Attachment 03LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
A P P E A R A N C E S:
Los Gatos Planning
Commissioners:
Matthew Hudes, Vice Chair
Mary Badame
Kendra Burch
Melanie Hanssen
Kathryn Janoff
Reza Tavana
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 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
2
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
P R O C E E D I N G S:
VICE CHAIR HUDES: We will now move on to Item 4,
which is 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue, Conditional Use Permit
Application U-18-020, requesting approval for a restaurant
with beer and wine service, Hapa’s Brewing Company, on
property zoned C-2. APN 510-45-061, property owner 102
South Santa Cruz, LP, Applicant Brian Edwards, project
planner Jocelyn Shoopman.
Before we do that I just want to get a show of
hands from the commissioners who visited the property. Any
disclosures? Okay, Ms. Shoopman, would you please give us
a report?
JOCELYN SHOOPMAN: Thank you, Chair, and good
evening, Commissioners. Before you tonight is a request for
a Conditional Use Permit to allow for a restaurant with
beer and wine service by the applicant, Hapa’s Brewing
Company. The applicant is proposing to operate a taproom
restaurant with rotating beers, wine, and food service. The
proposal includes interior renovations to the existing
building, as well as modifying the existing parking lot to
accommodate a new outdoor seating area. Proposed hours of
operation would be seven days a week from 11a.m. to 11p.m.,
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
3
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
and these hours of operation are reflected in your
Conditions of Approval in Exhibit 3.
The Staff Report provides a summary of the review
by the Town Arborist, with one tree to be removed based on
the proposed improvements to add an additional parking
space to the property.
A Desk Item report was also distributed to the
Commission this evening, which includes public comments
received after the distribution of your Staff Report.
Staff recommends that the Planning Commission
forward a recommendation of approval to the Council based
on the analysis provided in the Staff Report. This
concludes staff’s presentation and we are available for any
questions.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Are there any questions of
staff? Vice Chair Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I looked at this thing,
and although it sounds reasonable the hours of operation
seem to be long, and so I was just wondering if you had
looked at the hours of operation from other restaurants in
the area and if it was comparable to that?
JOCELYN SHOOPMAN: No, Staff did not do that as
part of our analysis.
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
4
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Okay, we can ask the
Applicant.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: I had a question about the
use. The documents I have in front of me say a restaurant
with beer and wine service. The term “taproom” I did not
see in the summary of the application, but a neighbor
raised it, and it was raised in documentation. My
understanding is that a taproom is a bar; it’s commonly
translated as a bar or barroom. Would there be any
difference in the application if it were not termed a
restaurant with beer and wine, but was termed a bar?
JOCELYN SHOOPMAN: The term “taproom” originally
came from the Applicant’s project description, which is
included as Exhibit 4, so regardless if it was a taproom or
a restaurant, the use includes beer and wine service, and
so we would still consider it to be that and require a
Conditional Use Permit.
JOEL PAULSON: I would just add that if it was a
bar as the Town defines it, it would not have to have food
service, so that’s the distinction for the Town. A
restaurant has food service. A taproom where they don’t
have food service, I’ve seen those and they call themselves
taprooms, but they also have food service, so that’s why we
distinguish it as a restaurant with beer and wine service.
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
5
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
VICE CHAIR HUDES: As a follow up to that, since
the CUP follows the land any subsequent tenant could only
do beer and wine if they had a restaurant, even though the
application was for taproom?
JOEL PAULSON: That’s correct, and the way that
that could be accomplished would be they could come in and
request a modification to the use permit to remove the
restaurant requirement, and then it would be a bar.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Right, and that would come
back to this body?
JOEL PAULSON: That would come back to the
Planning Commission and the Town Council.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Okay, thank you. Let’s see if
the Applicant would like to make a presentation. I have
several cards. Mr. Edwards. If there are two of you, just
go ahead and state your names and your address when you
come up here, please.
BRIAN EDWARDS: Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair and the
Commission, for seeing us tonight and considering us. My
name is Brian Edwards. The address for our project is 114
S. Santa Cruz Avenue.
As Seth mentioned, this is for a taproom and I
can clarify the definition. I think there are a lot of
terms that get thrown around. We currently operate a full
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
6
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
brewery in the Willow Glen neighborhood of San Jose, so we
brew our own beer. This new location would also serve the
same beers, so in that sense we are just an extension of
our current taproom in San Jose; we are just pouring the
beers that we make. Our liquor license allows for us to
serve, and along with serving food we are granted the right
to serve wine as well.
I wanted to start by introducing myself and my
business partner, Derek. We are Los Gatos natives. I grew
up here. I was at Van Meter, Fisher, Los Gatos High School
and graduated Class of 2001. Derek is Class of 2003. We met
over at Blossom Hill playing Little League together.
As I mentioned we opened up Hapa’s Brewing
Company in Willow Glen in January of 2017, so it’s been
almost two years now that we’ve been running our brewery
there. I was welcomed with open arms from the community
over there. It’s a journey and a great learning experience
for us and really fine, and we’re looking forward to
expanding into our hometown that we hold very near and dear
to our hearts.
The proposal, the taproom that we’re talking
about now, a bar would be a bit of a misnomer, because
we’re not going to be serving hard alcohol and we’re not
going to be staying open till 2:00a.m. We are family-
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
7
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
friendly and our current place in San Jose is family-
friendly. We have kids there with parents all the time;
very casual environment. It’s just something that’s sort of
missing from the downtown corridor: a place where you can
go with your family, sit down, have a casual beer, have
something to eat, and call it a day.
We love being part of our community in Willow
Glen, and we love Los Gatos and look forward to being part
of it. In fact, we participate in a lot of community stuff
in San Jose and in Los Gatos. We’ve contributed to almost
every school in San Jose, whether it’s donations, auctions,
or we’ve hosted fundraisers. We’ve even participated in
LGAA events out here. We’ve supported the Lions Club. I did
a fundraiser at the Toll House actually for Van Meter to
help them to raise money for the school.
I mentioned who we are, but I also want to talk
about what we’re not. I said we’re not a bar in the
traditional sense of what a bar is. We’re not going to be
open late, no loud music, we don’t have plans to do any
kind of outdoor entertainment or live music; the space just
wouldn’t be big enough to accommodate that. We’re happy to
abide by the Noise Ordinance. I know our hours say
11:00a.m. to 11:00p.m., but we’d be willing to close the
patio down early at 10:00 if that helps assuage any issues.
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
8
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
I know there were some concerns, as mentioned. We
got some letters, and I saw those, so I wanted to just
address some of the stuff that was said.
Of course noise was an issue, but as I mentioned,
we’d be amenable to closing that patio portion early to
keep the noise levels down.
Parking is an issue, but the plans that we’ve
submitted have been run through the parking calculations
and have been found to be in compliance.
We plan on being a no smoking establishment, even
outside. All of our bartenders at our current, and it will
extend to our new location, are trained in how to serve
alcohol and how to identify people that have been over-
served and therefore avoid that issue.
Our beer garden is going to be contained. We are
going to have planter boxes and (inaudible) to contain the
beer garden. There would be no drinking outside of those
constraints, so that would keep that contained and not have
people wandering around the neighborhood while drinking.
That’s all.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Okay, thank you. Are there
questions of the Applicant? Commissioner Janoff.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Thank you for your
presentation. Just a question about neighborhood outreach.
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
9
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Did you contact the neighborhood up Broadway and the
residents in that neighborhood?
BRIAN EDWARDS: We did; I meant to mention that.
Yes, we did. We made little postcards, and then Derek went
around and handed them all out to the neighbors. We did
hear back from a few of them positively; actually they were
the only ones that sent us emails, but we did notify
everybody ahead of time.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Just to follow up, we have
heard recently an issue regarding the Toll House and the
concerns of the Toll House noise and impact on the
immediate neighborhood. So your outreach with your
neighbors, are you saying that you haven’t received… We
have one concern I think in our packet.
BRIAN EDWARDS: We got two emails, one from a
neighbor. The postcard had our email address on it, and we
received two emails. One was from a neighbor, Mike Veragoss
(phonetic) I think, and one from a business, The Spa, and
we spoke to both of them. Mike was supportive as long as we
are what we said we were going to do, and Derek spoke with
The Spa and it sounds like they’re concerns mostly are with
parking, and as I mentioned the parking plan, has been
found to be in compliance.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Thank you.
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I have two questions for
you. The first one is about food, and the second one is
about the hours.
BRIAN EDWARDS: Sure.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I did some research on
your Willow Glen location and if my research is correct you
don’t offer food at your Willow Glen location, so this is
new, and the comments that you were making about your place
were all good, but the comments were along the lines of
good thing there were food trucks all around that they
could get a meal, and I looked at what you were going to
offer with the food, so I wondered is that going to be
enough? Because we’re not going to have food trucks by your
location.
BRIAN EDWARDS: Correct.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Is the very limited menu
with all that beer going to be enough?
BRIAN EDWARDS: Our menu, we’re open to adjusting
that. We’re regulated by the ABC, the Alcohol Beverage
Commission…
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Right.
BRIAN EDWARDS: …and they’re the ones who dictate
what is considered sufficient to get these other privileges
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
11
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
of being able to serve wine, so we’ve initiated
conversations with them. It’s kind of a loose definition;
the definition is “bonafide eating establishment,” which
just means you’re serving a menu of food at hours at which
people would eat at. It’s not a super hard and defined
definition, so we are going to work with them to make sure
that we are meeting those requirements, since they’re the
ones that set the regulations as to what would be
sufficient to serve with beer.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Okay, fair enough. What I
was looking for was your experience. I do understand the
Alcohol Beverage Policy, but since you’re not doing it at
your Willow Glen location, the fact that you’re doing
something is going to need to be… And then there are other
places around the area.
BRIAN EDWARDS: Yeah, and actually our third
business partner, he lives in Santa Rosa so he wasn’t able
to make it, and I was his brewer up in Petaluma, that was a
brew pub, so it was actually a full restaurant. So we do
have that piece that we are missing in our experience. We
do have some experience in the restaurant business.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: My other question was I’m
asking about is what’s the justification for being open
from 11:00 to 11:00 every day? Because in researching your
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
12
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Willow Glen location, if I read it correctly your hours are
4:00 to 9:00 on weekdays, 11:00 to 9:00 on Saturday, and
12:00 to 7:00 on Sunday, and so I wondered why it needs to
be 11:00 to 11:00 in Los Gatos?
BRIAN EDWARDS: I don’t think it necessarily has
to be that. We just wanted to throw it all out there and
not pigeonhole ourselves with our hours. I don’t foresee us
being open at 11:00am on a Monday; that just wouldn’t be
good business. There aren’t a lot of people drinking at
that time, hopefully, and as I mentioned, we’d be amenable
to closing the patio earlier to abide by the Noise
Ordinance.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Would you be amenable if
it was the will of the rest of the Commission to change the
hours that are in the proposed CUP?
BRIAN EDWARDS: Yeah, we would definitely be open
to that.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Okay, thank you.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: If I might follow up to that.
Are there specific hours that you would be comfortable
with?
BRIAN EDWARDS: I think similar to what we’re
doing in San Jose would work. Our Conditional Use Permit in
San Jose allows us to stay open till midnight. We sort of
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
13
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
arbitrarily picked 9:00p.m. as a time to close when we
first opened. We were commuting from San Francisco at the
time and that just made sense. I think we would probably
want to be open at least till 10:00p.m. in Los Gatos. Not
that we’re necessarily going to do that, but we would like
to at least have that option. If we’re going to be closed
on Mondays, like we are in San Jose, that’s fine as well.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Okay, thank you. Yes,
Commissioner Burch.
COMMISSIONER BIRCH: I want to talk a little bit
about the possibility of music or entertainment. You may or
may not know, in the last two years we went through a very
lengthy process with the Toll House and the neighbors
around there, and I want to be very sensitive to the amount
of work that went into that.
BRIAN EDWARDS: Sure.
COMMISSIONER BIRCH: So we’ve set limitations on
the noise level and the timing of the music. What kind of
entertainment are you thinking your may have as far as live
music? Would it be on the patio or inside? Can you give us
a little more insight?
BRIAN EDWARDS: As of right now we don’t
necessarily have plans to do any live entertainment. I
don’t speak for the team entirely, but inside probably
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
14
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
wouldn’t make any sense. After it’s all said and done, with
cold storage, dry storage, bathrooms, bar, there’s just not
going to be that much square footage inside to accommodate
any kind of live music.
Outside, I can never imagine a scenario where we
bring like a whole band with amplified music. If anything,
I can envision us having like an acoustic guitar and maybe
strumming on that and singing some tunes. We do some live
music in San Jose, but we’re allowed to and it’s a much
bigger space, so it works, but we do have some local
artists that come who do music similar to that who will
just play an acoustic guitar and sing.
COMMISSIONER BIRCH: All right, thank you.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Just to follow up on that,
would you be amenable to live music that was acoustic only?
BRIAN EDWARDS: Yeah.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Okay, thank you. Yes,
Commissioner Tavana.
COMMISSIONER TAVANA: Just a quick question
following onto the entertainment question. Do you plan to
have any TVs or games on during the weekends, or during the
week for that matter?
BRIAN EDWARDS: We do. In our current San Jose
location we have three TVs. We’re not a sports bar, so we
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
15
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
don’t have any special packages or anything during football
season. We don’t even open for the early games. We
encourage people to enjoy each other’s company and not sit
in front of a TV and watch it, but we probably will have
something just for some background noise, and not even
noise, because we don’t even play sound, but just something
to look at.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Okay, thank you. We will have
another opportunity for questions, since I would really
like to take public comment now, so you’ll get another five
minutes, okay?
So now I would invite Mr. Ken Nelson, if you’re
here, and you have three minutes.
KEN NELSON: Thank you. My name is Ken Nelson; I
own and operate Rural Supply Hardware at 110 South Santa
Cruz Avenue.
I haven’t met these gentlemen. They seem like
nice guys, I wish them well, but we already share the
parking lot with the business next door, The Spa, and
Number 1 Broadway upstairs. That goes on well into most
evenings and the parking lot is full; it’s absolutely full.
Many, many times the parking lot will be maxed out, and so
I don’t really understand how we could possibly lose
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
16
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
parking for a business, and the impact of just additional
business would be really a big deal for that corner.
We’re not open in the evenings, we close at
6:00p.m. But we do have to deal with the mess and the
cleanup and the wear and tear on the parking lot. It’s an
old, tired building and lot, and it does have its impact.
Thank you.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Any questions? Okay, thank
you. Mr. Tim Nelson.
TIM NELSON: Tim Nelson, Ken’s brother, also from
Rural Supply, 110 South Santa Cruz Avenue.
I’ve talked to a lot of the businesses in the
area and the neighbors, the residents. A lot of concerns.
Our biggest concern is parking; there simply is not enough.
The parking issue that they talked about goes back to a
1980s parking district that really never came to fruition;
those spots aren’t there, they don’t exist. They’re all
“phantom” parking places is what they were termed. The fact
is there’s not enough parking.
I’ve worked at that location since 1974, in the
very building that they’re looking at for 37 years, and now
we vacated that building when they felt it was worth a lot
more money. So now, after having been there working for 44
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
17
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
years, I know probably know better than anybody in this
room that there simply is not enough parking.
The spa is a busy place. Number 1 Broadway is a
busy place. The lot is full all day, probably 80-percent of
the days it’s completely full, but now they want to take
away parking and create need for more parking. I just don’t
see how it could possibly work. Our lot is neighboring
theirs; there is an invisible property line and no one is
going to respect that. We’re going to have no parking left
for our customers, and that’s our concern. That’s our
business, that’s our bread and butter and our livelihood.
As well as The Spa and Number 1 Broadway may not be
represented here tonight, but that should be a concern for
them as well.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Thank you. Maybe as a follow
up to that, if the business has a right to parking and has
a right to be there, have you considered any ways to
delineate, fence, or otherwise further establish your
parking versus the parking for that business?
KEN NELSON: Yes, I’ve spoken with my landlord.
There is absolutely no agreement in place that allows them
to parking in our parking spots. We can put a fence, and
she completely supports that. The bad thing for them is it
makes them almost a landlocked piece of property back
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
18
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
there. You can tell they did a very good job drawing it,
and you can see that it’s a very strange shaped piece of
property. If we did put up our fence they would lose an
additional two parking places in order to access theirs and
only have access off of Broadway, no longer any access off
of Santa Cruz Avenue.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Thank you. Other
commissioners? Commissioner Tavana.
COMMISSIONER TAVANA: Just a quick question. What
are your general hours of operations?
KEN NELSON: We’re open 8:00 to 6:00, seven days
a week.
COMMISSIONER TAVANA: 8:00 to 6:00, everyday,
seven days a week? Okay.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Okay, thank you.
KEN NELSON: Thank you.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: We have Matt Sridhar.
MATT SRIDHAR: Hi, I’m Matt Sridhar and I’m the
owner of the subject property. The subject property is
essentially 114, but it also includes the real estate that
is occupied by The Spa and by Number 1 Broadway.
I want to start very quickly by addressing, or at
least talking about, the parking issue. The real estate,
the way it is set up it’s very clear which parking spots
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
19
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
belong to the Rural Supply Building, which is not a part of
the real estate that we own. The rest of the parking spots
belong to the three tenants in the property that I own.
Those three tenants, again, are at Number 1 Broadway, this
particular subject property, and The Spa, and I believe
that the parking issues have been dealt with as far as this
application.
Also, I’d like to point out that in the parking
area there are very clear signs that are posted that demark
the difference between the Rural Supply and the 114 South
Santa Cruz parking, The Spa parking. Parking is limited all
over Los Gatos, but I do believe that this application has
complied with the parking.
That being said, a quick background. I live one
house away from Los Gatos, and much of my extended family
lives in Los Gatos. I’m one of the larger landowners in
Town. I fully vetted out this particular tenant, and I’m in
100-percent support of this application.
I’d also like the Planning Commission to know
that I’ve spent quite a bit of money on this property,
because I acquired this in 2014 and I just spent quite a
bit of money to bring utilities from Broadway to site. I’ve
spent several hundred thousand dollars upgrading the roof
and the subsystems of the property, and I have been sitting
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
20
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
vacant now since 2014. This is not an easy property to
lease; it does not lend itself to retail, and all of the
interest that we have received has been from service-
oriented businesses that tend to be a little intensive on
parking anyway, but these are the types of businesses that
come to us.
That being said, I’m in full support of this.
I’ve actually been to the bar. As far as Number 1 Broadway,
we own that bar and we don’t have any concerns about
parking issues. I’ve also been to the brewery that they
own, and it’s a family-oriented place with the dogs and
kids. I think this is something that we need, and I think
this kind of activity in Los Gatos is what we need.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Thank you. Are there any
questions? I had one, and that is that if Rural Supply were
to put in a fence, as they indicated—I don't know if they
have a right to or not, I’m just saying that based on their
representation, if they did—would this still be feasible if
in fact it had a loss of two parking spaces in order to
access?
MATT SRIDHAR: I would have to look at exactly
how that plays out, but when I purchased this property I
did an extensive legal analysis on it. I believe we have a
prescriptive easement to come across that land, and I don’t
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
21
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
think it’s as straightforward as putting a fence on it.
Also, if a fence were constructed it would need Town
approval, and I don’t think this is as straightforward as
somebody coming up and putting a fence; I don’t foresee
that as an issue at all.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Okay, thank you. Okay, next
speaker is Larry Lenhart.
LARRY LENHART: Hi, my name is Larry Lenhart; I
live on 30 Broadway, which is directly across the street
and which backs into Number 1 Broadway, but directly across
the street from the house that’s next to this property.
First, I want to highlight that we didn’t receive
any information about this. We heard about it last night
from an email from one of the neighbors that did get a
message. Many of us were out of town over the holidays; and
another two houses that are abutting this place are being
reconstructed right now, so they certainly weren’t reached
out to. We weren’t. I mean, sounds like nice guys, but we
had no idea about this until we saw it online just
yesterday.
One of the gentlemen did get it. His house abuts
right into the property. You can see his email, Andy’s
email, which is in your document, which he’s obviously
totally against this.
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
22
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
First, I want to highlight that this is the most
unusual thing I’ve seen for a restaurant or a bar in the
Town. We have bars that are on the street or close to Santa
Cruz. This is a bar that’s going to be 300 feet off of
Santa Cruz, directly into the residential community,
abutting houses, family properties, and a retirement
community.
Number two, to have outdoor entertainment next to
peoples’ houses till 11:00 o’clock, amplified music which
is asked for in the CUP, 50 people outdoors. Fifty people
outdoors, drinking, playing cornhole, is louder than
amplified music. This is going to be a very, very loud
process and is really going to mess up a lot of families,
in particular our family and the other families that are on
Broadway.
We have five restaurants within 300 yards of this
restaurant, of this bar. All five are all inside. The ones
that are outside face Santa Cruz and have a building behind
it, so that includes Willow Street, the burger place,
Number 1 Broadway, Cucina Bambini restaurant, and I’m
missing one. So this is highly unusual from that
perspective.
The CUP goes on; it will last forever. These guys
might be really nice people. What they’re asking, to create
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
23
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
a family kind of bar, really affects our families. I know
they don’t want to do that, but they’re going to affect
families in Los Gatos, and they’re from Los Gatos, so I
hate to see that happening for all of our families that are
on Broadway, and our kids that are out in the yard
listening to this stuff day in and day out at night.
I think the amplified music asked for just a
mistake, because we’ve gone through this within the Town
many, many times. Again, I appreciate what they’re trying
to do. It’s the wrong location, and it’s really against
families. It’s marked as against other zoning, but no, this
is directly against peoples’ houses, peoples’ fences, and
our life. Thank you.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Questions? Yes, Commissioner
Burch.
COMMISSIONER BIRCH: If we were to look within
the Conditions of Approval somewhat like we did the Toll
House—because I do remember that you were there, we reduced
the hours on the weekends outside, we definitely limited
any outdoor noise during the weekdays, we discussed the
kids doing homework and that you guys were in your back
yards—if we made sure that no amplified music could be
played, would those type of things bringing it more in line
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
24
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
with the way we dealt with the Toll House be something that
you’d be amenable to?
LARRY LENHART: I can’t speak on behalf of all
the neighbors on Broadway…
COMMISSIONER BIRCH: No, I’m asking just you.
LARRY LENHART: …and I’m happy to facilitate that
conversation, but I wouldn’t, because I’ve seen a bar
outdoors where people are outdoors. Cornhole is the best
game for pre-game football, and you can imagine how much
noise is made. That’s louder than amplified music, so I
don’t think that’s actually feasible in that context.
COMMISSIONER BIRCH: Okay, thank you.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: One question. The Applicant
had suggested that they might have hours similar to their
San Jose location. Again, if they were permitted to
operate, are there specific hours that would be less of a
problem for your family?
LARRY LENHART: For our family I can’t comment on
it. I think weekends that are associated with activities
that are currently underway within Los Gatos, in that
context, would make sense, whether it’s something related
to the Jazz in the Plazz, or whether it’s something related
to the Sunday Market, but 11:00 to 11:00 I think is way
overdone. And I do believe the ask was so big it makes me
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
25
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
realize that there were no conversations with the neighbors
asking for that, asking for amplified music, asking for
11:00 to 11:00, asking for 50 seats outside, that’s really
over the edge. It would be great if we’d had a conversation
and actually worked as neighbors, as these guys really have
highlighted they were trying to be. Thank you.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Thank you. Okay, that is the
last card, I believe. Is there anyone else who wanted to
speak on this? Yes.
MARIA RISTOW: Maria Ristow, 85 Broadway. I’m not
directly impacted by this project; I just had a couple of
thoughts when I was looking at it.
One is I did quickly look up the hours for Willow
Street, Blue Line, and Loma, and Willow Street closes at
9:00p.m. on Sunday through Tuesday. It closes at 9:30 on
Wednesday and Thursday, and it closes at 10:00p.m. on
Friday and Saturday. Loma Brewing Company closes at
10:00p.m. Monday through Thursday and 9:00 o’clock on
Sundays.
One of the things I would like to look at is
let’s be a little data-driven. Because the CUP runs with
the land I don’t think you say okay you get till 11:00p.m.
if you approve this, and they decide they’re going to close
early some days or not, because that can change at any
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
26
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
time. So just on the face of it, if you’re going to look at
the hours let’s look at what’s around there at the other
family-friendly restaurants, and let’s look at those hours.
Second of all, I went back there. It is such a
bizarre location. Now, it’s not our job to pick a place
that this business will succeed or not succeed at, but it’s
almost like a speakeasy. You cannot see it from the
sidewalks, it’s in the back of a parking lot, it used to be
the storage warehouse for Rural Supply, which made sense,
and when it switched over to retail it seemed bizarre to
me, and obviously it stayed empty, but to put a drinking
establishment in the back of the parking lot, hopefully
everybody will walk there, because all I hear about on
transportation and parking, and as a downtown resident, is
how there isn’t enough parking for The Spa and there isn’t
enough parking at this end of town.
I know that people with those businesses down
there are always asking for novel parking solutions. Can
they get permits to park on Broadway? Can we create other
lots? I know that you cannot approve the number of seats
based on parking, and that’s probably a good thing, people
will figure it out, but it is an issue and I don't know how
it’s going to resolve itself.
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
27
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
I do feel for the residents that are immediately
adjacent to this; Andy Law wrote one letter. There’s also a
rental complex that is immediately on the corner, and it’s
up against them. I’m not sure who was notified in that
case, but it was the owner of the building, but the owner
of the building doesn’t live there. I don't know if any of
the residents who live there had a chance to find out
what’s happening or if they feel like their opinion
matters, but this is buried right against them.
If there is outside activity there is not a wall
around it like there is at the Toll House. When my
neighbors at that end of the street had issues with the
Toll House and all these steps had to be taken to monitor
the noise, they realized that that was in a courtyard that
had a wall around it, and this is open. These are just my
thoughts.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Thank you very much.
Questions? Yes, Commissioner Badame.
COMMISSIONER BADAME: In doing the research with
the hours of the surrounding family-type restaurants, and
granted Toll House has a wall around it, did you have an
opportunity to look at the hours at the Toll House with
their restaurant/bar?
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
28
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
MARIA RISTOW: I did not. I was just pulling them
up as I was sitting here, so I didn’t get that far. I
looked up the Toll House, however I could not remember the
name of the restaurant.
COMMISSIONER BADAME: Verge, I think it is.
MARIA RISTOW: So I image Staff can pull that up.
COMMISSIONER BADAME: Okay, thanks so much.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Thank you. I don’t see anyone
else on this, so we will at this point give the Applicant
five minutes to comment on really anything you’d like.
BRIAN EDWARDS: Well, thank you for expressing
your concerns. It is important to us to be a member of the
community and to make sure that everyone is happy and okay
with what we’re doing. We’re certainly not trying to
disrupt the neighborhood. As I mentioned, we’re both family
men, we have young children, and so we can empathize with
that.
As I mentioned, we are amenable to working with
our hours, if it’s being closer to the other restaurants,
if it’s making sure that we’re in compliance with the Noise
Ordinance, whatever it is, we have no problem changing
those hours. Eleven to eleven was just what we put out
there so that we didn’t pigeonhole ourselves into something
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
29
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
at a later date, but if that’s what it’s going to take,
we’re happy to do that; that’s what we have in San Jose.
As far as the parking and putting a fence up, I
believe eliminating two parking spaces would put us out of
compliance with the parking calculations, and then closing
off the parking lot from South Santa Cruz I don’t think is
an option, because the exit going onto Broadway is one way
per fire code.
As it relates to those parking spaces, it was
mentioned that the spaces in the parking lot are very
clearly marked with signage. There are signed spaces for
Rural Supply Hardware as well as for the tenants of Matt’s
property.
As far as noise, I’m not exactly sure what
amplified music means, if that’s like a band playing using
amps. Maybe you can tell me what the actual definition of
amplified music is.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: We can ask Staff when you’re
done.
BRIAN EDWARDS: Yeah, that would be great. Like I
said, we’re don’t have any plans to do live music other
than a guy with a guitar singing; I don’t think that he
would need an amp for that. We do have a patio at our
current location and we have speakers that we do play
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
30
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
music. I know with the Toll House there were some monitors
to monitor the noise levels. We’d be keeping it as a
reasonable level.
I think that’s it as far as I was able to jot
down.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Okay, thank you. Commissioner
Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Because you’re so close to
your neighborhood I thought in reading some reviews—I
looked at Yelp and Nextdoor and stuff like that—that there
might be people close to your Willow Glen location, so
could you comment on how close you are to residences in
your current location, and if you are, how you’ve been able
to work things out with the neighbors? Because presumably
they already have the same issues as our residents.
BRIAN EDWARDS: Sure, and real quick, as it
relates to the gentleman who wasn’t notified, we did pass
out these little postcards, I mentioned that, and if you
were out of town maybe it just got lost somewhere along the
way.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: You can just address your
comments to us, please.
BRIAN EDWARDS: Oh, sorry.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: No problem.
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
31
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
BRIAN EDWARDS: We did pass out those notecards,
and if someone didn’t get one, something must have happened
to it.
Our current neighbors, we are literally across
the street from several large apartment complexes. Then our
cross street is Auzerais, and there is a condo complex as
well as a park down Auzerais. We haven’t had any complaints
from the neighbors; in fact a lot of them are some of our
regular customers.
Granted, these are large kind of not high-rise
buildings, but maybe five-story apartment complexes, and
some of them are brand new. When we opened they were just
empty lots, and now they’re apartment complexes, so
obviously we were there before they could object. But I
even lived at one of these apartment complexes, it’s called
Elements, it’s directly across the street; I would walk to
work every day. But we haven’t had any complaints from any
of our neighbors; in fact I believe one of the newer
complexes wrote a letter of support.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: If I could ask one more
question. On the parking issue, since you’re a drinking
establishment, and Willow Glen has parking challenges as
well, what do you do at your current location to help
manage parking and not having people drink and drive?
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
32
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
BRIAN EDWARDS: I mentioned our bartenders are
trained to identify that as far as drinking and driving and
not over-serving people. We don’t do anything in particular
to encourage people to use public transportation or
rideshares or whatever it is. Obviously it would be nice if
anyone did that if they’re going to a place to drink, but
we also aren’t a place that people go to get drunk; we’re
not a bar in that sense. We only serve the beer that we
make, and these are craft beers, these probably aren’t
beers that anyone could drink. You know, you’re not going
to slam ten IPAs, and that’s not our vibe, that’s not what
we’re about. We’re a place to come, sit down, have a casual
beer, chat with friends, and in Los Gatos have a bite to
eat, bring the kids. It’s not that raucous, rowdy bar scene
that we’re going for.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Thank you.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Other commissioners? Yes,
Commissioner Burch.
COMMISSIONER BIRCH: As I was listening to
different people speak I came up with a few items to see,
and depending on where this went. You said that you’re good
with the hours changed to either match Willow Glen or other
local family businesses. Live music would be acoustic only,
and you’re all right if the hours of that are limited to
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
33
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
match other like… Sorry, just forgot the name of the
restaurant, but at the Toll House.
COMMISSIONER BADAME: Verge.
COMMISSIONER BIRCH: Thank you. Verge. One of the
things I made a note of is you mentioned outdoor speakers.
I would say no outdoor speakers if you abut right to a
family’s home. I know if I lived there I wouldn’t want to
have your choice of music in my back yard.
I was wondering also if you could answer the
question of how many people do you think would be on that
patio? I heard a number that didn’t seem right when I
looked, but I want to double check.
BRIAN EDWARDS: It’s hard to say how many people.
We have a patio at our current location that’s roughly the
same size, I believe, roughly a thousand square feet, and
we only have five tables out there, each table can fit six
people, so 30. And we have cornhole boards, so if four
people are playing corn hole, two on each team, 34-ish.
This is our architect. He gave me the actual numbers. Per
code, 49 would be the max allowable.
COMMISSIONER BIRCH: I’m going to ask Staff a
question when it’s time, but if we limited the number of
people on the patio, would you be agreeable with that?
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
34
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
BRIAN EDWARDS: I guess it would depend on how
many people.
COMMISSIONER BIRCH: All right, thanks.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Commissioner Janoff.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Thank you. How large is
your Willow Glen shop compared to the indoor square footage
of the proposed location? For specifically your customers,
not the ancillary.
BRIAN EDWARDS: Right, the production? Pretty
similar. It’s probably a little bit bigger inside. I think
it’s maybe almost 900 square feet inside. We were limited
by our Conditional Use Permit at that property as well, so
I’d say 900 square feet inside conservatively, and then
about 1,000 outside.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: And so roughly how many
persons are you expecting to be served comparably?
BRIAN EDWARDS: How many people in Los Gatos are
we expecting?
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Yeah.
BRIAN EDWARDS: Again, it’s hard to know. As a
business owner hopefully we are successful there, but per
the Building Code the numbers I have are 39 inside and 49
outside.
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
35
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: I don’t want to put words
in your mouth, but it sounds like you’re really counting on
that outdoor space to maximize the viability of your
business.
BRIAN EDWARDS: Yes, I don’t know if we move
forward without the outside space.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Okay, thank you.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: If I may, I have two
questions, one about the parking. If Rural Supply were able
to build that fence, which we don’t know, but if they were,
would that limit the viability of this business?
BRIAN EDWARDS: I think so.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: So losing two spaces and the
access…
BRIAN EDWARDS: Yeah.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: …would sort of be the end of
it?
BRIAN EDWARDS: It would make it harder to
justify for sure, yeah.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Right. The other question I
had really relates to some differences in this business
than what I understand the Willow Glen business is in that
this is close to a single-family residential neighborhood
of relatively small homes and homes that are on small lots,
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
36
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
many single-story homes, and some beautiful homes I have to
say as well, so the character is a bit different. So my
question is do you have a specific plan to control the
noise and the use of alcohol on the patio? Have you
developed a plan for your wait staff or others to deal with
the consumption of alcohol on the patio?
BRIAN EDWARDS: Not specific to the patio, but in
general our staff is trained to deal with customers and
identify those who need to take a break, and that obviously
would continue in Los Gatos if we are approved.
As it relates to controlling noise, we don’t have
a specific plan in place other than to abide by at least my
understanding of the Noise Ordinance.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Okay, thank you. I don’t see
any other questions, so thank you. We will now close the
public portion of the public hearing and invite any
comments, questions for Staff, or a motion from the
commissioners. Commissioner Badame.
COMMISSIONER BADAME: I’ll just add my comments.
When I look at Exhibit 2 and we need to make findings, so
when I look at findings for a Conditional Use Permit based
upon what’s given us, and there are four items.
I can’t make the finding to deny the CUP, but
what it does say is that we can place conditions that would
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
37
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
address any potential impacts, including the proposed hours
of operation and delivery times. So as the Commission goes
forward with its discussion I would like to hear added
conditions in addition to what Commissioner Burch had
already come up with to tighten this up and make it work,
not only for the Applicant but for the neighbors as well.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I didn’t say this earlier,
but as I was doing research for the benefit of our fellow
commissioners, these guys have excellent reviews by all of
their customers. I mean there are five-star reviews from
their customers, it being a great place to go, being very
family-friendly, they allow dogs on their patio and all
that stuff, so I was almost surprised, just because of the
scope of it, that it would be that family-oriented, but
they do have five-star reviews, especially given the
difficulties of leasing this place as heard by the
landlord. I think this is something that could be viable,
but it would have to have the right terms and conditions.
Before I even came here I did that research on
the hours of other like places, and I had looked at Willow
Street for one. Another place that I thought of that I
recently went to with my friends was Rootstalk, which is a
wine bar with limited food service, and they’re right up on
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
38
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Santa Cruz. They’re not in that exact area of Santa Cruz,
but their hours are more like 3:00 to 9:00 Monday Tuesday
and Wednesday, till 11:00 on Thursday, till midnight on
Friday, but they’re not open in the morning, they’re open
in the afternoon and it’s very limited in the weekdays. And
these guys, their Willow Glen location is 4:00 to 9:00
weekly, and like 12:00 to 7:00 on Sunday.
So I’d feel okay with coming up with the right
conditions. I definitely would think about the hours. As
far as the noise goes, there is the Noise Ordinance that we
can rely on, and I would be interested in hearing what
other my other fellow commissioners think as far as other
conditions.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Let me make a comment. I think
there is a fairly wide gap between what we’re looking at in
the CUP and what will work for the neighborhood, and while
I really understand and appreciate the way the Applicants
manage their current business, what we’re doing is granting
a Conditional Use Permit that runs with the land, so if the
Applicant were no longer in business those terms and
conditions would be available to someone else who applied,
and they may not have that.
The concern is that this is very sensitive to a
neighborhood that has been—and again I’m a little surprised
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
39
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
that there wasn’t more neighborhood engagement—very active
over issues with several businesses, as Ms. Ristow and
others pointed out, so I would actually think that there’s
a fair amount of input now in term of hours that has been
collected, and I would be a little uncomfortable in just
trying to do it on the fly.
I would be more comfortable with a continuance,
perhaps with providing that data to Staff and have Staff
work on really trying to find the restrictions that exist
already adjacent to there and replicate that rather than
this kind of thing, although I do think the input on the
numbers of people on the patio is unique, and so I would be
more comfortable with us providing that guidance to Staff
rather than trying to craft the CUP at this point. Just my
opinion. Commissioner Janoff.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Would you be amenable in
that continuance with requiring the Applicant convene a
neighborhood meeting, specifically with the Broadway
neighbors, not the commercial businesses, in order to gain
neighbors’ specific input as to hours and operation?
VICE CHAIR HUDES: I would. I could make a motion
at this point.
JOEL PAULSON: Staff has some input before you go
down that path.
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
40
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Oh, please, yes.
JOEL PAULSON: We do actually have some
information on some of the other restaurants in the area. I
think the big distinction is the hours of operations that
were listed of when they’re actually open versus what their
CUP allows are completely different. All of those CUPs
allow later hours.
For instance, Willow Street is allowed 11:00a.m.
to 10:00p.m. Sunday through Thursday, from 11:00a.m. to
11:00p.m. Friday and Saturday. Loma is allowed 11:30a.m. to
11:00p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11:30a.m. to 1:00a.m.
on Friday and Saturday. Rootstalk is allowed 10:00a.m. to
11:30p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 10:00a.m. to
1:00a.m. Friday and Saturday.
So their CUP allows them far greater hours than
they actually operate, and ultimately that’s a business
decision that the applicants make, and they’ll have that
opportunity. I think what you see with not just this
application but a lot of applications is they want to make
sure they build in the flexibility, because it’s another
$8,000 to come back and modify if they want to add 30
minutes or an hour.
The Planning Commission here is making a
recommendation, so a continuance I’m not sure is
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
41
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
necessarily in order. We do noticing within 300’ of all
property owners and tenants. We hear the story that we
haven’t heard about this till the week before, the day
before, for a number of applications, but I think we need
to understand that we have an opportunity here, because
this has other step, this has to go to the Council, so the
Planning Commission can make recommendations on any
conditions they think are appropriate, or offer comments if
you don’t think it’s appropriate, and that direction,
again, moves forward to the Council, and we will be re-
noticing the neighbors.
Obviously the Applicants would have an additional
opportunity to do additional outreach to the neighbors to
try to get additional input. We did receive input from a
number of neighbors who were contacted. Holidays are always
tough, we can’t always plan the timing, so that makes it
difficult, but I would just offer those comments before we
get into the minutia.
I think a lot of the other comments around Toll
House and outdoor entertainment; the Town Council just
passed an Outdoor Entertainment Policy that allows by right
outdoor entertainment for anybody in Town up until
10:00p.m. So if we start restricting it even further, we
have a number of businesses that are next to single-family
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
42
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
residential neighborhoods. Again, the Commission can make
that part of a recommendation to the Town Council, and then
when it gets to the Council they’ll have to decide if this
is more unique than other businesses in there.
So I just offer that for input before you guys
come to a conclusion.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Maybe I could follow up on
that.
JOEL PAULSON: Yeah.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: And I appreciate that there’s
a difference between the CUP hours and the business hours,
etc., but we had a lot of controversy specifically over
Toll House. So where did we end up? Did we control those
hours in the CUP, and what are the hours that we arrived
at?
JOEL PAULSON: Toll House outdoor food is
7:00a.m. to 10:00p.m. in their CUP.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: And entertainment, patio?
JOEL PAULSON: That I don’t have for outdoor
entertainment in the patio area.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: And was there a restriction on
amplified music there?
JOEL PAULSON: I don’t have that one in front of
me; we’d have to pull that up.
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
43
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
VICE CHAIR HUDES: The reason I raise that is
because to me that is more analogous than some of the other
businesses that you mentioned. First of all, some of those
are farther away from residential. Secondly, this
neighborhood has already interacted on this topic quite a
bit, and while this stands alone it also is cumulative in
some sense.
JOEL PAULSON: Absolutely, and I think Economic
Vitality Manager Renn may have some additional input on
Toll House. Otherwise, we can look up that information as
well.
MONICA RENN: The Toll House is allowed to have
unamplified entertainment outside, music or whatever they
want, up until 10:00p.m. as long as they’re following the
Noise Ordinance. The question that was brought to you and
to the Council regarding the Toll House was actually
regarding amplified, so all of the restrictions that were
put into place for the Toll House were specifically around
amplified sound, and there were restrictions on the days
and time.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: If I may follow up. Is there a
definition of “amplified,” and I think there was a question
by the Applicant on that.
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
44
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
MONICA WREN: If it’s plugged into an
amplification system, so a microphone, speaker, but
acoustic is not considered amplified.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Thank you. Other questions of
Staff? Yes, Commissioner Burch.
COMMISSIONER BIRCH: I would be willing to make a
motion, but before I do, just in case I get a lot of
backlash, my thought is not to continue, that we make a
motion and we make recommendations to put into the
Conditions of Approval, and we allow this to move on to the
next step. My thoughts being not only some of the things
we’ve already talked about, but including that we would
hope they would do some neighborhood residential outreach
prior to the meeting. I’m sure many of the neighbors will
attend that meeting anyway, so it would behoove you to do
that. Do you guys want me to make a motion?
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: I do want you to make a
motion, but just a point of clarification. When we say
residential outreach, what we’ve seen in the past that has
been effective is when there’s a physical meeting and not
just a postcard that goes out that could get lost between
the pages of your 100 pages of junk mail, so a specifically
active notice. We’re meeting, we’ll be here, and we want
you to attend. It might even be at one of the residents’
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
45
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
homes. But have a physical meeting so you can come to the
same page, and then assuming we move this on your
application in the next step will be more specific and will
have the endorsement of your neighbors.
COMMISSIONER BIRCH: All right, I’ll make a
motion. I am going to recommend we forward Conditional Use
Permit Application U-18-020, located at 114 South Santa
Cruz Avenue, to the Town Council with the recommendation of
approval. I can find that the project is categorically
exempt and pursuant to the adopted guidelines for the
implementation of California… And I can find the
requirements by Section 29.20.190 of the Town for granting
a CUP.
I would like to also add in some recommendations
for the Conditions of Approval, please. I’m not going to
touch on the hours thing yet just simply based on what Mr.
Paulson said. It was a note that I had made to myself
earlier anyway, so I feel that often gets addressed just
based on people knowing what they can and can’t do.
So I’m going to make the note that music is
acoustic only. No TVs located on the patio. No speakers
located on the patio. And then I believe the recommendation
that you please reach out to your residential neighbors
before the next meeting. Did I miss anything?
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
46
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: You had talked earlier
about the possibility of limiting the number of people
beyond the fire code. I don't know if you want to put that
in there or not, but that was one that you had mentioned
earlier.
COMMISSIONER BIRCH: I don’t think I want to make
that. I think what I would instead ask is that Staff note
to Council that that was a discussion point, the number of
and the noise created by people on the patio, and see if
the Council would want to make a recommendation of the
number of people on the patio.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Commissioner Badame.
COMMISSIONER BADAME: I’ll second the motion.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Okay. Comments? Commissioner
Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I just had a question. As
far as our comments about the actual hours of operation
versus what’s in the CUP, and the fire code versus the
actual number of people in the place, although they’re not
part of our recommendation, a complete record of the
discussion will be forwarded to Town Council?
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/9/2019
Item #4, 114 S. Santa Cruz Avenue
47
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
JOEL PAULSON: Staff sends the verbatim minutes
to the Town Council, so they’ll have that opportunity, and
many times they also watch the video as well.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Okay.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Commissioner Janoff.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Just one last comment is
that the location of this facility, tucked back more into
the neighborhood than front facing on the street, makes
this a particularly delicate issue with regard to the
neighborhood, we’ve already talked about that, so in
consideration of the next hearing body I think that’s a
very unique feature that should be considered at length.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Okay, thank you. Maybe I would
add just one more comment. I will be supporting the motion,
but I did think it would be helpful to have a little more
clarity on the parking issue and whether in fact this fence
would disrupt things, so I would suggest that maybe when
you come back to the next body that you have a little more
clarity on how you’re going to restrict your folks from
parking there, and if there were a restriction such as a
fence would you still be moving forward with this? So I
would expect a little more clarity on that subject.
So I’m going to call the question. In favor? None
opposed. Passed unanimously. Thank you.
This Page
Intentionally
Left Blank