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04-30-2025 - PC Minutes Special (PDF) 110 E. Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 ● 408-354-6832 www.losgatosca.gov TOWN OF LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION REPORT MINUTES OF THE PLANNING COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING APRIL 30, 2025 The Planning Commission of the Town of Los Gatos conducted a Special Meeting on Wednesday, April 30, 2025, at 7:00 p.m. MEETING CALLED TO ORDER AT 7:00 PM ROLL CALL Present: Chair Emily Thomas, Vice Chair Kendra Burch, Commissioner Jeffrey Barnett, Commissioner Rob Stump Absent: Commissioner Susan Burnett, Commissioner Steve Raspe PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE VERBAL COMMUNICATIONS None. PUBLIC HEARINGS 1. 14859, 14917, 14925, 16392 Los Gatos Boulevard; 16250, 16260, 16270 Burton Road; and Assessor Parcel Number 424-07-116 Architecture and Site Application S-23-031 Subdivision Application M-23-005 APNs 424-07-000, -052, -053, -081, -094, -095, -115, and -116 Applicant: Grosvenor Property Americas c/o Steve Buster Property Owner: Yuki Farms LLC Project Planner: Jocelyn Shoopman Consider a request to construct a mixed-use residential development (450 units), a Vesting Tentative Map, site improvements requiring a Grading Permit, and removal of large, protected trees under Senate Bill 330 (SB 330) on property zoned North Forty Special Plan: Housing Element Overlay Zone. Jocelyn Shoopman, Senior Planner, presented the staff report. Opened Public Comment. PAGE 2 OF 7 MINUTES OF PLANNING COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING OF APRIL 30, 2025 Steve Buster, Applicant - I’m Senior Vice President of Development for Grosvenor. In 2021, we turned our attention to Phase II and began an extensive community engagement process. By January 2023, the Town’s Housing Element and CEQA analysis were adopted, redesignating the site to 30 to 40 dwelling units per acre. Our application was deemed complete in April 2025, and in July 2024 HCD certified the Town’s Housing Element. The Town’s RHNA requirement is 1,993 units and the Town looks to the North Forty site to accommodate a significant portion of those units. We have designed a project that meets the Town’s needs and is consistent with the Town’s Housing Element. The project’s impacts are within the scope of the 2040 General Plan EIR, which the Town relied upon when adopting the Housing Element. Grosvenor is not invoking Builder's Remedy. This application meets the Town’s land use and density approved in the Housing Element. We planned the site to provide over eight acres of open space, a retail promenade, pedestrian and bike connections, a potential future extension of Burton Road, and 450 homes with 127 townhomes, and a mix of sizes and bedroom counts. The project provides 77 units of affordable housing, 67 of which will be built by our partner, Eden Housing, and Grosvenor is making a significant land donation to Eden to make that project possible. Lastly, 250 units, including 10 affordable, will be delivered in the multi-family rental building, also with a variety of sizes and unit types; the building was designed and placed along Los Gatos Boulevard to preserve hillside views from Highway 17. Gia Pham - I am the Communications Coordinator at Housing Choices, a non-profit that helps people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) find and retain housing. We support the North Forty Phase II project. This project includes about 16 homes for people with IDD, but it provides more than housing, it integrates these residents into the broader community. These units are all in the affordable housing building, but it is integrated into the entire plan, and without affordable options like this, many face homelessness. Without projects like North Forty Phase II, the housing crisis will keep leaving those with disabilities behind. Blake Thomas - I live at 16210 Escobar Avenue. I speak in strong support of this development. It provides hundreds of desperately needed homes. Our inability to build new homes is a chief cause of the housing crisis issues in Los Gatos, and denser, multi-family developments like this ease affordability and play a vital role in funding Town services. This project creates no unique traffic or safety concerns, which have been issues in this Town for years and likely will still be if this development is built, but this development will provide tax revenue to fund pedestrian, bike, and transit infrastructure. Katherine Mancuso - I live at 14287 Mulberry Drive and I grew up here, but my 28-year-old son, who has intellectual disabilities and lives independently, has to live in Santa Clara, where he was PAGE 3 OF 7 MINUTES OF PLANNING COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING OF APRIL 30, 2025 able to qualify for housing. It would be fantastic if he could live in Los Gatos where he has friends, his doctors and dentist, and his grandmother. He would be able to walk to my house from this development. Jan Olson - I live at 15189 Lester Lane. Sadly, North Forty Phase I did not become what was promised and in most peoples’ opinion does not fit the look and feel of Los Gatos. I am here today due to Housing Choices and the need to have at least 16 units, if not more, designated for adults with intellectual and development disabilities. My 36-year-old daughter was diagnosed with autism at age 17 and loves living in the community. Designating 16 units for adults with IDD will provide local housing for our kids to live independently near their families, jobs, and services; support stability and community inclusion; and help Los Gatos meet its Housing Element goals and avoid Builder's Remedy. Michelle Capriotti - I am a mother of four and a special education teacher of 23 years. I am here to speak of the need to include all students in our community. Our youngest son, Christopher, is a 20-year- old man with autism and an intellectual disability. The North Forty Phase II development could someday be his home. My son just attended a job fair, and wants to stay in this area where he is close to his family and friends and has access to transportation. I want to set my son up for the success he is capable of, given the opportunity, and this housing program would provide that opportunity. Chris Capriotti - This housing project is important to me because it has good apartments that I could maybe move into after I finish college. I’d be close to family and friends while living independently and working, and that would be a huge positive impact on my life and the lives of many others like me. Thank you for your time and I hope you build these apartments for our community. John Capriotti - I’m also in strong support of this. As a realtor I understand the need for affordable housing, and especially the need for housing for individuals with developmental disabilities. 16 units is a good number to start with, but obviously we need a lot more than that. As parents, we just want to give our kids a chance to become everything they can be. I’m very proud of Christopher, and he was very nervous coming up here today, but he’s a kid who tackles things head on, and having the opportunity to live on his own in a community where he could work, is one of the things that makes Los Gatos special. Noa Sklar - My younger daughter is autistic, and she is now graduating on the Dean’s List, and now is an opportunity for developmentally disabled people to be independent, so we definitely need housing units for special needs. 16 units is a joke and there should be more. When we PAGE 4 OF 7 MINUTES OF PLANNING COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING OF APRIL 30, 2025 first started to hear about the North Forty, all you could hear was “affordable housing.” Where is the affordable housing? All I see are million-dollar apartments at the North Forty. I need my daughter to live near me, and not in Santa Clara or Cupertino. She will probably never be able to earn enough to live in Los Gatos, but she deserves to. Sara Grignon - I am a director at Hope Services, a service provider for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. I support the North Forty development, particularly for the inclusion of affordable housing and designated units for adults with IDD. Hope Services provides independent living skills training, and supported living, for people who live independently in their own apartments; anywhere from drop-ins to a couple hours a week, to 24-hour support. Many of the families we support live in Los Gatos and are looking for places in the community that their adult children can call home. These people grew up here, attended school here, and now deserve the opportunity to thrive in their hometown. Lee Quintana - There is opposition because of the building heights, but consider that this an SB 330 application; it is not Builder's Remedy; that it is located on a Housing Element site, which requires a minimum of 30 units per acre, and this barely meets that requirement. There are only two ways to decrease building height: 1) Get rid of the podium parking and put it elsewhere on-site; or 2) Reduce the number of units, putting them elsewhere on-site. The only way to do either would be to occupy some of the open space, which is one of the strong points of this proposal, so neither of those solutions would be supported by the community. I’ve been involved with the North Forty since the beginning, and I hope it does not take another 10 to 15 years to get this project through. I support approving this project as quickly as possible. Dennise Jauregui - I am the Executive Director of Housing Choices and strongly support the North Forty project, particularly the inclusion of IDD units. The lack of access to affordable housing is the number one reason adults with developmental disabilities are unable to move out of the family home and live independently. I hope you will consider moving this project forward. Shiva Risi (phonetic) - One argument that has stood out was the promise of commercial prosperity with the North Forty Phase II, but if Phase I is any indication, that ground level commercial area has been vacant for over two years, and the parking lot was unfinished for a very long time. Is there any safeguard that these promises will actually materialize? I don’t think 16 units would support the IDD community’s needs, and is there any guarantee these will not become more multi-million-dollar units with minimal affordable housing? PAGE 5 OF 7 MINUTES OF PLANNING COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING OF APRIL 30, 2025 Pamela Emanuel - I am a retired person who has lived in the Phase I housing since it first opened. If it were not for the Phase I project, I would not be able to live in this community, and it is a blessing to be able to live in this community near my family in below market housing. I would like to see more affordable housing so people can live here, and not on the street or in their cars. I also have a child with a disability, and I worry about him, but affordable housing would remedy that. Karen Yamamoto - I’m a retired special education teacher. I have a problem with this development for several reasons. I love the IDD element, I love the affordable housing, and it has a lot of good things going for it, but my issue is that it is part of the SB 330 build and will create infrastructure issues. It should be included with the EIR as a cumulative effect with the rest of the SB 330 projects. This should not be looked at individually, but rather looked at as a whole. There are 14 SB 330 projects that are going to play havoc with the infrastructure and be extremely costly for the Town. How will the developer guarantee that they will fix the sewer and water issues and not just tap into them, like in Phase I, which caused sewage to back up into our houses off of Benedict Lane. I also have low water pressure at my house because of Phase I. I’m also concerned they would put a facility for the IDD community on a flood zone and earthquake zone. How does that pass CEQA? Ali Sapirman - I am here on behalf of the Housing Action Coalition, a nonprofit that supports housing at all income levels, to express our strong support of the North Forty Phase II project. The project is thoughtfully designed around The Meadow, a 3.5-acre public gathering space that connects homes, retail, and open space. The development team has prioritized bike and pedestrian connections, a balanced parking plan, and transportation demand strategies to reduce car dependency. We are also encouraged by the project’s environmental leadership. This proposal reflects years of community engagement with real input shaping the design and redesign to meet the Housing Element targets. The project offers broad public benefit, and we urge the Planning Commission to support North Forty Phase II. Jennifer Lucas - I am the Manager of the Central Coast Office of the California State Council on Developmental Disabilities and want to express our strong support for the North Forty Phase II development, in particular the inclusion of affordable housing and the designated units for adults with intellectual developmental disabilities. Many families are grappling with the difficult decision of what will happen to their adult children with disabilities when they are no longer able to provide care? And those adult children want the opportunity, as we all do, to live in their own home. Having low-income units also provides housing for the direct care staff who support people with IDD and have difficulty living in the area due to low wages. PAGE 6 OF 7 MINUTES OF PLANNING COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING OF APRIL 30, 2025 Lee Fagot - I am encouraged to hear the development proposal, because in Phase II I think the more affordable housing units and the assisted living type of facilities would be very important. My concern though is the fact that we don’t yet have the Environmental Impact Report for this development yet, and we also need to look at it under the CEQA guidance, which summarized the impact of not just this development, but those along and near this same development. There will be more than 1,000 housing units along Los Gatos Boulevard, many built under SB 330, and the Town has to consider the impact that will have on this development and the existing residents in that neighborhood in the form of water issues, sewage issues, and other utility service requirements that have to be remedied, and this should be done in advance of the building or as part of the development. Rich Stephens - I live on Benedict Lane, and I love that this is not using Builder's Remedy. I support the project, but would like to add that I don’t like the five to seven story buildings at all and am terrified at the safety, infrastructure, and height of them, but at least they are similar to the other North Forty characteristics and to buildings in that area. I share Karen Yamamoto’s and Lee Fagot’s concern and believe we must do a full and complete EIR and consider CEQA before any of these projects are approved. Traffic on Los Gatos Boulevard towards Good Samaritan is already horrible, and I believe there is an area of that North Forty area that floods already with rain, so what will be done about those types of things? Steve Buster, Applicant - All our consultants are here to answer your questions. I want to reassure everyone that this project’s individual and cumulative impacts are within the scope of the 2040 General Plan EIR, which the Town relied upon when they passed the Housing Element. Closed Public Comment. Commissioners discussed the matter. 1. MOTION: Motion by Commissioner Barnett to continue the public hearing for 14859, 14917, 14925, 16392 Los Gatos Boulevard; 16250, 16260, 16270 Burton Road; and Assessor Parcel Number 424-07-116 to a date uncertain. Seconded by Vice Chair Burch. VOTE: Motion passed unanimously. PAGE 7 OF 7 MINUTES OF PLANNING COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING OF APRIL 30, 2025 ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 9:27 p.m. This is to certify that the foregoing is a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Special April 30, 2025 meeting as approved by the Planning Commission. _____________________________ /s/ Vicki Blandin This Page Intentionally Left Blank