Attachment 2 - December 14, 2022, Planning Commission Verbatim MinutesLOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 12/14/2022
Item #6, General Plan Amendment to
Hazards and Safety Element
1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
A P P E A R A N C E S:
Los Gatos Planning
Commissioners:
Melanie Hanssen, Chair
Jeffrey Barnett, Vice Chair
Kathryn Janoff
Steve Raspe
Emily Thomas
Town Manager: Laurel Prevetti
Community Development
Director:
Joel Paulson
Town Attorney: Gabrielle Whelan
Transcribed by: Vicki L. Blandin
(619) 541-3405
ATTACHMENT 2
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 12/14/2022
Item #6, General Plan Amendment to
Hazards and Safety Element
2
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
P R O C E E D I N G S:
CHAIR HANSSEN: We can move on to the next item,
which is Item 6, which is considering a General Plan
Amendment to add policies to the Hazards and Safety
Element. Location: Town-wide. General Plan Amendment
Application GP-22-002.
I assume we have a Staff Report for this as well.
JENNIFER ARMER: Thank you, Chair and Planning
Commissioners. As stated, this is a proposed amendment to
the Hazards and Safety Element of the General Plan.
As you may remember from last year when the Draft
General Plan was brought to the Planning Commission for
consideration, one component of the recommended changes
from the draft that was prepared by the GPAC were some
modifications required by the State as part of the CAL FIRE
review and the Board of Forestry review.
A couple of those changes were included within
the Community Design Element, and because at this point the
Community Design Element is on hold because the referendum
that qualified for the ballot has not yet been voted upon,
Staff is recommending that we take the two policies that
included those changes from the State and move them into
the Hazards and Safety Element, which is in effect, so that
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 12/14/2022
Item #6, General Plan Amendment to
Hazards and Safety Element
3
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
it is clear that we have complied with that requirement for
update to the Safety Element, both for the General Plan as
a whole as well as for future adoption of the Housing
Element.
This concludes Staff’s presentation, but if you
have any questions I’d be happy to answer.
CHAIR HANSSEN: Thank you for that. Before I take
any questions I’ll just add on that since I’m chairing the
General Plan Committee this year that when we heard this at
the General Plan Committee it seemed to make a lot of
sense, given that the Community Design Element had been
suspended, to have these safety provisions moved into the
Hazards and Safety Element, and the only question that I
recall coming up during that meeting was just about the
number of General Plan amendments, because some people
thought it was limited to four, and so Ms. Armer, if you
could let the Commission know what you told us yesterday.
JENNIFER ARMER: Yes, thank you for that
question. We did verify the language of State law that does
limit the number of changes to a General Plan within each
calendar year. The limitation of four is actually to each
of the required elements.
For example, the Safety Element is a required
element, and so we could make up to four changes to the
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 12/14/2022
Item #6, General Plan Amendment to
Hazards and Safety Element
4
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Safety Element. That does not limit possible changes to,
say, the Land Use Element or the Housing Element within
that same year; those each could have four changes.
In addition, those that are not required
elements, for example, our Community Design Element is not
a required element, it is not one of those that’s listed in
that law.
CHAIR HANSSEN: So we can take comfort that we’re
not going to bump up against that, especially considering
that due to the referendum there’s likely to be more
multiple changes to the General Plan next year, or those
two elements.
Commissioner Thomas.
COMMISSIONER THOMAS: Ms. Armer, can you also
confirm—we did talk about this at the General Plan Update
Committee meeting—that also when we make an amendment you
can clump more than one change together and that just
counts as one, one time?
JENNIFER ARMER: That is correct. It’s not each
individual change we take forward. We are making this group
of changes that counts as a single amendment to the General
Plan for each of those chapters.
COMMISSIONER THOMAS: Thank you.
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 12/14/2022
Item #6, General Plan Amendment to
Hazards and Safety Element
5
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
CHAIR HANSSEN: I will put it out there to see if
any Commissioners have questions for Staff beyond what we
just talked about. I’m not seeing any, and so like our
previous item, this would be a motion to make a
recommendation to Town Council to approve the movement of
these items to the Hazards and Safety Element, and we would
follow the same process.
Oh, I forgot to do public comment, so let me stop
and see if there are any members of the public that would
like to speak on this item.
JENNIFER ARMER: Please raise your hand if you’d
like to speak on this item. I’m not seeing any hands
raised.
CHAIR HANSSEN: Okay, thank you for that. That
being the case, if no one wants to speak on this item, is
there a motion to make this recommendation?
Vice Chair Barnett.
VICE CHAIR BARNETT: Concerning our Agenda Item
#5 tonight, I move that we recommend to the Town Council
the amendments which are set forth in the Staff Report on
that item. I can make the findings that there’s no
possibility that the project will have a significant impact
on the environment and is therefore not subject to CEQA,
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 12/14/2022
Item #6, General Plan Amendment to
Hazards and Safety Element
6
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
and also that the Town Code Amendments are consistent with
the General Plan.
CHAIR HANSSEN: Ms. Armer has her hand up; so let
me see before I take a second.
JENNIFER ARMER: Thank you. I just wanted clarify
that you are referring to Item #6, the Amendments to the
General Plan. You stated Item #5.
VICE CHAIR BARNETT: Gosh, mine looks like #5,
but in any event the appropriate provision of our Staff
Report, thank you.
CHAIR HANSSEN: Is there a second? Commissioner
Raspe.
COMMISSIONER RASPE: I second the motion.
CHAIR HANSSEN: Thank you for that. Any further
discussion? Okay, Commissioner Thomas.
COMMISSIONER THOMAS: Yes.
CHAIR HANSSEN: Commissioner Raspe.
COMMISSIONER RASPE: Yes.
CHAIR HANSSEN: Commissioner Janoff.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Yes.
CHAIR HANSSEN: Vice Chair Barnett.
VICE CHAIR BARNETT: Yes.
CHAIR HANSSEN: And I vote yes as well, and like
our previous item, since is a recommendation to Town
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 12/14/2022
Item #6, General Plan Amendment to
Hazards and Safety Element
7
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Council I do not believe there are any appeal rights. Ms.
Armer is shaking her head.
(END)
This Page
Intentionally
Left Blank