Attachment 3 December 14, 2022, Planning Commission Verbatim MinutesLOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 12/14/2022
Item #5, Amendments to Town Code Regarding
Town-Initiated Parcel Mergers
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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 3
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 12/14/2022
Item #5, Amendments to Town Code Regarding
Town-Initiated Parcel Mergers
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P R O C E E D I N G S:
CHAIR HANSSEN: We will move on to the next item
on the agenda, which is Item #5, which is considering
amendments to Chapter 24 (Subdivision Regulations) and
Chapter 29 (Zoning Regulations) of the Town Code regarding
Town-initiated parcel mergers. Town Code Amendment
Application: A-22-003. Project location: Town-wide. The
Applicant is the Town of Los Gatos.
I assume that you guys are going to give a Staff
Report on this?
ATTORNEY WHELAN: Yes, I’ll give a brief report.
This is Gabrielle Whelan, the Town Attorney, and this is a
cleanup of the Town Code.
Right now the Town Code has a lot merger
provision that’s located in the Zoning Code that has caused
confusion for some applicants, because the existing
provision provides that lots that don’t conform with Town
standards are automatically merged. I think that that
section predates the Subdivision Map Act, because the
Subdivision Map Act contains a different procedure for the
merger of parcels, and it is not automatic and there is a
very specific procedure that the Town would need to go
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through to merge the two parcels, and the State law
preempts any regulations.
So this is a cleanup that is intended to remove a
conflict that we have with State law in the current Town
Code, and then also remove the provision out of the Zoning
Code and into the Subdivision Ordinance, because Staff
feels that it will be easier for applicants to find if it’s
located in the Subdivision Ordinance.
We’ve proposed an amendment and we’re asking for
the Planning Commission’s recommendation of this amendment
to the Town Council, and if the Commission agrees with
Staff’s proposal it would probably go to the Town Council
at some time in January.
CHAIR HANSSEN: Thank you for that. I’m going to
ask if any Commissioners have questions for Staff, but my
understanding after going over this in the pre-meeting is
that the Commission isn’t being asked to modify any of the
language or determine if that’s adequate or not, that’s
been done by our Town Attorney, so this is only a yes or no
in terms of recommending it to Town Council, but we can
certainly ask questions.
Commissioner Raspe.
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Item #5, Amendments to Town Code Regarding
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COMMISSIONER RASPE: Thank you, Chair. I
understand why we’re making this change, and it makes
complete sense to me.
One point of clarification: My understanding is
our prior process was an automatic merger of lots without
any action required necessarily, and the way the new
language is drafted, it indicates that the Town may
initiate the mergers?
ATTORNEY WHELAN: Right.
COMMISSIONER RASPE: It doesn’t make it
mandatory, nor does it say under what criteria the Town may
do that. Is there a process that we’ll go through to make
those determinations?
ATTORNEY WHELAN: The language we’ve proposed
matches what’s in the Subdivision Map Act right now, and so
the criteria under which the Town could decide to initiate
a merger would be if any of the parcels are under the
minimum size, if they don’t meet our current standards for
sewage disposal and water supply, they don’t meet our
current slope stability standards, they don’t have legal
access, there are health and safety standards, or the lot
is inconsistent with an applicable General Plan or Specific
Plan provision. Those have been written to match the
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circumstances that the State says a town or city could
initiate a parcel merger.
COMMISSIONER RASPE: I just wanted to make sure
we weren’t introducing some uncertainty where we had an
automatic provision previously, but it sounds like as
drafted it works with the remainder of the Subdivision Map
Act to kind of take care of that, so thanks for answering
my questions.
CHAIR HANSSEN: Are there any other questions
from other Commissioners? If there aren’t any questions,
can I get a motion to recommend this code change to the
Town Council? Commissioner Raspe.
COMMISSIONER RASPE: Thank you, Chair. I move to
recommend the amendment to Chapter 24 (Subdivision
Regulations), and Chapter 29 (Zoning Regulations), of the
Town Code regarding Town-initiated parcel mergers as
presented in the Staff Report to Town Council.
CHAIR HANSSEN: Very good, thank you for that. Is
there a second? Commissioner Thomas.
COMMISSIONER THOMAS: I second Commissioner
Raspe’s motion.
CHAIR HANSSEN: Very good. Any other discussion?
Vice Chair Barnett.
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VICE CHAIR BARNETT: Are we required to make the
findings that are listed on page 1 of Item 5 in the agenda?
ATTORNEY WHELAN: It’s legislation, so findings
aren’t technically required, but I suppose it couldn’t hurt
to explain that it is exempt from CEQA and that the
amendments are consistent with the General Plan.
COMMISSIONER RASPE: I’d be happy to revise my
motion to include the findings that there is no possibility
the project will have significant impact on the
environment, therefore the project is not subject to CEQA,
and with the finding that Town Code amendments are
consistent with the General Plan.
CHAIR HANSSEN: Very good, and does the seconder
agree? I note that Ms. Armer has her hand up, so let’s see
what she has to say.
JENNIFER ARMER: Thank you, Chair. Since this is
a public hearing, I do believe we need to ask for public
comment.
CHAIR HANSSEN: Oh, yes, of course. Thank you for
that. We’ve talked about this item and we made a motion,
but we can still make public comment, and if there’s a need
to revisit the motion, we can do that. I will put out there
that this would be the time for any member of the public to
speak on this item, and you would have up to three minutes.
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Is there anyone that would like to speak, and if so please
raise your hand on Zoom or follow the procedure in the
agenda if you’re on a phone.
JENNIFER ARMER: If anybody would like to speak
on this item, please raise your hand now. I’m not seeing
any hands raised.
CHAIR HANSSEN: Thank you for reminding me that
we needed to do that, and we need to do that on the next
item as well, right? Okay.
If there are no further comments I will call the
question, and start with 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 this
is a recommendation, so I don’t believe there are any
appeal rights, and then it will go on to Town Council for
their consideration later on.
(END)