Attachment 2LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 1/23/2019
Item #4, Town Code Amendment – Shared Parking
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A P P E A R A N C E S:
Los Gatos Planning
Commissioners:
Matthew Hudes, Chair
Melanie Hanssen, Vice Chair
Mary Badame
Kendra Burch
Kathryn Janoff
Tom O'Donnell
Reza Tavana
Town Manager:Laurel Prevetti
Community Development
Director:
Joel Paulson
Town Attorney:Robert Schultz
Transcribed by: Vicki L. Blandin
(619) 541-3405
ATTACHMENT 2
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P R O C E E D I N G S:
CHAIR HUDES: We will now move on to Item 4. Item
4 is a Town Code Amendment, Shared Parking, Town Code
Amendment Application A-18-002, and this is to consider
amendments to Chapter 29 of the Zoning Regulations of the
Town Code regarding shared parking. The location is Town
wide, and the owner is Town of Los Gatos. The project
planners are Erin Walters and Azhar Khan.
I understand, Mr. Kahn, you’ll be making the
report tonight, which is I believe also the period of
presentation on behalf of the Applicant.
AZHAR KHAN: That is correct. Good evening,
Commissioners. Before you tonight is a consideration of
amendments to Chapter 29 of the Town Code regarding shared
parking.
In February of last year the Town Council Policy
Committee considered an initiative to streamline the
application process for Town businesses. One of the topics
discussed was shared parking. Under the current ordinance a
Conditional Use Permit is required for businesses
interested in sharing parking spaces.
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The intent of the proposed amendments is to
streamline the review process by no longer requiring a CUP
and to make it affordable for businesses interested in
shared parking.
The amendments would include replace the term
“alternate uses” with “shared parking,” and also allow the
Community Development Director to approve shared parking
through an administrative parking permit, also reviewed at
Staff level. Lastly, remove the Conditional Use Permit
requirement for alternate uses from the Table of
Conditional Uses.
Staff has met with the Chamber of Commerce to
review the proposed amendments and has not received any
further public comments.
Staff recommends the Planning Commission review
the proposed amendments and forward the recommendation to
Town Council for approval. This concludes Staff’s
presentation and we’re happy to answer any questions.
CHAIR HUDES: Thank you, Mr. Khan. Are there
questions? Yes, Vice Chair Hanssen.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: I really just had one
question for informational purposes. If you could give an
example of a current business with a CUP that’s using
shared parking. I’m certain this is beneficial to them, but
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it would just be helpful to understand how it’s being used
today with CUPs.
AZHAR KHAN: The Town currently has about 12
Conditional Use premises that have been processed
previously for alternate uses. A few examples are Cucina
Bambini located at 22 South Santa Cruz, and 630 University
Avenue where shared parking was between an automotive use
and a dance studio where between the hours of when the
automotive use is closed at 5:00p.m. the dance studio is
able to utilize the parking spaces when that business is
closed.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: Okay, that’s helpful. Thank
you.
CHAIR HUDES: Other questions? I had a question.
My understanding is we’re shifting from a CUP, which costs
$7,100, to a permit which costs $1,000 as is approved at
the Director of Community Development level, correct?
AZHAR KHAN: Yes, that’s the intent, to go from
the CUP process to a more administrative level of review.
CHAIR HUDES: So the question I had is a CUP is
something that stays, so it happens once, the fee is paid
for that, and then subsequent business owners or people who
have an interest in that parking space don’t have to
reapply?
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AZHAR KHAN: The CUP process would be separate.
This is detaching from the CUP process to go for a more
administrative level review.
JOEL PAULSON: Just additionally, if businesses
do change—obviously we review all the business licenses—we
would have to evaluate if there were similar conditions
from an hours of operation perspective to determine whether
or not the parking permit would move on to the next owners
or whether it would have to be modified.
CHAIR HUDES: Okay, so it’s not automatic that
the next owner has to reapply for a permit?
JOEL PAULSON: That’s correct.
ROBERT SCHULTZ: Correct. It does not run with
the land like a CUP does; it’s actually a shared parking
agreement that will be executed by the Community
Development agreement and the business, but once that
business goes out… It certainly would be assigned if it’s,
like you said, the same circumstances and of course he’s
going to grant it again, but if it’s not the same
circumstances, then it would end.
CHAIR HUDES: Right. I just wanted to make sure
when we went to streamline we weren’t creating a repeated
process, so that makes sense.
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Other questions? Okay, I’m going to open it to
the public now. If the members of the public have any
comments or questions, you have the ability to do that.
Don’t see any cards, so I will close that portion of the
public hearing, and again if there are any questions of
Staff, or comments on the application, or a motion for
consideration by the Commission. This would be an
opportunity if Staff would like to say anything additional
about it as well. Commissioner Badame.
COMMISSIONER BADAME: If we remove the CUP
process, and the goal is to make it more streamlined, it
seems to me that we’re going to eliminate any potential
public scrutiny, whereas with a CUP they have the
opportunity to come before the Planning Commission and
object if there is something that they might object to that
might affect the neighborhood or another business, and it
seems to me that other nearby businesses wouldn’t be
informed and know what’s going on, as well. It also seems
to me that maybe the shared parking agreement can be
between just one landlord between two different
occupancies, is that correct?
JOEL PAULSON: That’s correct.
COMMISSIONER BADAME: Thank you.
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CHAIR HUDES: Did you have another question for
Staff about that with regard to the first part of what you…
COMMISSIONER BADAME: I’m just wondering how they
would regulate it. It seems to me it would put a lot of
workload on the Community Development Director. I don't
know how we would regulate things.
ROBERT SCHULTZ: It’s part of the streamlining
process that Council has provided direction to Staff to try
to pursue, and this is one of them going to Policy
Committee.
Certainly the Community Development Director, if
one of these were deemed controversial and we thought there
would be a lot of public input, he still has that ability
at any point in time to kick that back up to the Planning
Commission, which he can sometimes do with other projects
if he feels there’s something that there could be issues.
And it’s still an appealable decision, too, from
the Community Development standpoint if they were to grant
one of these; there still would be an appeal process that
would allow it to be kicked up to Planning Commission. So
you still have some, not as much, because obviously you
don’t have the noticing requirements, but I think there are
mechanisms that will protect that, and if it isn’t working
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and it’s too much burden on the Community Development
Director, I’m sure you’ll hear from him.
COMMISSIONER BADAME: Okay. Well, thank you for
the clarification.
CHAIR HUDES: Thank you. Commissioner Janoff.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: If there is an appeal
granted, is there a cost to the Appellant to bring it to
the Planning Commission.
JOEL PAULSON: Is there a cost?
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Yeah.
JOEL PAULSON: Yes, there’s always an appeal fee
for any appealable action, whether it’s to the Council or
the Planning Commission.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: So that cost could be
prohibitive if it’s a residential neighbor or just…
JOEL PAULSON: That’s relative, but yes.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: I mean to Commissioner
Badame’s concern, there would be a costly process for an
appeal to be had.
JOEL PAULSON: That is possible and relative. I
think the commercial appeal is in the neighborhood of
$1,300 or $1,400, so that is something that would have to
be borne by them. We’re still working through when we’ll
have further conversations with the Town Attorney on the
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processing. We’re proposing currently ministerial, which
was coming from the direction of the Policy Committee, but
we may look at other options.
Additionally to Commissioner Badame’s point, we
review complaints, or someone is operating outside of the
parameters, or we are finding that it doesn’t work and we
are constantly getting complaints, then I always have the
ability to reevaluate the conditions of that permit and
modify them accordingly.
ROBERT SCHULTZ: And unlike a CUP that runs with
the land, it’s an agreement that will have a unilateral
termination, so if in fact it was granted by the Community
Development Director and there was this outcry and it
wasn’t working, then the Town could just revoke that shared
parking agreement, so I think there are mechanisms that
would protect the Town going forward.
CHAIR HUDES: Vice Chair Hanssen.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: I thought of another
question. This is only going to apply to parking spaces
that are actually assigned to the business, not spaces in
the Parking Assessment District, right?
JOEL PAULSON: That’s correct.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: Okay, because I could see
that being a real problem.
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CHAIR HUDES: Commissioner Janoff.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Just to follow on. As part
of the process of presenting the changes to the community,
will there also be communication regarding what the appeal
process that might be an intermediate step before it
becomes formal to the Planning Commission might look like?
JOEL PAULSON: We’ll definitely evaluate that,
and then we’ll also bring that question up to Council as
this moves forward in the process.
CHAIR HUDES: Any further questions or comments,
or would someone like to introduce a motion? Commissioner
Badame.
COMMISSIONER BADAME: I just have one other
question regarding the regulation. How do you regulate what
vehicles are approved to park from one business to another
that they’re really coming in from the business that has
the shared parking agreement? How would one regulate that?
Is that just a business owner maybe…
JOEL PAULSON: It would be a business owner or
property owner if they notice someone parking in an area
where they shouldn’t be and they question that. Then they
would have the ability to handle that and they could bring
it up to Staff, but we won’t be policing that and checking
where this person is going like we do with some current
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businesses in Town. A couple of the banks have actual
guards that try to limit folks who are not frequenting
those businesses from parking in their lots.
COMMISSIONER BADAME: Thank you.
CHAIR HUDES: Commissioner O'Donnell.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: If everybody is through
with their questions, I think I’ll make a motion. I’ll make
a motion that we recommend to Council the approval of the
Draft Ordinance and the Table of Conditional Uses, and take
the following actions.
I guess they should make the finding as opposed
to us, but they would make the finding that there is no
possibility the project will have a significant impact on
the environment, therefore the project is not subject to
CEQA, citing Section 15061, more specified in Exhibit 1;
they should make the required finding that the amendments
to the Town Code and the Zoning Regulations regarding
shared parking are consistent with the General Plan, see
also Exhibit 1; and we forward this recommendation to Town
Council for approval of the proposed amendments to Chapter
29 of the Town Code regarding shared parking.
CHAIR HUDES: Thank you. Commissioner Janoff.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Second.
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CHAIR HUDES: Okay, thank you. Any further
discussion? Okay, I’ll call the question. In favor? Passes
unanimously. I believe there are no appeal rights because
this is a recommend, correct?
JOEL PAULSON: That’s correct.