Attachment 03LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 10/25/2017
Item #2, 202 University Avenue
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A P P E A R A N C E S:
Los Gatos Planning
Commissioners:
Tom O'Donnell, Chair
D. Michael Kane, Vice Chair
Mary Badame
Kendra Burch
Melanie Hanssen
Matthew Hudes
Kathryn Janoff
Town Manager: Laurel Prevetti
Community Development
Director:
Joel Paulson
Town Attorney: Robert Schultz
Transcribed by: Vicki L. Blandin
(619) 541-3405
ATTACHMENT 3
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 10/25/2017
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P R O C E E D I N G S:
CHAIR O'DONNELL: So we move to the first and only
public hearing, 202 University Avenue, and I’d ask for a
Staff Report.
SEAN MULLIN: Thank you. Good evening,
Commissioners.
Before you tonight is a request for a General
Plan Amendment and a zone change at 202 University Avenue.
The General Plan Amendment would be from Office
Professional to Medium Density Residential, and the zone
change would be from Office with Landmark and Historic
Preservation Overlay to Single Family Residential Downtown,
and would continue with the Landmark and Historic
Preservation Overlay.
The General Plan Committee reviewed the requested
General Plan Amendment in September of this year. This
committee forwarded a recommendation of approval to the
Planning Commission and the Town Council. The proposed
General Plan Amendment and zone change would be consistent
with the pattern of land use and zoning in the surrounding
neighborhoods, additionally replacing the existing Office
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use with a Single-Family Residential use, which would
reduce the parking requirements and traffic generated by
the property.
For these reasons and the analysis provided in
the Staff Report, Staff recommends that the Planning
Commission make the required findings in Exhibit 2 of your
Staff Report and forward a recommendation of approval to
the Town Council.
This concludes Staff’s presentation and we are
available to answer any questions.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Mr. Mullin, I forgot to
mention your name, and the Vice Chair chastised me for
that, so thank you, Mr. Mullin.
SEAN MULLIN: I appreciate that.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: It was very important.
SEAN MULLIN: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Are there any questions?
Yes, Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I just had one question
that I did not ask when we had our General Plan meeting.
The current tenants—they are tenants in the house, the law
offices that are there now—if this is approved, the owners
are leasing to the tenants and they wouldn’t be in
compliance with our zoning, but I’m sure it’s just a timing
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issue, I don’t think it impacts a decision, but I just
wanted to know how the timing would play out on that.
SEAN MULLIN: Sure. It’s my understanding that
the law offices are no longer operating out of that
location, but there is a therapist working there. The
Applicant can provide some clarification on that.
Regarding the timing, both Exhibit 4 and Exhibit
3 of your Staff Report include a conformance with zone
condition that states that the existing office use shall
cease within two years of adoption or approval. This would
allow the owners of the property to fulfill the lease
requirements for their tenant and then transition it over
to a residential when they’re available.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Okay, thank you.
SEAN MULLIN: You’re welcome.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Other questions? If not,
I’ll ask the Applicant, Ms. Wiersema—it’s the second time
I’ve seen her today, and it’s my pleasure—would you make
your presentation?
BESS WIERSEMA: Good evening, Commissioners. I’m
not sure I’ve ever been here when there’s this few people
and everyone is all giddy, because we might get out of here
before 9:00 o’clock. Don’t jinx it, right? Trust me,
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Commissioner Kane, I’m not nearly as chatty as you are, and
I mean that in the kindest of ways.
Before you today we bring a project that we’d
like to actually return to the housing stock in compliance
with the General Plan for the Town, and then also we are
very interested in maintaining its historical character
status, et cetera.
I’m sure you’ve all been by it; it’s a corner
property. It’s currently zoned Office Professional. We are
interested in zoning it to the R1-D:LHP Medium Density
Residential with the Historical Overlay.
As noted in the asterisk, we do want to maintain
the current lease agreement, which is currently through
December 2018, however, the ordinance allows us to take
that two-year timeframe to do so. I would respectfully ask
that that be considered and potentially be a part of any
sort of conditions of approval.
As you know, it takes a while to get through the
process here in Los Gatos, whether that’s the Planning
Department, the Historical Committee, or you yourselves,
and I’d like to be able to take that two-year timeframe so
that the owner can maintain at least their current lease
through the end of December 2018, if not further, two years
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post today’s date, or however that actually works. Sean,
you can perhaps state more about that.
To clarify, Commissioner Hanssen, there is a
mental health counselor, kind of a therapist, that’s
occupying the spot today. It was previously occupied by a
lawyer’s office that had that cutesy sign out front forever
it feels like, and in the historical paperwork we did
provide when it was last occupied as a single-family
residence.
It’s pretty clear when you drive by that this was
a single-family residence downtown. We are interested in
returning it to be that, and this just steps through what
we’re interested in doing, changing the zoning and
maintaining the Historical District. Obviously, I can’t
change the year built. Lot area remains the same. Coverage
in an R1-D:LHP is unlimited.
Parking space is moved from the five stripped
stalls that you see there today to two residential spaces.
We are hoping to provide a detached two-car garage on this
property.
Allowed floor area. Currently we’re sitting at
2,163. The allowed floor area is 2,163, and a 613 square
foot garage.
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FAR as calculated, just so you guys know that we
did our math correctly per the charts when we turn to an
R1-D. So a 2,000 square foot home, plus or minus, and a 600
square foot garage. Two thousand, one hundred and sixty
three for a single-family home on the property.
As you know, we are located in a historical
District, and if you look at the neighborhood analysis that
we provided you, you can see that everyone in our immediate
neighborhood is actually a single-family residence, which I
think also attributes to us returning in that direction.
Here are some current pictures of some of the homes, most
of which obviously have a Victorian inspired aesthetic as
their overall structure design. So just some surrounding
neighborhood pictures in case you haven’t been by.
Existing house. There is some kind of neat
Italianate Victorian character to this home, which we do
intend on preserving. The Town approved the existing Office
use in 1978, so that would be the last time that I think
anyone probably used it as a single-family residence.
Side views from Miles Avenue.
Back views with the asphalt wonderland parking
lot.
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Site plan. You can see that it’s kind of got that
typical single-family residence, which we’re trying to
maintain.
Existing floor plan of the house. Even though
this has been used as an office there are kitchen cabinets
here, and there is a full bathroom with a shower here. You
can see that the floor plan actually has remained as is for
a single-family residence versus office use.
Existing elevations. Front elevation and Miles
Avenue elevation. Nice tight little Italianate Victorian
home. Back elevation and side elevation. Some of the things
that have changed on this property are obviously some ADA
compliant ramps here to get the office use going on,
completely not in character with the rest of the house, but
I think we intend on changing all that.
A sneak peek at what we hope to bring to the Town
in terms of restoring this home to its corner lot caliber
and Italianate Victorian single-family residence.
That’s it. I don’t have a long-winded
presentation today or trying to defend anything.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: All right, we’ll
entertain questions. Before we do that, I just want to
establish, has everybody visited the property? And that’s a
yes from everyone. Vice Chair Kane.
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VICE CHAIR KANE: I visited the property today
and was given permission by the tenant to make a close
walk-around. It’s a pretty large window, so I wanted them
to know who I was. Could you put your proposed slide back
up, please?
BESS WIERSEMA: I knew this was danger-danger for
me to include proposed.
VICE CHAIR KANE: No, it depends. See, at first
glance that relieves some of my concerns about what might
happen in the future. The house is tired and shows a lot of
wear and tear, and clearly the word that comes to mind is
“restoration” as opposed to any four-story apartment
building. This is pretty much what you are thinking?
BESS WIERSEMA: Yes, it’s the intent of our
client to return it to a single-family home for them to
reside in, not to rent out. They do intend on keeping it
single-story and requesting to do a two-car detached garage
in the back corner of the property.
VICE CHAIR KANE: I looked at the floor plan and
it seemed as though if you were in one bedroom you had to
go through the other bedroom to get to the bathroom. How
much internal work are you anticipating? Would you add a
bath?
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BESS WIERSEMA: Yes, we intend to remove this
bathroom back here and kind of wedge it over here in
between these two rooms. The intent is to have a three-
bedroom, two-bathroom home. We will make use of the
existing cellar for mechanical and storage for the home,
and then extend out the back into where the parking lot
area is to create a great room/family room, and opening up
this area that’s very constricted and convoluted into a
kitchen/family room.
VICE CHAIR KANE: And you would take off the
ramps?
BESS WIERSEMA: The ramps would be leaving.
VICE CHAIR KANE: And you’d repair the front
porch?
BESS WIERSEMA: Front porch would be repaired.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Could I just interrupt
for one second? I’d like some clarification from either the
Town Attorney or Staff. We’re not approving the house, or
we’re not improving the interior, all we’re doing is
changing the zoning. You will have an opportunity to come
back later, I assume, and get approval for any changes
you’re going to do there. To Staff, is that correct?
JOEL PAULSON: That’s correct.
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COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Okay, so whatever she
tells us now, we have to understand we cannot… Not that she
wouldn’t be telling us the truth, she is, but she’s not
held to that, so if you want to pursue that, go right
ahead.
VICE CHAIR KANE: That’s exactly what I was
doing.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: It doesn’t bind.
VICE CHAIR KANE: The speaker brought it up when
she went into the (inaudible).
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: It doesn’t bind. If you
want to talk about what she might do, go ahead.
ROBERT SCHULTZ: In reality, what the property is
going to look like is not the issue. The issue is whether
the zoning fits in with the surroundings and the
neighborhood and is a correct fit changing from Commercial
to Residential. For example, once you make this change
someone else could buy this lot and propose anything on a
residential. It would have to go through our historical and
through the proposals, but certainly you can ask questions
of the Applicant.
VICE CHAIR KANE: You understand my intent. It’s
a gem, and I wanted to protect it as best I could. Thank
you.
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COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Other questions? If not,
we have no other cards, so I guess it would be a time just
to say did you forget something that you’d like to add now?
BESS WIERSEMA: Thank you. It is our intent to
make it a single-family home and maintain its historical
status.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: All right, thank you. I
will close the public input to this public hearing, and
Commissioner Badame, you had your hand up.
CHAIR BADAME: I thought Staff summed it up
really well on page 4 under their summary, that it would be
consistent with the pattern of land use in this
neighborhood, so to me this is one of the easiest decisions
that I’ve had to make this year in that I would be in
support of forwarding a recommendation of approval to the
Town Council.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Is there a second?
Commissioner Burch.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: If that was a motion, I’m
seconding it.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I took it as a motion.
CHAIR BADAME: I put that into a motion. That is
a motion. I move to forward a recommendation of approval
for General Plan Amendment Application GP-17-002 and Zone
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Change Application Z-17-001. I can make the required
findings for CEQA, and I can make the required consistency
with the Town’s General Plan.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Okay, and that’s the
second to that.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: So moved.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Does the Town Attorney
have something you want to add?
ROBERT SCHULTZ: Just as clarification to the
question of the grandfathered use, it will be implemented
if the recommendation is set by Council; it changes
immediately, and then it becomes really a nonconforming use
for those two years where it’s allowed to continue.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Let’s clarify that, too.
As I understand it from Mr. Mullin, I don't know whether
it’s Town policy or whether it’s in the ordinance, or
whatever it’s in, but apparently they have two years in
which to (inaudible).
ROBERT SCHULTZ: It’s a condition.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Pardon me?
ROBERT SCHULTZ: It’s actually a condition in
the…
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COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Okay. So that’s there
and you intended those conditions to be incorporated, and
you did, I think?
CHAIR BADAME: Yes, I would like that to be
incorporated into my motion.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Okay. Any other comments
or questions? Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I only wanted to comment
that when we heard this at the General Plan Committee, not
only was it approved as noted in the Staff Report, but it
was unanimously approved. I think everyone on the
committee, since there is no video recording, felt that it
was…mentioned items of the General Plan that made this very
consistent in terms of a use change.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Thank you. Other
comments or questions? Commissioner Hudes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: I’m in support of the
motion, and I would commend the resident and the Applicant
on the approach for this property. Land Use-1 says to,
“Preserve, promote, and protect the existing small town
character and quality of life within Los Gatos,” and I
think that this is exemplary of that. There are a lot of
land use goals in the General Plan. This one is the first
one that comes up, and it’s, I think, a very important one,
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and this was obviously a residence that was sort of an
office, but it was always more of a residence in appearance
than an office anyway, so I think it’s a good thing for the
property, a good thing for the Applicant, and a good thing
for the Town.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Thank you. Any other
comments or questions? If not, I’ll call the question. All
those in favor, say aye, please. It’s unanimous. May we
have your comments?
JOEL PAULSON: There are no appeal rights since
this is a recommendation, so it will be set at the pleasure
of the mayor on the Town Council meeting, and then we will
notice it appropriately and go through the remainder of the
process.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Thank you very much.