Attachment 3June 4, 2018
Honorable Mayor and Town Council,
The topic of formula retail in the commercial core has been discussed in many different forums over the
past few years. The current regulation is not functioning as it should. Since it is not serving its purpose,
we support the suspension as suggested in the staff report. We do not, however, support placing the
restriction on combining spaces or constructing new space to accommodate a prospective retailer.
Further we do not support the alternative restricting the formula uses to areas other than N. Santa Cruz
Ave. Do we want to attract these types of retailers or not? If we do we need to allow the market to
dictate the requirements, and not continue to restrict the ability for these businesses to locate here.
The intention should be for the Town to send a sign to the brokerage and retailing community that we
are welcoming them to open new businesses in downtown, not trying to push them to areas of lesser
foot traffic in order to use them to create a draw in less successful areas. This would send the same
message that has been given for years, that Los Gatos is too restrictive and not welcoming.
Downtown needs a resurgence of vitality with new and successful retailers and restaurants. This
suspension of the formula retail policy will create more draw to the downtown area and drive the
smaller mom and pop businesses to success. This is a critical step in making Downtown Los Gatos more
competitive. As I wrote in my letter to you on March 20, 2018:
“We hope you take this first step in effecting change in the commercial core. Two more important steps
that should be evaluated soon are the temporary suspension of the formula retail policy as well as
ordinance 2021 in order to inject some vitality into downtown so we can compete with Campbell,
Santana Row, Cupertino, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Burlingame, and the North 40.”
Seems like the Town is on the right track with steps one and two. Hopefully step 3 can be addressed
sometime this year as well.
Thank you,
Jim Foley
La Cañada Investments, LLC
ATTACHMENT 3