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8 Desk ItemMEETING DATE: 9/3/13 ITEM NO: g DESK ITEM COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT DATE: SEPTEMBER 3, 2013 TO: MAYOR AND TOWN COUNCIL FROM: GREG LARSON, TOWN MANAGER SUBJECT: UPDATE ON CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT COMPLAINT PROCESS REMARKS: In response to a Council member inquiry, the Town has approximately 250 active Conditional Use Permits. The Town has received a public comment and request regarding this matter (Attachment 1). The request is that Town Council considers further amendments to the Town Code to permit members of the public to propose new conditions to an existing CUP when new circumstances arise subsequent to the approval. As noted in the report on this matter, pursuant to Section 29.20.310 of the Town Code, the Planning Commission on its own motion or on recommendation from the Director of Community Development or if requested by Town Council, can hold a public hearing to consider modifying any zoning approval. Therefore, currently any concerned citizen can go before the Planning Commission and Town Council to voice their concerns about an existing CUP and request that the CUP be considered for modification as well as revocation. Based on the concerns and the information provided, the Town Council can direct that the Planning Commission hold a public hearing to consider whether or not modifications need to be made to the CUP, the Planning Commission can request the public hearing or the Director of Community Development can request the hearing. Attachments: 1. Email from Barbara Dodson, dated September 2, 2013 PREPARED BY: Sandy L. Baily, Director of Community Development al.%) Reviewed by: [" S Assistant Town Manager Town Attorney Finance N:\DEV\TC REPORTS \2013\CUPCOMPLAINTPROCESS.dsk.docx Sandy Baily From: Barbara Dodson <btdodson@aol.com> Sent: Monday, September 02, 2013 3:11 PM To: BSpector; Steve Leonardis; Diane McNutt; jpirsynzki@losgatosca.gov; Marcia Jensen Cc: Town Manager; Sandy Baily Subject: Agenda Item 8: Town Council Meeting, September 3, 2013 Dear Mayor Spector, Vice Mayor Leonardis, and Town Council Members: I have read through the Staff Report for tomorrow evening's meeting, and I would like to ask you to consider adding language to the Town Code section about conditional use permits similar to that shown below. Allow members of the public to propose new conditions to an existing conditional use permit when new circumstances arise after the conditional use permit has been approved. Such new conditions will deal with circumstances that did not exist at the time of the original approval. To support this addition to the Town Code, I plan to make the brief public comment below when item 8 comes up. I want to thank staff for the time it has taken to review the CUP process. I strongly support the staff recommendation that the Town Code allow for requests from the public for formal reviews when there are disagreements about how to interpret CUP conditions. Residents around Hillbrook have indeed had disagreements with staff about how to interpret Hillbrook's current CUP, so provision for reviews before the Planning Commission would be welcome. I hope Council will go with option 2.2 and allow for formal appeals of disagreements to the Planning Commission. I would like to ask Council to consider one more addition to the Town Code to deal with one more problematical situation that has come up relating to the Hillbrook CUP. Here is the proposed addition: Allow members of the public to propose new conditions to an existing conditional use permit when new circumstances arise after the conditional use permit has been approved. Such new conditions will deal with circumstances that did not exist at the time of the original approval. An example of how a provision like this would be of great help comes from problems arising from the current Hillbrook School CUP. In 2001 when that CUP was approved, Hillbrook had almost no afternoon enrichment or interschool sports programming. Thus, there was very little Hillbrook traffic in the neighborhood after 3:15. As a result, the CUP was written to address only traffic problems during morning and afternoon dismissal times. The CUP did not address problems that did not exist. Then, in 2009, circumstances changed dramatically. A new administration took over. Since 2009, Hillbrook has been offering almost 30 different afterschool activities and has hosted as many as nine interschool afterschool sports competitions in any one week. All this activity occurs after dismissal time and often generates more traffic than is generated during the afternoon dismissal period. The CUP does not address traffic that occurs after 3:45 and the school claims it only needs to limit traffic during the peak periods identified in the current CUP. The language I am suggesting would give members of the public the ability to ask for reasonable additions to a CUP to address circumstances that could not have been foreseen. Thank you, as always, for your public service. Sincerely, Barbara Dodson t ATTACHMENT 1