Attachment 03LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 8/10/2016
Item #3, 401 to 409 Alberto Way
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A P P E A R A N C E S:
Los Gatos Planning
Commissioners:
D. Michael Kane, Vice Chair
Kendra Burch
Charles Erekson
Melanie Hanssen
Matthew Hudes
Town Manager: Laurel Prevetti
Community Development
Director:
Joel Paulson
Town Attorney: Robert Schultz
Transcribed by: Vicki L. Blandin
(510) 337-1558
ATTACHMENT 3
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P R O C E E D I N G S:
CHAIR BADAME: I am recusing myself from Item 3,
Alberto Way, as the project site is within 500’ of my
residence, and I will return for Items 4, 5, and the
adjournment. Vice Chair Kane will be presiding over the
hearing and we will call him back. Actually, I see him
coming right now. He will take good care of you all.
VICE CHAIR KANE: This is Item 3 on tonight’s
agenda, Architecture and Site Application S-15-056,
Conditional Use Permit Application U-15-009, and
Environmental Impact Report EIR-16-001. It’s 401 to 409
Alberto Way, located on the northwest corner of the
intersection of Alberto Way and Los Gatos-Saratoga Road.
The application requests approval to demolish
three existing office buildings and construct two new two-
story office buildings with underground parking on property
zoned CH. It is APN 529-23-018.
Have all the Commissioners had an opportunity to
visit the site? Do we have any disclaimers? Commissioner
Hudes.
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COMMISSIONER HUDES: I had incidental
conversation with someone who appeared to be in management
of Alberto Way last week.
VICE CHAIR KANE: And I had conversation with
someone who appeared to be in management of Alberto Way. I
also had incidental contact with two of the residents.
Anyone else?
Ms. Armer, I understand you’ll be providing the
Staff Report this evening?
JENNIFER ARMER: Yes, I will. Good evening, Vice
Chair and Commissioners.
This project in front of you today is the
proposal by Shane Arters of LP Acquisitions to build two
new office buildings at the corner of Alberto Way and Los
Gatos-Saratoga Road. The project site is surrounded on
three sides by these two roadways and the Caltrans right-
of-way for Highway 17.
The proposed office buildings will both be two
stories and 35’ in height and will include a shared two-
level underground garage. The three existing office
buildings are all two stories that vary in height with a
third level of office building below grade. Parking
currently is provided on a surface parking lot that is
accessed by three driveways off of Alberto Way. The
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proposed project would have two driveways off of Alberto
Way.
The project is going through three phases of
review. The first phase is Staff review, looking at the
technical details of what is proposed and compliance with
the Town regulations; the second is the environmental
review; and the third is the public review and public
hearing, which we are working through tonight.
The first phase, Staff review of the project,
included a number of items, but the main issues that were
looked at by Planning Staff had to do with zoning
compliance, and we did find that it does comply with the
zoning regulations.
There are two towers located one over each of the
entries for the two buildings, and those would exceed the
35’ height limit, but it is an exception that is listed in
the code as something that can be requested for non-
habitable space, and those are proposed at 39’ in height.
The design and compatibility of the project was
reviewed. The consulting architect was deeply involved in
providing comments and providing suggestions for changes to
try to work with the original design and bring it more into
compatibility with the neighborhood, and as you saw in his
second report he does find that the architectural style and
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the modifications were implemented so that it is
compatible.
The third element of our review included the
parking and traffic. A consultant hired by the Applicant
provided a traffic report, but it was reviewed by Town
Staff and our consultant and then incorporated into the
environmental review. The parking provided does meet the
Town’s requirements; it in fact exceeds it. The traffic
study of the proposed use through the environmental review
is considered to be a less than significant impact.
After Staff’s initial review to make sure that
this was a project that didn’t have any major conflicts
with the Town Code was the environmental review. The
Applicant chose to move forward with a full Environmental
Impact Report rather than Initial Study and Mitigated
Negative Declaration, which involves analysis covering all
topics in more depth than a Mitigated Negative Declaration
would, but this document did find that all potential
impacts according to California Environmental Quality Act
could be mitigated to a less than significant level. The
mitigation that is included in the Draft EIR that was
provided to you previously are mitigation on air quality,
biological resources, cultural resources, hazards, and
transportation and traffic.
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The public comments provided for the EIR and
responded to in the Response to Comments and Final EIR were
predominantly concerns about the project itself rather than
specific concerns about the analysis in the Environmental
Impact Report, so those comments are available for you to
view in your deliberations this evening, and the specific
areas in the EIR that address the topics that were brought
up are referenced in the Response to Comments.
The third phase of the review process is the
public comment phase, and as you will hear tonight there
are many concerns, particularly from the residents of
Alberto Way. In the written comments that you received
there were a mixture of support and concerns about the
project with a strong leaning towards concerns,
particularly, as I said, from those who live in the area.
There were a number of different items brought up
by those comments, but the items that were most frequently
heard were concerns about the traffic and parking;
particularly additional congestion on Alberto Way and at
that intersection; access to the other properties on the
end of Alberto Way; and safety for pedestrians and
bicyclists. The traffic and parking is one of the main
categories of concern.
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Another main concern would be the height and mass
of the proposed building. As you have seen with the story
poles you can see that one of the buildings is quite close
to Alberto Way, the other is set back substantially but is
also in proximity to the residential property that is
immediately adjacent. The Applicant has revised their
design to step back that façade slightly to have a second
floor patio balcony area and have a one-story element just
slightly along the residential property line, and so the
location that you do have the whole two-story wall that’s
visible from the public right-of-way is closest to that
urban arterial.
The third main category that we heard in the
comments is concern about construction impacts: emergency
access, air quality, and noise. These items are reviewed in
the EIR, and there will be a construction management plan
that will be developed as part of the building permit plan
if a project does move forward to make sure that these
items are addressed.
Staff recommends that the Planning Commission
hear tonight’s public comments, review the findings and
considerations in Exhibits 3 and 4, and consider approving
the project with the proposed Conditions of Approval in
Exhibit 5. If the Commission chooses to continue the item
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Staff asks for specific direction to the Applicant for
modifications to the project so that Staff can ensure that
the Applicant returns with a proposal that addresses the
Commission’s concerns.
This concludes Staff’s presentation, but I’d be
happy to answer any questions.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you, Ms. Armer.
Questions? Commissioner Burch.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Thank you for the Staff
presentation. While we have the benefit of all this
paperwork, I know many people don’t. One of the items that
has come up a number of times has been traffic. Were there
any traffic mitigating efforts that were going to be done
as part of this project?
JENNIFER ARMER: There are. I will let the
Applicant speak in some detail to that as part of their
presentation and answering questions. We do also have Staff
here to talk specifically if there are questions about the
traffic improvements and Staff’s review of those.
But quickly to respond to your question, there
are a number of different items that are proposed as part
of the project, including signal timing between that
intersection and the intersection of Los Gatos-Saratoga and
Los Gatos Boulevard, to try to help traffic flow. There is
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the proposal to extend the length of the left turn lane
that turns onto Alberto Way from Los Gatos-Saratoga so that
there will be a larger pocket there so that any additional
traffic coming in has a space to wait through the traffic
signal rather than backing up.
Right now Alberto Way has two lanes, one lane in
each direction. The proposal includes a split of the
traffic that’s leaving Alberto Way so that there will be a
three right turn lane, and there would be a lane that is a
straight and left turn at the signal, so that if there is
traffic that’s going towards Highway 17 it has its own lane
to turn onto Los Gatos-Saratoga Road.
There are additional improvements as well, but
those are the primary ones.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Thank you.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Other questions? Commissioner
Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I had one procedural
question for Staff or our attorney. This is about the
Environmental Impact Report, because it’s been a while
since we looked at one.
One of the findings is that we would have to
certify the Environmental Impact Report, and just based on
what discretion we have basically the findings that are in
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the EIR, whether it was an impact or not, are not something
that we can contest, is that correct? But we could discuss
what the mitigation would be? I’d just like to understand
that in terms of…
JOEL PAULSON: I’m sure the Town Attorney can
also jump in. If you have concerns they would need to be
based on substantial evidence, and then additional
mitigation measures can’t be added to the EIR. You could
request adding additional Conditions of Approval that would
act similarly to a mitigation measure, because all the
mitigation measures become Conditions of Approval as well.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I did see that that was in
there. Okay, so that would be one way.
I have a second question. This project appeared
in the Staff Report to have had a substantial amount of
neighborhood outreach, and I’m sure that the Applicant will
speak about it, but to have this much opposition to the
project after that much neighborhood outreach was obviously
a concern that I saw. I wondered if Staff was able to be
present at any of those neighborhood meetings, because it
doesn’t seem like the concerns got resolved?
JENNIFER ARMER: No, the Applicant exclusively
conducted the neighborhood outreach. Staff was not able to
attend those meetings.
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COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: And related to that, Staff
is recommending approval of the project, and with this much
opposition I… What makes you feel comfortable with this
project, given the level of opposition? There are some
letters in favor, but what makes you comfortable with
approving the project?
JENNIFER ARMER: Staff reviewed the project based
on the Town Code and the environmental review that was
provided by our consultant hired by the Town. We reviewed
the project for conformance with our zoning, and our
General Plan, applicable design guidelines, and as we said
in the Staff Report, while there are definitely some
concerns that have been brought up, we feel that the
professional opinions provided to us on issues like
traffic, et cetera, do show that the impacts will be less
than significant, and so based on that analysis, from our
professional opinion we are recommending that the
Commission consider approval.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Thank you.
JOEL PAULSON: I would just add to that as well.
We don’t make our recommendations based on the amount of
opposition or support for projects, so we try to look at
that independently.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you. Commissioner Hudes.
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COMMISSIONER HUDES: Thank you. There is quite a
bit of material to review here for this application, and I
know there is quite a bit of interest to the public in
speaking about it, so I want to contain my Staff questions
to just a very small set before we move on. I have another
series for Staff that will come later, but I wanted to
address some questions in the EIR and just a couple of
foundational ones.
My understanding, and I’m referring to page 1 of
Attachment A, and in there there’s a statement about land
coverage and it’s allowed by the mixed-use commercial…
VICE CHAIR KANE: Commissioner, excuse me. You’re
looking at the Final EIR?
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Yes, the Final.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Attachment A of the Final,
page 1, and it talks about land coverage allowed by mixed-
use/commercial land use designation. Just foundational, is
this a mixed-use designation, and if so, what are the
mixes, and is a mix required by the land use designation?
JENNIFER ARMER: The land use designation from
the General Plan is mixed-use, but this does not require
mixed-use; it allows for it. But the office use proposed is
allowed within that designation.
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COMMISSIONER HUDES: Okay, thank you. The other
question I had is about traffic impact fee, and again on
the Final, from the Department of Transportation letter of
June 13th, the response, page 2-30 from the EMC Planning
Group. This is regarding a traffic impact fee, and the
commenter suggests that the project should be required to
pay a traffic impact fee and a portion should be used for
specific improvements to state Route 17 and Route 9,
however, the Town does not have an approved fee schedule at
this time. Is that correct? Is there no fee schedule, and
will no impact fee be paid?
JENNIFER ARMER: I’m going to defer to our Public
Works Department to respond to that question.
LISA PETERSEN: Good evening, Commissioners. Lisa
Petersen, Town Engineer. I’m also here with the Traffic
Engineer, Jessy Pu.
Of course the Town itself has traffic impact fees
that we will be charging for this project. This is a
comment that’s coming from Caltrans, and currently that’s
not a cost that we have as far as what that traffic impact
fee would be.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Do we anticipate receiving a
fee for this, and is it based on an approved fee schedule?
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LISA PETERSEN: Yes, that’s correct.
Additionally, it’s important to note that Caltrans will
need to review these plans; they come up with all kinds of
comments and concerns that aren’t being addressed at this
point until they review it.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: So the statement from
Caltrans in that letter is incorrect, then? The Town does
not have an approved fee schedule at this time?
LISA PETERSEN: We have a fee schedule. The Town
itself has a fee schedule, so as far as Caltrans goes and
any type of fees they might try to apply to this, that’s
something that I’m not aware of. Again, this would be
something that would be put through Caltrans. Once Caltrans
goes through it they would have their own conditions that
they would come forward with and ask the Applicant to
adhere to.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Maybe you could follow up
and look at the text on page 230 and let me know and assure
me that Caltrans is incorrect with regard to that
statement?
LISA PETERSEN: Okay, sure.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Thank you.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Commissioner, let me jump in
for a second. Ms. Petersen, I read lots of things and I
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don’t remember where everything is that I read, but I read
something about X dollars per square foot and the total was
$617,000 as a traffic impact fee, which was then going to
be used on Highway 9, it was going to be used on Los Gatos
Boulevard, it was going to be used on Alberto Way. That was
a definite figure.
LISA PETERSEN: Yes, that’s correct, and that’s
the Town’s traffic impact fee, so we the Town, we have a
traffic impact fee, and that traffic impact fee is going to
be about $615,000, that’s correct.
VICE CHAIR KANE: So I’m going to Commissioner
Hudes’ question, yes, there is a traffic impact fee, yes,
it’s in the plan, if approved, yes, it will be paid and
used for the three items in the report, is that correct?
LISA PETERSEN: That is correct, and I would have
to read the verbiage that you’re referring to, but I
thought that you were referring to Caltrans itself, because
this is a Caltrans right-of-way, so they do have the
opportunity to also have requirements of this project.
VICE CHAIR KANE: All right, thank you.
Commissioner Hanssen, you had your hand up.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I just had a clarifying
question on this. When we’ve seen traffic impact fees
before in development we were told in a previous hearing
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that the money goes into a fund. Just to reiterate the
question, there is a list of traffic improvements that are
going to be part of this project. Are they being paid for
by the Applicant outside of the traffic impact fee, or is
the $615,000 going to be used for that?
LISA PETERSEN: In our traffic impact fee list
that has gone to Council there is something on that list
that calls out for Complete Street improvements on Highway
9 at that location, so we are asking the Applicant to
provide some improvements for Complete Streets on Highway 9
right off the intersection, so at that location that would
probably come off of that traffic impact fee, but the
majority of the improvements that we are requiring would
not come off of that.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: They’ll be paid for
outright by the Applicant in addition to paying the traffic
impact fee?
LISA PETERSEN: That’s right.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: That’s how I thought it
would. Thanks.
VICE CHAIR KANE: I have some questions for Staff
if no one else does.
Ms. Armer, you made the point about the towers
being higher than the limits that we impose and said there
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was a potential exception, and we know the conditions are
no storage, no access, no anything in that tower, but when
I read that provision—and again, I don’t know where it was—
it said that exception could be made subject to the
decision of the deciding body. Did it not say that?
JENNIFER ARMER: Absolutely. That is one of the
elements for your consideration this evening, whether to
allow that exception or not.
VICE CHAIR KANE: So it’s our discretion, it’s
not a given, it’s to be decided?
JENNIFER ARMER: Correct.
VICE CHAIR KANE: You mentioned there were three
driveways, and I’m having a lot of trouble with the
driveways and the basement and we’ll talk more about that
later.
JENNIFER ARMER: The existing property has three
driveways.
VICE CHAIR KANE: And the proposed is going to
have two.
JENNIFER ARMER: It’s two.
VICE CHAIR KANE: One of them is an in and out,
the other is an out.
JENNIFER ARMER: Correct.
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VICE CHAIR KANE: And the in and out runs next to
the in and out of the development next door, is that
correct?
JENNIFER ARMER: Correct, and provides access to
the underground parking.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Right, which I will discuss
later.
Staff gives emphasis to the revision of the
Town’s consulting architect that initially he’s concerned,
it’s too big, it’s this and that, and then he said well,
it’s okay. What’s in the report in summary, “Though Staff
has some concerns about the project’s scale in relationship
to neighboring buildings,” and the Town Architect was even
more specific about intensity and height, it says, “In
particular, at the corner of Building B closest to Alberto
Way and Los Gatos-Saratoga Road,” also Highway 9,
“recommendation of approval, as the Applicant has responded
to recommendations of the Town’s consulting architect,”
what Mr. Cannon receives in response to his concerns. I’m
not an architect, and I mean no offense, but there was
shifting of panels and gonna do this and gonna do that, but
I am trying to figure out, between his concern of his first
letter, which was rather severe, and his well okay of his
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second letter, is it not a fact that the square footage
didn’t change and the height didn’t change?
JENNIFER ARMER: I believe that the square
footage did actually change, that it was reduced slightly,
and while the overall height of the structure was not
reduced, there were a number of roof forms that were
converted from horizontal full height wall with no roof
eave to the currently proposed consistent slanted roof
form.
VICE CHAIR KANE: So it’s still 35’, it just has
a different look?
JENNIFER ARMER: Right, so that there are the
lower eaves along all sides instead of having some features
that are much more dominant.
VICE CHAIR KANE: I really tried to find the
reduction in square feet, and let’s use round numbers; it’s
93,000, around there? And it was 93,000 before the letter,
and I’m thinking it’s 93,000 after the letter. I didn’t see
a reduction in square footage.
JENNIFER ARMER: I believe there was a reduction;
it was not a significant reduction.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Okay. And the corner of Alberto
Way and Highway 9 was essentially unchanged, is that
correct? Which is one of my concerns, that this mass is
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right on the corner, and I didn’t see that alleviated.
Going to the north wall there are condominiums behind that
portion of the building. Was any of that changed?
JENNIFER ARMER: I believe that some of the new
second floor balconies provide for a one-story elevation,
there are some areas where you have one-story elements,
there are some of those that run along the property line
with the condominium property next door, the residential,
so that there is a little bit of a stepping up in some
portions of that side of the building. The full two-story
that you refer to on the corner of Alberto Way and Los
Gatos-Saratoga, I don’t believe that there was significant
change to that, but being that that is the most commercial
corner of the lot Staff still felt comfortable with our
recommendation.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Tell me what you mean by one-
story element. I walked the project at length, as we all
did, and on what I’m calling the north wall, the north
face, maybe I should have read it closer, I still see a
two-story building, and the Commercial Design Guidelines
2.3.-something if I really can remember that, talks a great
deal about commercial buildings being dissuaded from issues
of privacy with residents that may abut the commercial
project, and it was the one where they give the visual
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lines looking into somebody’s house, and I thought this
looks like an example of that.
JENNIFER ARMER: What I’m referring to in my
comments about one-story elements, you can see in the plan
set, page A-2.12(b), this is the floor plan for the second
story of 405 Alberto Way, which is the building that is
more set back from Alberto Way, that is right immediately
adjacent to the residential.
VICE CHAIR KANE: About how many pages in is
that?
JENNIFER ARMER: It’s a significant way in.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Give me the reference again.
JENNIFER ARMER: It’s A-2.12(b).
VICE CHAIR KANE: All right, I just got lucky.
Okay.
JENNIFER ARMER: All right. Along the right hand
side of that sheet you can see that there is a difference
of more than 10’ from the wall of the exterior wall of the
building and the edge of the outdoor space, so you can see
the difference between the first floor footprint and the
second floor footprint along that entire building edge.
VICE CHAIR KANE: So in summary, if we can, the
Commercial Design Guideline reference that I’m making
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talking about privacy, you feel that this addresses that
concern?
JENNIFER ARMER: What I was referring to was that
this provides some stepping back of the building mass away
from those residential neighborhoods, so that was the
element that I was referring to.
JOEL PAULSON: And if you don’t agree, that’s
perfectly fine. You’ll probably want to ask some of these
questions of the Applicant as well so that you can get
their input. Obviously these are discretionary actions, so
you have the ability to suggest modifications or require
modifications as it moves forward.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Well, I value your opinion, and
that’s why I was going… This is on page 18 of the
Commercial Design Guidelines where they draw the arrows of
a commercial building looking into the property of a
private residence, and that was what was concerning me.
Thank you.
Other questions for Staff? I’ll now open up the
public hearing and invite the Applicant and their team to
address the Commission for up to ten minutes. I have a
number of speaker cards that I think is from the Applicant
and the team, and if you’d identify yourself I’ll know who
is who. Just so that you know, the ten minute clock will
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start when you begin a presentation, and the buzzer is
going to buzz and it means you have 30 seconds left, it
doesn’t mean you’re done, and that will apply to the public
as well. When the first buzzer buzzes, you’re not done, you
have 30 seconds, so you can continue on a bit more. Yes,
sir.
RANDY LAMB: Chair Kane and Commissioners, thank
you for having us tonight. I’m Randy Lamb. I’ll introduce
Shane Arters and Alicia Guerra, who will be speaking as
well. During our presentation, would you like us to answer
any of the questions you have asked, or would you like us
just to make our presentation and then you can ask those
questions later?
VICE CHAIR KANE: As you wish. You could make
your presentation and then offer answers to the questions
that came up.
RANDY LAMB: I’m just concerned that ten minutes
is ten minutes, so some of these questions you’ve asked
might take a while, so I’d rather…
VICE CHAIR KANE: When your ten minutes are up, I
may have a few questions for you.
RANDY LAMB: Okay.
SHANE ARTERS: Before we start our presentation I
would just like to take a quick second and first of all
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thank the Town Staff. They worked so hard to balance the
competing interests and views of the developer to the
community and also to the decision-making bodies through
the development process. Personally, I have gotten to know
the Staff, and they’re very smart and they’re responsive,
and it’s a pleasure working with them, and we look forward
to working with them in the future too.
Next I’d like to thank the Planning Commission
for their preparation for this evening. Our application
team, which consists of myself; Randy Lamb, who you heard
from, who is the managing member of this company; and also
Alicia Guerra, who will be accompanied by our architect,
our landscape architect, our civil engineer, and the rest
of our team members that are here to respond to any of your
comments.
Let’s go ahead and start on the presentation.
A little bit about us. We are a wholly owned
subsidiary of Lamb Partners, and we’ve developed over one
million square feet of commercial space on the Peninsula,
as well as many multi-family buildings and some luxury
single-family homes. We have over two decades of real
estate experience, and we know how to develop and we know
how to work together as a team. We are considered a
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responsible developer who builds beautiful, sustainable,
and practical buildings.
Here are a few examples. To the left is a 150,000
square feet Class A office building that we just completed
construction on in Mountain View. In the center is a 46-
condo complex, luxury multi-family building. To the right
is an example of a luxury single-family home. You can see
that individuals are drawn to our buildings. Companies love
to lease from us, and employees love to work in these
buildings, because they’re state of the art, they’re
efficient, and they have interactive pedestrian areas for
outdoor use. Most importantly, they’re very safe for the
employees and visitors. Our developments are proven to
strengthen existing businesses and support local merchants.
Finally, our company cares. We work very hard to
do the right thing. We don’t short circuit responsibility,
nor do we say inflammatory remarks. We respect others. We
first seek to understand, then to be understood. We don’t
look for exceptions; we just follow the rules.
Now what I’d like to do is turn the time over to
Randy Lamb who will talk about the project, and then Alicia
will wrap up our presentation.
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RANDY LAMB: Chair Kane and Planning
Commissioner, Randy Lamb. I’m going to walk through,
especially in six minutes; this is going to be a quick one.
Randy Lamb with Lamb Partners and LP
Acquisitions. The first question you would ask, why the
proposed use here? This is an office site currently, it’s
zoned highway commercial, and given the office environment
of the future, or what we believe the future is and what we
build in the Valley, this is an ideal site. It has great
access to transportation. It has Highway 17 and it has Los
Gatos-Saratoga Road. I mean it’s a terrific site. It’s
within 7/10 of a mile of downtown Los Gatos. It meets all
the criteria that we look for when we’re building one of
these projects.
Los Gatos office vacancies. You can see in 2012
it was almost 11% in terms of what Class A office vacancy
was alone. Today, that vacancy rate is about 2.6%, which
tells you there’s a tremendous amount of interest, and as
you know from other parts of the town, a lot of interest in
Class A office. In our opinion, that is the future.
These slides are a little detailed, so I will fly
through them, given the amount of time we have.
All of our projects, as Shane mentioned, as Class
A. That’s all we build. That’s all we’ve ever built.
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Whether it’s in Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, that’s
exactly what we build. We create these areas that are
pedestrian friendly, they’re on transit corridors, we want
people to be able to bike there, we want people to be able
to carpool, vanpool, all the types of things that you would
think for a site like this.
In this particular case, our goal as well at
surface level was to have as minimal parking as possible so
that we’d have people space, either visitors’ parking as
well as people being able to walk the site, and then also
all of our parking is out of sight and underground in two
levels of parking structure, and you’ll hear a little bit
more about that later.
This is our site plan. You can see our building
that’s up against Los Gatos-Saratoga Road and Alberto Way
is on the left, that’s the 401 building I think that Chair
Kane had some questions about as it related to one of these
corners. This is our site plan. Our building on the other
side, 405, which is a little farther back from the street,
shows the same architectural quality and dimensions, that
we do not just build a mono-dimensional building, ever.
The site plan itself, this is Los Gatos-Saratoga
Road, this is Alberto Way. I know there were a couple of
questions on this in terms of the drive aisle. People will
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come into the site, most likely—and you’ll hear about this
a little later too in terms of our transit discussion—all
the way down to the end, and then down into the parking
structure, so that’s what you’re looking at.
Then, our sites always feature significant
landscaping and screening, which also was a question
earlier relative to adjacency to our neighbors.
Community outreach. Almost everyone here I think
has been to one of our 14 community outreach meetings.
There was a question earlier about how we had these. We
actually offered it as a broad open policy, but we also
offered it to each of the HOAs, not knowing how many people
would come. Out of the number of people that live in all
those streets in there we had over 100 people come to the
14 different meetings, which we think is far and away
probably our highest turnout ever for a project. We went to
Las Casitas, Los Gatos Commons, Bella Vista, Pueblo De Los
Gatos. Every one gave us great input, whether it was about
the buildings themselves or their concerns about traffic.
The Los Gatos Commons folks are very concerned about during
construction how we get emergency vehicles in and out and
what our construction plan will be with the Town.
So the things you’re going to hear tonight, we’ve
heard them 14 different times, and so we have tried to be
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very aware of what those things are and then also to
address them.
And things you talked about earlier, whether it’s
setbacks or ridgelines or anything else, those are the
types of things that we’ve done we believe to be good
neighbors in that community and make those buildings fit
within what we have.
In terms of transportation demand, we have a
number of cleaner vehicle parking spaces, we have vanpool,
carpool, we’ve got parking for 99 bikes downstairs in the
parking garage, and then we also are supplying employee
showers for people who might decide to ride to work or what
have you in terms of their bikes, and then also passes for
various transportation.
In terms of the TIA, Traffic Impacts Analysis,
there would be a slight daily increase in terms of the
cars. The AM peak, the PM peak, those numbers you all see
in the EIR as well as what Staff suggested, so I won’t go
into all those now, but it was a less than significant
impact in terms of what the EIR determined. It was already
discussed in terms of extending the left turn pocket lane,
restriping Alberto Way to get folks out so they don’t get
stuck in that left turn lane going up to Los Gatos
Boulevard, installing a bike box on Alberto Way, and then
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the interconnects from Los Gatos Boulevard down to Alberto
Way, and then some ADA related things as well.
Construction, 14 months, start sometime
spring/summer of next year, go through fall of 2018. I can
break all those down for you if you like, but in the
interest of time I won’t. The Town and we will agree to a
construction management plan, and we have already offered
to have meetings for safety with the residents to whoever
would like to meet with us and talk about it.
CEQA, okay. Town ran an EIR process… What would
you like me to do?
VICE CHAIR KANE: We’re going to have to wrap
that up for now. After the community speaks you’ll have
five additional minutes, but for now let’s see if there are
some questions from the Commission. Commissioner Burch, you
have a comment?
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Well, I was debating if I
should kindly ask the Chair for potentially two more
minutes, because some of his comments may affect the public
comment, but I will concede to the Chair on that.
VICE CHAIR KANE: How about two more minutes?
RANDY LAMB: I’ll take whatever you can give me.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Is that okay?
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RANDY LAMB: I’m the big, bad wolf on here, even
though my last name is Lamb, so I’ll take whatever I can
get. Okay, thank you.
The Town ran a full EIR process, which you heard
from Staff, so I won’t go into that, but transportation was
run by Hexagon, which is probably one of the most well
respected transportation engineers in the Bay Area, let
alone California. They’ve been doing it for 30 years. They
are among the best, and they know what they’re out looking
for and they know how to protect the Town. The Town
engineers were very involved and giving them direction on
what they wanted. No significant impacts identified. Fully
complies with the 2020 General Plan.
Our goal with any of our projects, whether we’re
building residential or office, in this particular case
office, is to bring office closer to jobs. If we’re
building residential, it’s to build homes closer to work.
That’s how we get people off streets and that’s how we get
people off freeways; that’s what we do.
Our goal tonight would be to have you vote to
certify the EIR, and we’d love to have you vote to approve
our development application as well, or give us specific
guidance and a date certain to come back and talk to you
again. Thank you.
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VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you. Questions?
Commissioner Hudes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Thank you, and I have many,
many questions, but I really am eager to get to the public
input to sharpen those questions and to make them more
relevant. I wanted to just ask you two things that you
mentioned in your presentation, which I didn’t really hear
about or see in your application or your supporting
letters.
One of the statements you made is that you
support local merchants. In what way does this project
specifically support local merchants?
RANDY LAMB: You’re going to have some of the
best companies in the world take a look at this site.
You’re going to have them spending money in town, whether
it’s with caterers, whether with retail, whether it’s
having people go into town for meals, or buy during
Christmas, buy during any other time of the year. You’re
going to have 390 folks that are going to be active, really
well paid people. I mean these are really, really well paid
people that come into these sites. They’ve spent money in
the community.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Has there been any specific
engagement with the downtown or the Chamber of Commerce or
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merchants about connections or services that might be
provided.
RANDY LAMB: We haven’t made them directly. We
have done an overture to the Chamber and talked to them
about the significant impact that we believe our project
will have in the downtown area.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: I have another question
relative to the presentation, if I may?
VICE CHAIR KANE: Sure.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: You mentioned community
outreach, and there’s a lot of documentation about that.
One of the things I look for is not just one way in terms
of describing the project, but actually listening and
making changes as a result of that outreach. I don’t think
it’s numbered, but you have a slide called Community
Outreach and four points on that page, and I wonder if you
could elaborate a little bit on the changes that have been
made as a result of community outreach and what substantive
things have been done as a result of that process.
RANDY LAMB: I’ll probably ask our architects to
get up and talk about that in terms of the question, but
let me give you the broad brush. The broad brush is that
the comments you’ll hear tonight, and the comments that we
heard, were all about mass, scale, height, how do these
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buildings impact my view, how are they as adjacent
buildings to my project or to our homes, how is our traffic
going to be affected, how is our safety? The Los Gatos
Commons folks especially were as big as anyone on safety,
emergency vehicle access, having red zones that are
actually red zones and not blocked by construction folks.
There are probably ten or fifteen alone that we’ve talked
to Staff about.
The building massing was a question that Chair
Kane asked earlier in terms of vertical and horizontal
elements as well as rooflines where we were able to reduce
the size of the building alone based on the prior comments
of folks that are here in the room tonight, as well as your
consulting architect. The building did drop by just under
I’m going to say 1,600 or 1,700 feet, both buildings.
In terms of moving them away from the
adjacencies, I think your question was about the corner of
Los Gatos-Saratoga Road and Alberto Way, which actually by
the way is built into a hill. There’s a pretty big drop in
this project; I think it’s almost 9’ from that side all the
way down, so that building is actually built into the hill
there, and up against that, I wouldn’t call it the setback,
but it’s very close to that side.
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Then on the other side we actually created a two-
story element and moved that second story back to be away
from Las Casitas, and then I specifically actually went
into the back area of the townhome of one of the residents
that’s here tonight to take a look and see how her view was
impacted by our 405 building, which is the building to the
right up against the north boundary of our property. We
have now sourced about 14 different potential screening and
shade trees that will basically block our buildings from
the Las Casitas folks completely, and so we now have a
number of varieties of evergreens that will work to do what
was asked before in terms of create privacy for adjacent
residential users.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Thank you.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Other questions? Commissioner
Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I don’t want to belabor
the point, but I had a similar question but a little
different about the community input, and I’ll want to hear
from the residents. I won’t go into it, but there were lots
and lots of pages of summaries of the meetings and
everything, but what was in the summaries was a list of
questions, and moreover I kind of looked at one and it was
the same questions listed, almost as if it was cut and
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pasted. So it made me wonder what kind of real discussion
happened, and it sounds like you answered some of those
questions when Commissioner Hudes asked the question. It
was great to have all that paper, but it would have been
better if it said these are the issues that were brought up
and this is the response that we gave.
RANDY LAMB: I understand your question and
comment. The answer is that many had the exact same
comments. Some things that we could address, we did. Many
of them were broader: How do we make the building shorter
or smaller? How do we make it smaller? How do we make it
shorter? How do we not make it look like there’s so much
mass? It’s hard for us to get out and answer these things
when we have a current application into you. We can answer
some of the things that were more of the broad brush, but
it’s hard for us to get in and say oh sure, we’ll implement
that, or oh sure, we’ll implement that, because some of
them we can do, some of them we can’t do. We got direction
from Staff both at Planning level, at Public Works, and at
Building, and so it’s a lot of the things I don't know that
we have full ability to react to.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Okay, fair enough. I did
have another question, and we probably have to talk about
it more later, but there were some questions in some of the
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public comments about capacity. Your letter said that the
buildings were being built for 390 employees, is that
correct? Some of the resident comments said with some of
the newer layouts with Silicon Valley companies that you
could pack more in, and at some point there needs to be a
fire marshal thing, so I wanted to understand a little bit
about that.
Then the second thing was I totally agree with
the comments about the location of the building relative to
the freeways, but I was just trying to think through my day
if I were an employee in that building, like how they would
actually get to downtown, because it’s actually pretty much
of a walk, and there are some sidewalks being built, but
there aren’t any bike lanes, and so you’re going to have
all this bike parking, and I was just trying to figure out
where were the people going to go, or were they going to
have to get in their cars and drive downtown to go have
lunch, and maybe we could talk more about that later.
RANDY LAMB: I’m happy to answer it now, if you
want.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Okay.
RANDY LAMB: Okay, so in terms of your question,
I’ll work backwards, because I can’t remember what your
first question was.
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COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: It was about the capacity.
RANDY LAMB: Oh, the capacity, okay. In terms of
the 390, we provide 390 parking spaces, because the Town’s
Parking Code requires that. That’s the maximum number of
parking stalls. You are, as a town, going to control the
number of people that are in that building. You’re going to
have a business license and you’re going to have a use
permit, so that’s the way that towns control how many
people are in there. Based on the comments that we’ve had
from the community, I think you’re going to have a very
strong advocate community to control the number of people
that come in and out of that building, let alone I as the
owner and the landlord in there am going to do the same,
just so you know. So again, the Town is going to control
how many are in there, I’m going to control in my lease how
people are in there.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Right. Well, how many
people do you think should be in there?
RANDY LAMB: Well, people work differently now,
and I think you’ll hear that when you talk to our
transportation folks and your transportation folks. They’re
the people that reviewed all the information. There is much
more hoteling that goes on, and there’s much more people
working from home telecommuting. I said this, and many of
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you heard me say this at our community outreach meetings, I
have never built a building that has a parking structure
that has ever been full, and the reason for it is because
people live differently now. The parking codes are from
times a while ago rather than what they are today. I mean
there are a number of people here tonight who will talk to
you about their concerns about our construction, because
they work at home. They have offices, they have businesses,
they have whatever headquarters, but they work from home.
That’s what we’re going to see there, the same thing, that
people that might have a job at that building that don’t
necessarily work there. They travel; they teleconference,
whatever it might be. It’s a very real thing. I think
you’ll see that if that building is ever 75% full in terms
of cars, that will be a big day.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: And then my second
question about what the employee life is going to be like
in terms of interacting with the Town.
RANDY LAMB: Well, a couple of things, and we’ve
talked about this too to the folks who came to the
community outreach. Depending on the size of the company
you’re going to find them incenting people to be on bikes,
you’re going to incent them to carpool, and you’re going to
have loaner vehicles. I think you’re also going to see them
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incent people by either having shuttles that get them to
work, or vanpools. I think you’re also going to see
shuttles that might be able to take folks during a certain
period of time as an incentive to downtown Los Gatos. I’d
prefer they walk or ride.
I know a lot of the residents here have concerns
about that stretch over Highway 17 and at the southbound 17
off-ramp in terms of visibility and the height of the
vegetation that’s there. I don't know how we get around
that on our project. That’s something that definitely
sounds like it needs to be addressed to be able to enhance
them.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Thank you.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Commissioner Hudes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: This is just a comment and a
quick question about it. This is a complicated application
and we’re obligated to review all the materials that are
provided to us, including Desk Items that come in by
midday, and from a process perspective we have new
information that’s been presented in your presentation. It
would be very helpful to have this type of thing in advance
so that we can consider it. I find that it’s useful to ask
questions about it. I hope you understand it may be
difficult to reach one of your requests in terms of
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specific guidance when new information comes in during the
hearing itself.
RANDY LAMB: Okay, thank you.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Other questions, Commissioner?
Thank you, Mr. Lamb.
RANDY LAMB: Thank you.
VICE CHAIR KANE: I’m going to open the
public/public portion of the hearing, and Mr. Lamb, if I
didn’t say it, when the public/public portion is completed,
you’ll have five minutes to offer additional information or
rebuttal or whatever, so you’ll be back.
We have a lot of speaker cards. Did you watch the
Town hearing last night? Okay, so there are two things I
wanted to say. There was a lot of passion in that room as
well, and the Mayor asked for respect and trying to keep
the comments down from the audience to a minimum, as in
zero. There’s a lot of passion in this room tonight, and I
would like everybody to respect everybody.
Also, the Mayor called up folks three at a time
to facilitate the process, and that’s what I’m going to do
as well, so you can take a seat up front and we’ll do three
speakers, and then three more, and we’ll move right along.
I have a card from Christie Corbisiero, and Thomas Dunn,
and Mark Rogge.
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CHRISTINE CORBISIERO: Thank you for having me,
and thank you for calling my card; I appreciate it. And I
also thank you for representing Los Gatos, our town.
I’m a resident on 420 Alberto Way and I’ve been
there 20 years, and just concerns about the growth and
mass. I moved there and I bought there, and it was a very
quiet area. It’s a dead end road that’s one way; there’s no
exit. We have elderly, and we have children on the street
as well. So my concern is the growth and the mass.
I applaud the Applicant for wanting growth, and I
applaud the Applicant for starting up a new building.
That’s how it is in life. We always want to grow, and we
want more. But for 420 Alberto Way I don’t think it’s
appropriate. Adjacent to that and across the street my home
windows actually look at the building.
And thank you also for going out to the property
and looking at the story poles and the height. I am in a
two-story building and the story poles are higher than my
building, and I’m in upstairs. So for me, and I know for
people on Alberto Way, it’s a massive production. We’re
talking 300 spaces.
Along with that, my concern is the growth of our
town. We are a town. We have, and I know that maybe most of
you hopefully have, driven through Los Gatos during the
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weekends, and on our GPS it actually iPhone direct us
through town when there’s too much traffic on Highway 17. I
appreciate some of the things that have happened in
downtown: the flags when you’re crossing the street, that
one, and also closing off entering Highway 17 from
downtown. So I do appreciate those things.
I feel that this mass in this project is
appropriate for Silicon Valley. He mentioned Mountain View;
that’s appropriate there, and I applaud him for that, and I
applaud everybody who is working on the project, but for
our streets, for 420 Alberto Road, it’s not appropriate,
and that’s how I feel, and I think I speak for all the
people, residents, children, and elderly who live on that
street. Thank you.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you very much. Mr. Dunn,
give us your name and address, please.
THOMAS DUNN: Good evening, my name is Thomas
Dunn; I’m at 420 Alberto Way. My property is right in front
on the street that looks directly across the property, and
if you see the far right picture, that’s the view that I
have every night when I come home, and that’s the view that
we retired to, having the mountains, the trees, the
sunlight, and the sunsets.
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I raised four children in this town. When they
all went out, as they do, we downsized like most people
will do, downsize and stay in the town and found a
beautiful two lane road, a dead end road, four condos on
there. You can see the beauty across the street of the
building that they’re looking to demolish and tear down,
but we’ve got trees, olive trees, and redwood trees.
We’ve got a complex over there that’s 30,000
square feet, only a third the size of what the project is
proposed to do, and that houses probably all of the local
businesses that are small businesses, and so they can bike
to work, they can have a short commute to work, and they
can walk to town. So everything that’s needed is already
there, just a little smaller without having to demolish it
and tear it all down. And again, I believe the style fits
into it.
The neighborhood; we talked about the
neighborhood. I don’t know that there’s a neighborhood in
Los Gatos that can brag about the fact that there are four
generations on this street of these four houses. We have
seniors; we have baby boomers, which are in here, we’ve got
some that are pre-retired and retired baby boomers; we have
our children here in these different condos, and those are
the millennials; and we have the millennials that are all
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having babies now, so that covers four generations all in
one block. It’s a family. And the businesses across the
street are friends and neighbors of ours, and family. So
that’s kind of the community that we’d like to keep.
Now, I’ll touch a little bit about the concerns,
which is the size, the mass, and the height of the
building. Again, we feel it is too tall, and to put 93,000
square feet on one acre, granted it’s a two-acre lot, but
it’s one acre that they’ve actually filled the space on and
it’s just crammed in there to the max to the height in
every corner than can be done.
We’re going to have other people talking and
commenting on other thing, about the traffic. The last
thing I think I wanted to talk about was, again, like I
said, just the view that’s being obstructed.
I’m going to leave everybody with something to
think about, something you’ll probably remember this
meeting by, and it goes something like this: Don’t it
always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve lost to
it’s gone. Pave paradise and put up a parking lot. Well, in
our case they put up a 93,000 square foot concrete
building.
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VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you, Mr. Dunn. If I mess
up, and I’m likely to do, on names, please vociferously
correct me when you get to the microphone.
MARK ROGGE: Mark Rogge, and you got my name
exactly right; that was a miracle.
I just wanted to give you another perspective on
this. I’ve worked in municipal management for over 30
years. I’ve been city engineer in charge of development
sections and done a lot of work in this Bay Area, and of
course I love Los Gatos. I love the Jazz on the Plazz, I
love the Los Gatos Creek Trail, and everything else. And
you have an issue balance here, because you want to
maintain that charm of the town, and it’s very important.
One of the things that I look at this project
though is that you have sometimes jobs over here and
housing way over here, and you have those long commutes
that nobody likes, and the idea of having the jobs right in
the neighborhood is a really good planning thing.
One thing I was very impressed with, I look at
the Staff’s work on this, and I initially just wanted to
review it lightly and then I really got into it, and I
really want to praise your Town Staff. They have done a
very thorough job on this project, and I think that is a
real testament to what the Town is doing, to the leadership
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in the Town, and to the Town Staff. The information that’s
provided, and the outreach and everything that was done I
think is really good.
Some of the things I like about this project is
that instead of having a sea of asphalt, which we don’t
like, put all that parking underground. One thing I’d like
to caution you about though is the Town ordinance requires
parking at four per thousand square feet of building, and
in looking at towns like this in the Bay Area, as opposed
to nationwide averages where the property values are such
that you can have call centers and things like that, their
actual parking rates are closer to anywhere in a shared
parking environment to two-point-twenty-five per thousand
to three per thousand, and three per thousand is
significantly lower than the four per thousand that the
Town requires.
I understand here again you have a balance. On
the one hand you don’t want parking spilling out into the
neighbors. On the other hand, you want to encourage
alteration modes of transportation, you want people to get
on their bikes and walk to work and those sorts of things,
and so I think the safety improvements that are being done
here to provide better pedestrian and bike access is great.
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I like the idea of putting the bicycle lockers in
the building, and the showers, because I was involved in
the design of city hall in one city where we didn’t have
that access, and although we encouraged people to come to
work on their bikes, they wanted to take a shower before
they came to work.
So that I think was a lot of really good things,
but again, I think great kudos to the Town Staff for doing
a great job, the thoroughness of all of these reports, the
accuracy, and the high level of professionalism, I really
want to commend you for that. Thank you very much.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Questions for the speaker? I
have one. You didn’t give us your address, sir.
MARK ROGGE: Oh, Terrace Drive.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you. Coming up next I
have Raymond Toney, Kristen McFarland Werner, and John
Mittelstet.
RAYMOND TONEY: Hello, folks. Thank you very much
for having us. I’m a resident of Los Gatos for many, many
years and live on Alberto Way.
The factor that I wanted to bring up, and I’ll be
very short, is the safety factor. Alberto Way is a funnel.
We have all these folks living there, we have 110
individual units at Los Gatos Commons, plus all the other
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homes that are in there. The only way out is through
Alberto Way up to Los Gatos-Saratoga Road.
One of the problems, I have this worry about
safety not only for our residents on Alberto Way, but also
for the potential tenants of that place. You have a parking
garage with 390 spaces and only one way in and way out. I
know they say there are two, but actually there is only one
area where there is an in and out, an ingress and an
egress. To get 390 people, or even 30% or 75% of that, in
and out, that’s going to be a very, very difficult
position. If there’s a fire, or an earthquake, or even just
normally going in and out for lunch or for dinner,
whatever.
The only other thing I can comment as a simile is
downtown Los Gatos. You folks approved the Safeway store,
and the Safeway store has 122 underground parking spaces,
but it sits on a corner and there are two ingresses and
egresses out of that place, so if there’s a problem on one,
you can go out the other. That’s the problem.
Secondarily, for anyone who lives on Alberto Way,
as they say, it’s a funnel; you can’t get out of there if
everybody decided to leave at once. The only other
alternative is the road that goes up to Bella Vista. Now,
that is a fire road to be used by a fire department, but
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they have it locked off, gated, and you cannot get through
there. So in the event we had to get out, there’s just no
way except getting out Alberto Way. This is too much
traffic for little Alberto Way. Thank you.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you.
(Applause.)
VICE CHAIR KANE: Now, that would upset the
Mayor. Not me yet, but let’s not have displays of
affection, please. Now I lost my place. Who’s next? Kristen
McFarland Werner. John Mittelstet.
JOHN MITTELSTET: Yes, I’m John Mittelstet; I
live at 443 Alberto Way. I’m also the president of the
homeowners association at Los Gatos Commons.
I know that there will be a lot more comments
about the traffic, both during construction and after
construction is finished. I’m not as concerned if they can
get it done in 14 months what happens during construction,
except when they say they’re mitigating the dust that’s
going to be occurring.
But if you think about the traffic and the
neighborhood discussion, they indicated, and I agree, that
the bulk of the traffic coming in is going to be along
Highway 17, and it’s going to get off at that Los Gatos
east exit and come down to where they’ve added room for
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eight more cars to turn left into Alberto Way and come into
this driveway, and they estimate from 7:00am to 9:00am is a
peak morning time. I’m not concerned about evening. I think
in the evening time when they leave, most of that traffic
is going to go back on 17. There’s not much traffic coming
down Los Gatos from Los Gatos Boulevard at that time of
day, so the evening I’m not concerned about.
In the morning when that left turn light comes
on, it’s going to impact people from Los Gatos Boulevard
getting onto Highway 17. It’s also, as they’re turning in,
going to impact our ability to get out in the morning, and
some of us still have jobs to go to.
I remember them saying that the traffic study
indicated an impact of one car per minute during the peak
periods. If there are 390 cars in there, and you’ve got a
two-hour period to empty those, that’s at least three cars
per minute during that two-hour period; it’s not one car
per minute. Arithmetic won’t get you there.
What I’d like to consider is, is there a way if
this project goes forward—and I’m not saying that it will—
to wrap the incoming traffic back around the back of the
building and into the garage here so that there’s only
traffic moving circularly in and out of that garage. I know
Caltrans would probably have a lot of concerns, because
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this is an access to Highway 17, but if you pulled off
right here along the driveway it won’t impact the traffic
here, because people turning left, they can either come
this way or they’re going to come back here; there would be
no impact to that.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Your time expired. Are there
questions for the speaker? Commissioner Hudes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: This is an interesting idea,
and I wonder if the residents or anyone has had any
communications with Caltrans about the possibility of
wrapping that?
JOHN MITTELSTET: Have not. I’d like to perhaps
talk to Jessy Pu about this at some point.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Okay, thank you.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you, sir. Before our next
speaker we’re going to take a short ten-minute break. Thank
you.
(INTERMISSION)
VICE CHAIR KANE: Our next three speakers will be
Susan Cahn, Jennifer Liebthal, and Richard Vaccarello.
SUSAN CAHN: Hi, I’m Susan Cahn. I’m not feeling
well, because I’ve had a leak in my house. I was just going
to listen, but this is really tough. I live at 435 Alberto
Way and lived there over 20 years, and I’m a 40-year plus
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resident, and my family have lived in Los Gatos for over 45
years.
There are a lot of reasons why this affects me
and the residents of Alberto Way. I work from home. I will
have a horrible experience during the construction time and
afterwards with all the people coming by. The entrance and
exit to the parking garage is right near our border. We
have 21 children, 19 of which run around, ride bikes, and
ride scooters. It’s very difficult to control children,
even if the parents are there. You all probably have some
or know some, and they just don’t listen.
So there are going to be a lot of people getting
run over on the street; not just pedestrians, bicyclists,
but also people getting in accidents. I’ve driven down
Highway 9 since I was 16, and I almost get rear-ended every
single time I drive down Highway 9 going down towards the
freeway. If you’re not careful, you put your brakers on,
even if there’s a light, people will run right into you.
Now that people are texting and driving, you’re going to
have a huge problem with traffic.
Not only is this a traffic problem for Alberto
Way, it affects the entire Town of Los Gatos. If you live,
want to come, if you’re a patron, if you’re a business
owner, yeah, you might get some people buying more things
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downtown, but you’ll get a lot of congestion. People won’t
want to go into Los Gatos, because it’s no fun to drive
there now. It took me about 15 minutes to go to a two-
minute drive to get to a vet during an emergency. Now,
imagine with 393 cars, not including busing, if you’re
talking about busing, or construction. How are people in
the whole town supposed to live with congestion?
And, yes, there are traffic times, 7:00 to 9:00.
There’s lunch. Let’s not forget lunch. There’s 11:00 to
1:00, 11:00 to 2:00, and then people go home at night.
Well, I do things in the evenings. My residence and the
neighborhood have all different schedules, but for me it’s
a pretty big thing if I want to get out during different
times of the day, and so, yes, it affects everybody on
Alberto Way, but it’s a Town problem. If you want to avoid
Highway 9, or you’re trying to get into Alberto Way, now
you’re going to have to go on Los Gatos Boulevard, North
Santa Cruz. It’s a whole town problem. So it’s not just
Alberto Way, it’s Highway 17, it’s anybody that goes to
school in Los Gatos in the morning, and it’s anybody that
comes home from work. You’re now going to be avoiding all
the people funneling in and out on one entrance and one
exit. It’s not a through street; it comes in and out near
our border… Is that me?
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VICE CHAIR KANE: That’s you. Thank you. Jennifer
Liebthal.
JENNIFER LIEBTHAL: Thank you. Four-twenty
Alberto Way. I’m going to speak somewhat quickly, because I
have so many things to say.
I wanted to first thank the Planning Staff and
Commission for working with not only developers, but also
being willing to listen to the public input on this. I know
that you put in a lot of time and effort.
I have a huge problem with how immense this
building is in height and in just general square footage.
I, as well, from my condo have this view here, and when I
say this view, I mean this view of this lovely hill that
will completely go away if this building is built. I’m not
really concerned about just my view alone, just the
magnitude of this building is way too big for this
neighborhood. It’s too tall. They say oh well, the
currently building is, I think, 35’ high, or maybe 33’ or
something, but if you really look at the building, it’s a
very small portion of the building that peaks up that high,
and the rest is much, much lower. Maybe it’s just me; I’d
rather see an asphalt parking lot than this huge building
in this space, to be honest with you.
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I actually worked at Cisco and at Google, and I
can tell you that when I was working at both those places,
and maybe it was just my division, but we didn’t have a lot
of people telecommuting. I went to these meetings with the
developers and they said at one point, “We could get a
company like Google in here,” and I thought, “I don’t want
a Google in here.” I mean, really? Do we want a Google this
close to downtown? But that might be what we’re asking for
in approving this building, because in the end the
developer can’t control who goes into this building and
what they do in the building, right?
A lot of the comments they’ve made were
assumptions about people shopping downtown, these companies
using catering from Los Gatos. If Google went in there they
wouldn’t do that. They have a catering company themselves
that they use and it’s not a Los Gatos catering company, so
I think there are a lot of things, a lot of words that…
I’m not a good word person; I’m not good with
words. I wish I were better at it. There are a lot of ways
to spin things with words, and I think there is a lot of
spinning going on, and I know that there is a lot for you
guys to go through with everything that we’re saying and
they’re saying, but I think for this neighborhood bigger
just really isn’t better.
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Right now, when you walk through the neighborhood
it is really airy, and you can walk and see the sun when
you’re walking on the sidewalks and you won’t be able to do
that anymore. We’re going to be lost in shadows when you go
past this development.
So I hope that you guys all take that into
consideration. Any questions?
VICE CHAIR KANE: Questions for the speaker?
Commissioner Hudes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Thank you, and I appreciate
the arguments that are being made about the work and
residential location. I was intrigued by your comment that
you said you thought you did not want to see a Google in
this location. Could you expand on that a little bit? Was
it that company in particular, or was it that type of
company, or what was that particularly related to this idea
of having work close to residences?
JENNIFER LIEBTHAL: I worked at Google. I loved
Google. I loved working there. I loved working there in
Mountain View. If you look at the Google campus in Mountain
View, it’s a business campus. It’s a campus of buildings.
It’s not set up in a residential neighborhood.
Also, these companies, they do bus people in
sometimes. I actually took the Google buses from Los Gatos
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to Google, and I can’t tell you how many residents were
pissed off about those buses coming into Los Gatos, and the
same thing would happen here.
They’re living in a neighborhood, people were
living in a residential neighborhood, and right now there
is a building there that’s a business building, but it’s a
much smaller building, and for many, many years it’s been
possibly not at full capacity, but even when it was, it was
with small companies with a small amount of people;
chiropractors and maybe a small law office.
If you get a Google in here, they do do bull
penning in those companies, and they don’t have as many
telecommuters as people think. There was a lot of
conversation about telecommuters. When I worked at Google,
only 1% of my group telecommuted.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: So to summarize, your
concern is about the intensity of activity that would occur
if a company like that were to come into that location?
JENNIFER LIEBTHAL: That, but I would say my top
concern is actually just the mass and size of this building
in general. I think it’s just way to big for the
neighborhood.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Right, okay, thank you.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you very much.
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JENNIFER LIEBTHAL: Thank you.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Richard Vaccarello, followed by
Melanie Kemp, Lewis Darrow, and Marietta Riney.
RICHARD VACCARELLO: Hi, my name is Richard
Vaccarello; I live at 182 Cuesta De Los Gatos Way, which is
Bella Vista.
I have attended a few of the community outreach
or open houses that the developers had. I also attended the
Staff review. On all of these occasions I expressed my
concern. Now, I have some experience in this. Certainly
most of my career I’ve owned temporary employment services
throughout the Silicon Valley; I currently work for an
online media company; however, I have been a developer too,
and I expressed this to Randy. I have built commercial
buildings in Carmel, homes in Carmel, and homes in San Jose
and Groveland, California also.
My concern, I’m not trying to be an
obstructionist; I’m all in favor. That’s fine, build the
building, but the mass and size and the amount of people in
cars that will be coming in and out of a road that has one
access is way too large, and I’ve asked Randy to please
modify the plan and work with the residents, and I want to
state this before I get into the specifics.
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In the last outreach meeting that I had, I walked
into the room and Randy started giving me the sales pitch
again; I don’t think that he knew that I had been to these
other meetings. What he has told you about working with the
residents is false. That’s the reason why you have so many
people here. I asked him if he had made any modifications
or changes to this building based on the input of the
residents? This is his exact words, and I have witnesses,
okay? So I asked him, “Have you had any modifications since
the meeting, or talked with the residents in the area?”
Randy said, “No.” I said, “Why don’t you work with the
residents to get this thing passed? I’m all in favor of it
working, but I have a problem with the mass.” He said, “I
don’t care, and I don’t give a damn about the residents,
and I’m going to build it anyway.” That’s what he said, all
right? So, you have flavor, and I have a witness here,
somebody I had never met; when I walked in the room I had
no idea who she is. She’s sitting over here and can
validate the story. That is the problem that we have.
So I have a concern about basically, very
quickly, the street is so small; it’s a few hundred yards
long. We have a massive office complex in the cul de sac;
we have four condominium complexes there; then we have a
hotel that’s been renovated and now a lot of people are
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going in and out of that; a new restaurant; a medical
building; and now a building that is three times the size.
When is there enough? The traffic is outrageous right now.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you, sir. Any questions
for the speaker? Thank you. Melanie Kemp.
MELANIE KEMP: Hi, I’m Melanie Kemp; I live at
174 Cuesta De Los Gatos Way in the Bella Vista Village
development.
I’m here also because I’m very, very concerned
with two major aspects of this project. I also have
attended two of the neighborhood meetings that they have
had. Randy Lamb and his partner Shane were both there at
those meetings. I will repeat with Rick that we did voice
concern for size, mass, and traffic, and we were told there
wasn’t going to be much change, expect they were going to
be putting in too right hand land turns.
Well, we already supposedly have two lanes that
turn right, and I still am trying to leave my home at the
end of the day. You can never turn right on red, because
there is never sufficient space to do that. Now, as I
understand, that road isn’t being widened at all, they’re
just trying to accommodate three lanes; I don't know how
that’s going to work.
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My bigger concern with traffic is what is going
to happen when you have backed up traffic from this lane
out that supposedly the left turn lane with the light is
now supposed to have eight spaces. Well, you’re not
allowing more cars to go in, you’re just halting all other
traffic now so those eight cars can turn in. You’re going
to have more traffic backing up on Santa Cruz Avenue, on
University Avenue, and even Los Gatos Blvd.
I know one of the major reasons that the Alberto
Oaks commercial big buildings at the end of the street were
rejected was because we have very small ingress/egress
there, and if it was rejected, that project, Alberto Oaks,
from major housing development back there because of
traffic concerns, this is even higher density than that one
was, and that was disapproved, so it just doesn’t make any
sense to me.
The size and the mass, I heard with great concern
how this very diligent Planning Commission here was looking
at Wraight Avenue that was approved an hour-and-a-half ago
and the shadow line that it might cast on one or two
buildings that might be in back of it, and yet this massive
albatross is going to be casting a huge shadow on the
entire street, and it’s not in keeping with the
neighborhood.
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If you want like/kind property, go take a
building like this and put it out on Lark Avenue, put it
out on Winchester where Netflix is. They can bring their
buses in from San Francisco, and they’re bringing six buses
in; I really don’t care as much, because that whole
neighborhood over there is commercial. This isn’t, it’s
residential. We’d like to keep it that way, please.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you. Questions for the
speaker? Lewis Darrow.
LEWIS DARROW: I’m a resident of 449 Alberto Way.
I work as a project manager helping architectural projects.
I’m currently working on a project of 96,000 square feet,
similar project, underground parking.
Just to let you know, you haven’t heard the whole
story from the developer. Underground parking, when we
poured the parking lot, we had excavation. We had 300 and
some-odd trucks, dump trucks, going in and out of the site,
destroying the street, getting dust and dirt all over the
place. There is no circulation for that number of trucks to
get out. Concrete has to get poured; 80-ton concrete
trucks. They destroyed road; it’s too much weight. They
have to have huge cranes to dump the concrete. Noise,
activity, the street closure. You have 380 trucks coming in
and out of that site, impossible; and if it’s not possible,
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they close the street down. Those are just some of the
things you’re not being told.
The scale of this building is wrong for the site.
It’s too massive.
I could give you a list of things. I like to ride
bicycles. I can’t ride my bike downtown anymore because of
the four curb cuts going into Highway 17. You add 390 cars
and no one is going to ride a bike. You talk about putting
a turn lane in there. The developer said they’re going to
put in a turn lane, right hand lane. They also read the
Caltrans report; they’re going to put in a bike lane. How
are you going to fit a bike lane and two turn lanes? You’ve
got 17’ and you’re going to divide that in two and make two
turn lanes, and make another lane on the other side. The
math doesn’t work on that; you can’t do it. And if you put
a bike lane there, it’s a deathtrap, because how are cars
going to get on Highway 17 and people are going to cross?
Not a chance; it’s not going to happen.
The other thing is you guys have something called
Conditional Use Permit, and the Planning Commission has
some control over this, and I think you guys really have to
take a look at that. Now, if you had a mother or father
living on Alberto Way, can you honestly say you’d want this
project to go through? If you guys lived on Alberto Way,
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would you want this project to go through? This is what you
represent; you’re representing the people here. I certainly
don’t want it to go through.
The guy came up and said no exceptions to this,
yet he says the building is 35’ high, but oh, there’s an
exception, we’re going to put a tower in front 37’ high.
And they need to tell you what they put on a roof when they
put RH and stuff like that and antennas on a roof, just to
obstruct the view some more, and lighting on a roof and all
the other things that go to disrupt the whole area of
views.
There’s just a lot of emotion in the room. You
can see all the people here. People have a lot of concern,
okay? And you guys can do the right thing. You put a senior
community there, and I give you guys credit. Los Gatos is a
place where people want to live. It’s a place where people
who work in Silicon Valley come to live. There’s no value
bringing Silicon Valley into Los Gatos. As a matter of
fact, it diminishes what is Los Gatos. Thank you.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you. Questions for the
speaker? Sir, we have a question for you. Commissioner
Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Thank you for your
presentation. I had a question. You mentioned that you
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don’t ride your bike. Does anyone that lives on Alberto Way
now ride their bike into downtown?
LEWIS DARROW: I ride my bike, but I stopped
riding. I can’t ride downtown. You can’t get across the
curb cuts, and once you do, the thing I didn’t say, and if
you’ll excuse me, going into a parking lot with 390 cars,
there is an emissions problem too, because you have to
start and stop going up the lot; there’s a stacking
problem.
I’m working on a project now that they have a
massive stacking problem with cars coming in and out of the
garage, and I have three exits to the street, and it’s a
developed site and it’s a commercial area. This is a
residential area. You’re all coming in to a pinch point.
Three hundred and ninety cars, it’s only a matter of time
when you’re going to have the accident that closes the
street that’s going to cause a lawsuit for you guys,
because somebody hired a traffic study, and if I hired a
traffic study they would do exactly what I wanted them to
do.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Okay, thank you.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you. Marietta Riney
followed by Bob Burke, Loretta Fowler, and Pat Lynch.
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MARIETTA RINEY: My name is Marietta Riney and I
live at 449 Alberto Way. I’m not going to address any
Environmental Impact Reports or traffic studies or
setbacks.
The Los Gatos Building and Planning Department’s
stated goal is to help, “Ensure the health, safety, and
welfare of its citizens and property owners.” The proposed
project for 401-409 Alberto Way does not comply with this
goal. The detrimental impact this development will have on
all residents of Los Gatos, and specifically the Alberto
Way residents, has largely been downplayed. As a resident
of the Los Gatos Commons Condos, a senior independent
living community, I would like to speak for the majority of
the seniors who reside there and who oppose this project.
As stated in our petition, the traffic congestion
and density during demolition, excavation, construction,
and occupancy will impede emergency vehicles trying to
reach residents to provide quick response to medical
emergencies, and if needed provide timely transportation to
medical facilities. The Los Gatos Commons Condos receives
an average of 7.75 calls and responses per month. This
statistic is based on the last two years of recorded calls
and was provided by Kendra Randolph in Operations at the
Santa Clara County Fire Department.
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Extensive delays and gridlock at the intersection
of Alberto Way and Los Gatos-Saratoga Road will make it
difficult for residents to get to medical appointments on
time and result in missed monitoring of medical issues. The
increase in air and noise pollution for all the neighbors
in close proximity to the Alberto Way project will likely
lead to them experiencing an exacerbation of already
compromised health issues; specifically those with
respiratory conditions, chronic illness, or post-operation
recovery will be impacted.
I would also remind you that any emergency that
called for evacuation, the construction at the end point of
Alberto Way could be an impediment to a safe and speedy
escape.
This project has an anticipated timeline of two
years start to finish. Is this realistic? Two years was the
timeline that we were told at the outreach meeting. Would
any of the Planning Commissioners want their elderly
parents who may have compromised health placed in this
environment for two years? Thank you.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you, Ms. Riney. Questions
for the speaker? Thank you. Bob Burke.
BOB BURKE: Hi, Commissioners, I’m Bob Burke; I
live at 420 Alberto Way.
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I’d like to start by saying the proposed
development doesn’t conform to the 2020 General Plan in
Sections Two: Vision, Three: Land Use, and Four: Community
Design and Transportation. Having said that, I’m going to
focus principally on transportation in my comments.
The assumptions used by the Applicant in every
possible assumption have been selected to minimize the
apparent impact on the traffic in the area. Now, we all
know that—especially in the morning—the AM rush on Highway
9 between Santa Cruz Avenue and Los Gatos Boulevard is
terrible. People are taking their children to school; the
older kids are driving themselves to the high school. It
causes congestion that backs up traffic, particularly on
eastbound Los Gatos-Saratoga Road up into the bridge area.
The exit of the bridge is a one-lane direction; it’s one
lane in the eastbound direction at the exit of the bridge.
That causes gridlock that presently backs up traffic every
morning, and will back it up not only on Highway 17 but
also further to block EMS and the fire department from
being able to rescue anybody on Alberto Way. It’s already
happened.
Next, to address some of the other assumptions…
And by the way, if you’ve read the report that I
put together, then I don’t have to go over the errors and
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omissions in the traffic report submitted by the Applicant.
There were many of them. I could just tell you an anecdotal
one. There are a couple of tables that show the exits from
Highway 17 to eastbound Los Gatos-Saratoga Road and Highway
9 in the morning. The table adds up to around 2,372
eastbound vehicles, however, the Applicant shows that only
887 eastbound vehicles actually arrive at the intersection
of Alberto Way on eastbound Highway 9. And there are
several other missing or erred figures in that report.
There are no studies of the intersections of Highway 9 and
Highway 17 or Lark.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you, Mr. Burke. Questions
for the speaker? Commissioner Hudes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: I appreciate your focus on
the traffic and have one question about that. Does the
current situation with beach traffic Friday, Saturday, and
Sunday impact Highway 9 and that area, in your experience,
and was that considered in the traffic report that you’ve
read?
BOB BURKE: It wasn’t considered at all. The
report that I put together only addressed the normal AM and
PM rush hours; the weekends are not addressed at all.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: In your experience living
there, is there an issue with traffic on…
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BOB BURKE: Yes, there is an issue in that exits
from Highway 17 to Highway 9 can’t happen, and southbound
entrances get backed up from 9 to 17 south.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Thank you.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you, sir.
BOB BURKE: Thank you.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Loretta Fowler.
LORETTA FOWLER: Hello, I live at 451 Alberto Way
in the Los Gatos Commons condos. The majority in this
senior restricted condo development oppose the Alberto Way
project.
The project would introduce 390 cars into the
Alberto Way cul de sac, which will increase air pollution
in the neighborhood. As they wait to clear signals cars
will idle at intersections on Los Gatos-Saratoga Road and
they will idle at the Alberto Way intersection. As the
Environmental Impact Report pointed out, there will be
queues on the ramps to Highway 17 and on the Los Gatos-
Saratoga Road, and these queues will require up to three or
more signal cycles to clear. Automobile exhaust and gas
vapors from 390 vehicles during the AM and PM rush will add
to the current level of pollution, so air pollution
concentrates from vehicles contribute to reduced lung
capacity, inflammation of lung airways, aggravation of
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asthma, increased susceptibility to respiratory illness,
chest pain for those with heart problems, and reduced
mental alertness, especially for the elderly, chronically
or acutely ill persons, and children.
In its air quality section the EIR concluded, and
I’m quoting here, “The project is inconsistent with the
2010 Clean Air Plan, less than significant with
mitigation.” Further, the EIR study did not measure
localized pollution; rather it evaluated regional levels of
pollution. No attempt was made to actually estimate the
level of pollutants that would be produced by the
introduction of 390 vehicles to the Alberto Way
neighborhood, so how can we evaluate the mitigation that
would be necessary?
What mitigation is considered sufficient by the
EIR? Well, first four charging stations for cars. But how
many of the 390 cars will be electric? We cannot know, but
surely not most of them.
The mitigation also would include encouraging the
tenant to voluntarily support ride sharing, public transit,
cycling, and walking to work. Actually, we can’t know that
this would happen, so the mitigation supported by the EIR
do not appear at all adequate to deal with the health
problems 390 cars would bring. Seniors at the Los Gatos
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Commons already have health issues. Three hundred and
ninety cars would increase the risk to their health. Thank
you.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you. Questions for the
speaker? Thank you very much. Pat Lynch followed by Bob
Roxborough, Kathryn Azad, and Roman Rufanov.
PAT LYNCH: Good evening, I’m Pat Lynch. I am
the controller for CWA Realty and the property
manager/leasing agent for the property in question. I have
been on the site for 30 years. We bought the buildings in
1986 to house our software development company in the 401
building. We sold that company in the early 2000s and we
have remained on the property, as we own the property, for
our own purposes. We are not a real estate company by
choice. It was a place we bought after being in four
different buildings as we were growing.
The buildings were built 50 years ago. They were
built primarily to be a shopping center. They are in the
town and country format; that is why there is a lower
section of this building that was intended, we believe, to
be storage for inventory for retail space on the other two
floors. That in and of itself is very difficult to deal
with for office buildings. The spaces are chopped up, they
are small, and they are not contiguous. The infrastructure
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is 50 years old. Trying to even bring the electrical and
the plumbing into this century is more difficult than you
can believe. The buildings are connected below ground. It
is impossible to replace the buildings at a time and do the
things that need to be done to these buildings. They are
not ADA compliant and there is no way to make them ADA
compliant. They weathered the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake,
but I wouldn’t guarantee that they’re going to weather the
next one.
I’ve heard a lot of talk about the amount of cars
going in and out with the new proposal. There are a lot of
cars that go in and out of our parking lot already. We have
small clients who have a lot of people who come to see
them, whether they’re chiropractors, attorneys, everything
you can imagine. I would bet—and I don’t have time to sit
and count them all day—but I’ve been on the grounds for 30
years and I spent a lot of time there, there are a lot more
cars coming in and out of our complex right now. If they
put in the kind of tenant who has people coming in to work,
who stay to work, and leave at the end of the day, the
chances are that the car traffic could actually be less
than what we have going in and out right now. That’s just
with our tenants. We are also subject to everybody who is
lost in space, who comes off the freeway with whatever kind
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of vehicle they’ve got. That’s semi trucks with Lord knows
what on them coming through our driveway.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you, ma’am. Questions for
the speaker? Thank you very much. Ben Roxborough.
BEN ROXBOROUGH: Ben Roxborough, 420 Alberto Way.
The thing about common sense is that sometimes
it’s not too common. This is really a case in point. When
we look at the 2020 General Plan of this community that
this community put in place we see an incongruence between
basically what this development is proposing and what those
guidelines prepare, and I think it’s vitally important that
we really look at those guidelines right now.
The first one that really struck me, I won’t talk
too much about the traffic, but most “residential streets”
in Los Gatos are designed to discourage through-traffic.
It’s not happening here. Aesthetic, height, and density,
this is a quote, again, from the General Plan, “The Town
has created and maintained an attractively built
environment through careful attention to design of
buildings, landscaping, public improvement, and
preservation of natural environment. We’ve talked about
solar access, we’ve seen solar access from number two, and
we’re now at number three. If we look at that, we look at
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heavy, significant discrepancies with respect to solar
access to residents at 420 Alberto Way.
Finally, I want to address all the points in the
2020 General Plan, but noise is defined as, “A sound or a
series of sounds that are considered to be invasive,
irritating, objectionable,”—this is quoting directly from
the 2020 General Plan—“and/or disruptive to the quality of
daily life. Noise varies in range and volume and can
originate from the individual incidents such construction
equipment, sporadic disturbances…” I can keep going.
But we just ask the question: Given the proximity
and the density of this specific development, how on earth
is this development conforming with that specific
qualitative, dare I say, requirement that the 2020 General
Plan has put in place. It just doesn’t, and if anyone even
attempts to say that it conforms to that, they’re really
twisting certain facts and distorting those facts in a way
that’s beyond any form of reasonable belief.
I’m grateful for the time that you’ve afforded us
tonight. I think there is a real concern within the
community, but most importantly, if there’s one thing I’ll
walk away with now, it is look and concentrate on the
principles that we’ve articulated in a 2020 General Plan,
and I think that is one way of moving forward.
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VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you. Questions for the
speaker? I have one. Would you clarify what you meant by
the plan discourages drive-through traffic?
BEN ROXBOROUGH: No, I’m just quoting from the
2020 General Plan, and it says, “Most residential streets
in Los Gatos are designed to discourage through traffic,”
and so I can’t see how this plan is consistent with that.
VICE CHAIR KANE: That’s what I’m getting at…
BEN ROXBOROUGH: That’s encouraging 350 vehicles.
VICE CHAIR KANE: What is drive-through traffic?
BEN ROXBOROUGH: I’m just quoting the 2020
General Plan, I’m sorry.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you very much. Kathryn
Azad.
KATHRYN AZAD: Hi, there. I live on 420 Alberto
Way, right across the street from this monstrosity.
I will also be losing my view, but my concerns
are when they were working on the project for the
renovation of the motel as well as the new restaurant,
which is right next door to our complex, quite a few times
just trying to get to Highway 9 I would have to wait for
15-20 minutes, because there was no traffic going either
way. We could not even get out, and my thought was I know
of two or three pregnant girls just in my complex, let
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alone the Commons. How is an emergency vehicle going to get
in here? It would be impossible if there were no through-
traffic at all because they’re working and stopping us. How
about if I had an emergency? I had five cars in front of
me. It would be impossible to get out, so that’s a scary
thought.
Now, they were talking about how the technology
is going to be in this building and it could possibly be a
lot of people being there. Are they going to be working 24
hours a day? Are there going to be stipulations on work
hours? What if they are like a Google campus or a Netflix
or a Yahoo? That would definitely impede on our residential
area.
Three hundred and ninety parking spaces. I know
even on our street during the weekend people will drop one
car off and take off in another with a group of people, so
we have strange cars already parked on our street. What are
you guys going to do with the parking on the weekends? Is
there going to be security there? Is it something that
we’re going to have to worry about, because it’s already
hard to find parking in Los Gatos as it is? Once people
find out there are now 390 parking spaces underground on
Alberto Way we’ll be impacted by that also on the weekend
as well as just the traffic of trying to get to and from
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local places. It took me 20 minutes just to try to get to
the post office a couple of weekends ago, and I had to turn
around, and even there was a problem with an emergency
vehicle trying to get through and they couldn’t, so what
are you going to do on our little street? We’re not even a
main street in Los Gatos.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you. Questions for the
speaker? Thank you very much. Roman Rufanov followed by
Paul Gundotra, Timothy Lynch, and Sherry Burke.
ROMAN RUFANOV: My name is Roman; I live at 435
Alberto Way and I will concentrate on one main thing.
I have small children. We live on this side of
the street. There are no traffic lights on this street,
except one that is on a corner with Highway 9. For us to go
to school the only way out is along this road, along
Alberto Way, wait for the traffic light and then go up to
the queue. Now, imagine approximately 400 cars coming in
the morning, say, in two hours; that’s a car every 15
seconds. So every 15 seconds there will be a car turning
left, subject to control by the traffic light, then turning
left again into the parking structure. How it is possible
that children can’t cross the traffic here, the ingress and
egress from the parking structure. They have to go here to
the traffic light where, again, there might be the same 400
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cars spread over two hours. It’s becoming impossible to get
to the school, and unfortunately as you know, Alberto Way
has no other way out. We don’t have any other way out to
send our children to school without dealing with all this
additional traffic. The only way out is locked. What is the
name of this small street that goes up? It has fire,
whatever; it’s actually locked. There is no way out.
During the construction the trucks will be
coming. As the construction engineer indicated, it will be
whatever, 400 trucks need to come in and to dig this
underground parking. Construction cars are that high. My
children are that high. How are the construction guys going
to see small children? Again, 400 trucks coming in a matter
of whatever, one year, two years. The trucks are bigger
than children. Children don’t always see the trucks. We are
asking for trouble just with the traffic alone.
Other things were already addressed by the
previous speakers, specifically access for emergency and
fire vehicles. We have an elderly community, which requires
fast access of emergency vehicles; otherwise they may be
dead. Okay, so as is.
All right, so these are my primary concerns. I
think this project needs to be significantly scaled down as
well as to address the fact of how we’re going to deal with
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children, because we cannot cross the street, there are no
stop lights, people are speeding down, there is no bumps,
there is only one intersection where we can cross the
street, and to get to that we have to deal with 400 cars,
twice. So that’s my concern.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you, sir. Questions for
the speaker? Thank you. Paul Gundotra.
PAUL GUNDOTRA: Paul Gundotra. I won’t repeat
many of the comments that have already been made. I agree
with most of the opposition, but I wanted to make an
observation.
First of all, in 50 years this is my first
meeting to oppose any construction or attend any committee.
One of the observations I made was that you guys spent 30
minutes asking all kinds of questions on construction for
that two-story house, even though there was no opposition
at all. Here, there is so much opposition, and I got the
feeling from your Staff that they didn’t even care to
attend any of the meetings. That tells me you guys are
already (inaudible), the Staff has already agreed this
project should go ahead with all this much opposition.
Just ask yourself one question: If your parents
live there, would you want this much traffic in that only
one way out street? That’s all I’m asking. Just ask your
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conscience, would you allow this kind of construction if
your parents lived in the older home community? Thank you.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you, sir. Questions?
Thank you. Timothy Lynch.
TIMOTHY LYNCH: Hi, my name is Tim Lynch; I am
the facilities manager of the current buildings.
We watch people come across our property all the
time. Walking, walking their dogs, and all this kind of
things, kids riding their bikes in there. Signs mean
nothing. People will do what they want to do, wherever they
want to do it. So they’re talking about safety for their
kids? They’re not very safe right now.
Now, as far as traffic, I’ve been going in and
out of those buildings for over 25 years. I have only had
one incident where I could not come into that building
comfortably. Now, it was because there was an accident at
the crossroads where somebody pulled across the street and
got broadsided. I’ve been able to come in and out of those
buildings at any time of day and night, and have been doing
it for over 25 years, and at no time have I had to wait any
longer than one or two car lengths.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Mr. Lynch, you need to address
your comments to the Commission.
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TIMOTHY LYNCH: Okay. One or two car lengths to
get out. No problems at all getting in or out. They keep
referring to this number of 390 cars. They’re forgetting
that there is already 200 and some parking places in our
structure now, so there are not 390 more cars coming in.
There are already 200 and some parking places there at this
time, so you’re not tripling it, not all that kind of thing
that keeps being referred to. The numbers just keep getting
thrown out there and I don’t understand them, you know what
I mean?
Also I’d like to address speeding up and down the
road. They’re talking about safety of their kids. The
hardest thing getting in and out of our parking lot now is
the third driveway. You come out, you have to look both
ways, because you don’t know which way the cars are going
to come and get you, because there are cars parked on both
sides of the driveway itself. The cars that are speeding
down are coming from the units that are down the street,
not from our complex or from the complex they’re
representing to build. They’re coming down the street and
we have to watch out to make sure we don’t get broadsided
trying to get out of the parking lot now. So I see that the
safety issue is the more cars you have, sometimes it slows
people down, but I think people go too fast right now. By
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slowing things down, there’s actually more safety involved.
Laugh all you like.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you, Mr. Lynch. Wait, we
have a question. Commissioner Hudes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Thank you. Sometimes I get
accused of being a numbers guy, but I find data to be very
helpful in these things. Could you tell me how many parking
places there are now?
TIMOTHY LYNCH: I don't know that exactly, but I
can refer to… Wrong. You’re wrong.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Let me continue. I’m asking
the question here.
TIMOTHY LYNCH: My sister is the manager; she
would know the number though.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: If you’d like to provide
that information, we’d be happy to see that. Also, do you
have any data on how many cars enter and exit the parking
lot now and the general timeframes when that traffic
occurs?
TIMOTHY LYNCH: No, I left that up to the
professionals that did the study. All I know is from
practical experience, because I come and go there four or
five times a day and have been doing it for years.
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VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you very much, Mr. Lynch.
Sherry Burke.
SHERRY BURKE: Hi, my name is Sherry Burke and I
live at 420 Alberto Way, directly across from the office
complex. I’m opposed to the current proposed development
for these reasons:
I feel the increase in the square footage from
the existing buildings to the new buildings is massive, and
I believe the new buildings will be out of character for
our neighborhood and our small town. The current buildings
are nicely set back from the street; the new ones won’t be.
I feel the new development will bring more
traffic during the building phases as well as after
completion when the tenants move in. Traffic will be
heavily congested on Alberto Way, Los Gatos-Saratoga Road,
Highway 17, Los Gatos Boulevard, University Avenue, Santa
Cruz Avenue, and I’m sure other streets.
I’m concerned that the existing traffic studies
may not have taken into account the heavier traffic
encountered when school is in session. The driveway that I
use to enter our complex is directly across the street from
the development and before the entrance to the underground
garage, so I worry that in the AM hours I’m going to have
to turn left out of our driveway directly in front of a
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steady stream of cars on Alberto Way headed for the
entrance to their garage, and in the PM hours I’d have to
turn left and then merge in on the right with the steady
stream of traffic exiting from the underground garage. So
I’m not sure I’m ever going to get out, at least not
safely.
I am concerned about parking on our streets for
our guests and ourselves. Street parking is limited. It’s
been impacted by Grill 57 that recently opened, and it will
be impacted even more with this proposed development. While
the construction is ongoing we’ll have more construction
workers parking on our street. After construction a portion
of the street that we now park our cars on will be rezoned
with no parking, so I’m concerned that there is going to be
enough parking available for us.
For all of these reasons I ask that you vote no
on the current proposal. Thank you.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you. Questions for the
speaker? Commissioner Hudes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: I’m not positive, but I
believe that some parking spaces are proposed to be
eliminated on the street?
SHERRY BURKE: That’s correct, yes.
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COMMISSIONER HUDES: Are those spaces currently
used by residents, or in your experience by people who are
doing business in the business center now?
SHERRY BURKE: In my experience it’s primarily
residences, especially in the evening. During the daylight
hours there may be some parking there for people that are
going to businesses, but in the evening, prior to the
restaurant it’s been primarily used by the residences.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you very much. Paulette
Sato, Sergey Melnick, and Jean Paul Meunier.
PAULETTE SATO: Hi, my name is Paulette Sato; I
live at 420 Alberto Way, right across the street. I’ve been
there for about a year, so not that long, but I moved from
the east coast because I found it to be very quiet and
beautiful in this area.
I appreciate Mr. Lamb’s company saying that he’s
conscientious and has listened to the residents, but I
don’t believe that’s true; I have to agree with the man
with the blue and purple shirt. There hasn’t been enough
(inaudible) activity and communication between the
residents and the company. I don’t believe that at all.
Another thing I wanted to bring up was that this
building, 35-39’, is only two stories. If you look at the
pictures, the building that’s there now, I understand that
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the first floor is sunken, but it’s two floors now and it’s
considerably lower than what he’s proposing. It looks very
large, what he’s proposing, and just daunting for such a
small street.
Another person, I forgot who, mentioned before
that this is great for people in the Town; they can work
and live in the same town. I really don’t believe that’s
the case, I don’t think that’s going to happen, and I think
most people are going to end up having to commute. There is
no Caltrain in Los Gatos, and therefore they’re all going
to be driving.
We’ve gone over, and over, and over about the
traffic and I’m not going to reiterate that, but the
traffic will be very bad, because there’s not any mass
transit in the area, because Los Gatos is a small town and
they probably rejected it.
I’m familiar with some of his work. I work in Los
Altos; I’m a schoolteacher of middle school, Egan, and I’m
familiar with one of the buildings that he has there. It is
a very nice building, but it’s also on a major street. It’s
not on a cul de sac, a dead end street, so there are plenty
of outlets for people to come in and out of the building.
That’s really what I wanted to say, but I’m most
concerned about the fact that he hasn’t had a lot of
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support from the community and there have been a lot of
claims that he has discussed it at length, which I don’t
believe is true. So thank you for your time.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Let me see if there are any
questions for the speaker? Seeing none, thank you. As I
said earlier, Sergey Melnik, Jean Paul Meunier, and Debra
Chin, and Ms. Chin is my last card.
SERGEY MELNIK: My name is Sergey Melnik. Many
questions for concerns were addressed today here. Probably
I want to highlight some points that other people were
mentioning.
For instance, the study that was made. First it
was done a few years back, so we didn’t have the new
restaurant and the medical facility, so those added to
traffic numbers.
Second, even considering that the lot does not
significantly (inaudible). I mean, it is (inaudible) but
even there were some points that we already had the lot
with many cars in there, but those that will be now, they
will be most likely living… I mean coming here and out in a
short period of time versus where now it’s more or less
distributed over time, so the traffic will be heavy
anyways. That thing is just to keep in mind as well as is
that people who will be working in those buildings, they
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probably will come from…I mean some chance that they will
come from other cities as well, and they can send their
kids to our schools, because you can apply based on where
you work. So that is the load on our schools. My kids go to
Van Meter, which is already at high capacity, so that will
increase it even more.
The other thing is that safety is still a concern
for me, especially the construction time. We had the
construction going on there for a while with the restaurant
and the facilities, and there were closures of the
pedestrian areas, so we actually had to go on the streets
with the kids going to school, and that wasn’t very fun, so
I don’t want to repeat that again.
Another thing that was mentioned is that people
will be actually using the Town facilities and encouraged
to bike. That’s not easy to bike to the center of this to
the downtown, because they need to cross four… I mean it’s
two exits (inaudible) entrances to Highway 17. It’s not
that easy to bike, so people won’t be biking or like even
walking, because it’s just not safe, so they will be using
cars. If they need to go to the downtown, they will be
using cars, so that will increase the traffic as well.
And again, many cars will be going in and out,
and I like to bike there, so again, even with those exits
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and entrance, we are still biking, because there is a good
hike there, which you can bike going into Los Gatos, and we
like to do that, but it will be more complicated now.
And getting kids to activities is exactly at the
time after the school, especially the evening time it will
be a problem because of the traffic.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you very much. Questions?
Thank you, sir. Jean Paul.
JEAN PAUL MEUNIER: My name is Jean Paul Meunier.
A lot of remarks have been made already about the
traffic problem that would be generated if this project is
completed. I just wanted to add one small point, which is
related to the map here.
As you know, there is a traffic light here for
people coming from either Highway 17 or downtown Los Gatos
that want to turn left here on Alberto Way. There’s a
traffic light so that people who want to turn left have the
ability to do so, and the traffic coming down Highway 9 is
stopped to allow them to turn left. The same problem would
occur here with this building with 390 cars possibly trying
to turn left here between 8:00am and 9:00am, or 8:00am and
10:00am, or whatever, and people trying to exit this in the
morning trying to go to work or go to school. You’re going
to need a stop sign here to avoid collisions between people
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trying to exit here and people trying to turn left into
this parking lot, so you need a stop sign there, and as a
result whenever a flow of maybe ten cars can take advantage
of the green arrow and turn left here they will quickly
encounter this stop light here and stack up on this stretch
of Alberto Way, creating a gridlock. When this stretch is
filled up, people, even though having a green light here,
will have to wait until there is space available here and
these cars have been able to enter into the parking.
So basically you have two stop signs in a row, a
green arrow here and a stop light here, which creates a
gridlock here. I think it’s a mathematical problem that you
have to consider in this project.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you. Questions for the
speaker? Sir, did you say stop sign or a stoplight on
Alberto Way?
JEAN PAUL MEUNIER: I think it’s your choice. I
think you can either put a traffic light here with a green
light, or a stop sign. This being a small street, it would
probably be just a stop sign. But still, it’s one car at a
time. One car turns left, one car can go. One car turns
left, one car can go if it’s a stop sign, but that slows
down the traffic.
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VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you very much. My last
card is for Debra Chin.
DEBRA CHIN: Hi, good evening; I live at 154
Maggi Court in the Bridgeway townhomes. I didn’t plan to
speak tonight, but I feel compelled to express some
concerns I have.
I did attend the hearing and I went with an open
mind. I ask also that you deny the application for several
reasons, which I will add my own personal perspective to.
The first thing is obviously the mass and scale.
It seems that there’s a trend toward building toward the
FAR, whether it be residential or commercial, and the FAR
is something that is not guaranteed, it’s a guideline, and
we have to take into account the site and all the other
considerations that go into determination of what is the
appropriate size.
The second thing is traffic and safety. I do
bike. I started riding my bike downtown. It’s terrifying to
cross those exits into the downtown area. I live on Maggi
Court and a neighbor of ours bikes to Apple every day, and
he got hit by a car, which obviously he’s a very
experienced biker and this is something that will only be
exacerbated by the additional traffic.
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We talk about the traffic on the narrow street.
Cars are parked on both sides of the street and you
literally have to dodge sometimes when you are trying to
come down the street in either direction because of double
parked sides and also the speed at which people are coming
down that street, so I do believe there is a significant
safety issue, and on the weekends the highway backs up on
both sides, because of the beach. With this development I
believe we’re also going to have the same effect during
weekdays, so the quality of our life and also our ability
to go about our daily activities is going to be severely
impacted.
The other thing I want to mention is parking. I
think Commissioner Hudes mentioned there are parking spaces
that will be removed from the street as a result, and all
the parking is underground except for eight upper spaces,
and one might intuit that that is, again, to maximize the
building footprint.
The other thing I want to talk to is character
and collaboration with the community. I was in that room
with the neighbor who referred to witnesses. Shane opened
with a remark about how they don’t make inflammatory
remarks, and I sat there while there were similar comments
being made, and I actually spoke to Mr. Lamb and advised
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him that making antagonistic remarks toward the community
would not serve him. Thank you.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you. Questions for the
speaker? Thank you very much. The Applicant and the
Applicant’s team are invited back to the podium for five
minutes to provide any further comments.
RANDY LAMB: I think I’ll hold it this time. Five
minutes with a number of things that came up today isn’t
going to take…that’s going to cover two or three things.
How would you like us to do it? Would you like to ask us
questions relative to what you heard? What’s the best way
to respond?
VICE CHAIR KANE: I’d pick your top items, see
what you can do in five minutes, and then we may have some
questions for you.
RANDY LAMB: Since traffic was a big conversation
I think it’s good to have the consultants address the fact
that you’re not going to have 390 people coming in in the
AM peak and leaving in the PM peak. I think that was a big
misconception that’s actually pretty clear in the traffic
study, so let’s have them have that conversation, have the
architect talk through the changes that were made to the
building, and then I’ll make a couple of closing comments.
Is that all right?
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VICE CHAIR KANE: Okay.
AT VAN DEN HOUT: Good evening, my name is At Van
Den Hout; I’m a traffic and transportation engineer for
Hexagon Transportation Consultants.
Referring to the issue that’s been brought up a
lot tonight about the number of cars that would enter the
facility, the new project, in the morning, based upon our
calculations that are based on actual traffic surveys that
we are required to use to calculate how many cars actually
will be generated by the site, there will be 139 additional
vehicles in the morning coming into Alberto Way that will
turn into Alberto Way and turn into the parking garage. So
139 additional cars; that’s about one every 20-25 seconds.
The issue that was raised by some of the people
about the queuing into the parking garage, the fact that we
don’t see that as a problem at all that people won’t be
able to get in is because the cars that need to turn left
into the parking garage on Alberto Way need to give the
right-of-way to the through traffic going towards Highway
9. There are only 50 cars at that location where the
entrance of the parking garage is that would conflict with
the left-turning vehicles that go into the parking garage.
So there is only one car every minute going towards Highway
9 on Alberto Way to which the left-turning vehicles need to
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yield to, and in one minute you can easily accommodate 12
cars into the parking garage, so the fact that there would
be any queuing or spillback onto Alberto Way to Highway 9,
that’s not going to happen. So I hope that clarifies.
VICE CHAIR KANE: I don’t want to take up your
time right now. I’ll have questions for you later.
AT VAN DEN HOUT: Sure.
DAN KIRBY: Hi, I’m Dan Kirby with Arc Tec; I’m
the architect on the project.
I just wanted to address the Vice Chair’s earlier
concern right after the Staff presentation about the design
changes relative to the front of the building that faces
Alberto Way in the corners. In response to Staff comments
and some of the concerns of the residents we did redesign
the corners of the building, the prominent corners that
face Alberto Way, and what was done was the overall square
footage of the project was reduced by over 1,000 square
feet, and those front corners were reduced in height, and
if you look at the perspective rendering that’s on the
front of the presentation package you’ll see that the
mansard roof of the corners was dropped in height, and the
second floor plate was pulled back and we created some
balconies at those corners, and it’s pretty evident in the
perspective that I’ve drawn, but I just wanted to provide
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that clarification that that was in response to Staff and
the residents’ concerns. We created a little bit more
articulation of the roof heights and tried to pull the
corners down, and also created some relief on the façade to
reduce the overall bulk and mass of the buildings.
Questions? Thank you.
VICE CHAIR KANE: We’ll do questions after your
time.
SHANE ARTERS: Commissioners, I just wanted to
address the bike issues that were brought up. I am an avid
cyclist, have been for 35 years. I have been to the site.
Due to the Complete Streets initiative that you have here
we are going to be putting in a bike box. It’s not a bike
lane, just to clarify. That is to create visibility and
safety for cyclists that want to go of Alberto Way and use
the cycle routes.
ALICIA GUERRA: Chair and members of the
Commission, I just wanted to address a couple of the
comments that suggested that impacts were not fully
evaluated or that there were new impacts that hadn’t been
addressed. If you actually listened to the comments this
evening, all of the comments are based on analysis
contained in the very thorough EIR and analysis that the
Town Staff and consultant conducted, specifically air
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quality impacts were evaluated, health and safety issues,
emergency access issues, pedestrian, traffic, access,
freeway impacts, all of those impacts were addressed,
impacts were identified, they were less than significant,
and mitigated. There were no new significant impacts
addressed.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you. Your time is
expired. Let’s see if we have questions. Commissioner
Hudes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Thank you. I have many, many
questions, and I would maybe organize them by addressing
some of the traffic questions first, since that was the
topic addressed here, and then I also have questions about
the EIR, but let me just focus on some traffic.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Let’s see how far we can get.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Okay. With regard to
traffic, are there any ideas or solutions to encourage
pedestrian and bicycle access to the downtown?
AT VAN DEN HOUT: The improvement plans that are
part of the project is that the Applicant is proposing to
improve the pedestrian facility along the frontage on
Alberto Way as well as on Highway 9. Now there are
sidewalks that is right adjacent to the roadway, and the
Applicant is proposing and is willing to fund moving the
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sidewalk away from the road and have a little buffer zone
in between.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Are there any diagrams or
drawings that address that that we can see?
AT VAN DEN HOUT: There’s got to be a better way.
We have another one to the construction (inaudible)
improvement plans.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Then I would suggest it
might do you some good to explain what you’ve said. Is that
a drawing that we have already, or is that something new?
AT VAN DEN HOUT: Yeah, it is in the traffic
report.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Could you give us the page
number for that, please?
JOEL PAULSON: Commissioner Hudes, it’s in the
second packet of slides that was passed out at the
beginning of the meeting is what they’re referring to here.
AT VAN DEN HOUT: Correct.
RANDY LAMB: There’s also a picture of it in the
Justification Letter that was made to Ms. Kendra Burch, at
the last page too.
AT VAN DEN HOUT: Okay, we have the same graphic.
Great, thank you.
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As you can see, the red lineation you see here is
basically the improved sidewalk, the sidewalk that is moved
from the roadway, and there is now a buffer in between the
roadway—I think it’s a 5’ buffer with planting—and that’s
going along Alberto Way and then bends along Highway 9
where it’s also pulled away from the road. Again, there’s a
buffer in between, so the pedestrian sidewalk is not
immediately adjacent to the vehicles; there is a buffer of
about 5’ in between. And then there’s an improved crossing
at the ramp that the crosswalk is moved a little bit
further downwards to give better visibility for the
pedestrians.
And then a similar concept is done along Highway
9 going towards downtown where the sidewalk again is moved
to the north and a buffer is created for the pedestrians to
basically be farther away from the vehicle traffic.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Does that replace existing
sidewalk?
AT VAN DEN HOUT: That’s correct.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: And so basically the
sidewalk is being moved in and there’s a buffer next to it?
AT VAN DEN HOUT: That’s correct.
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COMMISSIONER HUDES: And you referenced an
improvement in the crosswalk to the entrance ramp. What
specifically is that improvement?
AT VAN DEN HOUT: That basically gives a little
bit better view of the pedestrians for traffic that is
using the ramp.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Is it being moved, or is it
being marked?
AT VAN DEN HOUT: It’s moved a little bit.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: What is the difference?
AT VAN DEN HOUT: It’s a little bit farther down
the ramp.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: So what you’ve addressed so
far addresses pedestrian. What about bicycle?
AT VAN DEN HOUT: My understanding is that the
curve of the road will be a little bit wider than Highway 9
for future potential bike facility. I think that it’s in
the General Plan that there might be a bicycle facility,
bike lane, sometime in the future, but the Applicant will
make no actual improvements for bicycles along Highway 9.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Have there been any
discussions with the Bicycle and Parking Commissions?
AT VAN DEN HOUT: I don’t believe so. Not to my
knowledge.
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COMMISSIONER HUDES: I’m still a bit lost about
how bicycle access could be improved to downtown. Maybe
you’d want to say one more thing about that.
AT VAN DEN HOUT: There are no bicycle
improvements proposed as part of the plan.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Okay.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Yeah, I had a question as
well. I started to talk about this earlier, but we needed
to hear what all the residents had to say.
It seems to me—I used to chair the Bicycle
Advisory Committee here and I was on the VTA BPAC for many
years—that you have this LEED Silver certification that
you’re seeking and there are all these great things on
sites for bicyclists, but I’m not seeing the connectivity
part of this coming to fruition.
For example, someone lives currently in Mountain
View and they commute to the site, how would they get to
work on a bike safely? Right now, unless something is
changed, there is no access from Highway 9 directly into
Los Gatos Creek Trail without going around things. I’m just
trying to see how it would be safe. I don't know that
there’s any way that you can make crossing over those
highway entrances and exits safe without putting a bridge
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in, so I just wondered if any discussions had ever been
made about that, because that is part of the whole picture.
AT VAN DEN HOUT: Not part of the project, I
don’t think. Maybe Staff can answer that.
LISA PETERSEN: Thank you. Lisa Petersen, Town
Engineer. As part of reviewing this project we have a
little bit different exhibit, but that’s fine, we can use
this one. So what we have requested is the addition of the
bike box at the end of Alberto Way. As I mentioned
previously, in our future projects for traffic mitigation
fees one of the improvements that we were planning on doing
is putting in Complete Streets between University and Los
Gatos Boulevard, so one of the things that we have asked
this project to do is to widen the roadway on the north
side from Alberto Way going towards Highway 17 northbound
on ramps in order to allow us to get a future bicycle lane
in that area. It wouldn’t actually be striped with this
project, but we would end up having that area available to
us on the street.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I understand that, but how
would that help crossing over the highway exit?
LISA PETERSEN: Ultimately, as far as the project
goes, there has to be a certain amount of nexus as well. Of
course, we would like to ask the developer to provide us
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with a bicycle lane as far as we possibly could, but we
ultimately end up looking at the area just around the
project, because otherwise there is no nexus there to ask
them, for example, to give us a bicycle lane that’s a mile
down Highway 9.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: So you’re basically saying
that as much as you…you even asked for as much as you feel
you could, and the bike box is going to be…along with the
potential future bike lane area, that isn’t going to be
actually implemented at this moment in time?
LISA PETERSEN: Town Council, and I actually did
share this with the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory
Commission as well, and talked to them about these
improvements.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Thank you.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Questions for Staff? So that we
all know, what is a bike box?
LISA PETERSEN: As you can see where the location
is, it’s right at the traffic signal; it’s a location that
only a bicycle can go in. So it allows a bicycle to basic
be in a shielded area without having to be next to cars, so
it’s almost like their own private space in the road.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Do we have other bike boxes in
Town?
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LISA PETERSEN: We don’t, but there are some
other cities that do, for example, Palo Alto and San Jose.
VICE CHAIR KANE: And when you say a space of
their own, it’s because the pavement is painted a color?
LISA PETERSEN: It’s painted green and the cars
are not allowed to be in that area.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you. Commissioner Burch.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: I’m just going to do a quick
follow up, because you said that you took this information
and you did go talk to the Bike Coalition. Could you please
provide in your words their feedback on this?
LISA PETERSEN: I think in general the Bicycle
and Pedestrian Advisory Commission is excited about any
type of improvements that occur in regard to bicycle and
pedestrian improvements, so having talked to them also
about the separated sidewalks, I think that was… Any time
those types of improvements are provided to the Commission,
of course they’re always in support of those types of
improvements, and we’re looking to put in as much as we
can, of course.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Commissioner Hudes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: I have other questions for
the Applicant that I’d like to focus on.
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VICE CHAIR KANE: Well, I have a question for
Staff if I could stay with her.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Okay.
VICE CHAIR KANE: I don’t want to use the Denzel
Washington again, but talk to me like I’m a six year old. I
don’t see that Highway 17 exchange as bicycle or pedestrian
friendly. I’ve been doing that strip for 30-something years
and I know there are lots of bad behaviors there, lots of
impatient people. Tell me, and I respect your expertise,
how are we going to do this? How are we going to tell
people bicycles are cool, don’t hit them? Please, I’m
serious. It’s a culture thing and I don’t have it. Is
everybody else going to get it?
LISA PETERSEN: Are you talking about in terms
of…
VICE CHAIR KANE: Safety.
LISA PETERSEN: …the bike box or what we can put
in at this location? I guess I need some clarification.
VICE CHAIR KANE: The Applicant is talking about
pedestrian friendly, bicycle friendly, and my cynical view,
which can be amended, is once they get off that property
there’s nothing friendly. Those are mean streets, as Piri
Thomas once said. That is a 17 interchange, everybody wants
to get on it, go, go… You’ve seen it. It’s even accelerated
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by the downhill where you can really pick up some speed.
Outside of the very lovely, well-intended project, I don’t
see evidence of a culture inclined to become a bicycle or
pedestrian friendly atmosphere. When we talk about giving
discounts to transit, the two bus stops, one is a half a
mile, the other is three-quarters of a mile away, and I’m
just dying to get to work and I’m going to walk that last
half mile and get my hair messed and bugs in my teeth. Tell
me what I’m missing about this culture once I get off the
property.
LISA PETERSEN: I think that one of the things
that it’s important to acknowledge is that the Town is
trying to move towards a more bicycle and pedestrian
friendly town, and one of the things that we are moving
forward with that the Bicycle and Pedestrian Commission has
been very heavily involved with is this bicycle and
pedestrian master plan.
So ultimately we have a consultant on board
that’s putting this together. What they’re going to do is
look at these areas that are very challenging, such as the
area right here at Alberto Way and Highway 9, and Highway 9
in general from Santa Cruz to Los Gatos Boulevard. These
are very challenging areas, and that’s one of the reasons
that we are getting this bicycle and pedestrian master plan
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and putting it together and hopefully going to be able to
have good information come out of that that can ultimately
give us the capital projects we need to make the Town more
bicycle and pedestrian friendly.
JOEL PAULSON: Through the Vice Chair I would
just offer that you’re talking about an existing condition
with the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission that
this application does not have a nexus to solve, and so I
think it’s important to make sure that there is no doubt
that it’s not a safe bike and pedestrian environment across
Highway 17 on Highway 9, but also—and the Town Attorney may
have some additional comments, and Ms. Petersen spoke to it
before—because there is an existing condition, the project
has not created that condition, and the project is not
obligated to solve that condition, and so if the Town
Attorney has any additional information.
ROBERT SCHULTZ: We talked about his issue on a
few different projects. It seems lately that we all know
there are traffic problems, there are ways problems, there
is cut through traffic problems, and a project has to
mitigate the environmental impacts that it creates. It
isn’t required to solve the Town’s problems, so because
this is a very challenging intersection it isn’t required
to solve problems, because it hasn’t created those
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problems. It only has to mitigate what it is creating, and
so that’s where the nexus has to be drawn. So if you’re
looking for this project to build a separate bridge over
Highway 17, there’s no nexus between this project and that
requirement.
There might be other things you can do to try to
make this a safer intersection, but I think what you’re
trying to get at is a completely different project that the
Town has to tackle as capital improvement project, and
there might be a percentage that this project would have to
chip in for; that’s through the traffic mitigation funds.
But to try to solve problems is what it seems like we’ve
been doing a lot in the last few projects that have come
forward, and I have tried to steer you away from that
unless you can find a nexus.
VICE CHAIR KANE: All right. Other questions?
Commissioner Hudes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: I wanted to move back to the
Applicant please on the traffic, and the questions I have
come back to some things that were said.
First is the concern about the left turn from
Alberto Way to the parking lot and the stacking that could
occur back onto Highway 9 if in fact Alberto is backed up.
Could you tell me again why that will not happen, in your
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opinion, and whether there is a requirement for a stop sign
near the parking lot entrance?
AT VAN DEN HOUT: Maybe I can respond to the
second question first. In order to justify a stop sign
there has to be some amount of traffic volume at that
particular conflict point that needs to be higher than a
certain threshold for a stop sign to be in place. I didn’t
do the calculation, but I can guarantee you that the
threshold will not be met for a stop sign at that location.
Secondly, the fact that we don’t believe that
there will be any queuing issues; maybe I can use this
graphic to explain this better. Traffic is turning left on
this left turn lane into Alberto Way, and then turns left
into the driveway. It’s not shown here, but that’s
basically the movement they have to make.
The only traffic that this left turning vehicle
needs to yield to to get into the parking garage is from
traffic that’s coming southbound on Alberto Way, correct?
So right now, based on our traffic counts, there are
approximately 50 vehicles every hour coming down the road
here towards Highway 9. Five-oh. That is about one vehicle
for every few minutes, a little less, actually. It’s one
vehicle every minute.
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For a vehicle to turn left into the parking
garage, it’s less than five seconds, but let’s just use
that it takes them five seconds to make that left turn. So
there are gaps of approximately one minute between each
vehicle on average, sometimes just longer, and sometimes
shorter. So for traffic to turn left you could have 12 cars
turning left before the next vehicle comes, because you
have a minute to do that, because there are gaps of a
minute long. Sometimes a minute-and-a-half, sometimes 30
seconds. So you can move 12 vehicles turning into the site
every minute, and there are only 139 coming down, 140,
something like that. So there shouldn’t be any issue with
queuing backup towards Highway 9.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Can I ask a question
related to the 139 number you mentioned? I’m looking at
your traffic study graphic 4, and so I get how you came up
with the 139, but what I didn’t understand is the AM peak
hour you said the total trips from the proposed project
would be 181. When there are 390 spots in the garage, why
would it only be 181?
AT VAN DEN HOUT: Okay, because not all employees
come… Well, first of all, not all 390 will be there on a
daily basis, because people come and people go, but based
on empirical data not everybody comes in to the one hour,
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because what we’re talking about here is the 139 or 189 you
were talking about. It’s the number of vehicles that will
get to the site in the busiest hour of the morning, so
let’s say between 7:45 and 8:45, or 7:30 and 8:30; it’s an
hourly volume. Not all the workers come into the site in
that one hour. There are people who come at night, there
are people who have meetings, people who start early, come
in at 6:00. I mean, it varies, so on average, and that’s
all based on actual data that has been collected over time
at many, many different office buildings, it’s only…is it
189?
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I’m reading your chart; it
says 181 total trips, and then you backed up 42 trips for
the peak for the existing facilities, and that was a net of
139.
AT VAN DEN HOUT: That’s correct.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: And so what you’re saying
is this is the absolute max hour; it’s a one single hour
thing? Because you did have total daily trips of 1,031…
AT VAN DEN HOUT: That’s daily.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: …in and out of the…over
the course of…
AT VAN DEN HOUT: Right.
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COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: …and that’s between like
7:00 and 6:00?
AT VAN DEN HOUT: Twenty-four hours. I mean there
might be somebody at 11:00 o'clock.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: So out of the net of what
you were saying is 700, the peak would be 139 in one single
hour in the morning?
AT VAN DEN HOUT: That’s correct.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: And then 102 in the PM?
AT VAN DEN HOUT: Yes.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Commissioner Hudes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Following up to a question,
an issue that was brought to us in testimony. Daily trips,
proposed and existing, what do these numbers mean on this
study graphic 4?
AT VAN DEN HOUT: Yeah, that’s a good question.
Actually, it’s only for informational purposes. The traffic
analysis does not do any actual traffic analysis of daily
traffic; it’s for informational purposes only. Because the
traffic analysis is concentrated on peak hour traffic for
CEQA guidelines and per the Town’s guidelines to do traffic
studies, you have to look at AM and PM peak hour trips.
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COMMISSIONER HUDES: So do you have any
information on actual traffic from the existing use
compared to the proposed use?
AT VAN DEN HOUT: Only for the peak hour, not on
a daily level.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: I wanted to get a broader
opinion about the safety issue, and as an engineer I
believe we are in an area of nexus, because there will be
an increase in traffic into this proposed facility. What
ideas are there to improve the traffic safety situation
with regard to access of emergency vehicles given the
residents that exist there already and the additional
traffic proposed?
AT VAN DEN HOUT: Additional safety. Yeah, you
want to answer?
RANDY LAMB: There are two parts to this
discussion. First is construction, the second is after
construction is complete, so during the 14 months of
construction from demolition to completion we will have an
agreement with the Town on a construction management plan,
and each day we will actually have flagmen at the site for
a couple of reasons. One, to coordinate our own
construction traffic, but then two, to also coordinate
emergency vehicles where our construction traffic will be
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shut down in the event of an emergency. We assured everyone
that came to the open houses, especially those from Los
Gatos Commons, that we would handle onsite construction
that way and we assured the Town the same.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: So you’re proposing a flag
solution during construction?
RANDY LAMB: That’s right.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: What about ongoing with the
additional traffic?
SHANE ARTER: For ongoing purposes, and mainly
for pedestrian safety, Public Works has asked us to do a
number of improvements. We are providing the signal
interconnect conduit from Los Gatos Boulevard down to
Alberto Way; we’re putting the cable in for the
signalization of those lights; we are upgrading the
signalize intersection and the light systems; we’re putting
LED signalized indicators in; we’re putting the ADA
compliant pedestrian in; we’re putting in the new
signalized overheads and video detection system, and we’re
repainting the pedestrian crosswalks to increase pedestrian
safety.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: As a result of neighborhood
feedback about this emergency access situation was there
ever consideration of widening Alberto Way, particularly
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from the curve that appears to occur right at around the
property line to Highway 9? Was there ever discussion about
that as a possible solution?
SHANE ARTERS: I think Public Works can address
that.
LISA PETERSEN: Thank you. Ultimately as far as
widening I guess my question would be are you talking about
trying to get an extra lane in there or just extra space
for an emergency vehicle? Currently the road width is 36’
wide, which is appropriate for two lanes of traffic, one
each direction, plus parking, and it is of course wide
enough to get emergency vehicles down. So the widening
component for emergency vehicles wouldn’t necessarily make
any difference. I guess I don’t completely understand.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Well, again, my question
really was for the Applicant in responding to public
concern and input about access for emergency vehicles. Was
there ever consideration of widening that road, perhaps
giving up some of the setback or some of the building size
in order to widen that? Was that ever a topic that was
raised?
RANDY LAMB: It was raised. Let’s talk a little
bit about what’s here. The reason that there are three
lanes now, or what we propose as the Applicant is three
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lanes, is from feedback we got from the neighborhood in
terms of people, how they got into the site in the evening,
and how they get out in the morning. That actually came
from us to the Town saying this is the type of feedback
we’re getting, could this be an option? Do we need to widen
the road? Do we not need to widen the road? What you have
to remember here is the way this subdivision—and everyone
living here is part of an original subdivision of this
area, whether it was for residential or at the end it was
office—whoever subdivided that area chose to have it more
bucolic and to have a straight line going down the middle.
Maybe it was because that’s what the farms or whatever were
as land uses there before.
In our particular case we have a couple of areas,
and the community or that neighborhood isn’t actually on
the same page ironically. This particular area, we’ve
actually offered that if it would help to straighten this
out without it creating a “speed zone,” we’d be open to
having that discussion. We actually talked also about, and
a number of people that are here from Los Gatos Commons
asked, why couldn’t we just have red zones throughout the
entire area? That isn’t actually shared by a number of the
other homeowners associations who felt that they actually
have access parking that they want to be able to have
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access to out on the street. So there isn’t common
agreement between the various groups that are represented
here in those four homeowners associations of what we can
control in terms of our frontage. We actually had
considered taking this and straightening it out and
potentially making this wider. We actually did ask Public
Works about widening this and if that was needed, and the
answer we got was no, but in terms of public feedback that
was our reaction to that feedback.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Is that still something that
is on the table as far as you’re concerned? I will have
questions for Public Works later.
RANDY LAMB: Well, I think it becomes relative.
Does that mean we’re widening it by a foot or by a mile,
right? I mean that’s the part that’s difficult to
determine.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Okay, thank you.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Commissioner Burch.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Since we are talking a bit
about the traffic in that area, I want to bring up a couple
of things and see if you can answer for me. If you look on
sheet C-2.0, that’s your drainage and utility plan, when
you take a look at that you’re going to be tying to the
existing storm sewer across the street, and obviously there
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are other street renovations. I know you don’t have a
traffic plan in place right now, so I’m somewhat bringing
this up for a future point that this is the exact type of
construction I think the residents specifically are asking
about, because that does involve opening a trench, putting
plates back on it, but it has to be open to get inspected.
In the past on your other projects, how have you dealt with
that specifically in ensuring that there is still access
for the residents and emergency vehicles?
RANDY LAMB: Well, in this particular case—and I
think someone here saw one of our projects works in Los
Altos—we actually had trenching in that project, which we
completed in May 2015. We have several areas where we had
different trenching, whether it was for electrical, sewer,
or for our water supply, because we had to do a number of
things.
In that particular case one side of the road is
always open, always, so you’re only doing one half at a
time technically in terms of what’s there, and then you’re
plating it depending on what is there, you’re doing the
other side. That other side that’s been plated is opened,
and so you always have that. In this particular case, where
we would have flagmen there, that would absolutely be
covered in terms of what their purview would be.
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COMMISSIONER BURCH: I would assume, should the
project move forward at some point, that you would be
sharing your traffic plan with the residents so that they
can understand the scheduling of what that might be closed
down, so if they have appointments or things they’re trying
to schedule they can work around that.
RANDY LAMB: We actually got a number of people
that gave us feedback that they’d like to have weekly
meetings, and we agreed to it. We’ve offered it. In fact,
in the last series of open houses we openly said we’ll set
a time each week and anyone that wants to know any
information about any part of the project, anyone is having
problems with dust control, if they’re having problems with
noise or anything else, we’re happy to address it then.
They’ll have our business cards that will have our cell
numbers on them; they’ll have everything.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Chair, may I ask one more
follow up in relation?
VICE CHAIR KANE: Yes.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: So just staying on this same
vein, it’s a pretty large site, so I would assume that
through phasing we could have a construction laydown area,
there are places for parking for your onsite crews, trucks
that are bringing things will actually come onto the site
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and will not be doing deliveries in the street. Is that
your plan? I don’t see a phasing plan or anything in here.
I assume you haven’t gotten to that stage yet…
RANDY LAMB: No.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: …but I’m sure you’ve thought
it through, so can you share that?
RANDY LAMB: As you know, we have 390 parking
spaces. The first three months of construction will all be
excavation, and that’s demolition, excavation, and shoring.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Which is a lot of trucks. I
mean we’ve all seen it. How are you going to do that?
You’re hitting exactly what I was worried about. How on the
site are you going to have the flows of those trucks so
they’re not idling in the street?
RANDY LAMB: I don't know that I have it here,
but there is an actual ingress and egress plan that shows…
Can I show you?
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Yeah.
RANDY LAMB: I’ll show you on here. It’s not
necessarily exact, but what it shows is most of the trucks
will either be coming northbound or southbound on Highway
17 to get to the site. They’ll come in through this
particular left turn lane off Los Gatos-Saratoga, onto
Alberto Way, and then the actual routing comes back towards
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the end, and then works its way through the site and then
back out again, and then directly back out to Highway 17.
So there is an ingress/egress plan for excavation
exclusively that’s in one of the packets that’s here.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: I’m going to look at Staff
and say we can make that a part of Conditions of Approval
that those truck will not be idling on the street, that
they will follow a traffic plan on the site?
JOEL PAULSON: Parks and Public Works always… So
I’ll speak for them, and they can jump up and down in the
air if I speak the wrong terms here, but truck route plan
is something that is going to be necessary and required and
reviewed by Parks and Public Works for any operation that
requires this amount of excavation and offhaul.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Thank you. I have more, but
I know there are so many others here.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Just thinking about the
questions that Commissioner Burch is asking, you clearly
explained it in your first presentation, all the experience
you have making these kinds of developments and they all
look great and all that, but it did dawn on me, have you
done a project like this in basically a residential
neighborhood? There are 400 residents or something like
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that on Alberto Way. Have you done a project like this, and
how do you address their… Because I’m sure other
neighborhoods would have similar types of concern.
RANDY LAMB: Absolutely. We’ve had probably four
projects that have been on residential streets. We had a
large one that anyone who knows Redwood City is on Woodside
Road. Woodside Road is a very busy highway basically, same
as Los Gatos-Saratoga Road. It was a five-story residential
condo project, and it immediately backed up to probably
something in the range of 600 residential units, plus a
horseshoe area where people were that was probably another
300 units. We had almost an identical staging plan there,
and the site itself was about an acre, so we didn’t even
have as much room to stage the project; on this one we
actually have two acres.
We had a very tight management process in terms
of how we managed it, not only onsite but with the Town,
but we also had almost, I want to say, under a handful of
complaints as it came to demolition, excavation, and
shoring. In fact, we even had neighbors that came and asked
us when we were going to finish up excavation and shoring
after they were completely done, and they had been done for
about three weeks. So we’re really careful about that
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phase, because frankly, that’s probably the most impacted
timeframe during a construction project.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I understand about the
construction. I guess then there’s also the land use, and
so you’re describing a situation where you’re putting more
high-density residential in a residential neighborhood
versus this is clearly like a mixed-use type environment.
RANDY LAMB: Yeah, but that particular project
alone was very high-density on an acre site, so whether it
was residential or not I think what you’re asking me have
you managed a project before where we built it to the
comfort of the neighbors.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Yes.
RANDY LAMB: Yes.
VICE CHAIR KANE: And you did?
RANDY LAMB: Yes.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Okay. Commissioner Burch.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Unless my other fellow
commissioners have other questions along those lines, I was
going to move to some of the architectural. Go right ahead.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Just a couple of small
traffic ones, or parking.
The spaces that are being eliminated on the
street, I couldn’t tell, in one part it said I think four
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plus one plus one, and in another place it said eight. How
many are being eliminated on the street?
RANDY LAMB: There’s a total of eight.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: And was there any discussion
with the residents about being able to park in the parking
lot with that elimination?
RANDY LAMB: Thank you for asking that question;
we didn’t cover it earlier. There were a number of comments
about parking that we didn’t get to cover.
There are seven parking stalls that are visitor
stalls at grade, and the remainder of the parking stalls,
383, are below grade. That particular parking will be for
our tenants, the underground areas, the two stories of
underground parking will be for our tenants only, and it
will be daytime. I’m sure there will be set hours, 7:00am
to 6:00pm, let’s say. That parking structure will be closed
at night from 6:00pm at night until 7:00am the next
morning, and on a Friday night from 7:00pm till 6:00am on
that Monday. It’s a safety issue not only for our tenants,
and I’ve said this in all of the community meetings, I
think it’s a safety issue for residents who might get used
to parking down there, and we have no ability in off hours
to secure that for their safety.
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VICE CHAIR KANE: We’ve had discussions in the
past where work hours are regulated, and I’ve always had
difficulty understanding. Are you saying the parking lot is
going to be locked up and closed at 6:00 or 7:00, or
whenever? What if I stay over?
RANDY LAMB: At night?
VICE CHAIR KANE: Yes.
RANDY LAMB: When I say that it means there’s no
access in unless you have a card, and we have enough area
there to…
VICE CHAIR KANE: I think I got it. There will be
no security personnel, but there will be cards to allow me
to get out and perhaps even in.
RANDY LAMB: The card is for you to get in. You
don’t need a card to get out; you just have to drive up to
the activator.
VICE CHAIR KANE: All right, thank you. If I
could stay on the garage for a second, I’m trying to
understand the plans. There’s a ramp that is both in and
out from the ground level to the first.
RANDY LAMB: Okay, so landscape plan. Just to
route you here, it’s Los Gatos-Saratoga, Alberto Way, and
Public Works should probably weigh in on this as well. One
of the discussions always in these when you’re having an
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ingress/egress or an inbound/outbound on a parking garage
is where’s the safest place to put it? I know there were a
number of comments that came up tonight. The safest place
to put it is the furthest place you can on a site away from
a major intersection; that’s absolutely the top priority. I
know that wasn’t completely the answer to your question.
VICE CHAIR KANE: It wasn't even my question.
RANDY LAMB: I know, but somebody asked it, so I
just wanted to answer. There is only one way into this
project, which is the very end here up against a common
fence with Las Casitas. You come in at this grade level,
and then you go down into the garage. What you’re seeing
here is the shading areas that show you that elevation. And
then this actually serves not only as inbound, but
outbound, but for anyone that’s in this visitor parking
area, they’ll come in this way and then out, and right back
out to Los Gatos-Saratoga.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you. Now my question was
that ramp that gets you down and up, if I’m going down, I
guess it becomes visually obvious that there’s no place to
park. According to the designs I looked at, I have to make
a sharp left turn and then a sharp right turn, to go down
to the next level.
RANDY LAMB: I haven’t looked at this in a while.
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VICE CHAIR KANE: The up/down is in the middle.
That’s why I have to make all those turns.
RANDY LAMB: It goes straight down and then left.
Okay, so the way this goes is it goes all the way down to
the end and then left, is that what you’re asking?
VICE CHAIR KANE: But how do I get to the bottom
floor? It’s in the middle.
RANDY LAMB: You’re either going to come all the
way around and down, or you're going to come back through
here and down through the middle, or you can make an
immediate left if you want to.
VICE CHAIR KANE: That’s what I meant.
RANDY LAMB: Yeah, so there are three different
ways to get there. Immediate left, straight down, back
through here, and around through here.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Now you know this better than I
do. In case of an emergency, and let’s say the parking lot
was three-quarters full, is that SOP for design on garages
that I’m on the bottom floor and I’ve got to get up that
one lane, make those curves and get up another one lane,
and try to get out on Alberto?
DAN KIRBY: Typically when we do a multi-level
parking garage we want to make sure that the main ramp to
get down to the next level is somewhat remote from the
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entrance to the garage; we don’t want to put those two
things right together, because then you’ve got cars coming
up and down that are conflicted with each other. You want
to get people into the garage, have them move through here
at slow speed, look for a space, we don’t find a space,
they work their way down to the next level that’s somewhat
removed from the ramp that’s coming right into the garage.
That’s the safest way to handle it.
When you talk about emergencies, if there’s an
emergency like a fire or an earthquake people are not going
to jump into their cars and try to race their cars out of
the garage; they’re going to be going on foot out of the
building to an evacuation area out in front of the
building.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Let’s say the school bell rang
at 5:00 o'clock.
DAN KIRBY: I’m sorry?
VICE CHAIR KANE: We’ll, we’re all going home,
and we’ve all got to get up that one ramp to get out on
Alberto.
DAN KIRBY: Right.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Tell me that that’s okay.
DAN KIRBY: It is okay, because you want the
people coming up from the lower level of the garage to not
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be conflicting with the people that are coming up this
ramp. You want the queuing to be coming up separately from
that location; that’s why we separate them. If they’re
right together, then everybody is moving at the same time
up the same ramp.
VICE CHAIR KANE: But there’s one ramp to get
from the second to the first floor.
DAN KIRBY: Correct.
VICE CHAIR KANE: One ramp to get to the first
floor to Alberto, and in your experience, people—how many
did we say, 300?—trying to go home at 5:00 o'clock. That
works?
DAN KIRBY: They don’t all go at the same time. I
can answer the question.
VICE CHAIR KANE: I wrote that note. Do we have
any ability to request the residents to stagger?
DAN KIRBY: The reason we separate them is
because these people on this first level below grade are
going to go up this ramp while these people are still
coming up from the bottom level. Does that make sense? You
don’t want to have them all trying to go out at the same
time. That’s part of the reason why you separate the two
ramps to the two levels.
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VICE CHAIR KANE: What control do we have over
that? That’s what I’m looking for. I don’t see everybody
able to leave from the bottom basement going up one ramp,
one ramp, and then Alberto unless there was… We’d talked
earlier about having contracts with the incoming residents
on various aspects of their business, like number of
employees and that kind of thing, but I was wondering if
you could, or have in the past, dealt with multiple
employers to encourage staggered work times? They can’t all
leave at 5:00 o'clock.
AT VAN DEN HOUT: Maybe I can answer that. There
are hundreds of those examples in office buildings where
this occurs where a parking garage is next to office
buildings. It’s the same concept that happens in the
afternoon that not all 390 are going home at the same time.
They don’t leave all at 5:00 o'clock. Typically what
happens is around 5:00 o'clock, 5:05, 5:10, there are more
people leaving the site than 5:45 maybe, so there might be
a little bit of traffic in the garage to get out, which is
very typical; it’s just like a typical road.
The good thing about this design is the way they
have to access is there is very little conflict for the
traffic to get out of the parking garage, because once they
get to the exit of the parking garage they turn right onto
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Alberto Way. There’s very little conflict for those cars to
turn, because there’s hardly any traffic on Alberto Way, so
they turn right and then go straight to Highway 9. This is
an almost continuous flow of traffic, so the fact that
there might be some queuing in the garage to get out, it
happens everywhere, it happens at every garage, but there’s
no (inaudible).
VICE CHAIR KANE: As they come up from the level
below the street, and they’re coming up toward Alberto Way,
is there a stop sign there?
AT VAN DEN HOUT: (Inaudible).
VICE CHAIR KANE: The cars on Alberto would have
the right-of-way?
RANDY LAMB: You’re talking about here where
they’re taking the right?
VICE CHAIR KANE: Yeah.
RANDY LAMB: Absolutely there would be a stop
sign. Oh, yeah, absolutely.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Which gives the Alberto traffic
the right-of-way…
RANDY LAMB: Of course.
VICE CHAIR KANE: …unless they want to be
courteous. All right. I am just not familiar with that
design. The Commercial Design Guidelines talk about a
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number of things that are far more reduced than what we
have before us, so I need to adjust to that, maybe, because
I don't know if we have a similar complex in town.
JOEL PAULSON: We have one with three levels of
underground parking.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Where?
JOEL PAULSON: The original Netflix buildings
have three levels of underground parking under those
buildings.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Okay. And that’s on a major
Winchester street.
JOEL PAULSON: That is on Winchester, but it has
other conflict points and a stoplight.
VICE CHAIR KANE: And it’s a huge property and
it’s not surrounded by residential, not on that side of the
street.
JOEL PAULSON: There are 291 residential units
right behind it…
VICE CHAIR KANE: Over on the other side.
JOEL PAULSON: …that access the same alley.
DAN KIRBY: One thing that I just wanted to add
that I think our traffic engineer is alluding to is the
freeway is in this direction and you had to come here and
make a left, so now you’re crossing two lanes of traffic;
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that would be a much more difficult situation than making a
right and right. This is going to pull up pretty smoothly
at the end of the day; people heading to the freeway are
not going to be stacked up waiting to try to make a more
difficult left turn.
SHANE ARTERS: Chairman Kane, just one other
thing too that may help you. Typically when we build
underground parking structures we do create them with site
circulation patterns and stop signs; that is just inherent
and natural in that. So if you’re not used to that we’d be
happy to show you garages where that has been implemented
at our Los Altos or other projects where you can see that
it’s there to protect the safety of the vehicles and the
people.
VICE CHAIR KANE: My concern on the traffic is
we’re talking about important elements of the project, and
I feel like I wish I knew a good way to get to the macro
elements, which are the intensity and the scale of the
project. What the Town consulting architect said in his
first letter, which I’m thinking wasn’t really addressed in
the second letter, was mitigated to some extent. But the
Commercial Design Guidelines have words in it that try to
get to the emotion of the Town, the feel of the Town. “The
community built environment is characterized by relatively
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small scale buildings, a quiet architectural demeanor,
respect for neighboring properties, and the attention to
architectural detail and landscaping.” I’m thinking I can
get two out of four for you, but I don't know where to go
with the rest of it, especially on that one corner that I
mentioned earlier.
There are other sections of the Commercial Design
Guidelines. “Review the common design guidelines in the
introduction.” This is advice to us when we’re trying to
implement a project. “Of special importance are the
guidelines which stress design that maintains and
reinforces the unique scale and character of Los Gatos.” So
I’m defining, at least presently, the unique scale as being
what’s there, and I’m faced with something maybe over three
times the size of that, so I don't know that I’m vis-à-vis
that triple I’m able to maintain the scale.
I’m looking to my commissioners for when we deal
with Larry Cannon’s first letter, how do I mitigate, how do
I ameliorate what doesn’t seem to have been achieved. Sir.
CHARLES EREKSON: My sense of where we are at the
meeting, we’re at the moment where we’re asking questions
of the Applicants, and I’m mindful of the fact that it’s
seven minutes after 11:00 and we would adjourn at 11:30,
and I think it would be helpful to all parties to focus on
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the moment of the meeting that we’re at, that we’re not in
the deliberations, we’re at the moment of the meeting when
we’re questioning the Applicants.
ROBERT SCHULTZ: I was going to state the same
thing. We’re still in the question period. If there are no
more questions for the Applicant, then we can finish up
with them.
VICE CHAIR KANE: I guess my questions go to the
ineffective rhetorical of explain to me how this is
applicable and consistent with the project, and I don’t
know how to do that once they leave. But I will defer; it
is getting late. Commissioner Hudes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: As I mentioned earlier, I do
have many more questions of the Applicant, some relating to
the EIR. I don’t know that we really have the time to start
going through that yet, but I did have one more question
about the traffic and the flow, if I may proceed with it?
VICE CHAIR KANE: Yes, you may. Given the hour,
and Commissioner Erekson is right, it’s getting late, I
think we’re going to, if we can, if we can’t it’s okay too,
but if we can complete our questions of the Applicant I can
close that portion of the hearing tonight, or we can leave
it open and reconvene on a date certain, finish questioning
the Applicant, and then decide what the Commission wants to
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do. Commissioner Erekson, is that along the lines of what
you were saying?
CHARLES EREKSON: I’ve asked all the questions I
need to ask of the Applicant. I can’t speak for the rest of
the Commissioners other than Commissioner Hudes, but it
would seem like to me it would useful if we could get
through that, including through the Environmental Impact
Report questions that at least Commissioner Hudes has. I’d
be quite happy, if we weren’t staying until 12:30 or 1:00
o'clock or something, to stay a little bit beyond 11:30 if
it were a reasonable period of time beyond 11:30 so we
could get through that portion of the questions, but I
don’t want to presume that for the rest of the Commission.
VICE CHAIR KANE: My goal is subject to what the
Commission wants to do and is to try to get through that
portion of questioning and then look at another time.
Commissioner Hudes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: I, for one, have been
presented with some new information tonight that was not in
documents, and I would prefer to actually absorb some of
the information that’s been presented and continue with
questions to the Applicant, my opinion.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Commissioner Burch.
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COMMISSIONER BURCH: Speaking for myself, I do
not want to be here really late tonight, and we’ve barely
talked traffic. We haven’t even talked architecture yet, so
I think that for those of us that still want to talk, we
have way more than what we’re going to be able to close out
tonight. I do know Commissioner Hudes has been raising his
hand for a while, so I don’t want to take up your question
time.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: I just had one about
traffic, if I may proceed. I may finish on that subject,
for myself at least.
That is we had some public testimony about
underground parking and multiple entrances to underground
parking of the scale of what’s been proposed here, and
public testimony about having two separated entrances to
underground parking. We also had a suggestion to wrap
incoming traffic through the Highway 17 on ramp to the rear
of the building, and circulation of traffic into the
underground parking, not in and out through the same
driveway, but through potentially another one. Is that
something that you looked at and analyzed, and what was the
result of looking at more than one entry and exit to
underground parking at this scale.
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RANDY LAMB: One, trying to negotiate an access
point with Caltrans, this project would be 30 years from
now and we’d probably all be gone. I mean, literally the
idea of accessing a private site on a Caltrans on ramp is
probably a one in ten million shot, so the likelihood of
that happening isn’t there.
In terms of having one access point to the
project, which we actually do here, whether you go down
into the garage or whether you come around. That, frankly,
was feedback that we were able to get from Public Works in
terms of where the ideal spot was to have that, so that it
simplified the actual access to the project without being a
conflict to the corner of Los Gatos-Saratoga Road and
Alberto Way.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Did you consider another
access at the other end of the property or any other
solutions?
RANDY LAMB: We actually considered a number of
solutions. This is where we really have to rely on Public
Works though to give us direction on where is the safest
point and where they will endorse it. This is all just we
would with planning or anything else, a huge amount of
input, whether it’s the traffic or access or planning,
whatever. This was all direction we needed to take when we
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submitted our preliminary plans, that’s where we were able
to say this can be done, that can be done, what would you
like us to do?
DAN KIRBY: I just wanted to emphasize your
earlier point that whenever we do projects like this, the
main concern is to make sure that access point is as far
away from the controlled intersection as possible. If you
were to put a driveway down at this end you’re going to
create all kinds of conflicts with this controlled
intersection, so that’s kind of number one.
The other point I wanted to make was that I know
this perhaps seems very large to people in the room, but
we’ve built garages significantly larger than this that
have one access point for in and out. This is actually
quite a bit of queuing. It may not look it on the site
plan, but I can assure based on experience that there is
going to be plenty of queuing along this in and out, both
for cars coming in and going for a garage this size.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Thank you.
RANDY LAMB: If I can add one thing to that.
We’re ambivalent to where it is, so if that was your
question, did we direct it? If it was here and this was the
safest place to get people in and out and Public Works was
great with it, we’re fine with it. It’s not a design issue
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for us as to where it is on the street, we just want it to
be safe.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Thank you. I may have
questions for Staff when we close the public hearing on
that topic. Thank you.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Other questions for the
Applicant? You had a series?
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Well, yeah, I do, but just
again, it’s 11:15, so do we want to dive into that? I’m
going to look to my fellow commissioners. What do you guys
want to do?
VICE CHAIR KANE: Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I think there are still a
lot of questions to ask and I think we should continue.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Commissioner Erekson?
Commissioner Hudes? Then I’m not going to close this…
ROBERT SCHULTZ: The hearing would be closed to
the public. The only thing that you’re continuing is
questions of the Applicant.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Which is exactly what I meant.
So I think we’ll continue this.
ROBERT SCHULTZ: I’m sorry, just to clarify. No,
when the hearing is continued the public is invited to
that, but there will be no more public comment taken at the
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continued hearing; that part of it has been closed. You can
still submit written comments at any time to the Planning
Commission, but there will be no more public comment. When
we reconvene it will be picked back up with questions of
the Applicant.
VICE CHAIR KANE: We haven’t gotten to the Draft
EIR, we haven’t gotten to the Final EIR, we haven’t gotten
to Plan B, which is my favorite part of the Draft EIR, and
I think we’ll need some time to digest what we’ve learned
tonight, and maybe some time for you to digest what you’ve
heard from the community and what you’ve heard from us. So
what I’d like to do is pick a date.
JOEL PAULSON: Well, there are some gentlemen
blocking some key dates on my calendars over there.
Obviously the next hearing that we have is August 24th.
Following that is September 14th or September 28th.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Our next hearing is the 24th.
I’d like to do it as soon as possible. What’s the agenda
look like for the 24th?
JOEL PAULSON: The agenda has, I believe, three
items on it, approximately, and so we should be able to
accommodate it depending on the outcome and public
testimony.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Let’s do this one first.
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JOEL PAULSON: Continued hearings always go
first.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Good. All right.
JOEL PAULSON: And so Commissioner Erekson looks
like he has a…
CHARLES EREKSON: Question for the Staff. Do you
know if this room is available on the 17th?
JOEL PAULSON: I unfortunately do not know that.
Sorry.
CHARLES EREKSON: My concern about continuing to
the 24th, and I have great respect for Mr. Paulson’s
abilities, so I wouldn’t want to argue with him too much,
but there are three items on the agenda, and if I
understood my fellow commissioners not all of us have asked
all the questions about the application, and have asked no
questions about the Environmental Impact Report yet, so my
guess is it could easily fill up a robust amount of time on
an evening, so my question is would we be better served and
would we be respectful of the Applicant to attempt to
continue it on the 17th?
JOEL PAULSON: Well, again, I do not know whether
or not the chambers are available that evening. We would
have to do that. Ultimately the Planning Commission is free
to make a motion and continue it to a date. Should that
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date be unavailable, then we would continue it to another
date and then move forward from there. Understand there is,
I believe, three items on the hearing on the 24th, and
sometimes as is tonight we had two items and here we are at
11:30 still having conversations, so that’s always a
possibility, but I would leave it up to the Commission.
Obviously the 17th would have to work for the Town Attorney.
I’m not sure, are you available on the 17th?
ROBERT SCHULTZ: Do we know when Commissioner
O'Donnell comes back, too?
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: We would have a quorum,
but I will not be here on the 17th; I’m on vacation next
week.
ROBERT SCHULTZ: Well, then, let’s use the 24th
and make a motion.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Let’s see if we can put this to
a motion. I would move that we continue the hearing to
Wednesday, August 24th, and that this be the first item on
the agenda.
CHARLES EREKSON: I’ll second that.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Discussion? Call the question.
All those in favor? It’s unanimous. We’ll reconvene and
we’ll continue with questions of the Applicant on the 24th.
Thank you very much.
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RANDY LAMB: Thank you.