14 Attachment 2 - July 12, 2023, Planning Commission Verbatim MinutesLOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 7/12/2023
Item #1, 15810 Los Gatos Boulevard
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A P P E A R A N C E S:
Los Gatos Planning
Commissioners:
Jeffrey Barnett, Chair
Steve Raspe, Vice Chair
Susan Burnett
Melanie Hanssen
Kathryn Janoff
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 7/12/2023
Item #1, 15810 Los Gatos Boulevard
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P R O C E E D I N G S:
CHAIR BARNETT: We’re going to move on to Item 1,
and that is asking the Commission to consider a request for
approval of a zone change from R-1:8 (Prezone Single-Family
Residential, Minimum Lot Size of 8,000 square feet) to CH
(Restricted Commercial Highway), and also a General Plan
Amendment to change the land use designation from Low
Density Residential to Mixed Use Commercial for property
located at 15810 Los Gatos Boulevard. APN 523-01-001.
As noted in the agenda, an Environmental Impact
Report was prepared and certified for the 2040 General Plan
Update on June 30th and included a proposed General Plan
Amendment for this property. Per staff, no additional
environmental analysis is required.
The requests apply to Zone Change Application Z-
23-001 and General Plan Amendment Application GP-23-001.
The property owners are Jesus Ching and Kathleen Ban, and
the project planner is Jocelyn Shoopman.
We’ll have a request for hands of those who have
visited the property. Thank you, and are there any
disclosures tonight? I don’t see any. We will begin with a
presentation by Ms. Shoopman, if you would.
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JOCELYN SHOOPMAN: Thank you, good evening.
Before you tonight is a request for approval of a zone
change from R-1:8 Prezone to CH, and a General Plan
Amendment to change the land use designation from Low
Density Residential to Mixed-Use Commercial.
The approximate 10,000 square foot parcel is
located at the southeast corner of Los Gatos Boulevard and
Farley Road and contains an existing commercial building.
The property is presently located in an unincorporated area
of Santa Clara County with the zoning of Administrative and
Professional Office and a General Plan use designation of
Urban Service Area Los Gatos.
Concurrently with the zone change and General
Plan Amendment Application the property owner has also
submitted an Annexation Application that is currently under
review by the County. It is anticipated that the Town
Council will consider this once that review has been
completed.
At this time no modifications to the building or
use of the building as a dentist office is proposed by the
Applicant. The General Plan Committee considered the
request on May 10th of this year where the Committee
recommended approval of the General Plan Amendment.
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This completes Staff’s presentation, but I’m
available for any questions.
CHAIR BARNETT: Thank you for that, Ms. Shoopman,
and I’ll turn to my fellow commissioners and see if they
have any questions, and I do not see any, so thank you
again.
We’ll now open the public portion of the public
hearing on Item 1 and give the Applicant an opportunity to
address the Commission for up to five minutes, and we have
two cards, Mr. Ching and Mr. Shanks, and if you’re part of
the same team then there will be a five-minute limit for
both of you.
ROGER SHANKS: Good evening, I’m Roger Shanks, a land
use consultant working with the applicant on this project.
This is an interesting project in that it’s already been
changed to this designation with the 2040 General Plan,
which has now been suspended for a while, so we are asking
that this go back to the same designation.
If we could put up that one slide. This is your
General Plan and the property under discussion is right
here; I tried to circle that. It is about the only
commercial piece fronting on Los Gatos Boulevard that is
not in this designation; it is designated right now Single-
Family. The three properties adjacent to it, right here,
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all back up to Los Gatos Boulevard; they have no access to
the street, so they’re accessing into the residential
neighborhood.
This is a single-story building; they want to
keep that. At this point they have no intention of changing
it. The access is out to Los Gatos Boulevard. We feel this
really conforms to the overall goal and objective of the
General Plan and is in keeping with the theme of
maintaining the residential character of the surrounding
area and not impacting on that.
If you have any questions, I would be more than
glad to answer, and the property owner is here also.
CHAIR BARNETT: Will the property owner be
speaking too?
ROGER SHANKS: Yes, he will.
CHAIR BARNETT: So let’s stop the clock if we can
and ask Commissioners if they have any questions for you at
this time. I don’t see any. So, Mr. Ching.
JESUS CHING: My name is Jesus Ching; I’m the
property owner of 15810 Los Gatos Boulevard. I just want to
say thank you to Jennifer and Jocelyn for helping me walk
through this whole detailed process over the last three
years.
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Please consider our proposal here. We are trying
to get the property incorporated into the Town of Los Gatos
and continue to provide services for the community. Thank
you.
CHAIR BARNETT: Thank you, sir. Before you go
back to sitting down, I’ll ask Commissioners if they have
any questions for you, and I do not see any, so thank you
again.
JESUS CHING: Thank you.
CHAIR BARNETT: We’ll invite comments on Item 1
from members of the public. Please use the raised hand
feature in Zoom, or if you’re speaking in person tonight
and have not already done so, please bring up a card to
Staff. I don’t see anyone. Mr. Paulson?
JOEL PAULSON: Thank you, Chair. No, there’s no
one with their hand raised for this item.
CHAIR BARNETT: Okay, thank you. We’ll now close
the public portion of the public hearing and ask if any
Commissioners have questions of Staff, wish to comment on
the request, or introduce a motion for consideration by the
Commission? Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I don’t have any
questions. I actually sit on the General Plan Committee
when we heard the General Plan Amendment portion of this.
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This is both a General Plan Amendment and a zoning change,
but it would make it consistent with its General Plan
designation if the Commission approves it.
When we heard this at the General Plan Committee
there were a few questions, but there were no issues that
anyone brought up; it seemed very straightforward. We don’t
have the Los Gatos Boulevard Plan anymore, but when we had
that plan the idea was the only Residential on the
boulevard was going to be farther down south, so this
seemed to be very consistent with both the 2020 General
Plan and what we were looking at in the Housing Element,
and ultimately if the 2040 Land Use Plan is approved in any
form it should be consistent with that as well.
CHAIR BARNETT: Thank you, Commissioner Hanssen.
Other input? We’ll start with Commissioner Janoff.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Thank you. I also sit on
the General Plan Committee, and the comments that we had
during that meeting also involved talking about this notion
of small town character, the proximity of this Residential
designation to other residences, and whether it made sense
for there to be a Residential designation on Los Gatos
Boulevard with an access off of Los Gatos Boulevard, and
for a lot of reasons it doesn’t make sense for that to be
Residential, so the request seemed reasonable to us.
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It’s designated Residential, but if it’s changed
to Mixed-Use then in theory we have the opportunity to see
more Residential than just one unit on this property, and
that’s also consistent with where we want to go with the
General Plan and the Housing Element.
I want to just reiterate that I believe it is the
only Residential… I mean it isn’t Residential, it’s working
as a Commercial entity, but there are no other residences
or anything close to Residential from Lark Avenue down to
probably past Blossom Hill Road, so it doesn’t seem to make
sense for the overall fabric of the Town for this to remain
Residential, so I’m in support of making the recommendation
as requested.
CHAIR BARNETT: Thank you for that, and
Commissioner Burnett, you had your hand up.
COMMISSIONER BURNETT: Yes, thank you, Chair. A
question. I agree with Commissioner Janoff. I did want to
mention that the property is located in an unincorporated
area of Santa Clara County and that the property owner has
submitted an Annexation Application that is under review,
so I just wanted to be sure there would be no issue
regarding that matter.
JOCELYN SHOOPMAN: No, there’s no issue with
that.
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CHAIR BARNETT: Anything further? I’d like Ms.
Armer to confirm what I believe I heard yesterday, which is
that housing would be allowed in this CH zone, at least if
there was a Conditional Use Permit.
JENNIFER ARMER: Thank you for that question.
Yes, this is in a Mixed-Use zone, or is proposed to be in a
Mixed-Use zone, and therefore Residential could be allowed
on the site as part of a Mixed-Use project through the
Conditional Use Permit process.
CHAIR BARNETT: Thank you very much. I think we
might be ready for a motion. Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I move that we approve
General Plan Amendment Application GP-23-001 and Zone
Change Application Z-23-001, which is considering a request
for approval for a zone change from R-1:8 Prezone (Single-
Family Residential) to CH (Restricted Commercial Highway),
as well as the General Plan Amendment to change the land
use designation from Low Density Residential to Mixed-Use
Commercial for property located at 15810 Los Gatos
Boulevard, APN 523-01-001.
An Environmental Impact Report was prepared and
certified for the 2040 General Plan Update on June 30,
2022, which was mentioned by our Chair. This included the
proposed general amendment for the property. No further
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environmental analysis is required because of that, and the
property owners were already speaking.
I can make the required findings for CEQA, and I
can make the findings for the required consistency with the
Town’s General Plan, that the General Plan Amendment is
internally consistent with the existing goals and policies
of the plan and its elements, and that the proposed zoning
is also consistent with the proposed General Plan change.
I think there is a draft ordinance. Do we have to
mention that as well in the motion? Okay, so that’s my
motion.
CHAIR BARNETT: Thank you for the motion. Do we
have a second? Commissioner Janoff.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Second.
CHAIR BARNETT: Any discussion? We can have show
of hands now, so all those in favor of the motion? It
passes unanimously. Thank you very much.
(END)