M09-01-16 Certififed Transcriptm
TOWN COUNCIL
SPECIAL MEETING
SEPTEMBER 1, 2016
TOWN OF LOS GATOS
CERTIFIED
TRANSCRIPT
REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT OF VIDEO RECORDING
Transcribed By:
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A P P E
A R A N C E S:
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Town Council:
Mayor Barbara Spector
Vice Mayor Marico Sayoc
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Council Member Marcia Jensen
Council Member Steve Leonardis
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Council Member Rob Rennie
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Principal Planner:
Joel Paulson
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Parks & Public Works
Director:
Matt Morley
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Assistant Town Manager/
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CDD Director:
Laurel Prevetti
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Town Attorney:
Robert Schultz
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P R O C E E D I N G S:
MAYOR SPECTOR: We are now on our public
hearings, which is a continued public hearing. Agenda
item four, which is Architecture and Site Application
S13090, investing -- tent -- Vesting Tentative Map
Application M13014 for property that is commonly or
generally known as the North 40.
Once again, let me go over some ground rules.
This evening we will be beginning with staff report, if
there's anything more that they would like to add to
what's already been provided. Then the Council Members
would have the opportunity to ask questions, if there
are any questions, and then we will get to the
discussion.
For members of the audience, I would ask
that -- I'm going to assume that there will be things
you hear up here tonight that with which you agree and
with which you do not agree. However, I would ask that
you please do not make any audible sounds in response to
what you hear. In other words, please be quiet.
Now, having said that, going back to staff,
does staff have any additional report?
MS. PREVETTI: No, thank you.
MAYOR SPECTOR: All right. Questions? I do
have a question, some questions. And I know that at
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1 some point in our staff report or reports we may have
2 received this information, but it may have been just
3 very recently, so can you please explain to the staff --
4 to the Council what the -- what will happen if are no
5 successful motions made this evening. What happens as
6 of September 7th?
7 MR. SCHULTZ: So under the Permitting
8 Streamlining Act, we, through an extension agreement,
9 all parties agree the Applicant, and the Town agree that
10 September 7th was our deadline under the Permitting
11 Streamlining Act.
12 As of that date, under the Permit and
13 Streamlining Act, it has clauses within that that
14 describe what happens next. And the language describes
15 if a decision has not been made by that time, the
16 project is deemed approved.
17 It then goes on, there was an additional section
18 added after that language was added quite some time ago,
19 in 174, that said because there were due process
20 challenges, said that before it can be deemed approved,
21 the Applicant has to give the Town seven days notice of
22 its intent to hold a public hearing and then hold that
23 public hearing 60 days later.
24 So there's one interpretation that would mean
25 after September 7th, there's no time would be -- if no
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decision was made, the Applicant could invoke the
provisions of the Permit Streamlining Act. It would be
an additional 60 days. A court in California, Mahone
(phonetic), has stated that requirement is necessary
under the circumstances put forth by the Permitting
Streamlining Act.
There is a Federal Court case, though, that has
said that seven day requirement and the 60 additional
days is only necessary when there has been no public
hearings or public comment periods necessary. And
that's a 2014 case, and so it's in direct conflict of
what the state court said.
So I take a very strong opinion that this
Council should make a decision by September 7th. If it
does not, the Applicant has the potential to go into
court and have it declared deemed approved as it was
submitted, according to that San Diego Federal Court
case. And so you will be putting -- if you don't make a
decision by September 7th, you will be putting basically
whether this case would be -- whether the project would
be approved in the court's hands instead of your own
hands.
I would make the argument in court that they
still have to do that seven day notice and the 60 day
notice period, but certainly there has been plenty of
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time for public input, public hearing periods that the
Tower case talks about in San Diego that we may not
prevail on that issue, and then it would be deemed
approved by the court.
Does that kind of explain it? There's a -- in
legal terms you have two very conflicting court cases.
A state court has said before it's deemed approved, the
Applicant must give notice of intent to the Town and
then give its own public notice within a 60 day period
before it's deemed complete. So it almost give you one
last bite of the apple to either approve or deny this.
But the Federal court case said that's not necessary if
you've already given the public the ability, through
public hearings, through public testimony, then it's
automatically deemed approved by that September 7th
date. If that explains it well enough.
MAYOR SPECTOR: Ms. Jensen.
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Couple follow -up
questions. You first said that the app -- it could be
deemed approved under state law, then there's a seven
day period for the Applicant to give notice and demand a
public hearing within 60 days.
So if the state law is the controlling law, is
there another public hearing in 60 days, assuming the
Applicant asks for that, or do we --
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1 MR. SCHULTZ:
Yes.
2 COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN:
So there is another
3 public hearing if we
follow the
law?
4 MR. SCHULTZ:
Yes.
5 COUNCIL MEMBER
JENSEN:
Okay. And the state
i law case that you're
citing, is
that Appellate Court,
District Court?
3 MR. SCHULTZ:
Appellate
Court. Appellate
! Court.
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Okay.
MR. SCHULTZ: Fourth District.
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Fourth District? Okay.
And the -- are there --
MR. SCHULTZ: So the difference in the two
cases were this. If you want -- the little nuance is in
the state court case it was an application was filed.
There was absolutely no public hearings ever scheduled,
town /city just said we're not going to even schedule
this case. It doesn't get scheduled at all. Applicant
guess into court and says it's deemed approved. The
court says no, you didn't even have an opportunity to be
heard. You have to do this seven day intent and the 60
day notice period.
So that's where the facts are a little bit
different in that case than ours. We certainly have had
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public hearings through Planning Commission and through
Council that have allowed the public to participate, and
the court in Mahone said the reason why you have that 60
day period before it's deemed complete is to give notice
to the public that this is going to happen. And
actually, a public hearing, even if Council doesn't show
up for that hearing, the Applicant can schedule it, and
there would actually be a hearing for the public to
speak.
MAYOR SPECTOR: Ms. Jensen.
MR. SCHULTZ: And then the difference in the
San Diego case was where there was public hearings,
there was all the notice given, the notice just didn't
say it would be deemed complete if they didn't act by a
certain date, and that's where the court said that was
enough, you had due process, rights were given to the
public, they were allowed to speak, so it was deemed
complete by that ending deadline.
And so that would be the argument that would
be -- ended up in court if in fact you don't do it by
September 7th. So my strong recommendation is you make
a decision on this project instead of letting the court
decide that issue on a technicality.
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Two questions.
MAYOR SPECTOR: Ms. Jensen.
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COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: The Mahone case that
you're citing, the State court case, is that the only
case that you found in California on this issue?
MR. SCHULTZ: Yes.
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: And the -- are there
any cases, Federal cases, conflicting with the 9th
Circuit case --
MR. SCHULTZ: No, not at this time.
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: -- on the issue? Okay,
thank you.
MAYOR SPECTOR: Let me follow up on, I did not
realize until just now that there was a Federal court
case and a State court case, and they have -- they're
somewhat inconsistent.
If we do not make a decision by September 7th, .
is there a possibility slash probability that the
application may be deemed approved?
MR. SCHULTZ: Yes. That would -- I mean, the
Applicant would have two choices if you don't make --
have a -- make a decision by September 7th. They could
take the Mahone path and write us a letter saying in
seven days I'm going to give notice of a public hearing
to have this deemed approved. Or they could take the
Tower, American Tower case, and go right to court and
say we already had public hearings, it's deemed
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1 approved, and if the court agreed with that argument, it
2 would be deemed approved, and there would be no more
3 hearings.
4 So it would be up to the Applicant which path
5 they would take. And our argument in court would be
6 that no, you still were required to give a seven day
7 notice and the intent. And that's assuming even after
S if they gave the public hearing period of 60 days we
9 still wouldn't be able to reach a decision.
10 MAYOR SPECTOR: Ms. Jensen.
11 COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: One more. It sounds
12 like to me that either path is a court case. The Town
13 doesn't declare it approved, you go to court, you say
14 approve it, deem it approved, so even if we don't take
15 an action, there will be a.court action to decide
16 whether it's deemed approved or not in either of the
17 paths you just described.
18 MR. SCHULTZ: Well, the one -- if you never
19 reached a decision. The one decision, if in fact they
20 give a seven day notice and the 60 days before it's
21 deemed complete, and during that period you were
22 still -- then you were able to reach a decision, then
23 it's not deemed approved by the court.
24 MAYOR SPECTOR: Ms. Jensen.
25 COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Sorry. I'm having
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L trouble figuring out how we could have time to reach a
? decision in the 60 days after our time is up.
3 MR. SCHULTZ: You still do. It's like
1 another -- what they did is they had that in the shot
i clock to allow for a last decision. So let's say on
i September 7th we receive a letter from the Applicant
stating that they're going to invoke the provisions and
give no public notice of it's going to be deemed
complete in 60 days and this Council during that period
scheduled more hearings and made a decision before the
60 days ran out, then of course you'd be able to reach a
decision. That's assuming you could -- if you can't
reach one now, that's assuming you'd reach one in two
weeks.
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Sorry. Again.
Presumably if the Council reached a decision that wasn't
the same as approving it and the Applicant had said it's
deemed approved, the court could say sorry, it's deemed
approved in its original form. It's very nice you've
reached a decision that's different. I'm just trying to
figure this out --
MR. SCHULTZ: No. Not -- not if it was done --
if they take the American Tower case, yes, and after
September 7th it's approved. If you take the Mahone
case, it's not deemed approved till after that notice is
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given and the 60 days runs. So it's a different time
clock.
MAYOR SPECTOR: All right. Let me ask a
different question. Can you explain to us the
ramifications of any vote that is a two -two vote with
one abstention?
MR. SCHULTZ: Then that's a no -- that's a no
decision. That would be as if there's been no action
taken at all by the Council, and then it goes into the
that same decision as a motion that fails.
MAYOR SPECTOR: No matter what it is.
MR. SCHULTZ: Yeah.
MAYOR SPECTOR: Okay. And then very recently,
like I think today, maybe yesterday, we have received --
we, the ..Council, have received information from the
Applicant and the public relating to a VTA bus in the
area of the North 40. I know that we have -- the
Council has received information with regard to VTA
buses in Los Gatos, either eliminating them or reducing
the -- reducing the times that they're used, and I was
wondering if somebody from staff can fill me in on that.
MR. MORLEY: Good evening. Matt Morley,
Director of Parks and Public Works. In terms of busing,
VTA is currently undergoing a study of their existing
busing schedules and service levels and have -- over the
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next several months will, through a series of public
meetings and hearings, will make a decision on what they
want to do with the future of the bus service. Nothing
has been determined at this time.
They're looking at three models for the sake of
discussion. One of them is an as -is model, where the
service levels would remain constant. A second was a
reduction that would essentially reduce the service in
Los Gatos to one route. And the third is elimination of
service to -- to the lightly used areas like Los Gatos
which would result in no -- no bus service within the
Town limits.
MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. Ms. Sayoc.
VICE MAYOR SAYOC: On that note, Mr. Morley,
can you remind me., on option two, with the reduced bus
service, was the 49 the service that goes down Los Gatos
Boulevard, was that affected?
MR. MORLEY: I think I need to emphasize these
are scenarios that the VTA is using to discuss potential
options, and through study they would determine actually
what the service levels are. And, as I understand it,
the concept would be to adjust the 48 and 49 and merge
them together into one route that would provide some
sort of a more limited service to Los Gatos.
VICE MAYOR SAYOC: And a follow -up, if I may.
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When is that decision going to take place?
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MR. MORLEY: They're doing their public
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outreach now, and we would anticipate a decision towards
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the end of the calendar year, maybe into next year.
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VICE MAYOR SAYOC: Okay.
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MAYOR SPECTOR: Ms. Jensen.
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COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Different subject
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matter. And referring staff and the Council to the
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letter we got from Remy Moose Manley, page nine, there's
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an indication -- the issue is -- this also came up in
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the letter from HCD, do the by right standards apply to
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both residential and commercial? The letter I'm
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referring to talks about mixed use. The Specific Plan
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at Section 2.5.10A and B says, "Commercial portions of
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the mixed use use commercial design guidelines,
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residential use residential." So my question is well,
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where -- when it's mixed use, like, for example, the
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market hall with the senior on,top, I'm assuming that
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the by right applies to that as mixed use. My question
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is does it also apply to any stand -alone commercial that
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is contained within a mixed use multi - family
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development?
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MR. SCHULTZ: You are correct. The
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interpretation, I think most legal experts agree on that
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the mixed use with the senior housing is part of the
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mixed use development.
There's just a difference in opinion as to
whether stand -alone buildings would be entitled to the
density concessions and waivers, and certainly that's up
to the Council to decide whether the stand -alone
buildings that are completely commercial, whether they
need to comply with the density bonus requirements or
need to be outside of that requirement.
Certainly, you know, there's an argument both
ways, and I think that's what Remy Moose says, there's
no specific case law on it or determination as to
whether it's required or not.
MAYOR SPECTOR: Mr. Rennie.
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Thank you, Mayor
Spector. So following up on that, I recall, either from
Remy Moose or possibly from the policy manager from HCD,
it said something about if the extra commercial is
neighborhood serving, then it falls in with the whole
plan, so my question is how do we define neighborhood
serving? How would staff define neighborhood serving?
MR. PAULSON: (Inaudible) we have the specific
definition, and so I'll start. So it would be services
and goods that are available for the either immediate
neighborhood or greater neighborhood. But typically,
you know, for the first phase as proposed, there will be
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services that will be available and goods that will be
available in the commercial and the mixed use commercial
buildings that will -- that staff would conclude are in
fact neighborhood serving.
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: If I could follow -up.
So in the economic analysis, it talk -- it kind of gives
a list of what those are supposed to be. What they call
it, comparison retail. It was -- oh, I have it -- I
listed it here somewhere off the top of my head. It's,
you know, hair salon and bicycle shop and things like
that. So the ones that are listed, are those all
considered neighborhood serving?
MR. PAULSON: I don't have the list in front of
me, but yes, I would' -- you know, hair salon, retail,
cafes, those would all be neighborhood serving. Coffee
shops. And I think Ms. Prevetti has some additional
information.
MS. PREVETTI: Yeah, I think one way to look at
it is what -- what would be regional serving and what
would be a regional draw type of retail. And those are
the larger shopping centers, the larger stores that
would essentially draw from the region, so South San
Jose, Campbell, Saratoga, et cetera, as opposed to the
people who live within a closer proximity to the
development.
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L COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Is it staff's opinion
? that there's any of those kind of stores proposed here?
3 MS. PREVETTI: Well, I think it's a fair
argument that Los Gatos is a regional destination, that
i people come here because they like our small town charm,
and I would imagine that the downtown would continue to
be attractive, and if there's new opportunities for
shopping and eating, that that would also likely to be
attractive.
But the majority of the users would likely be
Los Gatos residents. I think we heard testimony from
our public that this portion of our town is looking for
opportunities for dining that perhaps they don't have
much choice right now.
So there seems to be some demand for some
additional uses. And certainly general merchandise,
where you could buy the pair of socks or this sort of
thing, was clearly shown in multiple studies of the
economics that that is an area where the town -- where
we're losing sales. People go outside of town to find
those types of shopping necessities.
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Okay, thank you.
MAYOR SPECTOR: Let me follow up from
Mr. Rennie. Remind me, other than the market hall, is
there somewhere in these materials where the specific
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commercial uses are listed?
MR. PAULSON: There is not.
MAYOR SPECTOR: So there's just square
footage.
MR. PAULSON: There is just square footages,
and there's permitted uses that are allowed in the
Specific Plan, and so they would be required to
accommodate those.
MAYOR SPECTOR: All right. Thank you.
Ms. Sayoc.
VICE MAYOR SAYOC: Question on that. If you
can remind me, with the stand -alone commercial
buildings, are there being -- are there concessions that
are attached to those?
MR. PAULSON: The Applicant is requesting the
same height concession for those buildings, so if the
Council, as was stated previously, does not believe that
those are appropriate for the three stand -alone
commercial buildings, then the Applicant would be
required to modify those to comply with that height
requirement.
VICE MAYOR SAYOC: Okay. So if you could --
I'm looking at the building key plan, 1.0. So all the
buildings that are in area A and area B, are you saying
are asking for height con -- is it the height?
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MR. PAULSON: So the entire project is asking
for the height determination from finish grade not
proposed, or finished as is required in the Specific
Plan, and so specifically the two -- the retail and
restaurant building out fronting Los Gatos Boulevard.
VICE MAYOR SAYOC: Uh -huh.
MR. PAULSON: And then the building on the
sheet you're looking at, right under area C, those three
comprise the stand -alone commercial buildings.
VICE MAYOR SAYOC: And if I may switch
subjects. Also I want to inquire about something that
came in today. It is a letter from Angelia Dorner, it
came in at 7:47, about just the various responses to the
density bonus. And the specific question I had is we
discussed at length about date of application and
when my next question now is maximum allowable
residential density at the date of application, and so
if I'm interpreting her letter correctly, if you're
applying in 2013, we had no Specific Plan, therefore we
had no maximum density. If you're applying in 2015,
then it's a whole set of different numbers.
So could you just give me some clarification on
where you and Mr. Schultz stand on this letter.
MR. PAULSON: Well, I'll start on one. And so
the maximum density was set ultimately in the housing
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1 element, but again, that was -- would be in 2015. And
2 so the maximum number wasn't set and was ultimately
3 modified. So, Mr. Schultz, if you have any additional
4 input.
5 MR. SCHULTZ: But for the -- for that
6 Government Code section you don't look at what the
7 maximum density for -- if you're looking -- are we
8 looking at the replacement issue? And so it's still the
9 date of the application is what you look at it. At the
10 time the application's filed it didn't need to be a
11 Specific Plan. Although our general plan said no
12 applications will be processed until a Specific Plan is
13 done, it still didn't prevent an application from being
14 filed on that property.
15 So the Applicant takes the position that as
16 early as 2013 and 14, their proposal was requesting
17 density bonuses and BMP program for this project and,
18 therefore, it's exempt from it. You certainly can take
19 the position that no, because it wasn't finalized till
20 2015, and that's when the actual density bonus letter
21 came in, that it has to comply with that section.
22 And if you agree with the second part of that
23 argument, then you've reached the statement -- then you
24 have to go through replacement process and determine
25 whether they've met that replacement requirement.
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MAYOR SPECTOR: Following up on that, what -- I
understand what the community members say, and I
understand what the Applicant is saying. What is the
Town's position?
MR. SCHULTZ: The Town's position is that it's
met the -- its application was in place before the 2015
date, and even if you don't agree with that assumption,
it still meets the replacement requirements because it's
providing 49 of the lower income units.
MAYOR SPECTOR: Mr. Rennie and then Ms. Jensen.
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Just a quick one again
on that. So what did the letter from HCD say about that
item?
MR. SCHULTZ: The HCD did not address that
issue. Remy Moose did and did agree with my analysis
and the Applicant's analysis.
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Okay, thank you.
MAYOR SPECTOR: Ms. Jensen.
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: So a couple follow up.
The Rennie Moose letter concluded that the application
was filed in 2013, and even if it wasn't, that the
replacement units were there and they're fine. The age
restriction doesn't --
MR. SCHULTZ: Correct.
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: -- negate that. And is
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2 MR. SCHULTZ: Yes.
3 COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: The follow up layer
4 that I want to put on that is if an application is filed
5 in 2013, and I think -- I forget who is it was,
6 Mr. Paulson or Mr. Schultz, was saying the General Plan
7 was controlling at that time with respect to the Town
B was going to do a Specific Plan, the General Plan also
9 had in place an EIR that was setting maximum residential
10 units and commercial square footage based upon the EIR.
11 Are - -'can those be interpreted as the maximum
12 densities?
13 MR. SCHULTZ: Yes, I think that could be
14 another document that you could rely on for the maximum
15 densities.
16 COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Okay, thank you.
17 MAYOR SPECTOR: Other questions? Mr. Rennie.
lg COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: If I could just follow
19 up again on my question. So what I see in the letter,
20 and maybe they don't have enough information, but the
21 letter from HCD, they say based -- so under the state
22 density bonus law, it says based on the department's
23 understanding, a development application meets the
24 eligibility criteria under GC Section 659115B and C. Do
25 we say that, you know, that's just a guess, 'cause they
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haven't looked at our application close enough? That's
on page -- bottom of page two of attachment 36.
MS. PREVETTI: Yeah, they did not do an
exhaustive evaluation of the application, since it's a
very large document. They were answering the key
questions primarily regarding the housing element. They
chose to also comment on the density bonus, because they
were -- they understood that that was also in play, but
that was really not the primary task for them.
MR. SCHULTZ: I think in that paragraph they're
more analyzing the issue of the very low versus the
senior and whether this project has to. go under senior
as a -- and only get 20 percent density bonus instead of
the low, very low income and get 35 percent. That was
the issue I think they're dealing with primarily in that
paragraph and not the whole replacement issue is my
reading of it, but I could be wrong.
MAYOR SPECTOR: All right. Thank you, Council.
Mr. Rennie, more questions? Go ahead.
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: I'll change slightly.
In the staff report you talked about -- you said the
application gets a RENA (phonetic) credit for 49 very .
low, one moderate and 270 above moderate, but I think
you mean 237, because they're only applying 237. So if
I add all those up, I think I get 287. So does all 287
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1 go towards the six -- and I believe the number was 619
2 that -- a RENA allocation 619? And the reason I ask
3 this is I saw somewhere in the Housing Accountability
4 Act that once we reach the 619, before, you know, the
5 deadline of 2023, or whatever it is, we then can start
6 denying by right developments.
7 So is 287 the credit we get towards it even
8 though only 237 was part of our original allocation?
9 MR. PAULSON: We will get credit for the entire
10 320 units that are proposed. And so 50 -- the 49 very
11 low, one moderate and then the 270, which is the
12 remainder, will go in the above moderate, which is the
13 market rate units. So those will go into those
14 categories for credit.
15 The by right, I don't have that in front of me
16 as to whether or not we can deny them once we hit that
17 threshold.
18 MR. SCHULTZ: The by right would be hit once
19 you get the 13.5 acres at 20, plus the density bonus.
20 So I think that's the three -- 340 -- 364.
21 COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Yeah, I was actually
22 thinking in terms of our other projects that we have
23 designated that would end up by right projects, but if
24 we manage to build enough when those come forward, then
25 they wouldn't be by right.
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MR. SCHULTZ: This was the only property that
we did the by right on in our housing element. The
other ones are AHAS (phonetic) properties.
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Okay, thank you.
MAYOR SPECTOR: Other questions? Seeing none,
good questions Council. Now_it's time for discussion,
motion. Mr. Leonardis.
COUNCIL MEMBER LEONARDIS: I'll ask a question
of staff. I asked this a couple weeks ago, about the
Samaritan Hospital potential expansion. Did we get any
information back from the letter we submitted to them
reasons and concerns about the impacts of traffic, and
did we get any information back from them whether they
would be doing anything to mitigate traffic along the
corridor, Los Gatos Boulevard between Lark Avenue and I
guess it would be Samaritan Drive?
MR. MORLEY: , We will receive -- or the City of
San Jose will post responses to the EIR questions on
their website on September 14th.
MS. PREVETTI: We've actually received the --
some of the information -- I guess actually that was for
Dell. Yeah, I'm sorry, I was confused. So San Jose has
not yet responded to the comments that we've provided,
however, Campbell has completed responses to comments,
and the Town did submit comments on the Dell Avenue, and
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3 MAYOR SPECTOR: Mr. Leonardis.
4 COUNCIL MEMBER LEONARDIS: Thank you, Mayor
5 Spector. My primary concern at this time is the part of
6 Los Gatos Boulevard between Lark Avenue and Samaritan
7 Drive. It already backs up quite badly under ordinary
8 conditions. If we're going to add more capacity, if the
9 hospital will add more capacity, I'm wondering how that
10 would be addressed, especially from their point of view,
11 and if there would be any monetary contributions or
12 attempts to I guess take the right of way to add a third
13 lane along that stretch going northbound.
14 MR. MORLEY: So with the San Jose EIR
15 information, San Jose will look at all of the impacts
16 that the traffic makes on -- on both the Town streets
17 and the City -- City of San Jose streets, as well as
18 freeways and intersections and on ramps. All of it
19 combined much like the Town did for the North 40. San
20 Jose has some options when they have receive -- when
21 they have that information in front of them.
22 One of them is to mitigate the impacts if
23 they're able to identify a solution. The other is to
24 determine that if there's not a way to mitigate the
25 impacts, then they would make a finding of overriding
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consideration. That's the information that we'll get
finally on September 14th from San Jose and what their
intended direction is on the stretches of roadway.
Typically they wouldn't allocate dollars. They
would rather require the developer to do improvements,
for example, at the intersection of Samaritan and Los
Gatos Boulevard to accommodate the vehicle traffic.
That doesn't necessarily address the stretch between
Lark and Samaritan. Traffic generally looks at the
intersections as the congestion point, the point where
all that traffic comes to a confluence and creates the
backup. That's where the mitigation measures typically
occur.
We would not anticipate an allocation of
dollars that could be used to procure right of way
outside of waiting for those properties along Los Gatos
Boulevard to develop where that could be a requirement
of the developments.
MAYOR SPECTOR: Ms. Sayoc.
VICE MAYOR SAYOC: Two questions on that. The
first is does Good Sam as an entity make comments to
these various projects and the traffic studies
associated with it, or do they rely on San Jose to make
those analyses and those thoughts?
And the reason why I ask it is just because of
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1 the number of comments we've received on capacity of our
2 streets to take patients to Good Sam in a timely manner.
3 Is that -- does Good Sam ever weigh in on what they
4 consider is appropriate traffic around their facility?
5 MS. PREVETTI: Well, similar to the North 40,
6 there's an applicant for the Samaritan projects, and
7 they are making a proposal to add a significant amount
8 of square footage and replace existing buildings, but
9 the burden of completing an EIR that's compliant with
10 state law runs with the City of San Jose.
11 It would be -- the applicant would have the
12 opportunity to say I'm including various mitigations in
13 my project. They could voluntarily offer that, or they
14 could suggest that certain mitigations are not feasible
15 or viable, and then the City would either have to offer_
16 alternate mitigation or deem the impact to be
17 significant unavoidable with no impacts.
18 It would be unusual for an applicant to comment
19 on a document for their own project, but it could be
20 done. But there's also other hospital interests, as you
21 know, in that area, and one would expect that the other
22 medical uses would certainly be commenting and making
23 their opinions known on the document. That would be
24 expected.
25 MAYOR SPECTOR: Miss Sayoc.
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1 VICE MAYOR SAYOC: And I recall when we -- a
2 long time ago the Planning Commission had looked at a
3 medical building on that corner of Los Gatos Boulevard,
4 and I think it's -- where the -- where the Starbuck's.
5 is, and that's a funky intersection, because it's owned
6 by San Jose I think, by Los Gatos, and I think CalTrans
7 had some say in it, so in a project, whether it's Good
8 Sam or North 40, with changes occurring, who pays for
9 the improvements at that intersection?
0 MS. PREVETTI: It really depends upon which
1 project is creating the impact. So if the project is on
2 the Los Gatos side, and we're the first ones out, then
3 it would be the obligation of that first project to
4 mitigate its impact.
5 If later, say, on the San Jose side, where
6 Stanford is located, they were going to be doing
7 something different, that would also impact that same
B intersection, then they are then responsible for the new
9 increment of impact that their project is -- is
J creating. So it is -- and in this area with so much
L interest happening, it's -- we're essentially working
? our way through these issues as we come forward. With
3 the project that's before you, we have an Applicant
1 who's proposing to do some of the offsite improvements
i up front to the extent that they can, and then
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1 additional improvements would have to happen later.
2 Whether or not San Jose does outside of its
3 jurisdiction improvements is something that I -- we
4 can't comment on 'cause we don't know what those impacts
5 are and what the required mitigation will be yet.
6 MAYOR SPECTOR: Ms. Sayoc.
7 VICE MAYOR SAYOC: And so for a future phase
8 three, four, five, whatever it is on the northern
9 district, and we look at Burton Road, would the uses
10 allowable on those parcels be impacted by what the
11 traffic climate at that time of application will be?
12 MR. MORLEY: Yes. The requirements are that
13 there's a TIA with each future phase of the project.
14 VICE MAYOR SAYOC: And so it would do the
15 analysis of whether the proposed uses of more commercial
16 versus residential versus a hotel, would be conducted,
17 and that would show what would be at least the least
18 impact for traffic with those -- with that Northern
19 section, right?
20 MR. MORLEY: It would analyze any proposed
21 project with the existing -- the traffic conditions at
22 those time -- at that time and any other projects that
23 were in the queue, much like it's been done for the
24 North 40 project or other projects.
25 VICE MAYOR SAYOC: Okay. Thanks.
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MAYOR SPECTOR: Questions? Discussion?
Ms. Jensen.
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Well, since no one's
going to do it, I will start out. I'm going to go slow,
because I'm going cite sections as I go through, so --
as the Mayor did on August 16th, I'd ask the Council and
staff to pay attention to the sections that I'm going to
cite. I'm going -- this is going to end up being a
motion.
For purposes of my motion, I am taking the
evaluation that's contained in the HCD letter of
August 25th, from Paul McDougal regarding California
Government Code Section 65583C1 and 655A3H and I, which
indicates that, quote, "While design review.is allowed
under the statute, by right, decision - making.must follow
development standards that are fixed, predictable,
clear, quantifiable, written, warrant little to no
judgment and should be applied in a manner that
affirmatively facilitates development," close quote.
I recognize that that is a letter regarding
housing elements and housing law, however, my question
to Mr. Schultz was regarding mixed use and whether that
applied to the commercial as well. Mr. Paulson
identified neighborhood serving retail as part of a
mixed use development that would qualify, so I'm going
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use that standard.
2
And my -- I'm going to organize this by the
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numbered bullet points I've numbered in the Vision
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Statement in order that we can follow it.
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First of all, the general principles that are
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identified in chapter two are that the land use
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development standards form a comprehensive set of
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policies that will work in concert to steer future
9
development, and that the overall goal -- this is 2.3,
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paragraph two -- for the three districts to work
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together as a self- sufficient neighborhood while
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offering support services and entertainment for the
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local area.
14
I also found Section 6.4.2, and I've got it
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written down somewhere, but I'm not going- to.refer to
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it, but essentially it's an administrative section of
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the Specific Plan which indicates that the plan policies
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and guidelines work in concert with the zoning
19
ordinances of the Town, however, when there is a
20
conflict, the Specific Plan takes precedence. And
21
that's at Section 6.4.2, and that goes back to the
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Mayor's discussion with her first motion on our last
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meeting with respect to our architecture and site, yes,
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it does apply, but according to 6.4.2, if there's a
25
conflict, the Specific Plan is the ruling document.
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So the bullet one of Vision Statement, the
North 40 will look and feel like Los Gatos. This is, of
course, the most controversial. Section 2.7.3 of the
Specific Plan says, that the Specific Plan area should
accommodate a mix of residential product types and sizes
to create the character of an authentic neighborhood
rather than a typical development project. The Mayor
pointed out in her motion last time that Los Gatos is
eclectic, it's a blend of different things, that's
reflected in this Specific Plan.
The application proposes different types of
residences, garden cluster row homes, live work lofts,
affordable senior, apartments, and those are contained
at -- well, they comply with Table 2.2 of our Specific
Plan.
With respect to commercial design guidelines,
the look and feel of Los Gatos, Section 3.2.4 A says,
quote, "These guidelines are not intended to accomplish
or dictate a specific style." Section 3.2.4, paren B,
quote, "Proposals for new commercial structures should
be developed within the context of Los Gatos heritage
and historic and agricultural heritage of the site."
That particular section is accompanied by a picture of a
barn. That barn is -- looks to be constructed with a
metal roof. It has concrete at the bottom. It's got a
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1 side of windows, and that's illustrative of what the
2 Specific Plan is asking for.
3 You look at the application that we have before
4 us, that's consistent with the architecture that's
5 called out in the Specific Plan, therefore, I believe
6 that it's compatible.
7 Section 3.4, neighborhood identity, which was
8 also cited by the Mayor in her motion on August 16th,
9 indicates, quote, "The Specific Plan area is a unique
10 site within the Town. With its own identity, the
11 Specific Plan area should be treated with a unique image
12 or brand appropriate to its history and relationship to
13 the Los Gatos community. Branding elements include
14 building materials and forms, trees and landscape
15 - treatments."
16 So this application has given us a variety of
17 architectural treatments that have conformed to the
18 heritage of the land. It's consistent with the pictures
19 that are illustrated in our Specific Plan. It includes
20 planting of approximately 1,800 trees, 540 of which are
21 orchard trees, and that's reflected on the application
22 sheets 2.2, 4.1 and 4.3.
23 As to the bullet two of the Vision Statement,
24 "The North 40 will embrace hillside views, trees and
25 open space." So with respect to hillside views, again
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that's controversial, however, the application does
comply with all of the height limitations set in the
Specific Plan. It does, as I said, plant 1,800 trees.
And with respect to the open'space, Section 2.5
requires, quote, "A minimum of 30 percent open space."
This application gives us 39 percent.
The open space Section 2.5.4A included both
green open space and hardscape. It -- Section C, 2.4 --
2.5.4C, the 34 percent -- 30 percent open space
requirement shall include a variety of green and plaza
spaces, with a minimum of 20 percent being green open
space. The application provides 23 percent.
Finally, Section 2.5.4D, requires 20 percent of
the 30 percent open space shall be publicly accessible.
The application before us has 85 percent of that space
publicly accessible.
Bullet three of the Vision Statement, the
North 40 will address the Town's residential and /or
commercial unmet needs. Section 3.3, residential design
guidelines of the Specific Plan indicates, quote,
"Residential products should be designed to meet the
unmet needs of the community and provide a mix of market
rate and affordable housing in a multi - family setting."
The application sheets 1.0, 1.0(A), include
proposed residential of market rate, garden clusters,
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1 condominiums, row homes, live work lofts, apartments,
2 and also senior affordable units. There is a table that("
3 was referred to, I believe by the Mayor, with respect to
4 unmet needs identifying Gen Y and baby boomers. Those
5 were examples of the types of housing that could be
6 supplied. They were not required housing, and they were
7 not attempting to define what the unmet needs were.
8 Section -- I don't have it down, but with
9 respect to retail tenant space size, and hopefully staff
10 can help me out here, the Specific Plan -- again, I'm
11 quoting -- allows for a mix of retail sizes. The
12 commercial is to serve the unmet needs for the new and
13 surrounding businesses and residential neighborhoods
14 subject to the following conditions: A, every
15 application shall include a table that identifies the
16 sizes of each retail space proposed. That's been
17 submitted, Sheet 1.OA.
18 B, the maximum individual commercial retail
19 tenant size is 50,000 square feet. The application does
20 not propose anything.over 50,000 square feet. In fact,
21 the largest commercial space that's proposed is the
22 market hall at a net square footage of 22,700 square
23 feet, which also contains affordable housing.
24 I wanted to go with respect to -- I'm not sure
25 if it's here -- the economics, which were the subject of
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Mayor Spector's motion on August 15th. Section 2.4.2
requires that new commercial square footage must present
the proposal to the Conceptual Development Advisory
Committee. That was done in this case both in October
of 2015, with a final decision on November 11th of 2015.
The minutes for the Conceptual Development Advisory
Committee indicate that it was examined and that no
further -- and I have it -- I'm going to look for it.
Bear with me a minute. I want to get it right for the
record. No additional analysis needs to be provided
unless there are changes to the proposed commercial
elements that the current analysis does not cover. That
was the minutes from the CDAC.
So on the motion of August 16th there were
several deficiencies or -- argued for deficiencies in
the plan, that's Attachment 17, Exhibit F, which were,
number one, that the opinion -- the central opinion was
that the North 40 did not have a leasing advantage. The
Specific Plan does not require that element to be
contained in the economic setting.
The application did not express what the 26,000
square feet of commercial will be other than market
hall. Again, the Specific Plan 2.4.2 does not require
Number three, the study did not address Town's
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1 identified and commercial leakages. Again, the Specific
2 Plan does not require that, however, it was included in
3 the economic study that was contained with our EIR.
4 That the -- number four, the motion from
5 August 16th is that the study did not address, quote,
6 "the need for 10,000 square feet or above commercial
7 units," unquote. There is no identified need for that.
8 That was discussed at one of the Council
9 meetings when the Specific Plan was approved. The
10 motion to include that failed on a three to two vote, as
11 did a table that included -- or was going to include the
12 number of commercial units by square footage, X
13 percentage of -- at a certain square footage. Again,
14 that was not included in the Specific Plan, failed on
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15 the motion to approve the Specific Plan.
16 Mission statement bullet number four, the
17 North 40 will minimize or mitigate impacts on Town
18 infrastructure, schools and other community services.
19 Section 4.1, Policy C2, traffic, requires that minimize
20 traffic impacts through site design, multimodal
21 opportunities, land uses, the intensity of development,
22 access and street and intersection improvements.
23 The application complies with the mitigation
24 measures identified in the EIR. Provides infrastructure
25 improvements that are called out in the Specific Plan,
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and, again, I'm going to point to the tentative map
roadway improvement plan sheets 1.23 and 1.24 submitted
by the Applicant.
Policy C5, bicycle planning, integrate bicycle
facilities, amenities throughout the site, including
multimodal paths physically separated from vehicle
roadways. Again, the tentative map sheet 1.3, sheet 1.5
submitted with the application complies with that.
4.6 of our Specific Plan section, intersection
improvements, calls for intersection improvements of Los
Gatos Boulevard, Samaritan and Burton, plus a new left
turn lane on Lark and Los Gatos Boulevard and a new lane
on Lark to northbound 17. All of those are provided in
the application, and they're called out at sheets 1.23
and 1.24.
Section 4.10 of the Specific Plan calls for
traffic demand management plan. That, as I understand
it, comes with a final map if that is -- if this
application is ever approved. Nonetheless, there are
requirements called out in the EIR, which the Applicant
has indicated they are going to be following.
Section 4.13, Specific Plan areas circulation
improvements. Again, sheets 1.23 and 1.24 of the
application meet those.
The second part of the bullet four of the
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1 Vision Statement has to do with schools. Section 5.2,
2 policy 18, of the Specific Plan says we need to address
3 school needs. It says developers are encouraged to
4 collaborate with school districts to address school
5 needs.
6 Here with the application, and prior to the
7 application, there's an agreement with the Los Gatos
8 Union School District to contribute or find two point --
9 two acres for a school site and /or contribute $23,500
10 per market rate unit built to the schools.
11 With respect to other community services, the
12 Applicant has worked with I know the bicycle and
13 pedestrian event -- advisory committee and with other
14 transportation agencies with the Town to meet other Town
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15 needs.
16 So I think I've called out most of the things
17 that I think are objective standards, but I'll also --
18 there was an objective standards matrix that I'm not
19 relying on for this motion for those of you that think I
20 might be, but there is one, and I want to cite it for
21 the record, that was submitted by the Applicant for our
22 last meeting. I don't see an exhibit sign on it, but
23 it's titled, "Objective Standards Matrix." And again,
24 I'm not relying on this for my motion, I'm relying on my
25 research of the Specific Plan and my looking at what
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fits or doesn't fit.
So I think that I've gone through and cited how
I believe that the application meets the requirements of
the Specific Plan. So my motion is to approve the
application as submitted, and with that motion approve
the resolution that was provided to the Council in our
staff report from our last meeting, which is Attachment
23, with all of the findings and requirements that are
included with that resolution.
That was it.
MAYOR SPECTOR: That's it, all right. We have
a motion. Do we have a second? Mr. Rennie.
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: May I ask a question of
staff before I make a decision on that?
MAYOR SPECTOR: Yes. And let me be -- _thank
you for doing that. Just for everybody, if you have a
question of some Council Member who has spoken, you can
raise the issue, you can raise the question, but
everything will go through the chair as opposed to
talking directly to one another. Thank you for asking.
You're on with staff.
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: So my question really
is more for staff, actually. So I would like to ask
Ms. Jensen or ask staff to ask Ms. Jensen for some
changes, but my question is -- and I believe it came
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1 from the letter from the policy manager at HCD that said
2 conditions cannot be imposed unless required by
3 objective standards and policies.
4 So, you know, in the last meeting we had, I had
5 seven or eight items that I thought would make the
6 project better. Does that statement mean that we're not
7 allowed to ask for changes such as I asked for last
8 time, and what is the range of changes we can ask for?
9 MS. PREVETTI: No. It's been our determination
10 that the Council can ask for changes, because you have
11 the discretion to essentially make sure that the
12 application meets the Specific Plan, and the types of
13 modifications that were suggested on August 16th do not
14 materially reduce the housing units or affect the
15 ability of the project to deliver the affordable housing
16 component. It was really more around landscaping and
17 architectural skin of the buildings and that sort of
18 thing. So those are changes that are -- that would be
19 consistent with state law.
20 COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Okay. Thank you. So
21 let me ask the Mayor a process question. So I have
22 seven items I'd like to ask Ms. Jensen to include. Can
23 I ask her directly, or how do I do that?
24 MAYOR SPECTOR: Let's do it this way. Why
25 don't -- we don't have a second to the motion, so we're
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not discussing the motion, but putting that aside, why
don't you raise the seven issues and that if you -- if
they were included in the motion, you would second the
motion, and then we'll just see what happens.
Ms. Jensen-may
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those seven
items are.
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Okay. Thank you,
Mayor. So I'm -- the seven items that I have that I
think will make the project fit better in Los Gatos
are -- and they're basically the ones that I listed last
time, but the Applicant responded with most of what
those would have looked like.
So number one was they -- number one is a
change in the tree planting map, which they -- is now in
Attachment 33, Exhibit G, page 90 and that's, you know,
a change in whichever Evergreen trees are planted, and
the idea there was to protect views down the streets
with a few shorter trees, and then also not plant trees
that are too tall to block the views of the hillside,
while still blocking the view of the project from 17.
So that was number one.
And then number two was to plant the trees as
soon as possible where the possibility of damage during
construction was reduced, so that is important.
And number three was there was a change -- you
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1 know, I thought market hall architecture could be
2 improved, softened up a little bit, and they submitted L
3 some changes, Exhibit F in the same attachment, 32, page
4 87. I thought those were better than what we have. I'm
5 not really married to those changes, suggestion.
6 Number four was the two units on Los Gatos
7 Boulevard, everything on Los Gatos Boulevard is
8 commercial, and we have two houses, or housing units
9 that look very housing unit like. They submitted a
10 change in the architecture that make -- I thought made
11 them fit better with the architecture on Los Gatos
12 Boulevard, and those were Exhibit B, again of attachment
13 32, page 73. They were titled, "Potential Alternative
14 Los Gatos Boulevard Front Elevation."
15 Number five was the -- they submitted another.
16 optional row house elevation, which I had suggested
17 before replace elevation A, which is kind of disbursed
18 about. The idea being their new elevation, which is in
19 Exhibit D, attachment 32, page 81, it's titled,
20 "Conceptual Row House Traditional Elevation," so it's
21 traditional more like Los Gatos, and it in the plan is
22 placed around it, so it would be part of this blending
23 and weaving their kind of new architecture with Los
24 Gatos' existing architecture was the idea there. I
25 thought that was a good change.
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Item number six was the ten units that I
requested that would be more senior or handicap friendly
that were single floor, single bedrooms that were added
to the condominium clusters. They submitted new plans
in Exhibit E, attachment 32. I didn't write the page
number, because my iPad kept dying when I tried to look
at that one, but it was titled, "Alternate Floor Plans
for,Condominium Cluster," and it's plan four that was
changed. So this would given the more senior friendly
kinds of units.
And then number seven, on Lark Avenue they
submitted, again in Exhibit C, attachment 32, page 79,
it was alternate conceptual Lark Avenue -- I guess they
called it, "Conceptual Lark Avenue Traditional
Elevations. ". Again, the idea being it looked -- they
looked a little bit more like what's in the rest of Los
Gatos, but the architecture actually kind of blended
what came next. I, again, like those to try to get a
neighborhood that blended with the rest of Los Gatos.
So those are my seven items. If the maker of
the motion would consider adding a majority of those,
I'd be willing to second.
MAYOR SPECTOR: All right. We have a motion.
It doesn't have a second yet, so we won't be discussing
it, but we have suggestions which will lead to a second.
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1 Ms. Jensen.
2 COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: I will happily accept
3 item one, the tree planting plan change, Exhibit G.
4 Item two, plant trees as soon as possible. Item six,
5 adding a senior units, Exhibit E, attachment 32. I will
6 reluctantly accept the suggested change to the
7 architecture of the market hall, Exhibit F, Exhibit 32.
8 A change to the architecture on the two units on Los
9 Gatos Boulevard, which is Exhibit B, attachment 32. I
10 will very reluctantly accept, unless Mr. Rennie wants to
11 reconsider change to the row home architecture in
12 Exhibit D, which is showing a white Mediterranean, which
13" I think is not called out anywhere in the Specific Plan
14 and is not illustrated anywhere in the Specific Plan and
15 does not match the architectural heritage of the site,
16 however, I'm not going to give up a second by insisting
17 on that. And the same with the frontages on Lark
18 Avenue, Exhibit C of attachment 32.
19 MAYOR SPECTOR: On that last one, you are
20 accepting it into your motion?
21 COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: I'm accepting -- I said
22 with the degree of enthusiasm which I would accept it,
23 the last two with not a high degree of enthusiasm, and
24 was suggesting to Mr. Rennie that he might give up
25 Exhibit D, row home changes architecture, because I
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L don't see that type of architecture or style called out
? anywhere in the Specific Plan. However, I will not give
3 up a second to stand on that.
! MAYOR SPECTOR: All right. We have a motion.
i Do we have a second? Mr. Rennie.
i COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: So I miss -- so I'm not
quite sure I --
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: I accept them,
Mr. Rennie.
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: All right. I'll second
it for discussion.
MAYOR SPECTOR: Well, no, are you accepting
them -- it is in discussion. Are you second -
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: I will second it,
yes.
MAYOR SPECTOR: All right. We have a motion
and a second. Now, discussion. Mr. Leonardis.
COUNCIL MEMBER LEONARDIS: Thank you, Mayor
Spector. I have some questions for staff, which consist
of what are the options this evening voting, for
instance, if the Council chooses to go with the Planning
Commission recommendation, what does that mean? If the
Council agrees to vote the motion which is presented on
the floor through, what does that mean? If the Council
chooses to vote with modification, does that mean that
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it gets through without the Specific Plan being reopened
up, which was a concern of the application? Can you
cover the myriad of options that are available to the
Council and what are the ramifications? Those are just
three examples, but I'm sure there are many more.
MS. PREVETTI: There are -- there are certainly
many more. You mentioned the Planning Commission
recommendation, so if the Council were to use the
Planning Commission recommendation as a basis for its .
action to deny the application, staff would be available
to work with you to identify more specifically
particular elements of the Specific Plan in terms of
sections or page numbers that provide additional
jurisdiction and then, likewise, sections and page
numbers of the plan sheet that would provide the facts
to substantiate that it's not in compliance with the
Specific Plan.
So the Planning Commission did an admirable
job, but if -- for final action we would work with you
to put additional facts onto the record.
The second question was with respect to the
current motion. The current motion works within the
confines of our existing Specific Plan. That motion as
it is is certainly ready for acceptance with a minor
modification that we did update the findings and the
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affirmative findings that would need to be made for the
Vesting Tentative Map in an exhibit, attachment 38,
which we distributed late today. So that would be our
only technical modification on that one.
And the Council certainly has additional
motions at its disposal. You might choose to deny based
on other facts or parameters in addition to or different
than the Planning Commission. And again, staff are here
to work with you on that. You could accept the
application as is with no modifications. So, again,
there's -- you've got -- you do have some room to work
within, and we're here to work with you.
At this point we do not have a motion on the
floor, nor have we heard one in the last few days
regarding modifications to the Specific Plan, so
that's -- that is certainly within your purview. You
could direct future changes, but this application, if I
could just politely remind you, needs to be evaluated
against the existing adopted plan.
MAYOR SPECTOR: Mr. Leohardis.
COUNCIL MEMBER LEONARDIS: Thank you, Mayor
Spector. So when the Applicant spoke last time, they
said if we reopened the Specific Plan or something to
that effect, that would effectively really not be a
viable option, because it would essentially kill the
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1 whole project; is that correct? So if -- I know there
2 were Council Members who spoke last time that were
3 considering modifications to the Specific Plan, and if
4 that were the case, I guess what are the repercussions
5 and what are the repercussions if the Council were to
6 adopt the Planning Commission's findings in the staff
7 report? Would that essentially kill the whole project?
8 Or would that go back somewhere for re- evaluation and
9 then come back in another couple months? I mean, I'm
10 just wondering the whole myriad of options, because I've
11 heard so much from the community over the last five and
12 half years, and I want to know what is really available
13 to us this evening.
14 MR. SCHULTZ: So I'll give it a stab first and
15 see if I can answer your question. So the Applicant
16 currently has an application pending and a Vested
17 Tentative Map and so you must, by law, evaluate that
18 application and the Vested Tentative Map based on the
19 laws that were in effect when it was filed, and that's
20 your current Specific Plan.
21 So if Council was not to make a decision and
22 try to change. the Specific Plan, you couldn't do it.
23 You have to evaluate under its current one.
24 If you were to adopt the recommendations by the
25 Planning Comission, the project is denied, and the
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Applicant has a choice of filing a new application to
try to meet the recommendations of the Planning
3 Commission or yours, or they have the availability to
file litigation stating that they met the requirements
of the Specific Plan, and you did not have the authority
to deny their application. So that's where it would --
it would head either into litigation or into a new
application.
COUNCIL MEMBER LEONARDIS: Thank you.
MAYOR SPECTOR: Further discussion? All right.
Hearing none and seeing none, I'm going to call the
question. We have a motion, I don't think anybody --
well, I shouldn't say that. Does anybody want the
motion re- stated? I don't think so. Mr. Leonardis.
COUNCIL MEMBER LEONARDIS: I have more
questions for perhaps Ms. Prevetti. So she mentioned
that if the Council were to adopt the Specific Plan,
that we could go through and we wanted to modify, they
would help guide us through some process of
modifications in the table? Is that one of the earlier
things that you said, or was that based on the
acceptance of the Planning Commission findings, and then
you would try to help us alleviate those findings in
order to approve the project? How -- can you explain it
one more time.
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1 MS. PREVETTI: Okay, thank you. So if the
2 Council, if this motion is defeated and a new motion
3 comes forward that essentially says Planning Commission
4 identified certain parameters -- and we can find that
5 page for you -- and you just said we want that as the
6 motion, so it's on the floor to deny the application for
7 the reasons the Planning Commission stated, we would
8 work with you to identify some additional sections of
9 the Specific Plan that help support the recommendation
10 of denial, and then, as appropriate, identify locations
11 within the plan sets that provide evidence that the
12 application is deficient in those particular areas.
13 So we would try to work with you if you want a
14 recommendation of denial to make sure that you have a
15 record that -- that substantiates the findings that are
16 necessary to deny a Vesting Tentative Map and to deny
17 the A and S. So we would -- so if that's the choice
18 that the Council would like, we can -- we would work
19 with you.
20 You know, again, it's great if the deciding
21 body can identify those sections themselves, but we're
22. here as a team to assist you.
23 MAYOR SPECTOR: Mr. Leonardis.
24 COUNCIL MEMBER LEONARDIS: Thank you for the
25 clarification on that. And I'm not anticipating a vote
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one way or the other, but I am interested in what you're
saying. Is this something that we would do right here
live this evening?
MS. PREVETTI: Yeah, I think we are -- the
clock is ticking, so we're ready to work with you. We
might find that once you -- if a motion is on the floor
that needs some additional research, we might
respectfully ask the Mayor for a short break, so that
way we could identify some additional sections, and then
bring that back after the break. So we might need a
little bit of time. We may not be able to put our hands
on everything right in -- at the moment, but we would do
our best to make sure this is a productive meeting this
evening.
COUNCIL MEMBER LEONARDIS: Thank you.
MAYOR SPECTOR: Further discussion? Ms. Sayoc.
VICE MAYOR SAYOC: Question of staff. And
again, if you can remind me, the Vesting Tentative Map,
attached to that is the layout and the number of.units
within each parcel once it's laid out?
MR. PAULSON: So the Vesting Tentative Map lays
out lots, and then they further can be subdivided into
condominium lots, which would be the footprints
specifically of those buildings, and so that would move
forward given its current configuration as proposed.
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1 VICE MAYOR SAYOC: And that decision has to be
2 made by September 7th. So, for example, there was a it
3 discussion about changing the architecture of building
4 24 and 25. If I just believe that building 24 and 25
5 should be commercial, that's a vesting tentative issue,
6 not necessarily an architectural? Okay. Okay,
7 thanks.
8 MAYOR SPECTOR: Mr. Rennie.
9 COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Thank you Mayor
10 Spector. So let me follow up on building 24 and 25,
11 because I believe I had a discussion earlier with the
12 Town Attorney that we may be able to ditch 24 and 25
13 with -- and approve the rest of it with the chance that
14 the -- there wouldn't be a lawsuit, because they would
15 get a -- be getting most of it, so if Councilwoman Sayoc 0
16 really didn't want those two buildings, there's a
17 possible route that direction?
18 MR. SCHULTZ: So certainly you're able to look
19 at the Vested Tentative Map and make determinations that
20 it's not in compliance with the Specific Plan, and you
21 could approve the Vested Tentative Map by removing
22 certain buildings, certain lots from the Vested
23 Tentative Map because they didn't meet the Specific Plan
24 requirements. Whether that would ultimately rely on --
25 still result in a lawsuit, I don't know, the -- what the
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implications that has with the Applicant or whether they
believe we didn't have the right to do that because it
did meet the Specific Plan requirements.
But certainly, again, as the Town Manager
mentioned, if that's the route Council wants to take, we
can help with findings if there's any changes to the
Vested Tentative Map that you'd like to look at.
MAYOR SPECTOR: Further questions? All right.
Then before we go to the motion, I will be voting
against the motion. And rather than go through each
paragraph and page of the Specific Plan, my opposition
will be based upon and incorporate by reference my
motions of last time, the one relating to residential
and the one relating to economic and all of the
paragraphs and sections referred to in those motions.
I also will incorporate into my opposition the
recommendation of the Planning Commission and all the
bases therefor. And lastly, I'm going to incorporate
the totality of the record on the basis that people
always talk about objective versus subjective as -- and
whenever they do that, they're normally talking about
objective is what they think it is, and if they don't
like it, then it's subjective. But objective is can be
based and is based on all of the facts in the record.
And so I am incorporating those into my opposition to
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Owl!
this motion.
Further discussion? Hearing none, we have a
motion on the floor to adopt the -- to accept --
actually, approve the application. All in favor?
(Ayes.)
MAYOR SPECTOR: Opposed. No.
(Nos.)
MAYOR SPECTOR: Let's do it by a show of hands.
All in favor? Opposed? Motion fails three -two,
Ms. Jensen and Mr. Rennie voting for the motion. So
we're still here, and we're looking for another motion
and discussion. Mr. Rennie.
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Thank you, Mayor
Spector. If I could just make some general comments
i
versus another motion.
So, you know, I've met with several members of
the community since our last meeting that kept
encouraging me to remember my campaign tag line, which
was I'm an engineer, not a politician, so what that
means to me is I -- you know, and to them is that they
want me to keep analyzing facts and come up with
decisions based on facts, and I -- again, talking to
members of the community, I continue to find a lot of
misunderstanding in the community, so I wanted to add
some facts hopefully, or more understanding, in just one
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comment here.
You know, some people were confused about
affordability. We had some discussions about the units
costing 900,000 to 1.1 million, and some people thought
that's what the senior affordable units costed. So I
just -- I wanted to 'try to help people understand
affordability.
So the units that are built market rate, the
237 that have been proposed market rate, they're not
affordable units by the term, "affordable," which means
income restricted affordable. They are more affordable
than -- you know, the reason that they're required to be
built at 20 units per acre is so that they will cost
less, and they'll be more affordable. You might think
of them as workforce affordable housing. They're
certainly more affordable than the two, three, four
million dollar houses we build in Los Gatos. So those
units are not affordable with the income restricted and
my quotations on them, they're more affordable workforce
housing.
Then the
income restricted
also senior restr
there was ever in
were, and they're
Applicant has proposed real affordable
units. Those are the ones that are
icted, and those units, I don't think
our discussion what the price of those
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1 low and very low is my understanding, and there's
2 actually a table that you can get that tells you in
3 Santa Clara County what is extremely low, what is very
4 low income to qualify for those. So again, just adding
5 a little information.
6 If you're one person, extremely low means you
7 earn 23,450, two persons 26,800, very low is 39,100 and
8 two people very low is 44,000. The price of those
9 units, my understanding, is they're -- they vary between
10 600 and $900 a month for rent.
11 So when I calculate it with the affordability
12 levels, that's really saying these people pay about 27
13 percent of their income for rent, which I think is not
14 that .unusual. I think a lot of us pay more than that
15 percentage.
16 So that's my affordability lesson. Thank
17 you.
18 MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. Discussion, motion?
19 Mr. Leonardis.
20 COUNCIL MEMBER LEONARDIS: Thank you, Mayor
21 Spector. If somebody has to dive on a hand grenade, I
22 guess it will be me.
23 So I've been up here almost six years on the
24 Council, and I think I've been dealing with this for
25 about five and a half years, and up until today, in my
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mind, it's been a volley back and forth, which way do
you go with this particular property, and it's been a
very difficult decision for all of us on Council.
There's many good attributes of the project on both
sides of the equation, but for me, if I consider all the
information that I have, all the letters, all the
testimony, all the documentation you see in front of me,
all the public comments, thank you for everybody doing
this, the presentation, all the meetings, the staff, the
North 40 advisory committee, everything going back five
and half years, it is, for me, a decision that it's been
very difficult to arrive at this conclusion.
I mean, I did not draw a conclusion until this
evening at this meeting. I mean, I was reading.stuff on
the dais this evening, but if I were to move forward
this evening with a motion, which I may, it would be to
uphold the Planning Commission's recommendation. And
the reason for that, again, is just because when I'm
thinking of this, I'm not thinking of the latest
information proposed, I'm thinking of all of the
information, all the information of the last five and a
half years. Very difficult. I've changed my mind so
many times back and forth, and is this good or is this
bad and everything else, but I'm looking at this in
terms of the complete record and what is best for Los
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1 Gatos in the long run, and I am teetering towards the
2 Planning Commission's recommendation this evening.
3 MAYOR SPECTOR: Discussion? Ms. Sayoc.
¢ VICE MAYOR SAYOC: So this is not a motion as
5 well. It's just a continuation of Council Member
6 Leonardis' comments, because one thing, over the past, I
7 guess, five and a half years, but more so over the past
8 two weeks, we've heard a lot of comments. And so in
9 trying to filter out the noise, one thing that I need to
10 clarify over and over again, the last five and a half
11 years was work on a Specific Plan, and that's where I
12 keep coming down. It was work on a Specific Plan that
13 we all worked on for 40 acres, and the -- what's before
14 us is an application for 20.
f
15 Now, what has been said, yes, there are very
16 positive attributes, but I think what's interesting --
17 and I'm going to give credit where credit is due, the
18 Applicant team has been completely open to sharing their
19 application from the get -go.
20 So -- and there are people that took advantage
21 of that and did the research and did the homework, they
22 analyzed it, they scrutinized, they made comments, and
23 their comments were incorporated, but where I'm
24 struggling right now is that this is the first time I'm
25 looking at this in a public venue, and there are
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comments, for example layout, that I don't think make
sense.
I've talked about 24, 25, but I also look at
section buildings 18 through 27. To me, if I'm looking
strictly at a layout and had an opportunity to weigh in,
that, to me, seems like a commercial area instead of
having residential sandwiched between existing
commercial areas. These are the types of discussions I
wish we had an opportunity to have.
And the way the structure is set up, it's
frustrating, we don't have the ability to have this
discussion where we would have in a normal application
where we could look at it, Planning Commission makes
recommendations, it could come back and then the process
continues and ultimately it's refined to a project we
all agree with. That is where I'm stuck with.
It's not who's in the bad, who's in the good,
but it's a process of can I accept a project that I
personally see flaws, and I can go into the reasons with
the Specific Plan, and I think that we can actually do
better.
And so I always bring that distinction. This
is the first time in a public venue we're seeing an
application, and the application that we have before us
is different from the analysis that we did for a
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1 Specific Plan. And so that's the disconnect that I'm
2 having tonight, as well as the disconnect that I've had
3 over the past couple of nights.
4 MAYOR SPECTOR: Mr. Rennie.
5 COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: That reminds me of a
6 question I had for staff. I never quite understood why
7 we can't, like a normal application, remand this back to
8 Planning Commission with changes we want to see. That's
9 sort of what's.frustrating, I think. Most projects
10 we -- I mean, this is a big project, and most projects
11 we see things a lot of times we'd like changed, and we
12 say well, change these few things, please go work with
13 Planning Commission, why can't we do that here?
14 MS. PREVETTI: Primarily because the
15 application was deemed complete in the spring, and so
16 that then sets off the Permit Streamlining Act
17 deadlines, and the Applicant worked with the Town to
18 extend those deadlines, and now we're at that point of
19 deadline of September 7th.
20 So there is no time to remand it back to
21 Planning Commission for additional modifications, their
22 consideration and then your consideration.
23 We completely appreciate how frustrating this
24 must be for all of you, and I think there's some lessons
25 learned and some process improvements that we can talk
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about at future goal setting sessions perhaps, but these
are -- we're working with the rules that we have with us
at this present time, and I would just say to the
concerns about certain components of the project, there
are motion possibilities if the Council is interested
that might extract some of the areas from the Vesting
Tentative Map that, again, staff would be available to
work with the Council on if that is something you're
interested in pursuing in a way that would still
maintain the 20 units per acre and the by right and all
the other requirements that we have.
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Thank you.
MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. I'm going to follow
up with -- from what the Vice Mayor was saying. And I'm
frustrated. I know that I'm the one who made the motion
at the last meeting to deny this, and I know that I went
through the Specific Plan in making that motion. And I
also used that as the basis for opposing the motion to
approve this evening.
That being said, it's not because I want to say
no, no, no, no, no to everything, it's because I agree
it is frustrating after,. what, having done planning .
decisions in Los Gatos for 20 years, you really -- what
you really want to do when you're making these planning
decisions is see where things can fit in better with the
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1 Town, see where they can fit in better with our
2 architecture and site and our general plan and our
3 ordinances and then make recommendations, send it back
4 to the Planning Commission, have the Planning Commission
5 and the community weigh in on it and then bring it back
6 to the Council.
7 That's what I would like for this on an ideal
8 level. I would also like -- we've learned a lot. I
9 would also like for the Specific Plan itself, for the
10 Council to send it back to the Planning Commission, the
11 community and the Council. But we're not there. Where
12 we are is we're here tonight. It's September 1st, and
13 September 7th is fast approaching. And that is the --
14 those are the parameters that we are working -- within
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15 which we are working.
16 Motion? Discussion? Ms. Jensen.
17 COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Just a cite for the
18 record to the Specific Plan. Sorry, being -- 6.2,
19 Section 6.2, phasing. This is in response to the Vice
20 Mayor's comments and some comments that we received from
21 members of the public. I'm going to preface it by
22 saying that the Specific Plan, I think part of the
23 problem is -- with people's concept is the Specific Plan
24 is a zone, so just as though -- just as I would zone the
25 Almond Grove residential, parts of University
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commercial, and things will get built over time, that's
what happens with the Specific Plan.
A plan development, everything gets built at
once, we tinker with it, then we make a -- do an
ordinance. And I think we're struggling with the
difference between a plan development and what's
essentially a zone.
So going back to Section 6.2, phasing, I want
to read -- just going to read it for the record. "It is
anticipated that the Specific Plan will be implemented
over time and in more than one phase. Each phase shall
stand alone and shall not be dependant on improvements
required in future phases."
So we can look at 20 acres. We should look at
20 acres.
MAYOR SPECTOR: With regard to the Specific
Plan and the planned development, yes, they are
different, but it is not necessarily the Specific Plan
that is driving us to making a decision this evening and
driving us to September 7th.
We are having to deal with -- we on the Council
are having to deal with several state mandates, state
mandates such as the vesting map, the Vesting Tentative
Map, such as RENA, such as by right. And so even though
I can appreciate that there is indeed a difference
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between a planned development and a specific plan, I
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don't see the Specific Plan as the engine that is
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driving us to September 7th.
4
And Council, I'm still looking for a motion.
5
Mr. Rennie.
6
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Thank you. I'm not --
7
not going to make a motion, but I'll make some more
8
comments to help other Council Members understand what
9
I'm thinking.
10
There was some suggestion about using the
11
Planning Commission's reasons for denial, and I -- and I
12
thought through those, and some of them I kind of
13
disagree with pretty strongly, and others I'm a little
14
more on the fence. So I wanted to maybe mention why I
15
don't support some of them in case you want to make
16
motions that direction.
17
You know, the first one was that one of
18
their -- the items listed was the economic report not
19
being good enough or something to that effect. I fail
20
to see how the economic report really is an issue; in
21
other words, it's not really a reason I can support. I
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mean, there was a 22 -page report that was done that
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breaks -- breaks in, you know, this -phase one proposal
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into several commercial -- or into three categories and
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analyzing those against downtown and, you know, I'm very
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much in favor of protecting downtown -- downtown core
business, but I find it kind of silly to think this
small amount of commercial is going to have a
significant effect on downtown, and kind of using the
report to help me
in the commercial
even exist in the
as produce, fish,
with Trader Joe's
on the Boulevard,
significantly froi
how that third of
think through that, a third of what is
is specialty retail fads, which don't
downtown core; you know, things such
meat, so forth, we're really competing
and Whole Foods that are already out.
and the report says those pull from --
n outside the area. So I fail to see
it has any effect on the downtown.
The -- another third of it calls for a white
tablecloth restaurant, a cafe and maybe some sort of
brew pub or bar and grill. You know, I've heard many
people say well, you know, us on the north end of town
don't have any -- much choice for restaurants near our
houses. You've got Viva on the Boulevard and Aldo's if
you're more on the west side with -- certainly for that
white table -- white tablecloth type restaurant, so
adding another restaurant doesn't seem like it's going
to be that big a deal.
The report calls out, you know, that there's 62
restaurants in the downtown area, not necessarily white
tablecloth, versus these three that we're talking about
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adding. It points out that there's 10,000 workers
within one mile of this area, and it also points out
010884
that workers tend to put convenience on where they would
go to eat versus driving all the way into the downtown.
So it's likely we would be capturing a lot more people
going to Campbell or other places than stealing from the
downtown on those -- on the restaurants portion of it.
It also points out that, you know, for the --
what's in the residential area nearby, they expect just
the increase alone in the next five years of what's
spent on food and beverage to be 90 million dollars. It
seems to me these three restaurants can get some of that
without stealing much from downtown again.
Then that leaves the third part of it, which is
neighborhood -- what they called comparison retail, or
what's really, you know, our Specific Plan calls for
neighborhood commercial. You know, those were things --
this was my list I couldn't find earlier. You know,
they were neighbor -- they're supposed to be
neighborhood serving, such as bicycle shop, bookstore,
jewelry, gym, bank, hair salon, so forth, and the -- and
in the -- you know, when we added this requirement for.
the economic report to the Specific Plan, if I remember
correctly, we, the Council added that, and at the time I
I
thought the intent was really targeting the next 400,000
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commercial that you end up in the Northern District.
That's where we really are worried about what might
affect downtown and need to be much more careful about
what's placed.
So again, the -- the Specific Plan calls for
neighborhood commercial, so we need some commercial
there, and only a third of what they're planning is
neighborhood -- is a dangerous neighborhood -- it's not
even dangerous, but it's, you know, this kind of
comparison commercial, and without it I think we
wouldn't -- wouldn't actually be following the Specific
Plan.
So my thoughts on why I can't support that
reason for denial.
MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. Further discussion?
Mr. Leonardis.
COUNCIL MEMBER LEONARDIS: Somebody has to
talk, I guess it could be me.
So some of the many concerns that was raised by
the public where you have these three zones, and I think
Council -- at least some of my votes were predicated on
the fact that this is what you're going to get. This is
what Mr. Rennie's comments made me think of this. You
had a future promise of commercial, perhaps a hotel and
some other things, but right now what we have is kind of
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a housing development, and we have uncertainty moving
forward what will actually go in these other spots.
If all this was being voted in tonight, all
three zones, and all three zones had an actual plan like
we see up on the wall here, that could be much more
palatable for the public and their comments, because
there was many concerns brought forth in the public
about that, you're really just votin4 for one zone and
what happens in the future we don't know.
I know that there is an overall Specific Plan,
but as Mr. Rennie alluded to, that could possibly change
in the future, depending on things. We're not really
voting through the actual buildings that are going to be
there or the actual businesses that will be there, the
types of business uses that will be there at this time.
So that makes the decision difficult this evening.
What we are really voting for is a whole lot of
housing, some senior housing on top of a market, so it's
difficult to see the future, and I don't like that
uncertainty.
MAYOR SPECTOR: Mr. Leonardis.
COUNCIL MEMBER LEONARDIS: Thank you, Mayor
Spector. He who panics first loses least I always say.
So questions for staff. What is again the
significance of September 7th? I mean, we had Council
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people up here mention that if this were a normal
process like what we normally do, which is a process we
understand, the public understands, where it volleys
back and forth between Council and Planning Commission
until we come up with a result that satisfies the
public, obviously that takes more time and it gets
beyond September 7th. Why could not an approach like
that be used as opposed to some ideas that were put
forth from perhaps the Applicant or the public where
there could be lawsuits and things which I find very
unproductive and time consuming?
MR. SCHULTZ: So I began the topic with the
Permitting Streamlining Act and the Vested Tentative
Map, the Subdivision Map Act that has specific sections
that have time lines for,the exact reason of not
allowing public agencies to continue to delay an
Applicant's project and never reach a decision.
In this case -- in general, it's usually 60
days and can be for another 90 days, so, in general,
that's kind of the 150 days is what we use, and that's
what we got on this project. In other projects, once
it's deemed complete within 30, days we can get it to
Planning Commission in 30 days, in to you in 30 days,
and that's 60 days, and we can still meet that 150 days,
so you really don't usually hear about it very often.
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1 We meet the 150 day requirement.
2 In this case we had that kind of -- when it did
3 come to you, that need for the study session, and so we
4 needed that extra 90 days when there could have been, if
5 the decision was made in I think that was May, to return
6 it back to -- if you made recommendations and returned
7 it back to Planning Commission, there would have been
8 enough time with this extension to make a decision maybe
9 within the 150 days, but we did the study session
10 instead of -- instead of making that.
11 So that's where we are. We're at the 150 days.
12 If you do not make a decision by September 7th, then the
13 Applicant has the ability to seek a decision by the
14 courts that this project is deemed approved. And that's
15 the ramifications if he did. He doesn't have to do
16 that. He could agree to waive the Permit Streamlining
17 Act, and if your recommendation was for - to send it
18 back to Planning Commission, he could possibly agree
19 with that decision, or he could challenge it in court.
20 So it's going to be the Applicant's decision,
21 not ours, as to whether there's any more extensions. In
22 fact, the Code specifically says you can't enter into
23 another extension agreement beyond the 90 days.
24 So it really would fall within the Applicant's
25 hands as to what they wanted to do after September 7th.
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COUNCIL MEMBER LEONARDIS: Thank you.
MAYOR SPECTOR: Ms. Jensen.
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Just a follow up on
that question. You said at the end, and I want to make
sure it's on the record, I had understood that the
reason we were in this position was that the Applicant
and the Town had waived time up to the maNimum possible
allowable under the law and that there is no now option
to waive any further time. So your statement was --
MR. SCHULTZ: Correct.
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: -- contradictory.
Which one is it?
MR. SCHULTZ: Well, so after September 7th, the
Applicant has to do something to have his project deemed
approved. He can't just come into court and say I want
building permits. So he will need to go into court if
you do nothing and for the court to say the project is
deemed approved.
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Right. So that's not a
waiver of time.
MR. SCHULTZ: No.
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: That is either, number
one, that you gave us, seven day notice, 60. day public
hearing, or the Federal model --
MR. SCHULTZ: Yes.
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COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: -- deem it approved
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court, thank you very much, I'm done, because you've had
3
a lot of public hearings, but there's not an option for
4
the Applicant to waive time again. That's what you
5
said --
6
MR. SCHULTZ: Not by --
7
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: -- they could waive
8
that.
9
MR. SCHULTZ: -- an extension agreement.
10
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Okay.
11
MR. SCHULTZ: Not by an agreement.
12
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: So they cannot. The
13
second part of that question is oftentimes under the law
14
the time waiver is if I start something by the deadline
15
it doesn't matter how far I go past the deadline as long
16
as I started it by the deadline. So I'm going to just
17
liken it, just because I know what it is, and for the
18
record, if a defendant demands a speedy trial, he has a
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right to have a trial within a certain time, so let's
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say this trial -- his speedy trial date is
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September 7th. As long as I start the trial on or
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before September 7th, the trial can keep on going after
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that with no problem, but what I understand to be here
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is that the deadline is.not a starting point, but an end
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point by which we must make a decision. We cannot start
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2 MR. SCHULTZ: That is -- that is correct,
3 although there is a court case for when a denial was
4 made and then in a subsequent meeting the findings and
5 resolution came at the next meeting, which was after the
6 September 7th date.' And the court held so long as the
7 Council made the -- the final decision by the deadline,
B here September 7th, although the resolution and findings
9 came after September 7th, that was okay. But you have
9 to make a decision by September 7th. The situation
1 where you said where a trial begins and it goes further,
2 no, that's not the situation here.
3 MAYOR SPECTOR: Miss Jensen.
I COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Just one more thing to
i clarify for the record." What you're describing as a
i findings and resolution that occur after the meeting,
7 I'm going to interpret to be administrative and
3 ministerial action that is following a decision made,
3 not further deliberation, correct?
MR. SCHULTZ: Absolutely correct.
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Okay.
MAYOR SPECTOR: Back to Council. Mr. Rennie.
t COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Thank you. I'll ask
another question since we're quiet, and it's a little
bit maybe off subject, but it's one of the questions I
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had I didn't ask earlier that, again, as I was trying to
think through everything that I had -- and this is a
question
for
staff obviously.
In --
and I was going
back, and
I
was reading I think
staff
report from
August 9th, and in there it said -- it talks about the
consulting architect saying the project design
incorporates the character of the neighborhood that has
evolved over a much longer time frame and proving high
quality design with detail and diversity.
What I was trying to understand is what does
that really mean, the character of a neighborhood that
has evolved over a much longer time frame? One of the
U1089?
things I've been talking about is changing architecture
and so forth, so I was trying to understand whether I'm
on the right track or not when I was reading this.
MS. ZARNOWITZ: Thank you. Sally Zarnowitz
for -- I'm planning manager. I think the intent of that
language is to say that the project is designed in a way
that it looks like it has evolved over time. So more
organic, if you will, versus looking like it was built .
all at one time. So -- and that's to address, again,
the -- excuse me, the existing development of the Town.
The Town has developed over time. The idea of
the architecture and the intent of it and the judgment
by the consulting architect is that the new development
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matches that kind of pattern.
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: If I could follow up.
MAYOR SPECTOR: Mr. Rennie.
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: So if you can answer
how does that -- how does the current architecture make
it look like that? What have they done? I know you're
not the consulting architect and you may not be able to
answer the question, but I'll ask it anyway.
MS. ZARNOWITZ: No, it's a good question. I
think it has to do with, again, the different housing
types and how they are different scales and sizes. The
materials evolve. It has to do somewhat with that --
the details of the design itself and the differentiation
and the different kinds of massing. That's part of it.
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Okay, thank you.
MS. ZARNOWITZ: I suppose the other part, also,
probably has to do with the layout of the site itself
and how it -- you know, the pedestrian friendly part of
the layout and how that relates to, you know, again
those housing types and the architectural -- different
architectural styles.
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: I think what you're
saying is you look across the map, it's not the same
size building, it's different size buildings placed in
different places, and that's what makes it seem more
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organic, I guess.
MS. ZARNOWITZ: Correct, yeah.
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Okay, thank you.
MAYOR SPECTOR: Back to Council. I think that
some of us who have tried motions and got shot down are
a little gun shy. Hint. Mr. Rennie.
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Thank you, Mayor.
Since we're quiet, I'll ask another question, if nobody
minds.
I was trying to understand, how many units are
available to be built, let's assume this project gets
built. How many are available to be built in the
Northern District? There was some comment somewhere
about there are 16 or 19 units already. Are those in
the Northern District, so we have to subtract those out?
Would those be bulldozed under? So -- and if we had the
density bonus, what's the number that could still be
built in the Northern District?
MR. PAULSON: The maximum on the remainder of
the site, which is a portion of the Transition District
and the Northern District, would be 44 if someone took
advantage, full advantage of the 35 percent density
bonus.
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Okay. If I could -- is
it okay for a follow -up question related? So one of the
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concerns I always had was we didn't -- in the Northern
District you have to build over commercial. So
there's -- and these are all part of our housing element
that has to be built at 20 units per acre.
Unfortunately we didn't allow more units than are in our
housing element, so they have to be built at 20 units
per acre wherever they're built, but I was wondering so
a density bonus -- under density bonus they could
actually get taller, you know, the problem being, you
know, with the 35 foot height you can't get many floors
above commercial to get at that 20 units per acre, but
I'm wondering if they came with some number of
affordable units, they could then ask for height in
order to get that density built, and how many affordable
units would they need to do to get that?
MR. PAULSON: Well, that's a -- the first part
of your question is yes, they could request an exception
to the height for -- through state density bonus. And
the maximum 35 percent is based on a number of factors,
and it depends on the level of affordability and then
the percentage.
So, for instance, I think if you have very low
income, you have to provide a minimum of 11 percent of
the units have to be very low, and there's other scales.
I don't have the table in front of me, but that's
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1 generally what the application proposed for you this
2 evening is utilizing is the -- they're more than -- a
3 clearly more than 11 percent of the units are affordable
4 very low income, and so they're able to request the 35
5 percent density bonus.
6 COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Yeah, so what I'm
7 trying to understand is what is the real viability of
8 getting units into the Northern District? And that's
9 why I asked that question.
10 So if you had a building, you'd have to have 11
11 percent in that building being affordable, and then you
12 could add others and get the height that you asked for a
13 height variation because of the bonus, that's right?
14 MR. PAULSON: Correct.
15 COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Could you do most of
16 those in one building and have it work for more than one
17 building?
18 MR. PAULSON: Depends on the application, but
19 if it was all part of one application package, then I
20 believe that would be feasible.
21 COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Okay, thank you.
22 MAYOR SPECTOR: I seem to have a lack of
23 motions here, and so in order to inspire people, it's
24 now 7:53. We're going to take a seven - minute break, and
25 we'll be back here at 8:00 o'clock with lots of ideas.
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(Whereupon, a recess was taken.)
MAYOR SPECTOR: Council and staff, please take
your seats. We'll get started again.
All right. The meeting is back in session, and
we are looking for discussion or a motion from Council.
Well, we can have a motion to adjourn.
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Move to adjourn.
MAYOR SPECTOR: I'm going second that. I'm
going to ask the Town attorney, can we make that motion?
MR. SCHULTZ: You certainly can any time. I
can't stop a motion to adjourn.
MAYOR SPECTOR: And --
MR. SCHULTZ: I would like it to a date certain
that we would adjourn to, which is right now scheduled
for your September 6 meeting.
MAYOR SPECTOR: And so with that, with those
parameters, we -- no, not yet. So we have a motion. We
don't have a second yet, unless I seconded it. Okay.
We have a second. And so what we need, though, is a
date certain.
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Move to adjourn to
September 6th.
MAYOR SPECTOR: I'm going to second that. We
have discussion? Vice Mayor.
VICE MAYOR SAYOC: Okay. I'm not going to
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support it. I am going to throw out a motion
hesitantly, but will do so --
MAYOR SPECTOR: Hold on. We have a motion on
the floor to continue this to September 6th. Further
discussion? Hearing none, all in favor?
(Ayes.)
MAYOR SPECTOR: Opposed? No.
(Nos.)
MAYOR SPECTOR: Fails four -one. Ms. Sayoc.
VICE MAYOR SAYOC: Okay. I will attempt at a
motion. I move to deny the application. And the
reasons for denial are the residential component of the
Planning Commission's recommendation to the planning --
to the Town Council.
And the reason, as I have stated in the past,
is I -- there are significant issues that I have with
the layout, the units, the residential units are
comprised of that. I think if we had an opportunity to
move the layout, I think we could spread a little bit of
the residential units out, and I think we would have a
better comprehensive site plan that we can approve.
And I gave the example, for example, units 17
through 24 in the -= I'm looking at the building key
plan 1.0, and it's all the residential units that's
surrounded by South A Street, as well -- in the Lark
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District, I think it's Lark District Two. I look at
that layout, and I look at existing commercial property
on Los Gatos Boulevard. I look at Los Gatos Boulevard,
and I look at this anomaly of residential that does not
make sense to me.
And so if I look at the Specific Plan, I'm
looking at the site access that -- on page 4 -2. I'm
looking at commercial design guidelines that talk about
site plan development on page 3 -2. And to go back to
this idea that the ability to spread residential units
gives better design, the fact of the matter is, and I'm
going to stress this, because people say I'm not
stressing facts, the fact of the matter is the 270 was
allocated for inner housing element for all 40 sites.
That is a fact.
Fact number two, 13.5 was not designated in
this Southern District, so the Lark District, this
Transition District, and the Northern District. That's
a fact. That was purposely done, so I can only speak
for myself, because it provides discretion to the
Planning Commission, as well as the deciding body of the
Town Council.-
That is how our land use processes work in Los
Gatos. When there's ambiguity, we have decision body
that makes these determinations. They do it for look
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and feel, they do it for site layout. They do it for
scale, mass neighborhood harmony. I don't think we
should be looking at this project any differently.
And that goes to the underlying premise of my
motion is that I'm looking at how we can apply the
Specific Plan uniformly on all projects that will come
in in the future. This may be the only one, but I
hesitate to award a project with the majority of the
housing allocation that could disproportionately hurt
chances of a better site design in the future.
So that is my motion. Let's see if I get a
second.
MAYOR SPECTOR: All right. We have a motion to
deny with explanation. Do we have a second?
Mr. Leonardis.
COUNCIL MEMBER LEONARDIS: I'll second the
motion.
MAYOR SPECTOR:
you keep going, but you
Mr. Rennie.
COUNCIL MEMBER
Was anything sited that
deny at least the law?
in the law have we mana
without violating state
All right. I thought I heard
haven't. Further discussion?
RENNIE: So question for staff.
works as an objectable reason to
You know, in other words, what
Ied to hit that allows us to deny
law basically?
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MR. SCHULTZ: I'm certainly not going to make
that determination as the Town Attorney on whether her
emotion (sic) meets the objective standards of the
Specific Plan or does not. That's not my decision as
Town Attorney to overrule the Town Council's majority
decision. We will come back if this is the motion, and
that's the end of it and there's no more added to it, we
would come back with those specific findings so -- for
adoption on September 6th so that we have more time to
make certain that everything is captured not only on
that or other amendments.
MAYOR SPECTOR: All right. Ms. Jensen.
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: I will not be
supporting the motion, and I'm going to go back and site
to the record why.
The motion was first made, or I think the
primary basis of the motion is that it is to deny based
upon the Planning Commission motion regarding the
residential component. If I look at the record of the
Planning Commission meeting on this, the -- there is a
first motion that failed, however, it was incorporated
into the second motion that succeeded. And there -- it
was -- there was a comment by Commissioner -- or
Chairperson Badame should say, that was the only thing
that had to do with residential, which was that the
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a 01090'
intensity of the project is out of character with the
Town, and scaling it back with the intensity could have
the effect of providing more open space.
Now I'll go back to our last meeting on this
where we were advised that by state law that Los Gatos
cannot force the developer in this. situation to provide
more open space, because we declared in our general plan
and elsewhere that the Town has adequate open space, so
we cannot exact open space from an applicant.
It also says greater building articulation,
possibly reduced building height, possibly reduced
building footprint, quite possibly greater affordability
and unmet housing needs
the Specific Plan.
To me, those are changes to
The Specific Plan indicates heights, which this
meets. It also indicates architectural and residential
commercial design. So anything that matched that would
be a change to the Specific Plan, and this application
must be assessed under the existing Specific Plan. We
cannot change the Specific Plan from the dais. We must
assess it based on the plan that we have in place.
The motion that actually passed in the Planning
Commission included what Mayor Spector basically
included in her August 16th second motion that failed
regarding the insufficiencies or the stated
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insufficiencies that the Applicant (inaudible) report,
which I don't think are relevant to this motion, but
that included, again with respect to housing,
Chairperson Badame commented that the intensity of the
housing should be related to the square footage glossary
of the Specific Plan. That is only provided by way of
example. It is not a requirement of the Specific Plan.
And in fact, most of these units meet that.
Commissioner Hanssen added that she believed
that there -- she wanted some more -- she didn't think
that.the senior needs cited were met by this, and she
cited Appendix C. Appendix C that was discussed earlier
talks about housing types. It gives examples of Gen Y
and baby boomers. It does not require specific numbers
or affordability levels of housing.
Commissioner Kane added that he did not like
the design of I think it -was units 24 and 25, and that
was included in the motion.
So on that basis -- and again, I'm going to go
back to the Mayor indicated what she believes an
objective standard is. I actually went and looked up
objective and subjective just for the heck of it. An
objective standard is not influenced by personal
feelings or opinions in considering and representing
facts. A subjective assessment is influenced by
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1 personal feelings, tastes or opinions, and so, to me,
2 that would be architecture, what looks good, what /
3 doesn't look good, whether it's an unmet need, whether
4 it's not an unmet need, but not something that is
5 objectively quantifiable by an exhibit or a piece of
6 evidence.
7 So, for example, if the Specific Plan requires
8 30 percent open space and the application says 39
9 percent, objectively they have met the standard. If the
10 Specific Plan says look and feel, they provide something
11 that I can go and cite to in the record which I think .
12 says look and feel, another Council Person or the Mayor
13 can point to something in the record that she thinks
14 indicates it's not, well, then, that's perhaps
15 subjective.
16 The Vice Mayor indicated she has significant
17 issues with the layout and cited Section 4.2. That has
18 to do with site access, so I'm not sure how that matches
19 with her desire to spread housing. And she cites 3.2,
20 which is commercial design guidelines. That only has to
21 do with commercial units on Los Gatos Boulevard. We did
22 not require in the Specific Plan where commercial
23 buildings should be placed, only had a limitation on --
24 that they would meet unmet needs, that they would not be
25 over 50,000 square feet, and that an economic study be
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submitted to the conceptual device -- Development
Advisory Committee. So I don't think that is a basis
for denial.
The 13.5 acres of default density are spread
throughout the 13.5 acres, however, the number of
housing units that are supplied here meets the
requirements of the housing laws in the state, meets our
housing element, and there -- and is a by right, so we
cannot now assess, just like we can't I said the phasing
in 6.2, and I'm not saying that the Mayor said well,
it's -- the -- I forget what you said. The application
driven by, you know, the Specific Plan is why we can't
delay it.
The Specific Plan specifically says that it
anticipates applications over time. So we are not going
to get with the 14 or 15 property -- different property
owners a unified plan. In fact, in the billion years
that I've been working on a Specific Plan for this
property, or this area I should say, the difficulty was
getting the property owners to come together and agree
on something they would do. That's why we would never
get anywhere, because the property owners did not come
to the table, did not agree, so the reason we did it
this way is to have some kind of comprehensive plan that
would steer development, which I cited earlier in my
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1 motion to approve.
2 So we are not going to get an application
3 dropped on all of them unless somehow somebody buys all
4 the property, which hasn't happened. Somebody gives up
5 rights, or somebody compromises their ability to develop.
6 their property, but we don't require that all at once,
7 and in fact, that default density for the state density
8 bonus in the housing has been met by this application,
9 so I don't think that we can go back in any way without,
10 what the Vice Mayor is suggesting, denying this and
11 having it go, I assume, to the court, but this
12 application must be evaluated based on this Specific
13 Plan, not a desired Specific Plan, not a different
14 Specific Plan, this Specific Plan.
15 So by denying it, we face -- and my decision,
16 as I said earlier, is not based upon the possibility of
17 litigation, but we face litigation from Applicant, from
18 property owners, from housing interests, from not profit
19 housing interests, whoever it might be, and we've got
20 umpty ump legal opinions on both sides of it as to how
21 that plays out, but it shouldn't be ignored, and so I
22 cannot support that -- this motion.
23 MAYOR SPECTOR: Mr. Rennie.
24 COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Thank you, Mayor.
25 Could I ask staff to repeat the motion. I got a little
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lost in all this.
MS. PREVETTI: Certainly we'll try.
MR. PAULSON: So I'll go ahead and start, and
Ms. Prevetti is a much better note taker than I, I will
admit.
So the motion was to deny based on the
residential component of the Planning Commission motion,
that there are significant issues with the layout that
the units should be spread out for a better site design,
and that there's specific concerns with units, I
believe, 17 through 24 were referenced, I think, maybe
that's 18 through 25, but I could be wrong, that -site
access 4.2, which was mentioned by Council Woman Jensen,
was referenced, page 3 -2 of the Specific Plan, and then
13 and a half acres was not designated in the Specific
Plan for just the area in the proposed first phase, but
to be spread out, and that the intent is to make sure
that we're able to apply uniformly across the entire
area when applications are brought forward.
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Thank you.
MAYOR SPECTOR: All right. Ms. Sayoc; is that
accurate?
VICE MAYOR SAYOC: Yes. Although the -- in
terms of buildings, it was building 18 through 27, all
those surrounded by South A Street, Los Gatos Boulevard
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2 MAYOR SPECTOR: And is that your understanding, i°
3 Mr. Leonardis?
4 COUNCIL MEMBER LEONARDIS: Yes.
5 MAYOR SPECTOR: All right. I'm going to be
6 supporting the motion. And for the reasons stated by
7 the maker of the motion, but I also want to adopt for my
8 support the recommendations and the bases for the
9 recommendation of the Planning Commission, I want to.
10 actually include as my support of the motion the
11 Specific Plan itself, and in that regard I am
12 incorporating into my support of this motion the two
13 motions that I made at our last meeting, including all
14 of the bases for those motions.
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15 I want to also say that I looked-up the word
16 "objective," also. And I guess that's what people like
17 Ms. Jensen and I do. And objective is based on facts,
18 not feelings. It can be based on what we see, on our
19 experiences and our senses, based on mandates of the
20 Specific Plan as factually applied to this application.
21 So in addition to the entire record that we
22 have before us, and it is quite a record, probably
23 the -- it is the largest I've ever seen on my
24 experience -- experience on the Council or on a Planning
25 Commission. I'm going to base it on, you know, the
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almost 40 years that I have looked and walked and run
and driven and been driven around the Town of Los Gatos.
I'm going the base it on, you know, what I have seen
and -- that's enough for now. Ms. Sayoc.
VICE MAYOR SAYOC: This whole discussion on
objective versus subjective, one thing that is objective
is numerical. And one thing that I do want to clarify,
in the Planning Commission discussion when there was
talk of reducing square footage for residential, it was
not only intensity, but I want to point out that inner
housing element, which is a part of the reason why we're
looking at all this by right, in there not only did we
commit to 270, but we did commit to 156 very low, 84 low
and 30 moderate.
Now, I understand that that is something that
the Town plans for, but also if you're looking at HCD's
comments, that it welcomes the opportunity to assist
identifying strategies for meeting the Town's housing
goals, including encouraging additional affordability
and housing types. I want to put two facts.
One, you reduce the square footage, you reduce
the price. The second fact is it has been stated on the
record that if you put houses on the northern side in a
different school district, it immediately reduces the
price. Again, promote affordability. Those are two
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numerical standards that I would like included.
MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. And Mr. Leonardis, t
is that okay with you?
COUNCIL MEMBER LEONARDIS: Yes.
MAYOR SPECTOR: All right. Again, I am
continuing to support the motion, and the totality of
the record that I also want to include is the fact that
I've been working on the Specific Plan since 2004, on
this specific Specific Plan since 2010, including the
fact that over the years I was the person who chaired
the North 40 Specific Plan Advisory Committee, and that
as a result of this application, what we are getting are
49 senior units, good; over the market place, not so
good, and the rest of the units are right now priced
today 900,000 to one point, what, five or six million
dollars with people having to earn hundreds -- hundred
and -- I think they said 130 to $250,000 if they have a
20 percent down payment.
So we're having these challenges with the
Specific Plan, with the application, and then we look to
what we get where I think everybody on this Council, and
maybe even who I've heard in the community, would really
like to have true low income housing.
Further discussion? Mr. Leonardis.
COUNCIL MEMBER LEONARDI$: Thank you, Mayor
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Spector. I'm glad that you brought forth that point.
I -- we've all received a piece of correspondence
reminding us how we all voted in the series of motions
that we went through when we voted -- when the Specific
Plan was adopted last summer. And as I was voting for
motions like number of housing units, it is my
understanding at the time that they would be
incorporated into the three districts, that's why I
voted the way I voted on that motion. I was under the
belief that there would be affordable housing for not
just 55 and older, but for all age groups.
It's kind of ironic, because we're always
trying to help with senior housing, which is a great
thing, but by doing that, in putting all of the
affordable units in the senior housing project, it
causes almost like a discrimination against those who
are not seniors, and that's not in accordance with what
I think our BMP ordinance says in Los Gatos, and I think
we need to pay attention to that going forward. That
was a great concern of mine.
The other piece of correspondence that
highlighted that was from Ms. Marlene Rodman, and she
mentioned there was a school teacher who was considering
moving out of the District because she couldn't afford
to live here. And she's a wonderful teacher, and she's
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probably not 55 years old and probably cannot occupy one
of those senior units. I think of those kinds of cases,'
and I think well, what are we trying to do here.
I'm not against market rate housing, but for it
to be positioned in a way where all of the senior
housing allows for -- or all the below market rate
housing allows for seniors only, and all.of the other
houses market rate housing that was problematic for me
as well.
So I wanted to look at possibly spreading it
across the other zones, and that kind of is in line with
my comments earlier in the evening, what is going to go
in those other zones. We don't know yet apparently, and
can we get affordable housing for everybody, as
Ms. Sayoc stated so eloquently, in all those different
price categories in accordance to our housing element.
MAYOR SPECTOR: Ms. Jensen.
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Two comments and a
question through the Mayor for the maker of the motion.
The first is, since we're including things on
the record, the median price in Santa Clara County for a
single family home is about $965,000, I think, something
like that. Median means some are above, some are below,
but 965,000. Earlier in the year it was a million.
Some of you may have read that the way that San
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Francisco has dealt -- well, actually, it's a bill
that's gone through the Assembly. It started in San
Francisco with Mark Leno, who's the assemblyman from San
Francisco, which it's gone through the Assembly and the
Senate, may become law in the State of California, that
affordable housing for teachers can be placed on school
property without discretion from local jurisdictions on
the nature and type of. that housing. So there's one way
to address teacher housing. That's out there.
The other -- the question that I was going --
and then since the Mayor is indicating her history, I've
been working on this since who knows when, as a member
of the General Plan Committee, the original Specific
Plan that was rejected by the Council in 1999, then
again on the General Plan on the North 40 Advisory
Committee, on the Housing Element Advisory Committee, on
the Conditional Conceptual Development Advisory
Committee, on the Planning Commission and on the Town
Council forever.
My question for Ms. Sayoc through the Mayor is
the Mayor included in her support for the motion
specifically the Planning Commission part of the motion
that was tied to the economics and cited her motions
from August 16th, which also is tied to economics. I
heard Ms. Sayoc make her motion based upon the
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residential component of the Planning Commission only.
And so I want to find out if that was intended.
MAYOR SPECTOR: And I will ask Ms. Sayoc if
Ms. Sayoc chooses to respond, but what I was delineating
were the bases for my support of Ms. Sayoc's motion.
Ms. Sayoc.
VICE MAYOR SAYOC: My motion incorporates only
the residential components, so . . .
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: And if I may.
MAYOR SPECTOR: Ms. Jensen.
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: And if I may
incorporate to my opposition to the motion all of the
record and cites to the Specific Plan that I made in my
original motion for approval.
MAYOR SPECTOR: Further discussion?
Mr. Rennie.
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Thank you, Mayor
Spector. I know that I've heard actually both the
lawyers on the Council say they should -- we're not
supposed to be making decisions based on lawsuits, and I
know I'm not a lawyer and much less experienced, and but
I do worry a lot about the lawsuit. I've thought about
denying it, and then, you know, we going through what
could end up being a two, three million dollar lawsuit,
and I feel like I'm being irresponsible to knowingly go
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that way.
You know, from my understanding of where we're
supposed to be making decisions are, again, on what
is -- you know, we kept talking about what's objective
versus what's subjective. When I look at the letter
from, again, the policy manager from HCD, they say that
this by right design -- it says, "Design review is
allowed under the statute by right. Decision - making
must follow development standards that are objective,
fixed, predictable, clear, quantifiable, written and
warrant little to no judgment and should be applied in a
manner that affirmatively facilitates development."
I don't find objectable objective reasons for
deny answer. So that, to me, means we're definitely in
a lawsuit that we don't have very many legs to stand on.
There's a bill now on -- there's a bill now on the
Governor's desk to sign, AB2584, which even strengthens
this Housing Accountability Act further that allows --
it makes it easier for anybody to sue, the developer
doesn't have to sue. It can be any housing advocacy
group, building associations, renter's association,
apartment association.
You know, so, to me, it seems like we
definitely have a lawsuit. So that worries me. I feel
irresponsible to take us that way.
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1 Then if I back up and say well, okay, let's --
2 let's objectively think about whether I agree with the
3 motion or not, and what I'm hearing is, you know, we
4 specifically said we didn't -- I think the motion was
5 specifically they didn't like the way it's laid out, but
6 1 also heard what we really want to do, and I think we
7 should deny a project based on what we really want.
8 What I heard was we want to the move houses
9 into the Northern District, and I heard the mention of
10 them getting cheaper moving over the school district
11 line and, again, my -- you know, I talk about values
12 last time, and protecting the schools is high on my
13 value list. And I know that the superintendent, a body,
14 has told us in the past that houses that get moved over
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15 the line, those students will petition to come into her
16 district, she'll say sorry, I'm full, and then she'll
17 get overruled every time.
18 So, to me, that means these students move into
19 the district, are -- they will go to her district
20 anyway, so she's got to pay for them, but now she
21 doesn't get the extra money that the developer has
22 agreed to pay 23,000 per market rate unit, she doesn't
23 get the property tax, because now they're actually
24 sitting in another school district, even though the kids
25 are coming into ours, and they don't get the regular
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SB50 portion of the pay out.
So, to me, that seems like it's hurting our
school district, so I generally am very worried about
that -- that whole idea of moving units over the line
because of the effect it would have on the school
district.
And I know if they brought that project, SB50
prevents me from actually saying, denying a project
where they're over the line, but SB50 doesn't prevent me
from saying I -- doesn't prevent me from going against
denial of a project basically.
You know, and when I read through the Specific
Plan policies, they talk about -- it really talks about
the housing is supposed to be in the Lark District, and
we put, you know, this -- basically this application
puts the housing in the Lark District. If I can quote a
couple of these items in 2.32, titled, "The Transition
District in the Specific Plan," it says, "The Transition
District is a buffer between primarily residential Lark
District and active retail entertainment of the.Northern
District."
And then -- and 2.3, titled, "Northern
District," it says, "It's best suited for day to evening
entertainment that offers shopping and restaurants."
And then in 2.4, it talks about permitted land
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uses. Again, it talks about the Transition District
being a buffer between the primary -- primarily
residential uses in the southern portion of the Specific
Plan and entertainment restaurant and shopping uses
envisioned in the northern portion of it. So it doesn't.
sound to me like the reason we're denying it and the
result we want fits within the Specific Plan. So I'm
not apt to support this motion. Thank you.
MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you for the discussion.
Ms. Sayoc.
VICE MAYOR SAYOC: Couple things I want to
clarify. The reason -- the reason why I point to the
layout 18 through 27 is an example of how if you were
not limited to 20, in my opinion, you could have a
better layout. I gave the -- I gave the commercial
aspect of looking at Los Gatos. Boulevard. For the site
access, I'm looking at 4.2, and it's saying that there
could also be a fourth access point off of Los Gatos
Boulevard. And I know there's a lot of traffic
engineering aspects that still have to be looked at, but
if you place a whole bunch of housing there, then you
immediately cut off whatever access you have.
We heard significant issues about traffic. It
just seems like if you provide another access point,
does that help alleviate it. These are the types of
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questions I wish we had the opportunity to go back and
forth on. Unfortunately we don't. But these are the
types of things that I'm looking at as I look at the
layout. And yes, you know what, if you keep Area E, you
still keep primarily a lot of the residential in the
Lark District, but you also have a design that, in my
mind, is more in keeping of what the seamless weaving of
Los Gatos is.
Los Gatos Boulevard is commercial. You have
residential behind it. You will have -- you will still
be able to provide 20 units per acre on that portion,
but all of a sudden you have a little bit more
creativity to look at what economic opportunities you
can do along Los Gatos Boulevard. You have another
opportunity to look at a traffic option, and you have
another opportunity just to look at a layout that is
something that at least the Planning Commission and the
Council could say that is something that we believe is
what satisfies our vision of the Specific Plan.
Now, you know, one of the things we've said in
the past, everybody has an opinion, and I don't fault --
the five of us clearly have different ideas of what
meets the Specific Plan. It's not based on longevity,
it's not based on who studied more. In the end the
decision that's made will -- I will respect it. We each
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II have our five individual decisions, and I know that
2 whatever decision is made within a couple of seconds, we,
3 each individually are doing it because we truly believe
4 whether or not this project satisfies the Specific Plan
5 that we adopted last year.
6 MAYOR SPECTOR: Further discussion?
7 Ms. Jensen.
8 COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Just two comments for
9 the record. Sorry. The first is that if the site
10 access were changed to include another site, and again
11 I'm just doing this for the record, that could
12 potentially require a new EIR, which would subject the
13 Town to costs for that, studies for that, time for that,
14 lawsuits for that. Perhaps it's legally acceptable,
15 perhaps it's not, but that's a consequence that I want
16 to put on the record.
17 The other one is just with respect to the
18 housing and if we move it, and that assumes that the
19 Town Council can cause a property owner, which we know
20 very well he can't do, based on our experience, the
21 Planning Commission here, causing property owner to come
22 to us with exactly what we want in exactly the way we
23 want it at exactly the time we want. So we say we would
24 like to move the housing to the Northern District. That
25 assumes that the people that own the property on the
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Northern District are to come in and say great, we're
going to build, you know, X amount of houses exactly the
way you want on that.
That is -- that's, I think, not a good
assumption. So we -- we have to bear in mind that there
are applicants that come forward that own the property
that make an application just like somebody who in the
Almond Grove has a vacant lot would come forward to make
an application to build their house. We don't tell that
person in advance we want ten affordable units there,
and they say fine, great, we're coming in with that. So
we have to keep in mind that we cannot mandate
ultimately what the application is.
And so with respect to the state law on
housing, we. have to evaluate are we putting a detriment
to development of housing, are we turning down housing
that meets what's in our housing element. We have to
evaluate.that. So I just want to have that be
considered and be on the record.
MAYOR SPECTOR: Mr. Rennie.
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Thank you, Mayor
Spector. I just wanted to add one thing. From -- you
know, my position hasn't really changed from the last
meeting where I talked about, again, I think that, you
know, this in not going to pass a lawsuit, which means
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1 we end up with an approval of what's there, and in the
2 past I've, you know, not voted for a straight approval,
3 because I think there's changes that we can make to make
4 this a better project that fit within -- you know, it's
5 got to fit within a certain box, and those are the kinds.
6 of things that I was trying to do, and I thought we
7 could even take a risk by take -- you know, denying the
8 two houses on Los Gatos Boulevard, and the developer may
9 not find it worth the lawsuit to go that direction, but
10 so, again, my real problem with this is I'm -- I -- and
11 I could be wrong, but I'm quite sure that we're going to
12 end up with exactly what's approved without any chance
13 to change it. So, you know, that's another one of my
14 concerns on voting for this motion.
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15 MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. Further discussion?
16 Mr. Leonardis.
17 COUNCIL MEMBER LEONARDIS: Thank you, Mayor
18 Spector. Again, you know, the Specific Plan was adopted
19 last summer. Since that time we had significant
20 community feedback. I mean, the story poles went up.
21 The public had their chance to weigh in. Things don't
22 always come out the other end exactly as they go in. I
23 realized at that point.I voted no on the Specific Plan,
24 that was kind of a leverage point for us.
25 I felt if we spent a little bit more time at
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that point in time there could have been perhaps some of
these issues ironed out, and this would not be so
painful up here.
By the way, I do want do, you know, thank the
Council this evening, because we do have a diversity of
opinions, and I respect every one of us up here for
their opinions and what they believe. But I think what
the community is looking for, we ought to look out for
the community first. They want the best result for
their community. And I know that sounds kind of counter
argument to development by right and lawsuit this and
all those kinds of things, but I don't see why we can't
all work together and come up with a result that works
for everybody.
I mean, why do we have to talk about lawsuits?
Why is it one extreme or the other? Yes, we've been
through a process, yes, the process has taken a long
time, but what's with spending a little bit more time in
getting it right so people are happy, because no matter
what, if the public.does not support what you're doing,
is shoving it down their throat the right thing? You
know, is shoving it down the Council's throat the right
thing? I don't think that's the best way to go about
things.
Now, I know this developer has been very
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I generous and very open and very process oriented. and
2 very, you know, accommodating to requests and things,
3 but the bottom line is this, it still, to me, didn't
4 meet all the needs that the public has brought forth.
5 It didn't meet the needs of our own below market price
6 program, in my opinion. It leaves several unanswered
7 questions about what will happen on the future phases
8 for me.
9 I'm not comfortable with the road going
10 northbound on Los Gatos Boulevard between Lark and
11 Samaritan Drive. I don't like the fact that at Charter
12 Oaks it's a very dangerous intersection. There should
13 be a keep clear put there. There's a lot of little
14 things. Not too stoked for the market hall concept.
15 Maybe that could be a Trader Joe's or something.
16 But these are things that, perhaps with more
17 vetting, a little more vetting, we can find some
18 compromises and make this a positive experience for
19 everybody as opposed -- or at least more people, get the
20 support of more of the public, probably not please
21 everybody, as opposed to the Council being pushed up
22 against the wall and having this project go down hard I
23 should say.
24 MAYOR SPECTOR: Well, I agree with a lot of
25 what Mr. Leonardis said. I do think this could work
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out. I agree that the developers have been gracious
over all of these years, but for the reasons that I
previously stated and re- iterated, this is not the
project tonight as it stands.
Further discussion? Seeing none, I'm going to.
do this by show of hands, since every time I do it by
voice I have to change it.
So we have Ms. Sayoc's motion to deny. All in
favor, raise your hand. Mr. Leonardis, Miss Sayoc,
Mayor. Opposed? Miss Jensen, Mr. Rennie. The motion
passes three -two.
Before I adjourn the meeting, we will be
getting, I understand, a resolution, or resolutions, I
don't know, on September 6th?
A VOICE: That is correct.
MAYOR SPECTOR: All right. Anything else you
need, Ms. Prevetti?
MS. PREVETTI: No, thank you.
MAYOR SPECTOR: All right. Meeting's
adjourned.
(End of Hearing.)
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3 I, LISA GLANVILLE, C.S.R. #9932, a Certified
4 Shorthand Reporter in and for the State of California,
5 do hereby certify:
6 That the preceding Video Transcription was
7 taken down by me in shorthand to the best of my ability
8 and thereafter reduced to computerized transcription
9 under my direction and supervision, and I hereby certify
10 the foregoing transcript is a full, true and correct
11 transcript of my shorthand notes so taken.
12 I further certify that I am neither counsel
13 for nor related to any party to said action nor
14 interested in the outcome of this action.
15 Witness my hand this day of
16 September, 2016.
17
18
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19 NVILLE
CS - o. 9932
20 State of California
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