Exhibit 7 - Consulting Architect’s ReportMarch 26, 2024
Mr. Sean MullinCommunity Development DepartmentTown of Los Gatos110 E. Main StreetLos Gatos, CA 95031
RE: 50 Los Gatos - Saratoga Road
Dear Sean:
NEIGHBORHOOD CONTEXT
The site is located in a secluded area immediately adjacent to Los Gatos-Saratoga Road, thr Highway 17
exit ramp, Los Gatos High School and the Bella Vista Avenue neighborhood. Photos of the site and sur-
rounding neighborhood are shown on the following pages.
EXHIBIT 7
50 Los Gatos - Saratoga RoadDesign Review Comments
March 26, 2024 Page 2
THE SITE
Site East Edge Hillside Site West Side Highway
Site South Side Sports Field Site North Side Los Gatos - Saratoga Road
50 Los Gatos - Saratoga RoadDesign Review Comments
March 26, 2024 Page 3
PROPOSED PROJECT
PROPOSED SITE LAYOUT PLAN
TYPICAL 4 UNIT BUILDING TYPICAL 5 UNIT BUILDING
TYPICAL 6 UNIT BUILDING TYPICAL 7 UNIT BUILDING
TYPICAL BUILDING REAR ELEVATION TYPICAL BUILDING SIDE ELEVATION
50 Los Gatos - Saratoga RoadDesign Review Comments
March 26, 2024 Page 4
ISSUES AND CONCERNS
The proposed development plan may be permitted but is unlikely to result in a very livable neighborhood for
its residents. Some of the issues include the following:
1.Building Coverage
The proposed number and disposition of residential units is a plan to maximize the number of units
but would likely not result in a cohesive neighborhood equivalent to others in Los Gatos. The site itself
is substantially separated from other development in the community and will need to rely on its own
development for parking and open space. Some specific issues are suggested below.
2. Open Space, Pathways, and Pedestrian Linkages
The amount of usable common open space is quite limited for a neighborhood of this number of
residents and desired quality. It is also not very family and child oriented. Most of the distributed open
space is located in the walkways between structures and not suitable for any active uses. The two larger
concentrated open spaces are devoted to bioswales which can be visually attractive for passive viewing
but usually not suitable for any active uses. I did not find enough information in the application materi-
als to understand the more detailed uses and landscaping proposed for these areas.
While the landscaped walkways leading to unit entries will likely be well landscaped, that is also primarily
a visual rather than usable amenity - see photo example below of typical walkway for this type of devel-
opment.
50 Los Gatos - Saratoga RoadDesign Review Comments
March 26, 2024 Page 5
Pedestrian walkways along the entry walkways and passageways between buildings have the potential
of being pleasant, continuous landscaped environments, but they are interrupted at the major western
bioswale open space where residents must access the open space by walking along and across streets at
awkward locations.
3.Guest Parking
There are only 20 guest parking spaces provided for 155 dwelling units which is one space for every
eight units. The spaces are all located on the southern edge of the parcel, far away from the bulk of the
homes and not aggregated into interconnected areas. Finding a guest parking space will be difficult and
then pedestrian walks to many units would be quite long. The relative isolation of this parcel makes ac-
cess to any meaningful off-site parking impossible.
50 Los Gatos - Saratoga RoadDesign Review Comments
March 26, 2024 Page 6
4.Street Auto Court Frontages
The street frontages experienced by both residents and visitors alike will be dominated by long rows of
unit parking garage doors with limited variety or landscaped relief - see illustrations below.
5.Architectural Repetition
The individual residential buildings are well designed with an identifiable architectural style and consis-
tent detailing.
However, they are sited in rows of almost identical buildings with limited variety and color changes. While
they are handsome individually, they may as a whole lend a barracks-like feeling and are unlikely to achieve
the ambience of individual home identity that has been sought by the town in other multifamily residential
developments. The lack of any building height variations contributes to the sameness of the buildings.
50 Los Gatos - Saratoga RoadDesign Review Comments
March 26, 2024 Page 7
6.Edge Landscaping
The current site conditions include tall mature landscaping along its north, east and west edges. The
southern edge includes some mature landscaping but it is not as complete as a screening buffer to the
adjacent sports field as the other edges.
In many cases it is unclear as to what the future landscape edge conditions will be. The north and west
edges of the development are especially important because these are major walkway entry points for all
units along these edges.
Site East Edge Hillside Site West Side Highway
Site South Side Sports Field Site North Side Los Gatos - Saratoga Road
50 Los Gatos - Saratoga RoadDesign Review Comments
March 26, 2024 Page 8
RECOMMENDATIONS
Although the applicant has the ability, by virtue of new state laws encouraging increased housing develop-
ment, to disregard normal requirements for projects of this type and scale, it would likely not be in their
best interest to do so if they are not able to provide the on site amenities and environmental quality of other
competing developments and meet the expectations of discerning Los Gatos home buyers.
The following recommendations illustrate some ways in which the applicant might consider changes to
improve the development plans consistent with other past similar multifamily developments in nearby Bay
Area cities.
1. Reduce the Amount of Building Coverage
The proposed three story building heights are appropriate for Los Gatos. However, the relative isolation
of this site from nearby residential neighborhoods and the development flexibility provided by state law
would allow some additional height on this site without adversely impacting the overall sense of com-
munity. One example of a recent San Mateo project is shown below where an additional floor has been
added while designing the building to maintain a predominate three story height. The architectural style
of this example is much different than proposed on this site, but a denser product type within the
proposed architectural style is not out of the ordinary. An example of this is shown below in a project in
Pasadena.
San Mateo Waters Technology Park four story example
Pasadena mixed height four story example
50 Los Gatos - Saratoga RoadDesign Review Comments
March 26, 2024 Page 9
2. Refine the Uses and Design of the Open Spaces and Pathways.
The addition of some taller buildings, as suggested above, would allow more open space on the site to
better suite the needs of families with children as well as provide greater social interaction opportunities
for resident adults. In terms of location, one needs to recognize the requirements for the bioswale open
space elements. However, if possible, other locations might be considered. Two are illustrated below.
The first would give it a more central location easily accessible to more units while the second would
also be more centrally located while positioning it as a major focal point at the neighborhood entry,
establishing a strong sense of shared community identity.
50 Los Gatos - Saratoga RoadDesign Review Comments
March 26, 2024 Page 10
The smaller bioswale is illustrate in the applicant’s drawings package - see below.
However, the intended development of the larger bioswale is unclear. and should be clarified by the
applicant. The basic components are shown on the drawings and are consistent with a normal bioswale
Building on that engineering base, many other landscape and plan options are available. Some examples
are shown below from minimal treatment to inclusion as part of a more fully developed park.
Bioswale development example 1
Bioswale development example 2 Bioswale development example 3: Park
Bioswale minimal with adjacent passive area
50 Los Gatos - Saratoga RoadDesign Review Comments
March 26, 2024 Page 11
If some additional open space area can be allotted within the development, there would be opportuni-
ties to create small combination active and passive recreational areas for families - one example is shown
below.
3.Provide Additional Guest Parking
Providing additional guest parking that would be easily accessible to visitors would be highly desirable.
Multiple approaches could be considered. However, the best approach might be to widen the Street B
width to include parallel parking and landscaping as shown on the diagram and Rivermark development
photo example below.
To enhance this approach it would be desirable
to have the fronting buildings’ entries facing the
street,
50 Los Gatos - Saratoga RoadDesign Review Comments
March 26, 2024 Page 12
4.Improve the Street Auto Court Frontages.
Having all street frontages lined with identical garage
facades would not be a pleasant community environ-
ment. It is monotonous and falls well short of a com-
munity expectation that units will have some sense of
individual identity. It is also not common for this type of
development where units face long alleys parallel to
streets with unit entries (e.g., recent North Forty
development) or shorter auto courts perpendicular to
primary streets are the common plan approaches. Both
alternative approaches would be possible on this site but
might require some taller buildings to maintain the
applicant’s proposed unit count. The adjacent illustration
shows one approach to this.
If that approach is not acceptable to the applicant, some
effort should be given to softening the repetition along
these alley-streets. Some typical approach include:
• Adding more landscaping.
• Providing additional facade variety and offsets.
• Providing balconies along the alley ways.
• Providing larger facade offsets and emphasizing indi-
vidual unit identities.
• Varying the building heights.
See example photos below.
50 Los Gatos - Saratoga RoadDesign Review Comments
March 26, 2024 Page 13
50 Los Gatos - Saratoga RoadDesign Review Comments
March 26, 2024 Page 14
5.Add Architectural Variety and Improve End Elevations
Currently all of the buildings have the same front, rear and side elevations composed in tight rows. Add-
ing some more variety would be welcome. The applicant’s architect has done a good job on the structure
prototype currently proposed so they should be able to easily adapt their plans to provide more variety.
Below are a few photo examples of a similar architectural style with increased facade and height variety.
50 Los Gatos - Saratoga RoadDesign Review Comments
March 26, 2024 Page 15
End Elevations
Currently, all end elevations are similar and uninteresting. The applicant should be encouraged to pro-
vide unit entries on the end elevations facing streets or at least provide more interesting facade articula-
tion - see examples below.
6 Enhance the Edge Landscaping.
It is unclear from the drawings what the project edge conditions will be after development. The current
edges have a great deal of mature landscaping that imparts a special character to the site. The engineer-
ing site edge sections below seem to show little potential for any significant retention or addition to that
edge treatment. It would be desirable for the applicant to provide more information on the planned
site edges - especially since they are immediately adjacent to many walkways leading to unit front door
entries.
Sean, please let me know if you have any questions, or if here are any staff concerns that I did not address.
Sincerely,
CANNON DESIGN GROUP
Larry L. Cannon
Western edge adjacent to Highway 17Northern edge adjacent to Los Gatos-Saratoga
Southern edge adjacent to Los Gatos High School Easterly edge adjacent to hillside
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