Planning Commission Verbatim MinutesLOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/12/2022
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A P P E A R A N C E S:
Los Gatos Planning
Commissioners:
Kathryn Janoff, Chair
Melanie Hanssen, Vice Chair
Jeffrey Barnett
Kylie Clark
Steve Raspe
Reza Tavana
Emily Thomas
Town Manager: Laurel Prevetti
Community Development
Director:
Joel Paulson
Town Attorney: Robert Schultz
Transcribed by: Vicki L. Blandin
(619) 541-3405
ATTACHMENT 8
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P R O C E E D I N G S:
CHAIR JANOFF: We will resume the Planning
Commission meeting and move on to Item #3, which is
requesting approval of a Planned Development for
construction of a senior living community, removal of large
protected trees, and site improvements requiring a Grading
Permit on property zoned R:PD. Located at 110 Wood Road.
APN 510-47-038. Planned Development Application PD-20-001,
and Environmental Impact Report EIR 21-002. Applicant,
Rockwood Pacific. Property Owner, Covia Communities. The
project planner is Sean Mullin.
Are there any disclosures? By a show of hands may
I see which Planning Commissioners have visited the
property? Thank you for that.
I understand, Mr. Mullin, you’ll be giving the
Staff Report tonight?
SEAN MULLIN: Yes, thank you, Chair. Before you
tonight is a request for a recommendation to the Town
Council for a proposed Planned Development Ordinance and
Environmental Impact Report for construction of a senior
community at 110 Wood Road, the current site of the Meadows
senior community.
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The EIR was prepared to address potential
significant impacts resulting from the project and
concluded that all impacts could be mitigated to less than
significant.
The subject property is 10.8 acres characterized
by a hillside setting, but not located in the hillside
area. The site is the home to the Meadows senior community,
which operated from 1971 until 2019.
The proposed Planned Development Ordinance in
front of you tonight would allow for the demolition of all
existing buildings on the site, construction of a new full-
service senior living community with 174 independent living
units and 17 assisted living units. Removal of 192 trees,
including eight large protected trees, and site
improvements required a Grading Permit.
The proposed senior community consists of a
ground floor podium and eight separate buildings, or villas
as they are termed in the plans, constructed above the
podium. The podium includes the main entrance to the
facility, 17 supporting care units, dining facilities,
offices, a fitness center, indoor swimming pool, mechanical
areas, and two levels of indoor parking. An outdoor terrace
would be located above the podium level, providing common
space amongst the villas. The eight villas would then rise
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three to five stories above the terrace level with heights
from approximately 42-68 feet. The eight villas would
include the 174 one- and two-bedroom independent living
units in a variety of floor plans. A full description of
the project architecture, including a summary of the review
by the Town’s consulting architect, are included in your
Staff Report.
The proposed project is located primarily in the
areas of the property with existing development. Site
improvements are required for the new podium and villas,
subterranean parking areas adjustments to the site plan,
and circulation improvements including a new fire access
ring road.
Several new retaining walls are required
throughout the site with heights from 3-24 feet. The
primary function of the new retaining walls is to improve
and extend fire access around the project site via the new
ring road. As detailed in the Staff Report, the podium and
villas would largely screen the walls along the western
edge of the development, while those on the eastern edge
may be more visible. The applicant has provided a
discussion of their efforts to reduce wall heights and
visibility in their Letter of Justification. This Letter of
Justification does touch on many aspects of the project and
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provides a detailed summary of their public outreach
efforts conducted since 2018.
Based on the summary provided in the Staff
Report, if the Commission finds merit in the proposal you
can forward a recommendation to the City Council to make
the required findings, certify the Final EIR, adopt the
Mitigated Monitoring Reporting Program, and adopt the
Planned Development Ordinance.
An Addendum and Desk Item to your Staff Report
have been distributed, including additional materials from
the Applicant, and additional public comment received after
publishing the Staff Report.
This concludes Staff’s presentation and we are
available for any questions.
CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you, Mr. Mullin. Vice Chair
Hanssen.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: I have a question for Staff.
Since we have not seen a Planned Development proposal along
with an EIR for a while, are they supposed to be separate
actions? There’s the recommendation of the certification of
the Final EIR, there’s the recommendation of the Planned
Development Ordinance, and then I think you mentioned also
the recommendation on the Mitigated Monitoring Reporting
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Program. Are those all independent actions, or are they one
action?
SEAN MULLIN: I’m going to defer to the Director
for that question.
JOEL PAULSON: Thank you, Vice Chair Hanssen.
They are separate actions. So, for instance, you could make
the same recommendation for both the Planned Development
and the actions necessary for the EIR; or you could, as an
example, recommend adoption and certification of the EIR
but recommend denial of the project; or recommend to the
Council the Planned Development be approved with
modifications. They are independent, so you could
technically forward a recommendation that is different on
both of those, depending on the outcome of this discussion
by the Planning Commission.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: Then if I might, Chair, ask
a follow up question. There was a discussion also that once
the Planned Development Ordinance and the EIR would be
approved, later on there would be an Architecture and Site
and some other permits that have to be issued, so is the
Architecture and Site… Since the proposed Planned
Development Ordinance already includes the height, the
number of buildings, and we have the plans with the size of
the buildings, what would the Architecture and Site cover?
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SEAN MULLIN: The Architecture and Site
Application would require some additional information. For
instance, the eight villas in front of you this evening in
your project plans, full elevations of all eight villas are
not included, so it’s an opportunity to make sure that we
have all elevations of those buildings and verify that any
project refinements made by the Applicant fit within the
framework of any approved Planned Development Ordinance.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: So, the Planned Development
Ordinance would or would not include the height of the
villas?
SEAN MULLIN: The Planned Development Ordinance
would include the height of the villas, and in this case I
could say that this particular plan set included for the PD
is quite robust, so there’s kind of a fine line between
what’s in front of us tonight and an Architecture and Site
Application. But it would include the height, it would
include approximate grading quantities, retaining wall
heights, things that exceed what would normally be allowed
under the zoning.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: Okay, thank you.
CHAIR JANOFF: Just to clarify, were we to
approve the PD, it would be approving the overall form and
perhaps not the details that we are seeing tonight?
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SEAN MULLIN: Any PD approval would include
adoption of these development plans, so maybe that’s a
better answer to that question than my previous. The
Architecture and Site Application would need to include a
project or plans that are in substantial compliance with
these development plans; that includes height of the
buildings. Should there be slight shifts to the location of
buildings, Staff would evaluate that as whether that’s in
substantial conformance, or not. But the development plans
would be adopted with the Planned Development
CHAIR JANOFF: All right, thank you for that
clarification. Any other questions of Staff at this time?
Commissioner Clark.
COMMISSIONER CLARK: Thank you. I have a quick
clarification question. I believe that this would become
the tallest building in Los Gatos, but I wanted to fact
check myself and see if you know if that’s true.
SEAN MULLIN: Without 100% certainty, I could
answer the question that I believe that would be true.
JOEL PAULSON: I would just confirm that, yes,
the buildings that are upwards of 85 feet would be taller
than the Netflix buildings on Winchester, the newer ones
that were most recently approved.
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COMMISSIONER CLARK: Thank you, and do you know
how tall the Netflix buildings are, by chance?
JOEL PAULSON: I believe they’re approximately 75
feet, the tallest ones.
COMMISSIONER CLARK: Thank you.
CHAIR JANOFF: Any other questions for Staff?
Commissioner Raspe.
COMMISSIONER RASPE: Just kind of a technical
question with respect to the scope of the EIR. In the
materials we were provided I believe it states that with
respect to the height issue only views from public
locations are part of the EIR and not any views from
private locations, is that accurate?
SEAN MULLIN: I believe that’s accurate and I
think that dovetails into our previous discussion from the
Town Attorney on the previous item about protected views.
But, yes, I believe it’s limited to the public areas.
Through the Chair I would also mention that our
environmental consultants that prepared the environmental
document are on hand, should we have more specific
questions about the EIR.
COMMISSIONER RASPE: One follow up question then.
As a result, any questions or comments we might have with
respect to views from private areas would more properly be
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directed during the comments of the PD as opposed to the
EIR, is that a fair statement?
SEAN MULLIN: I think that’s a fair statement.
COMMISSIONER RASPE: Thank you.
CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you. Any other questions of
Staff? Yes, Commissioner Barnett.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: Is it correct that we are
making a recommendation to the Town Council on all of the
issues that are on this matter, or are some of them going
to be definitive at this stage?
SEAN MULLIN: Any decisions made tonight or at
any future meetings would be a recommendation to the Town
Council. They are the final deciding body.
CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you. Any other questions?
I did have one, and that is I understand from the
Staff Report that this is not considered a hillside parcel.
Sure looks like hillside to me. Can you help us understand
how this parcel is not in the hillside development area? I
know we have maps. Is it just a matter of it being outside
a map boundary?
SEAN MULLIN: That’s correct.
CHAIR JANOFF: All right, thank you. I don’t see
any other hands raised, so at this time I will open the
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public hearing and give the Applicant up to five minutes to
address the Planning Commission.
JOEL PAULSON: I will allow Mr. Rockwood to
speak. Mr. Rockwood, you can unmute yourself and you have
up to five minutes.
FRANK ROCKWOOD: Can you pull up the
presentation? All right, so my name is Frank Rockwood; I’m
with Rockwood Pacific, the Applicant. I’m here on behalf of
the owners, Covia Communities. Covia Communities is a
nonprofit owner/operator of reputable senior living
communities throughout California.
Our proposal is quite simply to rebuild a better
Los Gatos Meadows. With the exception of the last line here
listed on this chart, we developed these design goals back
in 2018. Please note, we are not proposing to increase the
number of units, to increase the number of residents, the
number of staff, or to change the use. Furthermore, note
that our proposal materially mitigates issues relating to
parking, fire access, and fire safety.
The current facility was approved in 1968 and
opened in 1971.
In conformance with industry trends, and based on
the results of focus group sessions conducted with local
residents of Los Gatos, we are proposing a project that
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would have materially larger units and more amenity spaces
than the existing facility. While we are proposing a
reduction in the number of units, given the strong demand
and need for senior housing, we are proposing only a modest
reduction in number of units.
We have decided not to pursue an expansion of the
development pad, and in fact, we have modestly reduced the
development pad in several key areas. Given this decision,
combined with the other constraints and goals, our proposal
would entail a material increase in massing.
Our property is approximate to numerous community
resources, and while there are pros and cons in
accommodating housing needs in any particular location in
town, our project team strongly believes that this location
is particularly well suited for our market rate senior
community at the scale presented tonight.
As everyone is aware, vehicle traffic is
particularly challenging in this part of Los Gatos. Our
plan includes incorporating an on demand, self-driving
vehicle system that will enable our residents and our Staff
to get to and from many resources approximate to our
community without the use of their cars.
We have made, and continue to make, a strong
investment in community engagement. We conducted our first
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open house session in March 2018, with our tenth session
this past Monday. While it is not practical for us to be
fully responsive to every individual perspective, the
project team has and continues to take all comments
received into consideration. While there have been a wide
range of comments and concerns, most of the comments we
have received relate to visual impacts and construction
impacts. With regard to construction, we plan to fully
conform to the Town standards, and as importantly, we are
committed to a robust communication plan.
With regard to massing, we have tried to place
and balance massing in the matter that while clearly
impacting some of our neighbors in the broader community,
it does so in a manner that we believe balances competing
objectives and concerns. As the Draft Environmental Impact
Report analysis concludes, visual impacts are less than
significant and are deemed in compliance and compatible
with the general character of the hillside area. See Impact
5.3.
Please know that we are endeavoring to build and
operate an exemplary senior community that would be a
resource to the seniors of Los Gatos as well as, I truly
believe, on balance a beneficial change for our neighbors
and the wider community. In light of the benefits of our
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proposal and its alignment with several important General
Plan goals and policies, including housing policies, we are
respectfully requesting the Planning Commission’s
consideration of recommending approval of our project to
the Town Council.
This concludes my short presentation, and myself
and my team is available to answer any questions the
commission may have. Thank you for your time.
CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you for your presentation.
Do Commissioners have questions for the Applicant at this
time? Vice Chair Hanssen.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: There was a time back in
2008 where this was brought in front of the Conceptual
Development Advisory Committee, which is not a requirement
of any project but is a service that our town offers, but
it’s often helpful to the Planning Commission and other
deciding bodies to have that step. We do have access to the
packet and the minutes from that meeting, and while the
plans may have changed somewhat since then, it looks like
there are less units than there were before.
But one of the things that was mentioned was it
would be important to have a certain amount of below market
rate housing, because we’re under requirements with the
State of California to have some level of affordable
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housing, so could you comment on to what extent there will
be affordable housing in this proposal.
FRANK ROCKWOOD: I’d like to point out that Covia
does have a rather significant affordable housing division.
Covia does not offer, and never has offered below market
units or affordable market units in any of its continuing
care/retirement communities.
Please note, as we’ve indicated on page 2 of our
Letter of Justification, that state law specifically
prohibits the imposition of rent regulations on CCRCs. In
consulting with Perkins Coie, our counsel, we believe that
this state law applies to our project.
I’d also like to observe that we are not
proposing to increase the number of units or staffing,
employees, etc., from our current approvals.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: No one has said you’re
required to do that, I just was asking the question if you
had taken that under consideration, because that was a
comment made by the CDAC back in 2008, and had you brought
it to the CDAC more recently it probably would have come up
again.
I have a follow up question related to the same
conversation. During that same CDAC meeting there was at
that time as well a proposal to go five stories, which is
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unprecedented for the most part in Los Gatos even as of
today. When you made your proposal, to what extent did you
considered the feedback brought up by the CDAC back in 2008
that it would be a very difficult thing for the Town to
even consider anything that tall?
FRANK ROCKWOOD: I can say that we studied
thoroughly the feedback from CDAC, and we did consider all
the comments. We did consider balancing the objectives, so
for instance, there were comments about not expanding the
development pad. There were comments about maintaining
housing supply. We tried to balance those, and we tried to
balance the density. Yes, we do have buildings at five
stories, but we do believe that there is merit in keeping
the housing supply, not reducing the housing supply any
further than we are proposing to do here.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: Okay, thank you. If I might,
Chair, I had one more question.
CHAIR JANOFF: Go ahead.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: The other question I have is
about the excavation, the cut and fill. This project is not
in the hillside for purposes of the Hillside Standards and
Design Guidelines, so you wouldn’t be subject to the
guideline of the limit on the cut and fill, but there is a
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need for a Grading Permit, and it did give me pause to see
that.
We would require a Grading Permit for 50 cubic
yards, yet we’re looking at a net of 140,000, I think is
what I read in the Staff Report. So, I just wondered if you
could comment on where the 140,000 of cut… Because this is
still our hillsides, even if it’s not subject to the
Hillside Design Guidelines. What are the things that are
driving that? I’m sure part of it is the Fire Department,
and maybe part of it is the subterranean garage, but could
you break down where that 140,000 is going to come from?
FRANK ROCKWOOD: I guess maybe this is a question
for Joel. Is this something I could have one of my team
members jump in? There’s Mark Falgout with Kimley-Horn; I’m
going to hand that question off to him if that’s possible
or practical.
JOEL PAULSON: It is possible. One second. Mark,
you’re now able to speak if you unmute yourself.
MARK FALGOUT: Mark Falgout with Kimley-Horn,
civil engineer. Nearly all of that excavation is coming
from the subterranean garage and the fact that we are
tucking this building into the hillside on the backside of
the building in order to keep the heights down as low as we
possibly can and to get all the parking off of the surface
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area and onto the site, the excavations are required to do
the subterranean garage and to nestle the building into the
hillside.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: So, none of it is related to
the fire access road then?
MARK FALGOUT: The fire access roads are not
contributing to that much cut, it’s more keeping the
building elevation down and getting the parking taken care
of.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: Okay, thank you very much.
That is my questions for now, Chair. Thank you.
CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you. Do any other
Commissioners have questions? Yes, Commissioner Clark.
COMMISSIONER CLARK: Thank you, and thank you for
being here today. I want a little more information on what
you were saying about affordable housing. You said that
Covia has a robust affordable housing division but that
you’ve never had any BMR units in anything that you’ve
built. Can you clarify what the affordable housing division
is doing then, and then also just state whether or not
there will be any affordable units in this complex.
FRANK ROCKWOOD: First of all, to clarify, Covia
has built, operates, and owns many affordable housing
units, but those are what I would call more traditional
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housing. The community that we’re proposing to rebuild is
what we characterize as a continuing care retirement
community, also called Life Plan community. That typically
involves an entry fee and it involves substantial services:
meal services, social services, health services, etc. It’s
a different model, and it’s a model that’s service-
intensive, and so, yes, Covia has never had below market
rate units or affordable units in any of their continuing
care retirement communities, but they do have communities
that usually are exclusively focused on serving an
affordable housing population.
COMMISSIONER CLARK: I understand. Thank you. I
know that it’s not something that anybody can require of
you, but it’s definitely been a really big community
concern lately, and definitely in the Town of Los Gatos
it’s something that we’re working on. Would you be open to
putting any BMR units in this build?
FRANK ROCKWOOD: Unfortunately, it’s very, very
challenging, because we don’t have… If we think of
traditional housing you can have a range of units, and you
can set aside a couple of units that are small, or set
aside just a fraction of units that are affordable.
The service component is so heavy, and we’ve
never kind of segmented out, there are fundamentally
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different tiers of service. Everyone that moves into the
community gets the same meals, very high-quality meal
service and social services and health services as
everybody else. Again, it’s not something that Covia has
ever done, and they, quite frankly, don’t really think it
would work in a CCRC environment.
COMMISSIONER CLARK: Okay, got it. Thank you.
CHAIR JANOFF: Just a follow up question. The
CCRC environment that you’re describing is one business
model of operating a senior community, and there are others
that don’t require the same kind of entry fee and also
don’t provide the continuing care.
FRANK ROCKWOOD: Right.
CHAIR JANOFF: If the business model were a
different senior community business model that wasn’t the
buy-in kind of model, would any other business model… I
don’t mean to be so far ranging, but is there another
business model for a senior community that would allow for
or would enable below market rate units to be incorporated?
FRANK ROCKWOOD: The short answer is absolutely
yes. It could be just a traditional housing project. It
could be an affordable housing project. Obviously, there is
a whole range of different models that we haven’t talked
about.
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CHAIR JANOFF: I’m speaking specifically of a
senior community where you have rental units and you do
provide meals. We have many, many of these in our wider
community; they’re not a CCRC model. The question is would
those accommodate a below market rate unit?
FRANK ROCKWOOD: Yes, they could potentially
accommodate an affordable unit, but that’s not what we’re
proposing. All of Covia’s properties that are not strictly
affordable housing communities are continuing care
communities.
CHAIR JANOFF: All right, thank you. Commissioner
Thomas, do you have your hand raised?
COMMISSIONER THOMAS: Yes, I do. I have a
question for the Applicant about the community outreach
that you did with regard to the focus group and what the
community needed. When did that occur, and could you just
elaborate a little bit on how many individuals you talked
to and what feedback you provided?
FRANK ROCKWOOD: If you want to, you could pull
up slide #8; I can talk about that. We’ve had ten open
house sessions to date. We mailed and eventually over time
we received emails from our neighbors. We used the same
mailing distribution. We actually had a political
consultant working with us early on that procured a mailing
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list that aligns with the notice mailing provision for
these types of meetings.
COMMISSIONER THOMAS: Mr. Rockwood, I’m sorry. I
think that I didn’t ask my question clearly. I meant not
necessarily with a community outreach to the immediate
neighborhood. You said that you conducted some focus groups
and talked to people in town about the needs?
FRANK ROCKWOOD: Yes, okay. We actually hired a
consulting firm that specializes in focus groups. They
actually controlled the mailing list. The majority of the
participants in these focus groups were from Los Gatos, but
some were from communities in the area immediately adjacent
to Los Gatos. We hosted several sessions actually in the
Toll House conference rooms, and they were basically all
day sessions where we inquired about all kinds of
preferences to guide our programming for our rebuild
project.
COMMISSIONER THOMAS: What were the dates of
those? Just broadly, like how long ago?
FRANK ROCKWOOD: That was in October 2018.
COMMISSIONER THOMAS: Okay, October 2018.
CHAIR JANOFF: Just a follow up question on the
community outreach. Since the story poles have gone up
there’s been a lot of community input regarding the visible
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height, particularly those seen from the downtown area. Can
you comment on whether you’ve had any communication with
the community at large regarding the impact of the story
poles post-story pole installation?
FRANK ROCKWOOD: We’ve had meetings with our
neighbors post-story pole installation. In fact, our last
open house meeting was Monday. We haven’t had meetings with
the broader community. I’m not sure how we would do that.
But yes, we’ve met with our neighbors post-installation of
the story poles.
CHAIR JANOFF: All right, thank you. Just going
back to your original presentation, you mentioned that you
believed that this proposed Planned Development would be a
resource for seniors in Los Gatos. That’s a pretty broad
statement that led me to wonder whether any portion of this
community would be open to seniors who are not residents,
and I don’t mean guests, but residents of Los Gatos?
FRANK ROCKWOOD: Hopefully I’m tracking the
question. We will in no way, shape, or form discriminate on
who moves into the community based on where they’re moving
from, but it is our experience that most people that move
into these types of communities are moving from the area,
so we do expect a significant majority of the residents to
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have a prior residence in the Town of Los Gatos. Did I
answer your question?
CHAIR JANOFF: Not precisely. You said that this
would be a resource to seniors in Los Gatos. If I’m not
putting words in your mouth, what you’re really saying is
that this is a place where residents of Los Gatos can find
senior housing, but you’re not saying that it’s broadly a
community area that other seniors who are residents of town
and not residents of the community would be able to come
and enjoy the park-like setting or any amenities that you
might have.
FRANK ROCKWOOD: I’m going to ask Chris Ichien,
he’s an executive with Covia, to elaborate on that
question.
CHRIS ICHIEN: My name is Chris Ichien and I was
executive director there for five years before we closed
down in 2019, and currently with Covia in the operations
side.
The questions regarding is our community a place
where the public can come and gather, the answer to that
would probably be no, since they’re private property. As
you can probably imagine, similar to the Terraces of Los
Gatos, lots of neighbors and families and friends and
children go to those communities, but they’re usually
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invited guests. Since this is a private residence of our
guests, which it would be and historically has been, it
wouldn’t be open to the public to come and go as they
please. I hope that answers your question.
CHAIR JANOFF: It does, thank you. Commissioner
Thomas.
COMMISSIONER THOMAS: I did have a follow up
question to that. I was wondering if Covia had any data
from some of their other sites about the percentage of
residents that move into the community, about like how far
they lived before, if they have any data about like have
they moved in from the same zip code, what percent comes
from farther away zip codes, etc.
FRANK ROCKWOOD: I’m going to ask Mary Mullin to
respond to this question. She’s an executive at Covia.
MARY McMULLIN: My name is Mary McMullin; I’m
Chief Advancement Officer with Covia.
Our market research has showed that typically in
excess of 60% of the residents are local within a five to
ten mile radius, and it’s usually more on the five-mile
radius side. The additional residents of the community, 30-
40%, come primarily for a relationship with someone local.
In other words, parents of local residents, people who
lived prior in Los Gatos who are returning in retirement,
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or people who view this as a destination because they have
a tie to the area. Does that answer your question?
COMMISSIONER THOMAS: Yes, thank you.
CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you for that. One last
question before we go to Commissioner Raspe.
In the public outreach recently, since the story
poles have gone up, do you hear any feedback from anyone
within the immediate neighborhood? Of course they’re
concerned about the height and its impact on their
property. Have they also indicated the concern about height
as it appears from the story poles or from your renderings
from downtown? Have you addressed the height concerns of
the downtown views?
FRANK ROCKWOOD: Yes. I will relay that some of
the comments have related not only to personal views, but
also to views from other parts of town. Again, we feel like
we’ve done a lot of work in balancing where that massing
goes, and we understand that there are some impacts from
some perspectives of the massing. But the answer is yes we
have gotten such comments.
CHAIR JANOFF: But in your work in addressing
those comments, the consideration of reducing the overall
height of your buildings has not been an alternative that
you’ve chosen?
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FRANK ROCKWOOD: That is correct. We have not
explored those alternatives at this time.
CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you. Commissioner Raspe.
COMMISSIONER RASPE: Thank you. I was hoping the
Applicant could address briefly the traffic issues that we
would expect from the new project, how it would vary from
its predecessor, including the changes in the ingress and
egress to the project, and also its impacts on fire life
safety as well.
FRANK ROCKWOOD: I’m going to ask Mark Falgout to
take point on this. Mark, just a heads up, if you want,
slides #50 and #51 may help provide backup on the traffic
analysis.
MARK FALGOUT: Okay, if you’d like to display
those slides, that would be great, but essentially starting
from an access standpoint for fire safety.
FRANK ROCKWOOD: That’s actually on #24. If you
go to slide #24, that’s the best slide to speak off of
fire.
MARK FALGOUT: Here’s the whole circulation. As I
believe everybody probably knows, the Farwell Lane does
currently connect from Wood Road to Broadway as a private
road, and then at the rear of the existing site there’s a
dead-end road with a turnaround at the end of it, so from a
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fire access standpoint we are looping the circulation so
that Fire can circulate throughout the site, and we are
going to allow emergency vehicle access from Broadway for
fire and other emergency vehicles, but not regular day-to-
day operations. In-and-outs is depicted by the blue line
for where folks will come in off of Wood Road, pull into
the valet, and the valet will go and park their car in the
underground garage. So, the main change in circulation is
simply that the site will not use Farwell Lane for
vehicular access; typically it’s just going to be emergency
vehicles.
Now, we are open to should there be some reason
that the neighbors up the hill would need to use Farwell to
get out in an emergency situation, that would be available
for neighbors up the hill.
This looping action on the access road came out
of a lot of coordination with the Fire Department, so we’re
not only looping the road, we’re also widening the road to
at least 20 feet, and it’s 26 feet in many cases so that
they have room to set up an aerial apparatus so that they
can access the roofs to serve the site.
From a traffic numbers standpoint, we did take
some traffic counts in 2018, and when compared to the
existing site the peak daily trips will go up minimally,
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ten trips per day, which is a very small amount. But the
peak hour trips will actually decrease, and the reason for
that is they’re just a slightly different use from the ITE
Institute of Traffic Engineer’s handbook for determining
trip counts, and so the peak hour will go down because the
peak times for those daily trips does adjust.
So, from a traffic standpoint the peak hour trips
will actually be decreased, and I don’t have the numbers
directly in front of me, but we’re talking about
approximately less than 30 trips per peak hour, which means
that’s a trip every 30 seconds, so we’re not talking about
a very steady flow of traffic coming out of these things
during the peak hours.
Hopefully I answered your question, but if I
missed something please, let me know and I’ll try to speak
to it.
COMMISSIONER RASPE: Just one follow up. It
sounds like the traffic patterns, or at least volumes,
won’t shift dramatically, but does the fact that you’re
using Wood Road exclusively mean there’s going to be more
traffic on Wood as opposed to what there was on Wood
previously?
MARK FALGOUT: We did not study, we didn’t take
volumes of vehicles that are coming out, but that was the
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point where at peak hour utilizing Wood only would be
putting a car on Wood every 30 seconds, so there’s plenty
of space between cars and it wouldn’t become a backup.
COMMISSIONER RASPE: Thank you very much.
CHAIR JANOFF: Vice Chair Hanssen.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: I had a follow up question.
It’s not a question about traffic; this is more about the
construction phase. I realize that’s a time-limited thing,
it’s not an ongoing thing, and it’s not something you’d
typically worry about over the long term, but since under
this proposal there would be 140,000—actually more coming
out than that even—how long and how many truck loads would
that be during the construction phase?
FRANK ROCKWOOD: I do not know the estimated
number of truck offhand. Mark, I don't know if you do.
MARK FALGOUT: I don’t have the estimate offhand,
but I will say that the route would be from Wood Road
directly to Highway 17, even if that meant that the trucks
would have to drive the wrong way on 17 and turn around in
order to get to their destinations, so that we would avoid
and minimize our impact on any city streets.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: That’s good to know. I
thought of it because we had some construction on my own
street, and they were putting in subterranean square
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footage and this was only dozens of cubic yards, and it was
probably two weeks of trucks every half hour, all day long,
so it’s good to know that they would not be going through
our streets.
CHAIR JANOFF: All right, thank you for that.
Commissioner Clark.
COMMISSIONER CLARK: I have a question and then a
follow up to that. I remember seeing this somewhere, I
think, but I couldn’t find it. How many of the units will
be two-bedrooms and how many will be one-bedroom?
FRANK ROCKWELL: Let me pull out this slide deck.
Slide deck #41 will show you a detailed breakout of the
unit types that we’re proposing. The breakout is such.
Roughly two-thirds are two-bedrooms and one-third one-
bedrooms. No studios. That’s in alignment with the focus
group sessions that we had. It’s also in alignment with our
experience. We actually had not that many two-bedroom units
in the existing facility and always had a long, long
waiting list, and we’d actually have studio units that
would go vacant for years.
COMMISSIONER CLARK: Can you try to shed some
light on why that is? Because it was my gut reaction that
seniors are empty-nesters, they usually don’t have
roommates, they’re retired and wouldn’t theoretically need
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a second office or anything, and so do you know why that
is?
FRANK ROCKWOOD: I’m going to ask Mary McMullin
to take point on that question.
MARY McMULLIN: As people age, the idea that they
want to downsize radically is actually proving false with
each successive generation, so prior years when we would
develop communities they would be studios or small one-
bedroom apartments. In reality, people as they retire and
downsize today feel a two-bedroom apartment is a major
downsizing. They still want to be able to have room for
family to visit. They want to be able to have an office.
They want to be able to have spare space that is not
immediately lived in all the time. Or they want to be able
to construct a home to allow for leisure space, workspace,
workout space, you name it, so the two-bedroom apartment
has really become very standard in housing as people age,
because that is really how they choose to live.
COMMISSIONER CLARK: Thank you.
CHAIR JANOFF: And a follow up question to that,
if I might. Two-bedrooms might be the standard, but 2,200
square foot, I guess that’s your penthouse. If you go back
to the other slide you can see the square footage. The
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square footage seems quite generous in terms of overall
space.
MARY McMULLIN: Yes, again, it is response to
market demands. As people downsize out of a single-family
house, our apartments offer anywhere from 40-80% of the
space they experienced in a house prior to this. What they
experience in the market as well as the focus groups and
the market research has shown they want to be able to have
their furniture, their treasures, their special pieces,
with them. They want to be able to live in a way that
allows for entertaining and allows for visits, and so given
the size of local homes, given the focus group work, given
the market research, the square footage does reflect the
desire of the market.
CHAIR JANOFF: And a follow up question. I think
it’s reasonable to say that there are multiple steps in a
downsizing process for a senior, and it often comes to the
point where they want to downsize further. They may have
the two-bedroom now, but they want to go down to a one-
bedroom or a studio because they no longer have their
spouse, or they no longer have possessions, or the ability
to do the hobbies that they have. The configuration of your
design looks to me as though it has minimal move-down
opportunity for seniors who might be part of the community
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and want to move into a smaller space and stay within the
community of friends and amenities that they’ve been
accustomed to. Can you speak to that?
MARY McMULLIN: We do have the opportunity for
people to move to the one-bedroom or one-bedroom with den
apartments on campus. Again, something that we found in our
decades of experience is that people do choose to move
down, but the numbers of people who do that is very small
as a percentage of the total resident body. The preference
is to stay in the apartment of origin, and then if they
should choose to seek healthcare we do have the 17 care
suites, which are smaller; those are studio-type homes. But
we do have one-bedroom and one-bedroom with den homes that
people could downside to on campus.
CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you. Any other questions for
the Applicant? Commissioner Clark and then Commissioner
Barnett.
COMMISSIONER CLARK: I just want to dig a little
bit deeper on some of your responses about meeting market
demands. In terms of it being two bedrooms to meet that and
the sizing to meet that, I live in a two-bedroom, pretty
big I think, apartment and it’s 900 square feet. So, I
think I’m going to ask, when you talk about it, it feels
like you’re speaking to a pretty wealthy and luxury focus
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sort of group, so what are you talking about when you talk
about market desires and general community desires like
that?
MARY McMULLIN: I have to say, Commissioner, this
is a fairly affluent opportunity for retirement, so given
that, yes, our product size is to meet the needs of people
who have owned homes in the Los Gatos area, who have had
property, who have raised families in homes, and frankly,
as a result of the success in general of the Los Gatos
area, those home values are very strong, and that enables
people to trade the equity in their house for lifelong
security through a continuing care Life Plan community. So,
yes, frankly, it is geared to a financially successful
market.
COMMISSIONER CLARK: Thank you.
CHAIR JANOFF: Commissioner Barnett.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: I actually have six
questions, and I’m not sure what the order should be,
sequential or intermixed with other comments from the
Commissioners.
The one question I wanted to start with is
related to the Planned Development and height of the
buildings, which is a concern for the community. If I
counted right, on the five-story buildings there are only
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19 units, which if they were eliminated would reduce the
project by as much as perhaps 11%. I thought I saw a
comment about what’s economically feasible for this
project, and so the question is if 11% of the units were
eliminated, would the project still be economically viable?
FRANK ROCKWOOD: Unfortunately, it’s not kind of
black or white, what works and what doesn’t work. There are
a lot of estimates that we make in the course of pursuing
these projects, and some of those estimates vary as time
goes on in terms of how they actually turn out, so it’s
almost more of a probabilistic answer. If we eliminate one
unit, two units, however many units, it goes from being
viable to not being viable. No, that’s not the way we look
at it does start to stress the project and makes it less
likely that we’ll be able to get through the feasibility
gate and get the financing and move forward. It’s a long
way of saying that no, I don’t think reducing the project
by a handful of units would necessarily put it in a
completely different category, but it would worsen the
probability to some degree.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: Chair Janoff, I don't know
how you want to proceed with my additional questions. I’ll
defer to you.
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CHAIR JANOFF: Well, I think the discussion that
we’re having now is both informative to the commission and
it’s also informative to the audience who are potential
speakers, and so if you believe the questions that you have
would further augment that knowledge, that the speakers
would have additional information to work from, then I
would say ask the questions. If these are questions that
would better be a wrap-up in terms of suggested
alternatives, then I would say let’s hold that until we
hear from the public.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: From my perspective
they’ll all important and could relate to community input.
CHAIR JANOFF: All right, then proceed.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: The draft CEQA findings
identify 205 protected trees and eight large protected
trees that are proposed for removal based on the arborist
report. My question is are all those intended to be
addressed by new plantings, or would there be in lieu fees,
and if so, can you estimate the percentage of one versus
the other?
FRANK ROCKWOOD: I’m going to ask David Gates to
take point on this question.
DAVID GATES: Dave Gates, landscape architect on
the project team. We hired an arborist to go out and study
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the trees surrounding the building, which they did and
there was a minority report from the City arborist in
concert.
It’s an oak woodland basically, which had a lot
of invasive trees and a lot of suspect trees from a fire
point of view and structural point of view, so the trees
being removed are in most cases structurally damaged and
fire suspect trees. There are some trees that will be
removed for construction, so those are also gone.
Our intent, to answer your question, is to put in
a lot of specimen trees, which you’re seeing in the
simulations now as a simulation with existing trees, and we
will come back in and mitigate some of those views and we
will bring back specimen oaks. In most cases there are
numbers in the tree report of what the mitigation costs
would be for those trees. We will probably exceed that by
300-400% coming in with the specimen trees. We aren’t to
that level yet, but I would guess we would be substantial
in bringing in nice specimen oak trees, particularly the
evergreen oaks, which will do a better job in screening.
A quick answer is we will probably exceed by
three to five times the cost of the mitigation price for
the trees removed, and we’ll bring in the species in an
appropriate way from a fire perspective with defensible
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space and all the other criteria, which the species that
are there now do not service well.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: Thank you for that
comment. I have a major concern about the parking at the
project with active seniors. I expect that the 78 non-
tandem spaces in the parking structure will be mostly
inadequate, and I saw that you had an alternative suggested
possibly of having a valet, so that would allow 222 cars to
be parked there, which would allow, I calculated, 79% of
the residences to be accommodated with at least one car. I
wonder if you could comment on whether the suggestion of a
valet could be made as, say, part of the condition of the
PD, or whether that’s something that you want to keep in a
flexible state?
FRANK ROCKWOOD: I’d like to refer to slides #43
and #44 in responding to this question. The existing
community, and again, similar scale in terms of the number
of units that were residents (inaudible) Staff, had onsite
130 parking spaces, and we actually had a valet in the
prior operation. That was insufficient. We actually had an
arrangement with the Toll House to rent some of their less
than 20 parking spaces there. Then we had Staff. That would
actually lose the Town parking at the foot of Wood Road.
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We are looking to substantially increase the
number of parking spaces from what we had previously, and
we’re looking to eliminate all the parking that would be
kind of outside of the garage. We do think that this meets
the requirement, and yes, in terms of valet, again, that’s
something that we did previously and that’s something we
anticipate doing, and we certainly would not have an issue
with that being a requirement imposed on this project.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: Okay, thank you very much.
On reflection, I think I’ll continue the questioning after
the public input.
CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you. Do we have any other
questions from Commissioners? Commissioner Clark.
COMMISSIONER CLARK: I just have one last
question. I was wondering, was any outreach done
specifically to potential residents of Los Gatos Meadows?
FRANK ROCKWOOD: The short answer is yes. That
focus group that we mentioned, all of the folks that were
invited to participate in that process were effectively
potential residents. There’s a timing issue, so it will be
some time in the best case before we would actually be able
to accommodate any of those residents, but they certainly
were kind of chosen based on being candidates to move into
this community in this location.
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COMMISSIONER CLARK: Okay, great, and like
theoretically fit the demographic. Thank you.
CHAIR JANOFF: So, it’s fair to say that it was
as much a focus group as it was a marketing meeting, it
sounds like, is that correct?
FRANK ROCKWOOD: I’m going to let Mary McMullin
take point on that question.
MARY McMULLIN: Hi, it’s Mary again. It is a
marketing opportunity, but first and foremost it’s a survey
opportunity to make sure that we’re designing a product
that is applicable in the market. There were a number of
questions asked that were iterative; so when people
answered we could work off of those responses and take that
into consideration with development.
We used a list of people who would financially
qualify. We could obtain a similar list for marketing. We
did not retain that list of people specifically from the
focus group for future marketing.
FRANK ROCKWOOD: Actually, I’d like to make one
more comment that I think will address this question.
CHAIR JANOFF: I’m sorry, Mr. Rockford, Ms.
McMullin answered my question. If there are no further
questions from Commissioners, I think it’s a good time to
move on to opening it for members of the public who would
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wish to speak. Director Paulson, do we have anyone who
wishes to speak on this matter?
JOEL PAULSON: We do. The first speaker will be
Julie.
JULIE: Hello, this is Julie. I am a neighbor of
Wood Road and I have attended almost all of the open houses
at the Meadows. I’ve lived on the hill for over 30 years
and I love the Meadows as a neighbor.
Very happy that the story poles have gone up so
that the neighbors and myself can see a little bit more of
what’s going on. I still support the Meadows project, but I
do have some items that I didn’t get in by the timeline
this morning for Sean, so that’s why I’m speaking now.
The first item was that once the story poles went
up they did clearly show a bit more bulk than what we were
anticipating.
The second item is that we’re very happy to hear
that they are proposing or thinking about solar, though we
hope that it doesn’t add much to the height.
Third item is parking. More parking is good for
the workers, but it will add more traffic regardless of
what I think any traffic study may have done. Before they
closed, the workers that parked offsite walked up the road.
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Fourth item, Wood Road is getting lots of
attention by people on foot and by car, especially now that
the flags are up. Many are driving to the top end of Wood
Road and are coming back down, turning around in people’s
driveways, etc., and really adding to the traffic flow.
This is really giving us a flavor of what’s going to happen
once a project takes off.
This also exacerbates the fact that there is only
a sidewalk a few feet up the road. It might be nice to have
some sort of sidewalk or street marking where bikes or
people could walk safely when they rebuild and after they
have successfully built. I do understand from the open
house that a sidewalk may be out of the question due to
tree roots and things of that nature, but I wanted to voice
my interest.
Fifth item, this also leads to my consistent
request that the Meadows community have heard me say at
almost every open house meeting is the closing off of the
Broadway exit to neighbors. I do understand the theory, but
in the open houses they said it’s because when people go
down to Farwell Lane they don’t want to hit pedestrians on
the sidewalk. Well, we don’t even have a sidewalk on Wood
Road, and we have to walk in the road when we’re going up
and down to our houses as it is today.
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So, the three items that I have to that is that
that current Broadway exit in front of the Meadows before
they closed, it saved us during the 1997 fire. My house
personally burnt down during that period of time, but
traffic was able to come and go from that.
CHAIR JANOFF: I’m sorry, I need to interrupt
you, but your time has expired. Do Commissioners have any
questions? Vice Chair Hanssen.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: I just wanted to ask if you
wouldn’t mind submitting your comments in writing even
though you were able to speak at the meeting tonight,
because it would be good to have that as we move forward in
working with this project. Would you be able to do that?
JULIE: I believe I did submit them to Sean, but
I missed the deadline at 11:00 o’clock.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: Oh, you missed the deadline.
JULIE: I think I got them in at 1:00 o’clock.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: Okay, thank you, because
your comments are very helpful, as are all comments from
the public. Thank you.
CHAIR JANOFF: All right, Director Paulson, do we
have anyone else wishing to speak?
JOEL PAULSON: We do. The next speaker will be
Mr. Konrad.
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RICHARD KONRAD: I’m the current chair of the
Community Health and Senior Service Commission in Los Gatos
and we recently completed a survey of service providers to
deliver (inaudible), and in doing so there was a lot of
concern among service providers that there are people who
want to stay in Los Gatos but can’t afford it, and so I
urge you to consider affordability in your actions as you
go forward.
Also, I’m a member of the service committee
that’s currently doing an extensive survey of seniors in
Los Gatos in January, and that data should be available
soon, and it might be of use to everyone on the commission.
That’s all I have to say. Again, good luck and
let’s get affordable housing for seniors.
CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you, Mr. Konrad. Any
questions for the speaker? I don’t see any hands raised.
Thank you very much. Director Paulson, do we have any other
individuals wishing to speak?
JOEL PAULSON: We do. The next speaker will be
Andy.
ANDY GHOFRANI: Hi, this is Andy Ghofrani. I live
at 121 Wood Road on the hill directly behind the proposed
development. My property has the largest visual impact by
the mass of the proposed construction, and this is per the
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admission of the developer and the last architect that I
have discussed.
Per the EIR, as I understand it, 85 foot building
heights are 35 feet more than the 50-foot original
elevation, so this essentially is a 35-foot vertical
reduction in my view of town and the east hills, which is
replaced by buildings across my site.
As proposed, the villas farthest from me and
closer to Town are higher then the villas in front of me. I
would like to ask the building masses to be distributed
more evenly to reduce the visual impact from my site. Since
we live on a hill and don’t have a front yard, my front
deck acts as my yard, and this has a major effect on my
view, as I mentioned. Per my conversation with Mr. Rockwood
and Mr. Gates, this proposed change should not be visible
from the Town’s point of view, which sits at the lower
angle and won’t have an additional impact to what’s shown
in the current plans.
The second comment I have is about the truck
traffic. I am in the construction business myself, so once
I heard the 140,000 cubic yards of excavation volume and
using ten-wheeler trucks, which carry about ten yards, that
will be 14,000 trucks, and if you have the 14,000 trucks in
six months you’ll have about 15 trucks an hour going
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through Wood Road, so you have to deal with that, and I
wanted Julie to hear that, too, as a neighbor. We are
neighbors and this is something new to me. Thank you.
CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you very much for your
comments, and for clarifying what 140,000 square foot of
dirt removal would entail in terms of truck trips. Any
other comments or questions from Commissioners? I don’t see
any hands raised. Director Paulson, is there anyone else
wishing to speak at this time?
JOEL PAULSON: I don’t see any other hands
raised. Let’s give it a minute. If anyone else from the
public would like to speak on this matter, please raise
your hand. I don’t see any other hands raised, Chair.
CHAIR JANOFF: All right, then we’ll now close
the public hearing on this item and re-invite the Applicant
back for three minutes. Thank you.
FRANK ROCKWELL: I do want to make one point
regarding our community outreach and regarding the
marketing question. If you could go to slide #11.
I’d like to point out that in our Letter of
Justification we have a comprehensive list of all of our
communications with neighbors over the last several years.
We have been maintaining a project website since 2018. I
encourage everybody and anyone that has any interest in
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this project to go into this website. There’s the web
address, but if you just Google “Los Gatos Meadows,” this
should come up. We post on this website. We have a video
summary of our project proposal that really stresses the
architecture. We have video on that website that talks
about this self-driving vehicle system, and we update the
Frequently Asked Questions on a regular basis, and that
includes contact information and links, and links to the
Town’s website, etc.
About once a month we do get marketing inquires,
so we have been keeping track of real prospects, of folks
that have indicated that they do want to live in this
community and want to be apprised or updated. I just wanted
to get that point across.
Just one minor thing, on the sidewalk on Wood
Road I just want to clarify that as part of the draft
conditions we are obligated to install a sidewalk on Wood
Road up to the entrance of our property, so I just wanted
to clarify that.
That’s it. I’m going to hand it back to you.
CHAIR JANOFF: All right, thank you, Mr.
Rockwood. Do Commissioners have any additional questions
for the Applicant at this time? Commissioner Barnett.
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COMMISSIONER BARNETT: I had a few additional
points to make, or questions to ask here.
The letter of Mr. Rockwood to Vice Chair Hanssen
on January 26th, on page 13, says, “The Applicant will
either use LEED or GreenPoint rating system,” but later in
that letter it indicates that there might be a choice
already of GreenPoint, and I was wondering if you had
agreed that the LEED process is more rigorous than the
GreenPoint?
FRANK ROCKWOOD: I’m going to let our architect,
(inaudible) Kelly address that question.
MR. KELLY: Can you repeat the question, please?
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: The question is whether
Covia tends to use the LEED or the GreenPoint rating
system.
MR. KELLY: The LEED rating system is actually
outpaced by your California code, because it’s much more
strict than the LEED. We could use LEED; it requires
verification. But because the California code is stricter
than LEED, we just usually fall back on the California
code.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: Okay, that’s very helpful.
Than one other question. There’s a point in the letter of
Mr. Rockwood dated July 9, 2021 regarding the need for a
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ten-foot setback from drainage features during tree
removal, demolition, and construction activities, and the
comments stated that additional information would be
provided after consultation with the project team as to
whether government agency approvals would be required. I
was wondering what the outcome of that was.
MR. KELLY: I’m sorry, could I ask you to repeat
the question? It has to do with…
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: A required ten-foot
setback from site drainage features during tree removal,
demolition, and construction activities.
MR. KELLY: I think that was kind of a wetland
issue, staying away from a wetland condition, so Mark, I
think that would be you.
MARK FALGOUT: This applies at the back of the
site. There is a drainage that runs down the hill that
drains into an existing inlet and it’s then piped off the
site, and we’ve pulled back any work at least ten feet away
from that in order to meet that requirement.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: Okay, so the government
agency of (inaudible) will not be necessary, correct?
MARK FALGOUT: Correct.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: Okay, thank you.
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CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you for those questions,
Commissioner Barnett. Any other questions for the Applicant
at this time? Commissioner Thomas.
COMMISSIONER THOMAS: I just have a follow up
question about the LEED versus the GreenPoint for our state
standards. Are there any plans…
FRANK ROCKWOOD: I’ve lost audio contact, so if
you could repeat that.
CHAIR JANOFF: We have lost audio as well.
Commissioner Thomas, if you can hear us, we can’t hear you.
JOEL PAULSON: It appears that she’s frozen.
CHAIR JANOFF: All right. Let’s ask the question
I think Commissioner Thomas was intending to ask, and that
is… Well, actually I don’t know what she was going to ask
for that matter, so let’s not put words in her mouth, and
if she rejoins us then perhaps that’s a question that could
be asked of Staff. If there are no other questions from
Commissioners. Commissioner Clark.
COMMISSIONER CLARK: Thank you. I just have a
question regarding the tree removals. I know that there are
a variety of reasons for removing all of those different
trees, but eight of the trees that you’re planning to
remove are large protected, and that’s definitely not
something that I take lightly. Those trees take 100 years
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or more to grow, and you can’t plant a 100-year-old tree.
The reasoning I noticed for five of the eight was for
construction, so I wanted to ask what efforts you made to
preserve trees? During my site visit I noticed a lot of
them were incorporated into the existing facility, and did
you try to do that in any way to preserve some trees?
FRANK ROCKWOOD: I’d like to speak to that, and
then I’ll also have Mark Falgout speak to that.
I just emphasize that one of the reasons we
decided to not expand the development pad was because of
its impact on trees. Most of the tree removal, because
we’re keeping the same development pad it turns out—I’ll
let Mark speak to it—a lot of the tree removal requirements
were really being driven by fire access, so we really have
a bad current situation in terms of fire accessibility.
Mark, I’ll let you speak to that.
MARK FALGOUT: Yes, we had to widen the road, but
for instance, at the back of the site we’re using the
uphill edge of the road as our limit, widening it into the
site so that we’re not affecting the trees that are up the
hill, and we’re not going to grade up the hill for
daylight. We’re going to build walls to really minimize the
grading impact, because grading obviously is going to
impact trees.
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A major focus in the site design was how do we
preserve these trees, and quite frankly, we did the same
thing on the downhill side where we did have to widen the
roads to meet fire access requirements, but we’re using
walls in order to minimize the grading down the hill where
those two cottages are now so that we can preserve the
trees that are down there instead of impacting them.
So, there was quite a bit of thought that went
into how can we really minimize our footprint, and I think
the whole idea that Frank mentioned of trying to design
inside the existing footprint, as well as the way that we
tried to minimize the grading outside of that footprint,
speaks to that. Now, as the design progressed and our
discussions with Fire continued we did have to expand in
order to make sure that we got the loop along the north
edge that they were going to require.
COMMISSIONER CLARK: I think I would have liked
to see some more effort to incorporate those trees that are
on the property into the design, but I appreciate you
shedding light on the efforts that you made. Thank you.
CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you. Any other questions
from Commissioners? Commissioner Barnett.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: Actually I have one more,
and this will be it. Apparently not required by CEQA, but I
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am concerned about the safety at the intersection of Wood
Road and the off-ramp and on-ramp to Highway 17. I was
wondering if you had considered whether any traffic
mitigation could be offered at that site, such as a
stoplight or a roundabout?
FRANK ROCKWOOD: My quick response is we
absolutely are going to contribute our fair share
contributions to any of those types of improvements. Mark,
I don't know if you have anything to add to that.
MARK FALGOUT: No, I don’t think I have anything
to add.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: Thank you, that’s
appreciated.
CHAIR JANOFF: All right, any other questions
from Commissioners? I don’t see any hands raised, so at
this time I will now close the public hearing on this item
and ask if any Commissioners have questions of Staff, wish
to comment on the application, or introduce a motion for
consideration? Commissioner Raspe.
COMMISSIONER RASPE: I have a quick question for
Staff and I’m not sure it can answered now or if it takes a
little research, and specifically for our Town Attorney.
I know that Applicant’s counsel has opined that
the affordable housing laws are inapplicable to this
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particular development, but before we proceed with that
understanding I’d like get maybe a second opinion from the
Town, whether there is a requirement to put affordable
housing in this development. I think it would be an
important thing to know as we proceed.
ROBERT SCHULTZ: And I completely agree with the
statements made by the Applicant, that they are exempt from
it.
COMMISSIONER RASPE: Okay, thank you, Counsel.
CHAIR JANOFF: Any other comments, questions, or
concerns? Commissioner Tavana, then Vice Chair Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER TAVANA: I’ll be brief here. Thank
you, Chair. I do have concerns about this Planned
Development specifically regarding building height and the
sheer number of trees being removed. There are only eight
large protected trees, but if you go to the tree inventory
table there are a host of protected tress. While not all of
them are large protected, they are rather large trees, and
I just don’t know how that will look in terms of the
viewing for like a hillside perspective.
Secondly, as part of a Planned Development—I’m
going back to the 2020 General Plan—it says, “The PD
Overlay Zone is intended to ensure orderly planning and
quality of design that will be in harmony with the existing
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or potential development of the surrounding neighborhood.”
So, in looking at these plans and the story poles, I don’t
see how it blends with the entire surrounding neighborhood.
CHAIR JANOFF: All right, thank you for those
comments. Vice Chair Hanssen.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: I have mixed feelings on
this one. Certainly there is a need for additional senior
housing. We all know that there is a long waiting list at
the Terraces for certain kinds of units, but on the other
hand we have also seen quite a number of people come into
Town and are stating to want to build senior facilities. I
guess where I come out on this is I was on the Planned
Development Study Committee when we were looking at the
Planned Development Ordinance, and the Applicant did
mention about providing a public benefit, so the main
public benefit I see out of this is for the most affluent
people in Los Gatos in the big houses to have something
that they can move down to that’s easier to step down to
than something that’s smaller.
But who we’re not providing a public benefit for
is the full range of people that live in Los Gatos that
might be seniors that may or may not be able to afford
those penthouse units, so it troubles me to think that’s a
pretty narrow slice of the market. I think we all know that
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Los Gatos is wealthy, but we’re trying to provide housing
for a wide range of people, and as Chair of the Housing
Element Advisory Board and the General Plan Committee
before that, it troubles me to see that this is such a
narrow slice.
When I add that onto the fact that this is being
built in essentially the hillsides—and even though the
Hillside Design Standards and Guidelines don’t apply to
this project, it was mentioned by the CDAC back when they
first saw it that we have to consider it at least in the
spirit of Hillside Design Guidelines—I have to ask myself
would we put the tallest building in Los Gatos in our
hillsides? The answer to me says no, and so if I were to
get comfortable with this proposal it would have to be less
height.
Then I also wanted to comment on the cut and
fill. This is troubling, because it is desirable from a
LEED perspective to do underground parking, but this is
also in the hillside, so I wonder is this for the good of
Los Gatos to dig into our hillsides and remove 140,000
cubic yards of soil just to get an underground parking
garage? I’m not sure that the benefit outweighs the cost of
it.
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For me to get comfortable with recommending
approval of this there would have to be some changes,
definitely in reducing the height. I’m not as sure if I
would stand firm on the underground parking, because I do
see a benefit and a cost, but it might be nice to know what
alternatives there are to architecting it in that way.
CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you for those comments.
Commissioner Clark
COMMISSIONER CLARK: Thank you. I also have a
number of concerns.
First would be affordable housing and the lack of
willingness to try to incorporate some form of that was
concerning to me, because the reality is even if you’re not
required to and even if you might not profit from it, you
can choose to incorporate some affordable units just so
that more of the community can be welcomed and more of the
needs can be met.
I also wanted to point out that 120 Staff would
be hired, and we’re already seeing people commuting from
like Stockton in order to work here because of the housing
shortage, and so I think it could be kind of hurting that
in multiple ways.
My next concern is definitely the height. I think
it’s very interesting that there are going to be less units
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but the buildings are going to be two stories taller, and
it seems to me because height is such a concern the units
could be smaller, and I also think that there could be less
two-bedroom units in order to try to accommodate this,
especially because it is in the hillsides and would be the
tallest building in town.
Next is benefitting of the community at large. I
agree that it doesn’t really feel like it does this,
because first, who knows how many Los Gatos residents can
afford to live here or would get admitted in order to live
here, and then the fact that the general public isn’t
really allowed to utilize this area, it felt to me like it
is a very thin slice of the population that it would be
benefitting, and it’s something that a lot of us will see
every single day.
Last is like I pointed out earlier, the tree
removals. It feels like there could be more effort to
preserve some of the trees and to incorporate them into the
design and that sort of thing, and in general fit is a
concerning number to remove.
Overall it feels like more luxury housing isn’t
exactly what we need, and to me that is concerning.
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CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you for those comments,
Commissioner Clark. Any other comments? Commissioner
Thomas.
COMMISSIONER THOMAS: Thank you, Chair. I have a
lot of concerns too with this project. At the end of the
day I know that this is just moving a recommendation
essentially to the Town Council, but we’re still required
to make some findings and I just don’t think this complies
with the General Plan in any way, shape, or form. Maybe not
in any way, shape, or form is an extreme way to say it, but
as a person who just was on the General Plan Committee and
now on the Housing Element, there are fewer units, it’s not
the type of housing that we’re looking to develop in Los
Gatos and that we know we need, and the tree removal. Those
are just three of many things that I think that do not, in
my mind, comply with the General Plan.
I really tried to come into this with an open
mind and hope that I was missing something, but the
information that I’ve received tonight is not making me
feel any better about it complying with the General Plan. I
am curious to hear about what other Commissioners think
about that, but as far as the information I have in front
of me and what I’ve heard tonight, I do not feel
comfortable saying that this aligns with our General Plan.
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CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you for those comments,
Commissioner Thomas. Any other thoughts? Commissioner
Barnett.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: I think with respect to
our obligation in this matter we have to distinguish the
Planned Development Application and the CEQA finding, as
Commissioner Raspe pointed out in his initial remarks. From
the CEQA standpoint I think that the findings can be made.
From the Planned Development standpoint I share the concern
about the height of the building.
With respect to the trees, although mitigation
has been proposed I think that the concern about the
traffic coming off of Wood Road is a material factor and
should be considered by the Council to see if something
could be done on that front, whether it needs to be in
conjunction with the Town or otherwise.
Those are my general concerns and comments.
CHAIR JANOFF: Before calling on Vice Chair
Hanssen again, I share many of the same comments as
Commissioners have weighed in with tonight.
I do believe that there is a need for senior
housing. I think that we can agree that there’s a need for
senior housing. The Meadows was sorely missed when it
closed and I think we’re all welcoming something coming
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back into that facility, but as has been said, it feels
very much like luxury, exclusive housing. I understand that
it’s a senior model and it does provide care, but it
provides that at high expense to the residents of Los
Gatos.
When we saw the renderings that the Applicant
provided of the views from the Town where we see the
buildings up above the tree line, it’s an alarming thing to
see those heights provided in penthouse format. We’re
losing the view of our hillside from the broader public and
we’re giving it to a small number of potential senior
residents, and that seems like an unfair trade to me in
terms of benefit to the Town of Los Gatos, so I do have a
real concern about the height.
If the Applicant were to say to the Commission
tonight that it would be willing to consider reduced
heights so we don’t see the buildings above the trees, and
however they made that happen, to pencil out with fewer
units or units of smaller size, I agree that so many two-
bedrooms seem unnecessary. You could probably take those
floors that I’m recommending be taken away and redistribute
those into some smaller units. Not all of them; you could
still maintain your sense of luxury. So, that’s a concern.
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The business model of a senior community is quite
different. I’ve looked into this extensively for my own
mother in this community at large; I’m very familiar with
the different models and how they work. How below market or
reduced cost housing would be provided is a great question.
I don’t know it would be done, but I’m sure it could be,
and that would be a further benefit to the community too.
I think from my standpoint the proposal before us
has gone a little bit too far in terms of height and luxury
for a few people without the benefit to the rest of the
Town. I would not be inclined to support it moving forward
to the Town, but I would be inclined if the Applicant were
interested in scheduling a continuation so that the
concerns of the Planning Commission that have been heard
tonight can be reconsidered in a revised plan. Vice Chair
Hanssen.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: I’m glad you made all your
comments before me. But mine was more of a process question
related to what Commissioner Barnett said, so I wanted to
ask our Town Attorney.
We’ve actually had this scenario in the past
where the Commission was having issues with the project,
but then the EIR is this kind of a different matter. It’s
sort of its own animal, and if the proper mitigation
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measures are proposed, if it’s not necessarily related to
the provability of the project, and if it were the will of
the Commission to not move forward with a recommendation,
is there any point in recommending approval of the EIR; I’m
asking our Town Attorney that.
ROBERT SCHULTZ: When you’ve completed with your
deliberations, yes, you certainly could make the
recommendation to Council that the CEQA document is
adequate and then from there move onto your second, which
would be a recommendation now that it doesn’t meet the
Planned Development requirements, and set forth those
reasons why.
The other question you can ask, you can open the
public comment for the limited issue of whether the
Applicant would even consider a continuance to try to
revise his application to see if he can meet the statements
made by the Planning Commission; so that’s the other issue.
Instead of completing tonight you could ask the Applicant
if he’s willing to consider making changes to the project
and bringing it back, but if not and the Applicant doesn’t
want to do that, or the Planning Commission doesn’t want a
continuance, then it certainly could make a motion with
regard to the CEQA document and then separate regarding
(inaudible) the project.
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VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: Okay, thank you.
CHAIR JANOFF: Follow up question. I would assume
that any changes to the proposal would not materially
affect the CEQA document, and therefore approving it would
not be a problem?
ROBERT SCHULTZ: You’re only doing a
recommendation on the CEQA document. I would imagine that
it would not, but we’d have to just see where that would go
to if the application were changed. I envision maybe they
would do something with the height requirement, but that
might do something with more grading; I’m just giving an
example. You might have to then reopen CEQA if there were
some new environmental issues. I just don’t know at this
point in time, we’d have to wait and see how that would
develop.
CHAIR JANOFF: From my standpoint it seems
prudent that we wouldn’t recommend approval of the EIR in
advance of a Planned Development that we could get our
approval behind, because we really wouldn’t know. If you
think about it in that way, if something did dramatically
change, then we would have recommended something that
wouldn’t be appropriate.
ROBERT SCHULTZ: Yes.
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CHAIR JANOFF: So, if it is the will of the
Commission to reopen the public hearing to ask the
Applicant if they would be willing to undertake a
continuation in order to incorporate some of the changes
that the Planning Commission has expressed concern about,
I’d like to see a show of hands physical. Okay, it looks
like that’s unanimous, so at this time, Director Paulson,
if you would invite the Applicant back for that question, I
would appreciate it.
JOEL PAULSON: Thank you. Mr. Rockwood, you can
unmute yourself and answer this specific question as to
whether or not you’re amenable to a continuance.
FRANK ROCKWOOD: Joel, I’d like to have Laura
Worthington-Forbes take point on this question. Would that
be okay?
CHAIR JANOFF: That would be fine.
JOEL PAULSON: That is. One second. Ms.
Worthington-Forbes, you’re unmuted.
LAURA WORTHINGTON-FORBES: I think at this point
it would be very helpful if you could clarify what your
recommendations are, and then our preference would be to
provide us the ability to move forward. If you can make
those recommendations we would take those into
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consideration in tandem with moving towards a Council
hearing.
CHAIR JANOFF: Am I hearing you correctly in that
you would not be willing to take a continuance to respond
back to the Planning Commission?
LAURA WORTHINGTON-FORBES: That’s correct. Our
preference would be to understand your recommendations and
then consider those recommendations in tandem with the
ability to move forward to Council and address them at that
time.
CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you. Now we’ll close the
public portion of the meeting. I have a question for Staff.
So, this is a no, and if we proceed with what
sounds like a recommendation to deny the Planned
Development as proposed, then we would articulate why we’re
saying no. It goes to the Town Council. If in between our
recommendation of denial and the meeting before the Town
Council the project materially changes, wouldn’t it need to
come back to the Planning Commission anyway? We’ve had this
conversation before about the reasons why it would or
wouldn’t come back to the Planning Commission. It’s usually
on the matter of an appeal, so I’m asking procedurally how
would that work?
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ROBERT SCHULTZ: You’re absolutely right. Our
appeal procedures do specifically state that if new
information is provided that wasn’t available to the
Planning Commission, then Council has the ability to send
it back to Planning Commission; you’ve seen that happen on
many occasions. This is just a recommendation, so it would
be completely at the discretion of the Council. If in fact
they felt like the Planning Commission needs to weigh in on
the issues of a changed project, they certainly could send
it back to Planning Commission, but it’s not as absolute as
the ordinance as it’s relating to appeals.
CHAIR JANOFF: All right, thank you for the
clarification. Just want to check in with members of the
Commission. Is everyone clear on where we stand at this
point? Commissioner Raspe, do you have a question?
COMMISSIONER RASPE: Just one quick question. I
understand how we are standing with respect to the PD. What
about with respect to the EIR?
CHAIR JANOFF: Good next question. If we make a
recommendation to deny the PD we can also make a
recommendation to deny the EIR because we don’t know yet
what the final form of the PD might be, or we could also
say we recommend approval of the EIR if the Planned
Development that Town Council might approve will not
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materially impact the EIR. I’m not sure which is the best
way to proceed.
JOEL PAULSON: I don't know if there’s a best
way. I’ll jump in, and then if the Town Attorney has
anything additional. There are multiple options. You just
laid out two of them.
Also, you can have the conversation amongst
yourselves. You’ve had this come up before where an
Applicant has stated they’re not interested in a
continuance. Obviously, it’s ultimately up to the Planning
Commission, so you really have a lot of different options
to move forward.
CHAIR JANOFF: Discussion for the Commission, how
people would like to proceed. Commissioner Clark, then
Commissioner Raspe.
COMMISSIONER CLARK: I just wanted to clarify,
when we asked about their willingness to return I felt like
they used the word “preference” a lot but never really said
whether they would actually be willing. I wanted to point
that out, because I think that there is a chance that maybe
they would prefer that over outright denial.
CHAIR JANOFF: I think I asked the question, for
clarification, but does the Commission agree that it was
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unclear? Should we reopen to make that very specific
question? Vice Chair Hanssen.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: I didn’t think it was
unclear. I think they want to take their chances with the
Town Council, and that they wanted to have further
direction from us, and it might have been that they wanted
to make changes to the proposal between that and now and
that was why you asked your question. Since this isn’t
truly an appeal it wouldn’t apply and the Council could do
whatever they wanted. But I don’t think that they have an
interest in coming back to the Planning Commission; that
was my interpretation.
CHAIR JANOFF: Commissioner Raspe, did you have a
question or comment?
COMMISSIONER RASPE: Two comments. First of all,
I agree with Vice Chair Hanssen’s interpretation of what
just transpired. Additionally, with respect to the EIR my
thinking would be that we would do a recommendation to not
approve it until we have a more definitive PD in hand. I
wouldn’t want to create a living document, for instance,
that exists out there separate from the PD. Just my
thought.
CHAIR JANOFF: Commissioner Thomas.
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COMMISSIONER THOMAS: I agree. I think within our
recommendation to Town Council we can say we don’t see any
material issues with the Environmental Impact Report,
right? Can we discuss that for a moment, because I’m a
little bit unclear where other Commissioners stand on that
specifically?
CHAIR JANOFF: Vice Chair Hanssen.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: I meant to comment on that.
I agree 100% with Commissioner Raspe. While if the project
were not to change at all from where it stands today,
certainly I have no issues with the Environmental Impact
Report, which was done based on the project as it stands
today as well as the alternatives that are always proposed,
including no project or a lesser project and so on, but it
makes no sense at all to me with the number of changes that
I’m hearing from the fellow Commissioners that would be
desired to make this acceptable for approval.
It wouldn’t make any sense to say that the EIR
was certifiable because we would expect the project to
change pretty substantially, and even though the changes we
would be asking would probably be less impact than in the
environmental report, it wouldn’t be the same, so to me it
doesn’t make sense to recommend approval of one and not the
other.
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CHAIR JANOFF: All right, thank you for that. It
sounds like we have a motion at hand. Are we making a
motion, Director Paulson?
JOEL PAULSON: Yes, you’ll need to make a motion.
CHAIR JANOFF: All right. Commissioner Barnett.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: I’m not sure I heard Mr.
Paulson right, but would it be in the power of the Planning
Commission to continue this matter without agreement by the
Applicant?
JOEL PAULSON: That’s always at the discretion of
the Planning Commission.
CHAIR JANOFF: The only problem I see with that
is that we could continue it and they come back with the
proposal unchanged and we’ve just essentially wasted a lot
of time without moving it along. I heard in so many words,
as Vice Chair Hanssen stated, that they’re willing to take
their changes with Town Council making a determination
that’s different from the direction that we will be
recommending, so I personally would not be in favor of the
Planning Commission making a unilateral decision to
continue this, but I am open to other Commissioners. If
that’s the will of the Commission we could certainly do
that. I’m seeing a shaking head. I don’t see any traction
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behind that approach, so I’m still looking for a motion.
Vice Chair Hanssen.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: I will make an attempt at
it. I’m going to make a motion to recommend denial of the
Planned Development Ordinance as it’s defined in our Staff
Report for the reasons that were given, not the least of
which would be the height, the trees, the lack of diversity
in the housing types, too much concentration in luxury, and
there were some other issues mentioned by the
Commissioners. So, while project certainly has some merit,
it would need to be revised to be something that we would
recommend approval on.
In addition to that, because we don’t find that
the Planned Development Ordinance as proposed can be
recommended for approval, we also recommend not certifying
the Final EIR because it is not based on the project that
we would like to see that we think is approvable. Is there
anything else I need to include, Staff?
JOEL PAULSON: No, I think you’ve incorporated
the findings for denial. If you or any other Commissioners
or the seconder want to provide any additional comments
related to why you’re finding the PD doesn’t meet those
findings, that would also be helpful for the Council as
they consider it.
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CHAIR JANOFF: And the Council does receive
copies of our meetings, so the details of our discussion
will be available to them, but I think just a quick
articulation as Vice Chair Hanssen has given is good just
in case we don’t get a thorough read. Is there anything
else that Commissioners would like to add to that, or do we
have a second to the motion? Commissioner Thomas.
COMMISSIONER THOMAS: I would ask the Maker of
the Motion that we could add in the reduced number of units
also, but the increase in really like the height of the
buildings too, so just as a note that it seems problematic
and doesn’t align with the General Plan.
CHAIR JANOFF: I think what I heard you say was
backward from what you intended. We have a concern with the
height, and if that means reducing the number of units,
then reduce the number of units or just the size?
COMMISSIONER THOMAS: Yes, they are reducing the
number of units from what was previously there, but they’re
making it taller.
CHAIR JANOFF: Oh, I see. Right.
COMMISSIONER THOMAS: Just the ratio of number of
units to the overall height and size of the buildings, and
the property does not seem to be in compliance with what
our town needs right now.
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CHAIR JANOFF: All right.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: And I would even add on what
Commissioner Thomas said earlier, that the things that I
was citing are things that are founded in the General Plan
as well as, even though it isn’t strictly applicable, the
spirit of it is in the Hillside Design Standards and
Guidelines.
COMMISSIONER THOMAS: Yes. And then I second the
motion.
CHAIR JANOFF: All right, thank you for that. Do
we have any discussion of the motion or comments?
Commissioner Barnett.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: I would recommend
underlining to the Council where there has been a point of
agreement or two by the Applicant concerning first the
valet parking and… Let’s see, there was another point of
agreement.
CHAIR JANOFF: I think sidewalks on Broadway.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: Sidewalks on Broadway was
another one. There’s still another one.
COMMISSIONER RASPE: The traffic abatement on
Wood.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: Yes, the contribution to
the traffic control on Wood Road and Highway 17.
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CHAIR JANOFF: Is the Maker of the Motion
comfortable with adding those?
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: Yes.
CHAIR JANOFF: And the seconder?
COMMISSIONER THOMAS: Yes.
CHAIR JANOFF: All right. Any other changes or
comments on the motion on the table? Seeing no hands
raised, then I’ll call the question. By roll call, please
vote yes, no, or abstain. Vice Chair Hanssen.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: Yes.
CHAIR JANOFF: Commissioner Tavana.
COMMISSIONER TAVANA: Yes.
CHAIR JANOFF: Commissioner Barnett.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: Yes.
CHAIR JANOFF: Commissioner Thomas.
COMMISSIONER THOMAS: Yes.
CHAIR JANOFF: Commissioner Clark.
COMMISSIONER CLARK: Yes.
CHAIR JANOFF: Commissioner Raspe.
COMMISSIONER RASPE: Yes.
CHAIR JANOFF: And I vote yes as well, so the
motion carries unanimously.