Attachment 16LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 5/10/2017
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A P P E A R A N C E S:
Los Gatos Planning
Commissioners:
Tom O'Donnell, Chair
D. Michael Kane, Vice Chair
Kendra Burch
Melanie Hanssen
Matthew Hudes
Kathryn Janoff
Town Manager: Laurel Prevetti
Community Development
Director:
Joel Paulson
Town Attorney: Robert Schultz
Transcribed by: Vicki L. Blandin
(510) 337-1558
ATTACHMENT 16
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P R O C E E D I N G S:
CHAIR O'DONNELL: At this point we’re going to
move into Item 2, which is the Alberto Way, but I think one
of our Commissioners wants to make a statement and recuse
herself. Please, go ahead.
CHAIR BADAME: I am recusing myself from Item 2.
The subject property is located within 500’ of my
residence. Good night.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Thank you very much for
coming in any event. All right, so now we can move to Item
2, 401 to 409 Alberto Way, Architecture and Site
Application S-15-056, Conditional Use Permit Application U-
15-009, and Environmental Impact Report EIR-16-001, and I’d
ask for a Staff Report.
JENNIFER ARMER: Good evening, Chair, Vice Chair,
Commissioners. The project in front of you tonight is the
revised proposal by Shane Arters of LP Acquisitions to
build a new office building at the corner of Alberto Way
and Los Gatos-Saratoga Road.
You first saw this project exactly nine months
ago in August of 2016. At that time the proposal was for
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two office buildings, which with this revised design has
been converted into one. At two Planning Commission
meetings in August there was discussion that resulted in a
continuation with specific direction. A summary of that
direction was included in the Staff Report for the August
12th meeting.
The written materials that you’ve received over
the last nine months show that there are many comments, and
a lot of information from the Applicant and from interested
neighbors.
The written materials from the Applicant do show
that they have been working to respond to the comments that
they have heard both from the Commission and from the
neighbors. They have reduced their floor area by 10%.
They’ve reduced the size of the underground garage to allow
for construction staging onsite, and fewer trucks for
offhaul. They have reduced the overall mass of the building
by reducing the height of it as well as the square footage,
giving a reduction in mass of approximately 25%. And
they’ve moved the building back from the street, combining
the two buildings into one to allow for more surface
parking, more open space right off of the street there, and
greater views of the hills from the surrounding area.
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The written materials from the neighbors show
that they are still very concerned about the project, about
its size, the traffic, and the environmental impacts.
As laid out in that Staff Report from April 12th,
the Commission has a number of options which focus on two
questions primarily that will likely be answered tonight
after hearing from the Applicant, the neighbors, and
numerous experts who are available to answer questions
about the technical issues.
The first question is whether the Environmental
Impact Report can be certified. The EIR could be certified
as a separate motion, or as part of a motion making a
decision on the project itself. Without certification of
the EIR, the project cannot be approved. However, no
decision is required on the EIR if the project is denied or
continued.
The second question is whether to approve or deny
the proposed project. Has the Applicant responded to your
previous comments sufficiently to say that they are now in
conformance with Town codes, policies, standards, and
guidelines?
To help you answer some of these questions, as
well as many questions brought up by public comment and
materials provided to you in writing, the Applicant has
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their technical experts who are the ones who prepared the
technical studies, and they are available during the public
comment period of this hearing.
Town Staff also has consultants hired by the Town
who peer reviewed those studies, and they are available to
confirm or clarify anything from their review.
In addition to the Planning and Parks and Public
Works staff we have TJKM, the Town’s traffic consultant; we
have Amec Foster Wheeler, the Town’s geotechnical
consultant; and we have Robert James from EMC, the
environmental consultant; for questions about the EIR. We
encourage you to ask questions of them and the numerous
technical consultants who are here tonight to help clarify
any issues discussed in the written materials and any
questions that come up this evening.
This concludes the Staff presentation, but I’d be
happy to answer any questions.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Before we get into that,
I just want to establish that the story poles were changed.
Could you remark on that, please?
JENNIFER ARMER: Correct. The original story
poles that were put up were orange. The Applicant, in
revising their proposed project, decided to retain those so
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that the changes from the original proposal could be seen.
The proposed project was story poled in blue.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: All right, let me also
establish, has everyone viewed the site since the change?
That’s unanimous, all right. Yes, Commissioner Hudes, you
had your hand up?
COMMISSIONER HUDES: I have a few questions of
Staff. Some of them are more technical, and I’ll save them
until after the public testimony, but I had kind of two big
picture questions.
One is what is permissible on this site? I think
given the concerns that have been raised it’s important to
understand what is the role of the Planning Commission with
these kinds of matters. So the zoning for this, is it CH?
JENNIFER ARMER: Correct.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: And would an alternative use
such as residential be permitted on that site?
JENNIFER ARMER: No.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: So that wouldn’t be
something that the Planning Commission could address? That
would have to go to Council or General Plan Committee, et
cetera, to revise the zoning, is that correct?
JENNIFER ARMER: It would require a different
type of application to allow that type of use.
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COMMISSIONER HUDES: Okay.
JOEL PAULSON: And the role of the Planning
Commission is to evaluate the currently proposed project in
light of all of our current guidelines, codes, and policies
that are relevant to this application.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: And the second big picture
question. There were concerns raised about whether the Town
should approve any new proposed development until such time
as it can convince the State of California to eliminate an
unfunded mandate. This is in a letter from the public. This
may be more for the attorney, I don't know, but is that
true? Would the Town not be allowed to approve any proposed
developments until it can convince the state to eliminate
an unfunded mandate for schools, let’s say, or other
matters?
JENNIFER ARMER: Current regulations allow us to
approve projects.
ROBERT SCHULTZ: Yeah. We have to, like Joel just
said, look at our guidelines, our rules, our laws that are
in place and evaluate that on the basis. If we were to just
do a complete building moratorium and say we’re not going
to build until the state figures out the mandate on
schools, it’s basically we would be challenged quite a bit
on eminent domain and takings claims, because we basically
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are not allowing people to use the property for the
intended purposes for the laws that are on our books.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Okay, thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Other questions?
Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I had sort of a big
picture question about the neighborhood. I’m pretty sure we
talked about this at the last hearing. The Applicant talked
a lot about the need for Class A office space in Los Gatos,
and so then I was trying to gauge where this stood relative
to other buildings that we had that were office space in
Los Gatos, and I had two questions.
One was there are the two buildings that are at
the back of Alberto Way, and I remember we heard it at the
General Plan Committee, but I don’t remember the square
footage of the buildings at the back of Alberto Way.
Roughly. Then I have a second question.
JENNIFER ARMER: I don’t know the size of those
buildings.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Is the question, too, as
we understand it, a development proposal for the property
at the back ultimately may come before us, but is not
presently before us, or is this just a question of the
existing buildings?
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COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I was just trying to
basically do a neighborhood analysis and also an office
building analysis in my mind about where this kind of stood
in Los Gatos. But there was a proposal that came before the
General Plan Committee to amend the zoning for a property
that was on the other side of the fence so that they could
potentially put a third office building there, but that’s
not…
JOEL PAULSON: I’ll check on source to see if I
can get that answer, but it will probably be following
public testimony.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Okay. So then my other
question, and I don’t truly expect you to have the answers
off the top of your head, but 83,000 square footage, even
with the reduced size, is a pretty big building, so I’m
trying to find out where would be the closest building in
Los Gatos that would be that kind of square footage?
JENNIFER ARMER: That’s not information I have
off the top of my head. Sorry.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I remember in some of the
reports we saw that there was a building on University
that’s like 60,000 square feet. But that was some big
picture questions that I had.
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COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Any other comes from
Staff on that question? If not, Commissioner Hudes has his
hand up.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: One of the really, to me,
important questions, because I think that after the hearing
in August, at the conclusion and the motion, the
instructions were to significantly reduce the size of the
building, and I think that’s going to be a key issue that
we look at.
In terms of evaluating size of a building, it
seems as though there’s one argument that says you look at
square footage, and there’s another argument that says you
look at volume. I guess the mass is described more by
volume in the arguments that I’ve read.
Is there any guidance for the Planning Commission
about whether one of those is more appropriate than the
other? Can they both be alternatively considered? Because
in this situation we’ve seen a reduction in one of those
figures that’s small, and one of them that’s more
significant.
JENNIFER ARMER: Staff has reviewed the project
to make sure that it is in compliance with our code, which
limits the size of a building based on floor area and floor
area ratio lot coverage.
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The Applicant has presented a description of how
they have responded to your August comments, and one of the
ways that they have chosen to describe the reduction in
overall mass of the building, trying to bring it more
compatible with the neighborhood, has been through this
calculation of the total mass of the building. In your
evaluation of whether the building now is compatible and
meets Town Code and guidelines, those are ways to describe
it and to try to understand the changes that have been
made.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Any other questions?
Yes, Commissioner Burch.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Just a quick procedural
question. All the Town engineers and specialty consultants
will be available to us after all the public testimony and
everything, right?
JENNIFER ARMER: Correct. The consultants who
actually prepared most of the reports would need to be
consulted during public testimony and the public hearing,
but the Town’s peer reviewers and Town Staff are all
available after the close of public comment.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Right, thank you.
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JOEL PAULSON: Chair, I was able to find the data
on the Town’s website, so it looks like the two buildings
at the end are 28,000 square feet each, approximately.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: All right, if there are
no other for the Staff, I think we can open the public
hearing, and the hearing will begin by the Applicant having
ten minutes in total. That will be followed by others. I’ve
got a number of cards here, and if your card is not here
but you wish to speak, please submit a card. I will call on
each of you, and you will each have up to three minutes to
speak.
Now, we’ve had this hearing before, and what
you’ve said in the past is fairly fresh in our minds, which
is not to limit you in any way, but I would suggest to you
if you hear someone saying the same thing you’re going to
say, repetition probably is not necessary, but that’s up to
you. So I just make that one admonition, and that being the
case, I’ll call on the Applicant.
ALICIA GUERRA: Good evening, Chair O'Donnell and
members of the Planning Commission. I’m Alicia Guerra with
Buchalter Nemer. I’m here on behalf of LP Acquisitions, the
Applicant.
I’m going to provide some introductions here I
think to the Commissioner’s comments about the availability
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of our consultants here this evening to answer your
questions, and then I’m going to turn it over to Dan Kirby
to walk through the changes in the architecture.
This evening you have Shane Arters and Randy Lamb
from LP Acquisitions to speak on behalf of the Applicant.
You also have Dan Kirby from Arc Tec. You have two
individuals from ENGEO who are engineering geologists and
consultants who provide all of the technical information on
the geology and seismic issues; we have Janet Kann and Bob
Basch from ENGEO. We also have Dan Mitchell from Kiren
Wright to speak to hydrology issues. And finally, we have
Gary Black of Hexagon who can address any technical traffic
related comments.
With that, I’m going to turn it over to Dan Kirby
to speak to the architecture, and then I’m going to close
with a couple of observations related to some additional
comments that were received from the public that are
reflected in your package. Thank you.
DAN KIRBY: I’m going to walk and talk, if that’s
okay. I’m Dan Kirby with Arc Tec architects in San Jose,
representing the developer.
What we heard at the last meeting here at the
Town was there was a fair amount of concern about the size
and mass of the building, especially its proximity to the
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street, so what we decided to do is take a completely fresh
look at the design.
As you may recall, the previous design consisted
of two buildings, one building here on the left and one
building here on the right with an amenity space in
between, and our thought in taking a fresh look at the
design was that the amenity space in between the buildings,
while nice for the tenants, was probably not the best use
of that space in terms of designing a building that would
really fit the site and also address some of the concerns
of the Town and neighbors.
So what we decided to do was redesign the
building completely, and instead of having two buildings,
which was shaped like this, create one building and really
take the mass and size of the building and push it as far
back on the site to the rearmost setback lines as possible.
What that allowed us to do is create much more open space
in front of the building, and we relocated the amenity area
to the front of the building here. We also increased the
surface parking, which was something that was fairly
important to the Town and the neighbors.
Probably more telling than the square footage
reduction of the building is also the mass reduction of the
building. The client has made the decision to go with a
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concrete structure, which prohibits a little bit of
flexibility for tenants, however, what it does do is allow
us to reduce the thickness of the floor and roof framing
from about 30” to 3’ down to a 1’, and so that really
allows the height of the building to come down
significantly, and whereas the square footage reduction is
only 10%, the overall mass reduction of the building is
about 25%, and you’ll see that more significantly in the
slides that follow.
In addition to reducing the size of the building,
increasing the surface parking allowed us to reduce the
size of the garage substantially. The former garage used to
come all the way out to the street, and we’ve been able to
eliminate a complete double row of parking in the basement
level, two levels of the garage, and that allows us to pull
the footprint of the garage back off of the street. The
great benefit to that is that all of the construction
staging can now occur onsite. We won’t have to park trucks
in the street to offload; all of that can be done on the
site. It also reduces the amount of excavation, which will
decrease the amount of truckloads of dirt going off the
site during construction.
Here, you can see the former design, the two
buildings separated by the amenities space. Our first pass
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at the redesign is this middle version. We did receive some
very good comments from Larry Cannon, who is the Town’s
consulting architect. He felt that we need a bit more
articulation on the building, especially the section in the
center, so this is the final design which creates a little
bit more of hierarchy of elements and creates a little bit
more visual interest and architectural elements here at
this center section, especially amongst the entry.
I want to quickly go to this slide, which shows
you more significantly the reduction in size of the
building. What we’ve done is taken the current design and
superimposed the former design over the top of it. Here you
can see how much we’ve been able to reduce the height of
the building; it’s actually 5’6” on the north end and 6’ on
the south end, so it’s a fairly significant reduction in
height and mass.
The other thing that we did, when we reduced the
footprint of the building there was concern about the
proximity of the building to the north property line, so in
reducing the mass in the building we were also able to
increase the setback on the north property line by an
additional 10’, so the building is pulled back off of the
north property line by an additional 10’, addressing
concerns of the neighbors to the north.
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In addition, there was a balcony that formerly
faced the north side of the site, and that’s been
eliminated. All the balconies now face towards Alberto Way.
Here are renderings. You can see the former
design was quite tall, and here’s the interim design and
the final design here, which has been reduced in height.
Alicia, did you want to talk about that?
ALICIA GUERRA: Thanks, Dan. What I wanted to
address here is there were three issues that were raised in
the comments that you received following the issuance, or
as part of the application in the Staff Report.
First, the revised project that Dan described to
you is the feasible project. We heard you regarding a
reduction in the size, so my client took the approach of
trying to reduce the size in terms of the mass and volume
of the building. We recognize that there is a limited
amount of square footage reduction, but that is what is
considered the feasible alternative, and under CEQA and
under the rules that apply to the determination of
feasibility, that’s measured in terms of economic, social,
legal, technical considerations, so given the site
constraints here and all of the other aspects related to
the development, including the infrastructure needed to
serve the project, and the additional amenities and items
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required for a Class A office space, as well as the
additional requirements to satisfy the Town’s requirements,
we took all of that into consideration and came up with
this revised project.
This revised project meets the Town’s rules.
There are no changes being requested. There is no General
Plan amendment to the alternative that a commenter recently
requested for residential. All of that would require
changing the rules for the site. We kept within the rules.
We kept within the zoning, the General Plan, and the Town’s
Commercial Design Guidelines, which actually encourage the
location of underground parking related to the development
in a commercial area. All of those things were considered
as part of this project, which takes me to the second point
that I wanted to make this evening.
The EIR that was presented to you that you heard
about in August concluded that the impacts were less than
significant for the original project. Well, the revised
project, which further reduces the size of the project,
also results in less than significant impacts. I know some
of the commenters have raised concerns about geotechnical
issues and hydrology issues, things related to worse,
worse, worse case conditions. Well, CEQA doesn’t require an
analysis of all the possible hypotheticals that you could
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come up with, it requires the application of the reasonable
person standard. This analysis and all of these consultants
who are here this evening to address your concerns have
undertaken a standard methodology, applied that to this
project, and confirmed that the conclusions would be less
than significant, even for the smaller project. The Town’s
own peer review consultants reached a similar conclusion.
So the second point is there are no significant impacts
associated with this project, even with the revised
alternative.
Finally, this evening we’re requesting that you
make a decision to certify the EIR and approve this
project. We’ve addressed all of your questions, and if you
do have further questions we’re available to answer them,
but there are no new issues associated with this project.
Thank you very much, and if you have any
questions, we have our team here available to answer them
for you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Thank you, Ms. Guerra;
I’m sure we will have some questions. I’ll invite questions
now, if anyone has any. Commissioner Hudes, I saw your hand
going up.
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COMMISSIONER HUDES: How did you know? Thank you
for your presentation and for tying it back to the previous
hearing’ that’s helpful.
I had some questions really on the building and
the size of the building, and how it relates to the part of
the motion at the last Planning Commission meeting to make
a significant size reduction. My understanding is that from
a square footage perspective it’s an 8-9% reduction, is
that correct?
ALICIA GUERRA: Ten percent.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Ten percent, okay. And would
that equate with a 10% reduction of employees as well, or
has the design of the building changed such that it would
be more or less densely populated as an office building?
ALICIA GUERRA: I suppose there could be a
reduction in the number of employees, but we did not take
into consideration capping the employment for the project
as a whole, and the size of the building doesn’t
necessarily drive the employment; it’s really the tenants
that are using the space that are going to have certain
employment needs.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: So what is the anticipated
number of occupants of the building?
ALICIA GUERRA: Four per thousand.
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COMMISSIONER HUDES: Four per thousand, and what
number?
ALICIA GUERRA: Three hundred and thirty-two
employees.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Okay. I had some other
questions.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Go ahead.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Why don’t you go ahead, and
I’ll come back.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Okay. Commissioner
Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I was just wondering if I
could ask the architect a question?
ALICIA GUERRA: Oh, absolutely.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Thank you for going
through the changes; it helped a lot to look at the before
and after. I know you talked to why it became one building
instead of two, but my first reaction looking at it—and
Larry Cannon also referred to this in both of his comments—
was one way to make it look smaller would be to have
individual buildings with more open space in between, so
could you help me understand a little bit more about why it
needs to be one building? Because it definitely seemed more
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bulky and massy to me on account of that, even given that
you reduced the height.
DAN KIRBY: Sure. Once again, our feeling about
this amenity area in between the buildings was that it
probably wasn’t the best use of the site area, and the
primary goal was to get the building pushed back away from
the street further to preserve the natural views of the
trees and hills beyond.
Both buildings were pushed back farther from the
street, so the left-hand building was significantly… This
entire mass of the building is no longer here; this is now
part of the side area, so that front wall of that two-story
building which formerly was here is now back to here.
The right-hand building as well, you can see the
former footprint is here, was also pushed back. Not as far,
because that building was already pushed back fairly far,
but the goal was to take the entire mass of the building
and really push it back to the rearmost setback lines, with
the exception of the north side; we added an additional
10’, as I mentioned, to the north side.
Along the back of the building there is less
concern, because we’re backed up against basically a
freeway onramp and a lot of mature landscaping.
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So the idea was to push the building back on the
site, and also reduce its height substantially by 5’ or 6’
in order to create a little bit better view corridor to the
trees and hills beyond.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Did you consider any
design that might have had two buildings instead of one,
given that you’re moving the buildings back towards the
property line?
DAN KIRBY: We did, and in order to do that we
would have had to create open space between the buildings,
and the only way to do that and still achieve the square
footage goal of the developer would be to decrease the
setback dimension off of Alberto Way, because we’re backed
up against the setback lines on the rear side of the site
and the left side of the site, so the only way to replace
that square foot would be to push the building farther
towards the street, which our understanding was it was very
undesirable to the Town and to the nearby neighbors.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: So basically the reason
there is one building is to preserve as much square footage
as possible for the developer?
DAN KIRBY: And also to create as much open space
in front of the building.
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We also heard a concern about the lack of surface
parking before, and there was concern about people parking
on the street, so we’ve created now much more surface
parking. The surface parking has gone from seven stalls to
42 stalls, so that did two things. It kind of alleviates
the pressure of the street parking, and it also allows us
to reduce the size of the garage below, which was another
goal.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Okay. Thank you very much.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Commissioner Hudes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: I wanted to follow up on the
north property setback. My question on that is are the
orange and blue story poles pretty much accurate?
RANDY LAMB: Randy Lamb, 401 Alberto Way. The
story poles that are there, the orange, were the original
design that Dan showed you from version one. The blue that
are there now are identical. They’re measured by our civil
engineers, they’re placed, they’re re-measured, so yeah,
they are definitely accurate. Unless something has fallen,
but they are definitely accurate.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Okay, because I looked at
the northeast corner of that building, and it didn’t look
like 10’ between the previous story poles, and then I
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measured it and it was 6’, so are you sure that that
building has been moved back 10’?
RANDY LAMB: Well, there are two things. The
architect is telling us yes, so it will be exactly where
the 10’ mark is. I’m not sure why your measurement showed
6’. The civil engineers that were out there measured it
prior to the story pole company actually reinstalling those
poles.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: My own observation is that
something is not correct, either the story poles are not in
the correct place or…
RANDY LAMB: So you’re saying that the blue
should be another 4’ in, so it’s a better situation? Is
that what you’re saying?
COMMISSIONER HUDES: No, I’m saying that the
distance between the orange and the blue isn’t 10’, as I
would have expected, it was only 6’.
RANDY LAMB: Right, okay. Yeah, meaning there’s
another 4’; you’re saying it should be 4’ further.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: I had some questions about
the architectural.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Before we do that, let
me first ask if any other Commissioner would like to get a
question in. Commissioner Janoff.
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COMMISSIONER JANOFF: I also have questions about
the architecture for the architect, please.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: So if you would come
forward, please.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: In the last August meeting
there was a lot of discussion about meeting the community
expectations with regard to neighborhood compatibility, and
what I saw between the design presented at that meeting and
the design presented for us tonight actually reduces some
of the elements that made it a little bit more interesting
on the western façade and created an even stronger sense of
bulk and blockiness. So my question to you is what features
of the new design do you think satisfy the Planning
Commission’s requests on that point?
DAN KIRBY: Once again, an attempt has been made
in the architecture to reduce the appearance of mass of
these front facades. These front facades here on the former
design don’t present a tremendous amount of visible
interest in terms of breaking up the massing, so one of the
things we did here was we introduced another mansard roof
feature here, down low, which also serves as the balcony
railing. We increased the variation on the pop-outs here on
the left-hand side—you can see this was fairly flat before—
to help break up that massing.
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We tried to vary the roof heights. There was
criticism before about the height of these entry elements,
so while there’s a little bit more variation here on the
former design, there was also designation before about
those are very tall and seem a little bit out of place to
the character of the neighborhood, as well as they tend to
block the views of the trees and hills, so we eliminated
those tall entry elements and went with something that,
while still identifying the entry, is a little bit more in
keeping with the goal to reduce the height of the building.
We’ve gone to a single entry, because it is one building,
as opposed to the former design that had two entries.
Over here on the right side we’ve created a
balcony that has a little bit more variation and interest
through the use of differing materials, stone along the
base, whereas before it was a little bit more generic. And
again, the roof heights have been varied.
We also decided rather than have a mansard roof
that ran the entire length of the building to go ahead and
create a different element here with a straight parapet to
kind of break up the look and feel of the mass of the
building, so you don’t have a mansard roof running across
the entire front of the building.
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COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Just to follow up, you were
responding to the request to vary the front façade by
creating this articulated element, and you did that by
simplifying the roofline and making it much flatter, much
straighter, much boxier, and blockier in appearance?
DAN KIRBY: Well, again, the roofline is similar
to what we had before, with the exception of we no longer
have the towers, because the towers were viewed negatively
during the first meeting; at least that’s what we heard
pretty clearly, that they were too tall.
Some additional elements, we introduced some
sunshades. This is a two-dimensional drawing, so it doesn’t
show this very clearly, but if we go to the renderings you
can see that a little bit more clearly. We’re trying to
show the landscaping here (inaudible), but there are some
sunshades that have been introduced to break up the mass of
the front façade, and those are these elements here, the
ground floor, and then there are a couple more up here at
the second floor to help break up the mass of the windows
and add a little bit more visual interest.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Commissioner Burch.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: I’m not completely sure whom
this will be directed to, but perhaps Mr. Lamb. During our
last meeting there were a couple of things that had come
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up. First was it was requested by the Commission that you
meet with the Bike Coalition and a few of the other
agencies that direct both biking and pedestrian safety, and
the school safety. I’d like to know if those meetings took
place.
RANDY LAMB: That might be a Shane question.
SHANE ARTERS: Commissioners, I’m Shane Arters.
We did reach out to the Bike Coalition to speak with them.
My understanding, and Staff can respond to this, is that
it’s more of a closed meeting and it’s just an advisory
meeting, so we made the recommendations. We told them about
our project, what we are doing, and we wanted input from
them. They were in no position to give us input at all from
that group.
DAN KIRBY: My goal to stick to ten minutes in
the introductory comments. I didn’t want to get buzzed off
the stage, so I neglected to mention…
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Let me stop you for a
second to give you a little comfort here. Once the time is
used, the ten minutes, if we’re asking questions you’re no
longer bound by the ten minutes.
DAN KIRBY: Okay, thank you.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: But, Mr. Kirby, does it
relate to the questions I’ve asked?
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DAN KIRBY: It does relate to the question. One
of the things that we did do, the developers made a
decision to pull the curb of the building back from the
location of the curb right now, and the goal of that is to
create a dedicated right-hand turn lane onto Highway 9, and
also to add this bike lane; we’ve added a dedicated bike
lane along the front of the building. So that curb line is
being pulled back up; that’s basically vacated and deeded
back to the Town.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Can I ask one follow up
question?
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Yes, go ahead; follow up
question.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: There was also in the
comments from the neighbors some comments about the public
outreach, and it didn’t seem like it had been that
positive, so I’d like a follow up between August to now on
what kind of public outreach there has been, how many
meetings you had, the attendance, and how that conversation
with your neighbors has gone.
RANDY LAMB: Sure. We have now had 16 different
neighborhood meetings with this particular neighborhood. If
I asked everyone here to raise their hand in terms of how
many people have actually met us, seen us, many of them
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more than once or twice, many of them six or eight times, I
would tell you that this has been a very thorough and
detailed outreach. We’ve been very open to suggestion.
It hasn’t always been very positive. In truth, I
think if I said to everybody raise your hand if you don’t
want to see anything designed on this site, I think you
would probably have 90% of the people raise their hand, so
I really think that’s the issue in this particular case.
After the last time we met with you we had four different
outreach sessions. We probably had anywhere from 20 to 40
people at each one, some less than others. A couple of them
that we had were pretty heavy rain days and early evenings,
but I thought that the feedback was good. Again, I don’t
think anyone wants anything on this site, so I think us
coming in at any square footage we are probably at more
than what anyone wants there.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Commissioner Hudes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: I had some follow up on the
architecture questions that Commissioner Janoff asked, so
this is about building architecture.
On page 7 of the report from Mr. Cannon dated
March 17, 2017, Exhibit 34, could the architect maybe
answer some questions about that?
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I understand there was a back and forth with Mr.
Cannon, a review and then…
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Excuse me for one
second, Commissioner Hudes. Do you want them to have the
document in front of them?
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Yes, that would be helpful,
I think.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: The attorney is now
looking for it, I believe.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: It’s Exhibit 34, letter of
March 17th from Mr. Cannon. This is the second letter, I
believe. After the first letter in February, changes were
made to the design, and then Mr. Cannon reviewed the design
that’s in front of us now.
DAN KIRBY: So you’re talking about the March
17th?
COMMISSIONER HUDES: The March 17th letter, yeah,
right.
DAN KIRBY: I’ve got that.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: So that’s the second letter,
I believe, and I believe that the number of changes that
Mr. Cannon suggested were incorporated, but at the bottom
of page 7, he said, “I would suggest that the Planning
Commission consider the following changes made in the
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February review letter,” so these apparently are changes
that were not incorporated, and so I wanted to get your
opinion on those.
There are five bullet points there. From my own
perspective in terms of design, I’m not that enthusiastic
about the third bullet point, but the first, second,
fourth, and fifth bullet points there are suggestions that
were made, and I’m interested should this move forward
whether you would be interested or willing to consider some
of those additional suggestions made by Mr. Cannon.
DAN KIRBY: Sure. One of the suggestions from the
February 22nd letter was implemented, and that was to
increase the height of the portion of the building closest
to the intersection, so we did do that. His follow up
comment was he thought that it would vary the roofline a
lot more to increase it further, and we were very concerned
about the overall height of the building and the
sensitivity to the neighbors and blocking the views of the
trees and the hills, so we felt that while not super
significant, that was enough variation on the height. It’s
a couple of feet different from the adjacent roofline.
The lowering of the height of entry element,
we’ve lowered it about as low as we think it can be and
still be an identifiable entry. One of the things I wanted
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to remind everybody, we’ve got to conceal our roof-mounted
mechanical equipment, and if we go any lower it’s going to
be really tough to do that without putting a roof screen
behind, which we don’t want necessarily to have to do.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: What about the second bullet
point and the last two bullet points?
DAN KIRBY: So the second bullet point, we did
add a fair amount of articulation. We can certainly do more
if the Commission feels that it’s warranted. One of the
things we try to do when we design buildings is avoid
making it look too gingerbready, if you will, by tacking on
a lot of elements to the building. There wants to be
cohesiveness to the design, it wants to flow and not have a
lot of packed on elements, so we’re trying to be sensitive
to that as well.
The last bullet point, “Withhold approval of the
color (inaudible).” That’s fine. We’ve attempted to vary
the colors. I think you can see on the revised design the
color is very significantly more than the original design,
so we did attempt to incorporate as much of that as we
could in terms of incorporating Larry’s comments, but color
is an easy thing to modify and change if we think that’s
appropriate.
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COMMISSIONER HUDES: Okay, thank you. Should we
get to that point, those are issues that would come back.
DAN KIRBY: Certainly.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Are there other
questions? Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I was hoping to ask the
transportation consultant a question.
GARY BLACK: Good evening, Gary Black with
Hexagon Transportation Consultants.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Thank you, and thank you
for all your responses; there was a lot. You had a very
thorough response for the Planning Commission as well as a
number of the resident comments.
I kind of just had a big picture question. My
interpretation of all your comments was something along the
lines of none of the typical transportation impact analyses
and EIR analyses procedures generated anything that would
be a meaningful impact that couldn’t be mitigated, is that
correct?
GARY BLACK: Yeah, that’s a correct overview. I
want to emphasize that the guidelines that we follow are
the Town guidelines. We follow the Town guidelines for the
procedure of the traffic study, and also for the policies
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that apply to traffic impacts and so forth. We’re not in a
position to interject our own opinion of whether impacts
are significant or not, but we strictly follow those
guidelines, and that was the basis of our finding of
impacts being less than significant.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: One particular thing that
caught my attention, and you did address this in your
comments but I wanted to bring it up for the benefit of the
public, there were a number of pictures that were submitted
by residents that live on Alberto Way, and I’ve personally
sat in the traffic that’s queued up on Highway 9 to turn
left or right onto Los Gatos Boulevard, and it does get
backed up, and so they had some pictures of that in both
directions, actually. What I thought that your comments
said was something along the lines of that there was a very
specific time where you observed this, because you did do
additional analysis, and that outside that window you
didn’t observe that. So can you tell me, did I get that
right?
GARY BLACK: You got that right. We made
additional observations based on when we received the
comments and the pictures from the neighbors, and I think
we saw probably the same thing that they saw in their
pictures, and what you saw out there. Based on our timing
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of it we saw it backed up in the morning, we didn’t see it
backed up in the afternoon. The backup in the morning, in
our judgment, is because of the schools nearby, and that
occurred from 7:50am to 8:20am, so a half an hour period
when the traffic was backed up. Outside of those periods it
was not backed up.
And it’s important to keep in mind the definition
of significant impacts under the traffic guidelines that we
follow, and that’s an average over an hour, and so if it’s
backed up for a half an hour out of an hour, then to a
certain extent that gets entered into the average, and we
look at the overall average for the entire hour. So you can
have a situation that has a poor level of service, is the
terminology that we use, for a certain time period, but the
overall average in that location does meet the Town’s
standard.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: That’s kind of what I
thought, because if you had complete gridlock for 30
minutes and the other 30 minutes there was nothing, then it
would be averaged out to be whatever it was for that hour,
and that’s how you basically do that.
GARY BLACK: Yeah, you’re correct.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: One final question. There
were quite a few comments about the construction traffic,
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supposing this is approved, and because of the underground
garage there would be a lot of hauling of dirt and
everything like that. Does the transportation impact
analysis address the construction phase, or is it just more
the ongoing operations?
GARY BLACK: This traffic analysis did not
address the construction phase. Usually we only address the
construction phase if there’s something unusual that could
create some potential issues that wouldn’t be reflected in
the rest of the traffic study, but typically during
construction the amount of activity on the site is a small
fraction of the activity that will be on the site once the
buildings are built and occupied.
Now, there may be an exception for trucks that
are hauling dirt, for example, but that’s typically handled
by the Town policies about hours of construction, noise
levels, identifying haul routes so that they don’t go
through residential neighborhoods, they go on and off the
freeway, back and forth to the site, that sort of thing is
handled by a Condition of Approval.
Then also I know one of the questions came up
from the neighbors about damage to the road, and so that’s
another policy the Town has, you need to repair the road
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back to its prior condition if there’s any damage from the
construction.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Okay, thank you very much.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Are there other
questions? If not, thank you, and I will now go to the
cards I have, and I have, as you perhaps can see, a lot of
cards. So I will start with Sherry Burke, and I would ask,
because we have so many, I’ll read two or three names to
start so you know where you are. If you’re in the back, I
would suggest you come up in the front so you can get to
the microphone sooner, and then you won’t have to stay here
later. So the first person will be Sherry Burke, second
person would be Bob Burke, and the third person will be
Cathy Cathey. So first is Mrs. Burke.
SHERRY BURKE: Hi, my name is Sherry Burke and I
live at 420 Alberto Way, immediately across from the
proposed development.
I ask that you deny the present design due to the
increased traffic it will bring into our neighborhood, as
well as the impact on already heavy traffic areas
surrounding us. I believe the increased traffic generated
by the development is understated and impacts not only
Alberto Way, but all of Los Gatos-Saratoga Road and all of
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the feeder roads around it: Highway 17, Los Gatos
Boulevard, University Avenue, and Santa Cruz Avenue.
Los Gatos has a traffic problem and it’s not
limited to the weekends or to beach traffic. The underlying
reason is there isn’t enough traffic lanes provided on
Highway 17 and Los Gatos Boulevard, Los Gatos-Saratoga
Road, University Avenue, and Santa Cruz Avenue. When
existing lanes get constricted, traffic backs up. Lane
constrictions on Highway 17 cause traffic to back up for
miles with traffic flow getting noticeably faster after the
two Los Gatos exits.
Inside Los Gatos backups occur on Los Gatos-
Saratoga Road due to lane constriction and heavy traffic
through town and from Highway 17 entrances and exits. Los
Gatos Boulevard at Los Gatos-Saratoga Road is only one lane
in each direction, which causes traffic to back up,
especially when school is in session. I have traveled Los
Gatos-Saratoga Road eastbound many different times of the
day and had to wait through multiple light rotations just
to get to the left-turn lane for Alberto Way due to heavy
traffic from town and from traffic entering and exiting
Highway 17. The important point is that traffic is already
heavy, and I can’t get to the turn lane without sitting
through light rotations.
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The developer says the increased traffic will be
handled by the Town with retiming of traffic lights and the
extension of the left turn lane at Alberto Way by a few car
lengths. If it’s this simple, why hasn’t it already been
implemented?
Many of the intersections affected have failing
grades in the traffic study. Do we really want to add more
traffic to them? We need to fix the traffic problem before
allowing development that brings in even more.
The development increases traffic into my
residential neighborhood. Their parking garage is to the
north of our driveway, and traffic entering it will
specifically block our left turns onto Alberto Way. Once we
get a break from oncoming traffic we have to wait for
traffic exiting their garage into southbound Alberto Way
lanes. This was pointed out in the traffic study
referencing traffic exiting Best Western Inn, and pointing
out that these same references apply to us as well. Alberto
Way is a dead end street; it’s our only entrance. We have
no other way in or out, no way around the traffic, and no
recourse other than to wait for traffic to clear to enter
or exit our neighborhood and our homes.
We don’t want the same effect as beach traffic to
happen to us during the workweek and on weekends too. For
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these reasons I ask that you deny the present design. Thank
you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Thank you very much. We
have one question. Commissioner Hudes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Thank you, and it’s very
helpful to hear about the real situation there. With regard
to traffic, are you aware that the developer has offered to
widen Alberto Way? I had a little trouble figuring out how
wide and how far back, but are you aware of that, and could
you maybe enlighten me on that?
SHERRY BURKE: I know that there has been some
discussion on there’s a turn in Alberto and perhaps
widening it so that there is more line of sight, but you’d
have to ask the developer on that.
But my concern is that it’s not going to get
widened more than we have a lane each way, we have a bike
lane, we might have a turn lane, but where I’m at, all of
their traffic coming in is going to prevent me from coming
into the street, so I can’t make my left turn. Once they
clear and I can make my left turn, then I have the traffic
coming out of their garage to contend with before I can
even get anywhere. And that’s the only way in and out. We
can’t go around it; we can’t get in any other way.
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COMMISSIONER HUDES: Thank you, I will have some
questions for the Applicant about how much they’re widening
it and changing that. Thank you.
SHERRY BURKE: All right, thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Commissioner Burch has a
question too.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Knowing the constraints of
the site as far as how far back it goes on Alberto Way,
what will you see as a viable solution to that problem?
SHERRY BURKE: To the problem of traffic?
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Well, specifically your
discussion on turning out, and the location of where they
drive going into the parking garages.
SHERRY BURKE: Reducing the amount of cars that
are traveling there would certainly help the most. I don’t
really want to see a lot of traffic lights there, but it
may come to it that another traffic light needs to get put
in so that we are able to get out. But with traffic backing
up before we can even turn onto the road, and then
everybody trying to come in and continue on past their
development, waiting for them to actually get into their
garage just seems like it’s going to add a lot in the very
beginning of a small dead end street to begin with.
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If there were another way out, that would
certainly help. I don't know how that’s rectified.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Any other questions?
Thank you very much. The next speaker will be Bob Burke,
and after Bob Burke is Cathy Cathey, and the third is
Thomas Dunn. So, Mr. Burke.
BOB BURKE: Thank you very much. I still live at
420, and it’s me again. Sherry has made some very good
observations about the life we live. I’m going to talk
about traffic today as well.
I’ll start out by saying that in our written
submission last week we included the pages from the ITE
Traffic Manual that were used in the traffic report
computations of future traffic, and there were a couple of
interesting points in that traffic manual.
The first one is that the studies used by the ITE
to put together the charts that are used for the traffic
projection in terms of how many trips per thousands square
feet are generated by the building, the studies are all
between the 1960s and the 2000s. You take a look at that,
you can figure out easily that the average study used by
the ITE for traffic projection is 37 years old.
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The studies also provide an average and ranges
from lowest to highest traffic generated per thousand
square feet from the buildings. Well, the AM rush hour in
the three in the chart for AM traffic produces 0.6 to 6.0
trips per thousand square feet. The average is 1.56; that’s
the figure used in this traffic report. The PM rush, 0.5 to
6.4 trips per thousand square feet; the average used for
this is 1.5. And the total day is 3.5 trips to 29 trips per
day, and the average used here was 11. The averages used
are way below the mean for the traffic.
I do have pictures of traffic that I can show
you, but in the interest of… I’m also out of time. I would
just like to ask, do any of you need to see them? Okay. I
think I might like to comment on a couple of other items.
The Applicant’s current design has made efforts
to address ten of the 50 or so deficiencies that we
identified in our April 5th submission.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Thank you. I want to
also mention to you that since we’re all very familiar with
your location, by not needing to see your photographs I’m
not suggesting your photographs wouldn’t be good, but I
don’t think we need them.
BOB BURKE: No, I didn’t think you would either.
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COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Vice Chair Kane, I
think, has a question.
VICE CHAIR KANE: You did submit those
photographs, didn’t you? That looks familiar.
BOB BURKE: Many of them. I have a few that I
didn’t submit.
VICE CHAIR KANE: We had two submissions of
photographs, and that’s one of the sets that we have.
BOB BURKE: Yes. Actually, this one is not. This
is a new one. It just shows the congested eastbound traffic
on 9, and the congested north and southbound traffic on Los
Gatos-Saratoga Road, and it is absolutely clear from the
observations that the problem with the traffic is that Los
Gatos Boulevard is too…
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you. My question was
could you sum up what you were saying about the traffic
study?
BOB BURKE: Oh, yes.
VICE CHAIR KANE: In ten words or less. That the
data was faulty, or…
BOB BURKE: The rules used to do the computations
are woefully out of date, and who would possibly believe
that traffic hasn’t gone up a lot in the last 37 years?
VICE CHAIR KANE: All right, thank you.
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COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Yes, another question.
Commissioner Burch.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: I have a question. I want to
go back. You were talking about the average ranges, because
I was writing as fast as I could, but the first item you
said in the AM it’s 0.6 trips per 1,000 square feet per AM,
but the study was using what?
BOB BURKE: 0.6 minimum to 5.98, effectively 6
trips per 1,000 square feet maximum, and this is from the
studies that are 37 years old. The average is 1.56. Now,
the average of 1.56 is what’s used in the traffic studies,
and we made a good faith attempt to show the sensitivity of
trips generated per hour in our submission, and we were the
only ones to do that.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: All right, I think there
are no other questions. Thank you very much, Mr. Burke.
I’ve indicated the next two speakers, but I’ll add a third,
and it’s Harold Vitale; so that will be the third speaker.
CATHY CATHEY: Hello, my name is Cathy Cathey and
I’m the property owner at 420 Alberto Way with Bob and
Sherry.
Tonight we’ll be discussing four topics related
to the proposed development. These topics include
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construction worker parking, delivery truck access once the
project is completed, garbage truck access, and bus access.
First, construction worker parking. Where will
the typically 50 to 100 workers park when they come in to
work for the day? We have limited street parking on Alberto
Way and certainly not enough parking available for many
trucks or cars. What accommodations will be made for those
workers in terms of parking?
Second, I’ve been in the commercial furniture
industry for several decades and I’ve been involved with
delivering and installing products such as desks, chairs,
cubicles, benching, et cetera. One of the most important
parts of this process is the delivery of the product. Where
will we bring in the product? Is there a loading dock? Is
there a freight elevator? Are there special before or after
hours that we need to abide by to minimize the disruption
to the existing tenants? Elevator access, is that limited
to certain hours of the day? It certainly is on many of the
projects I work on.
When I look at the proposed project I see no
location for easy access for deliveries of products such as
furniture, technology, or anything else that will need to
be delivered to this building. So the delivery trucks will
need to enter through the main access point, which is 26’,
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and will probably park in the circular area, which I
estimate to be about 52’ radius based on 8.6 width per car
parking spot, which was on the plan.
I’ve checked with four companies in the area: my
company, two commercial moving and storage companies, and
one union installation company. Most of these trucks used
by these companies have 24’ long cargo holds and another 8’
for the cab. Larger trucks that travel across the country
can be as long and longer at 53’. Will these trucks block
others from parking on the street level? Will these trucks
double park on the street, thereby blocking traffic and
creating further limited visibility on this already too
narrow, winding street?
Third, garbage and recycling. The location for
garbage is conveniently located, not, right at the entrance
of the underground parking location, so depending upon the
time of day that the garbage is picked up this might block
the entrance for tenants entering the building for several
minutes. Where will these cars be, waiting to get into the
underground parking? Will they spill out on Alberto Way
again, blocking traffic and limited visibility?
Last, the Applicant says the plan enables tenants
to use commuter buses for transport. Same problem. The
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buses are 40-45’ and they have the same limitations as the
trucks originally mentioned.
We need to address these issues before this
project goes forward. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: All right, thank you.
Let’s see if there are questions. Vice Chair Kane.
VICE CHAIR KANE: With respect to the buses and
the fact that they are long, I’m not connecting that. I
don’t believe there is currently a bus stop there; it’s up
on Los Gatos Boulevard.
CATHY CATHEY: I don’t think there is any bus
stop on Highway 9, nor is there any bus stop on Alberto
Way.
VICE CHAIR KANE: So how would that affect…
CATHY CATHEY: Because if we’re bringing people
into the property on buses, how will those buses get into…
VICE CHAIR KANE: So you’re assuming that the
employer may choose to bus in the employees?
CATHY CATHEY: It’s certainly something that has
come up, I think, in previous conversations, so that’s a
possibility in order to reduce the amount of traffic and
the number of cars that come into the property.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you.
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COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: All right, if there are
no more questions, thank you very much.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Can I ask a question of Staff?
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Yes, just a moment. I’m
going to add another name on the list here, and that will
be Loretta Fowler, and before we get to Thomas Dunn, Vice
Chair Kane has a question to ask of Staff.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Mr. Paulson, in the extensive
Conditions of Approval, should the project be approved they
have to comply with all of these many, many conditions. Not
having memorized them, 94, 95, so those conditions address
some of Ms. Cathey’s comments about construction parking?
There would need to be a plan for that?
JOEL PAULSON: Construction management plan,
correct.
VICE CHAIR KANE: And the delivery trucks, is
that in the conditions?
JOEL PAULSON: That, I don't know, but I would
defer to Ms. Armer.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Are the garbage trucks in the
conditions?
JOEL PAULSON: Garbage trucks probably are not.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Go ahead, please.
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JENNIFER ARMER: Off the top of my head, I don’t
remember that there is a specific condition about those
aspects, but that is something that could be added.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Okay, Mr. Dunn.
THOMAS DUNN: Hi, my name is Thomas Dunn and I
live at 420 Alberto Way. I’ve lived in Los Gatos for 40
years, and I’m going to talk maybe a little bit about the
human side and life side of how this is impacting us.
What we enjoy here, and what I’ve enjoyed about
Los Gatos, and especially Alberto Way, for all the several
years I’ve been living there is that small town feeling,
and I also enjoy and appreciate that quiet neighborhood.
And it’s a friendly neighborhood. Everybody is friendly,
and there are friendly residents on that street and in that
neighborhood.
The last thing is we have this picturesque view
of the Santa Cruz Mountains, redwoods, sunsets. All of that
is what we enjoy and what we appreciate about living on
Alberto Way. I feel fortunate I can get up in the morning,
wake up in the morning, see the sun sitting over on the
mountain, shining off the mountain, kids walking to school,
quiet, a few people driving.
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The afternoons, a lot of us have home offices,
and you talk about two years of construction with home
offices on the street is not going to go well. But having
home offices, we’re able to appreciate and enjoy the sun
out there and being able to have the quietness and not the
traffic, just talk to your neighbors as they’re walking
their dogs, taking a break at lunchtime.
And then in the evening, after you finally leave
the 83,000 square foot commercial buildings in San Jose or
in Cupertino you want to come home and be able to sit back
and relax on your porch, on your balcony, and see the sun
set. You want to take a look at the mountains. You want to
be able to reflect on that, and that’s part of lifestyle.
You can’t replace that with putting a building in there.
If this proposed development goes through, all of
that is gone. That’s lost, for all of us. We’ve lost that.
I’ve got some pictures; I’ll show and address that in a
minute.
You’ve got size and bulk of these buildings that
have got to show on three different slides to be able to
make that on that, and it just doesn’t fit into the
neighborhood.
My concerns about it, we’re going to talk about a
small town, well, you’re going to have overcrowded. If
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you’re going to have 340 employees, and if they cut it up
and are able to do bullpen type of setups in that office
for high-tech individuals, you could have maybe 500 or 600
employees. That’s not small town. They’re going to be
coming right down our street and in our face.
The next thing that is going to happen is the
quiet neighborhood. Cathy has addressed it. Bob has.
Sherry, you’ve got 300, 400 cars coming down in there, and
then at lunch time they want to leave and get into town,
and at night come home?
I’ll just stop there. Let me show you some of
these pictures, and you may have questions on what’s
happening now. The blue is the current, and you can see
that it’s taken out all of the trees behind it, all of the
mountains behind it; we’ve lost all the sight.
This is continuation of this mass, 83,000 square
foot bulk building, and that’s taken in blue if you can see
that. It’s taken right to the top of the mountain.
Everything we’ve wanted is gone.
The last one is really the bad one. This is
unobstructed view. This is 100% unobstructed…
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Pardon me; you have to
stop now. I allow people a few seconds, but I can’t do
more.
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THOMAS DUNN: And that’s 100% lost.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: May I ask some
questions?
THOMAS DUNN: Sure, go ahead.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Vice Chair Kane.
VICE CHAIR KANE: It’s been said that some folks
don’t want anything there. Are you one of those folks that
want nothing there?
THOMAS DUNN: You know, if you put one story and
kept it to the same footprint, I think it would be ideal.
VICE CHAIR KANE: So you know it’s commercial and
you know something is going in.
THOMAS DUNN: Absolutely. Let’s put it down to
really the footprint and what you had recommended, between
40,000 and 60,000 square feet, maybe do one story. Make it
fit it there.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you, Mr. Dunn.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Commissioner Hudes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: I understand the concern
about the views, and I spend a fair amount of time over
there looking at the hills and judging from various
perspectives. In your opinion, does the redesign address
the views to any appreciable degree?
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THOMAS DUNN: Yeah, what it did, because in the
orange netting you can see that it took out not only all of
the mountains, but it took out half of the view way above
the mountains. Now what it’s done is it’s removed the
orange netting down to the blue, which now it just takes
out all of the mountains, so all you see is the sky above
that.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Okay, thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Okay, thank you very
much, Mr. Dunn. The next card I have is Harold Vitale, but
I’m going to add Sergey Melnik as the third speaker. So,
Mr. Vitale.
HAROLD VITALE: Good evening, everyone. I’m
Harold Vitale, a longtime Los Gatos resident from 1973
through 2007. Since 2014 I’ve resided at the Commons. I’m a
graduate of Stanford University with a master’s degree in
electrical engineering and a career in the semiconductor
industry. I’m now retired.
My topic this evening is pedestrian safety
concerns and the 401 building proposal. One of my therapies
to restore full function after surgery is walking; I walk
regularly. Currently, I walk along Alberto Way from the
Commons, and then west along the north side of Los Gatos-
Saratoga Road to University Avenue. Well, walking on Los
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Gatos-Saratoga and crossing the four ramps to and from 17
poses a problem for any slow walker.
The Los Gatos-Saratoga right-hand lane borders
the curb and sidewalk. Pedestrians are at risk as cars
speed by them only a few feet from where they are walking
and are at risk of being hit by a car or truck that bumps
or jumps the curb. Increased auto traffic will worsen this
hazard. It only takes one accident.
Pedestrians crossing driveways to and from 401,
and I’m very concerned about things getting worse if a
large building is constructed at the corner of Alberto Way,
adding 330 cars, maybe more. On the west side of Alberto
Way the two driveways that cross the sidewalk in and out of
the proposed new building complex will be much busier. I
worry about getting hit or having to stand and wait during
rush hours.
So why not walk on the other side of the street
and avoid the driveways? It is now sometimes very hard to
cross from the Commons to the east side of Alberto Way due
to the recent introduction of 100 cars from the 475-485
offices; their tenancy has tripled in the last two months,
so there are far many more cars going up and down Alberto
Way.
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We at the Commons think that the proposed
addition of flashing beacons at the crosswalks on the ramps
to and from 17 would be helpful. It would also help now
even to have a walkway across Alberto Way so that we can
cross from the Commons side over to the side and avoid
those two driveways.
My recommendation is that we strongly urge you to
not approve such a huge building. It would, as explained,
make walking in this community a much less pleasant
activity and be unsafe, especially for those of us who
suffer from conditions of old age.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Thank you very much.
Commissioner Hudes has a question.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Thank you very much. I spent
some time walking up and down the sidewalk over there, and
I personally experienced I consider a very dangerous
situation where the majority of cars entering 17 north
didn’t pay any attention to me trying to cross that
crosswalk, the majority, and part of the issue is that they
were speeding up to get onto the freeway, and they also
couldn’t see me and I couldn’t see them.
So my question is if that crosswalk were perhaps
farther east where it wasn’t around the bend as much, and
there was better visibility in addition to the flashing
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lights, in your opinion, having walked that all the time,
would that help with the safety of making that crossing if
that crosswalk were farther east and there would be better
visibility?
HAROLD VITALE: Somewhat. However, there are four
places where you have to have a walk across the ramp entry,
and I find it difficult. I mean I have to be really
cautious, because you can’t see around some of the curves
on the ramps’ cloverleaves, and it’s hard. I can’t use that
walkway anymore. I have to walk a little slower now, and if
it takes longer to get across, you’re at risk of a car that
you couldn’t see being right on you, and they go above the
speed limit there.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Okay, thank you. We’re
really dealing with only one of those four in this
application, but I will have some questions for Staff and
the traffic engineers about improving at least that first
crosswalk, so thank you for your testimony.
HAROLD VITALE: Can I say one more thing?
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Excuse me. I’m going to
have to be fairly tight about this. You answer questions
when you’re past your time, but you can’t go on. The reason
I say that is I’ve got another at least 30 cards here, and
that’s the rule.
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HAROLD VITALE: I understand.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I hate to be that way,
but that is a rule. Okay, so thank you, Mr. Vitale. The
next card I will call is Loretta Fowler, and I will add to
this list Paulette Sato. So, Loretta Fowler.
LORETTA FOWLER: I am a retired university
professor who decided to move to a small town near my
family after years of big city living. I bought a condo at
Los Gatos Commons, a vibrant senior community and a quiet
neighborhood.
I was shocked by the story poles. The proposed
project is too big for Alberto Way and even the wider
neighborhood. The other general office buildings on Los
Gatos-Saratoga Road are much smaller. The largest is 11,000
square feet, and the proposed project is about 20,000
square feet. On University between Lark and Los Gatos-
Saratoga Road with a 35 mile per hour speed limit, the two-
story office buildings are 20,000 square feet or less. One
exception is 60,000.
On Alberto Way the proposed building would
stretch from one end of the site to the other. It is on
high ground, so it looms over neighboring condos and dwarfs
the condo developments and the two small businesses across
the street. The developer has claimed that he reduced the
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size of the building by reducing its cubic feet, but the
square footage would still be 83,000, it would still be two
stories, and one building is more imposing than two. He
also proposes to add architectural features common on other
buildings in the town, much smaller ones, by the way, but
adding pop-outs, trellises, and one tones does nothing to
reduce the size of the building or the impression of size.
As the saying goes, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it
is still a pig.
So, we agree with Cannon Design’s letter in
February and March 2017 that the revised building, “still
reads as one large building without a breakdown in scale
related to the neighborhood or Los Gatos small town scale.”
We enthusiastically embrace Larry Cannon’s suggestion that
multiple structures with small-scale modules and details
would blend better with the neighborhood. A combined square
footage of 45,000 we think would accomplish that very well.
At least two Commissioners favored a size of 45,000 last
August. Above ground parking could accommodate that scale
of development.
A large majority of residents from all four
developments on Alberto Way signed a petition objecting to
this large 83,000 square foot building. After a careful
reading of the General Plan we are encouraged to believe
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that a new building must respect the character of the
neighborhood and blend into it. Class A office space comes
in different sizes, and we hope the developer’s desire for
a particular level of profit will not take precedence over
the quality of life of our residents or the identity of the
existing neighborhood.
Please reject this particular project. Another
developer of this site may be more sensitive to the
neighborhood. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Thank you very much.
Just one second. Let’s see if there are any questions. All
right, there are no questions. Thank you, Ms. Fowler. Next
I will be calling Sergey Melnik, and I’ll be adding to the
list Julie Thorne.
SERGEY MELNIK: Good evening, I’m Sergey Melnik
and I live at 420 Alberto Way, Unit 3.
I oppose the currently proposed Alberto Way
development. The development will increase the jobs to
housing ratio, violating the ratio goal of 1.5 set in the
2020 General Plan Housing Element. The Los Gatos 2015-2023
Housing Element says on page 63 that in 2010 Los Gatos had
approximately 2.15 jobs per household, while a healthy job
to housing ration is typically between 1.0 and 1.5 jobs per
household. Goal HOU-9 also sets the ratio to be maintained
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at 1.5. (Inaudible) Policy HOU-9.1 requires (inaudible)
applications that have a significant number of jobs in
regard to the potential impact on the Town’s job to housing
ratio. According to ABAG there is an expected increase in
jobs in between 2015 and 2025 by 980 jobs, or 8%. The
proposed site alone adds about 300-600 jobs. It alone would
add between 10-30% of the ten-year growth in one
development. The impact would be significant.
Furthermore, it will highly impact local schools’
financing as the new employment in the service area leads
to increased quotas for the new housing to be built in Los
Gatos. California Housing Element law Title 7, Planning and
Land Use 65000-66499.58 requires Los Gatos to add housing
in sufficient quantity to allow the holders of new jobs
(inaudible) into the town to live in town.
Our school systems are at or near capacity, and
state law limits the fees they can collect for the new
students to a tiny fraction of .55 cents per square foot of
what it costs to build classrooms for students that will be
added after it is occupied as a result. As an example of
cost per student, recent renovation of Lexington Elementary
cost over $20 million and covered only 284 students, making
it $70,000 per student. The average family is 1.7 students
per household, so the school impact fees don’t even fund
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one new student and bring hundreds to the town. With the
costs similar to Lexington at 240 students, it would
require over $60 million in investments. Forty-three
thousand square feet development will bring about $45,000
in fees collected, a fraction of the needed $60 million,
and we well know that our schools are already underfunded.
Thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Thank you very much. Are
there questions of the speaker? If not, thank you very
much, Mr. Melnik. The next person will be Paulette Sato,
and I’ll be adding Melanie Kemp. I will advise you that at
8:45 we’ll take a ten-minute break, so you can look forward
to that. All right, Ms. Sato.
PAULETTE SATO: Hi, my name is Paulette Sato and
I’m a middle school teacher in Los Altos, and I live at 420
Alberto Way.
The Valley Transit Authority I understand has
approved the funding to improve the traffic congestion,
relief, emergency vehicle access, and pedestrian cycling
safety; however, I think this needs to be completed before
any construction takes place at 405 Alberto Way.
I think one proposed plan would be to widen
Highway 9, Los Gatos-Saratoga Road, in both directions, on
both sides for there to be enough roadway to accommodate
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the amount of traffic that will be coming in and going out
of this commercial building complex. Then there should also
be additional lanes to serve as an off ramp to Route 17
going in both directions. As noted, this proposed plan or
anything like it needs to be done before any construction
occurs at 401 Alberto Way, because it could encroach on his
property.
In addition, Alberto Way, if not sufficiently
widened, which I guess it will be to some extent to
accommodate on street parking, I’m under the assumption
that Mr. Lamb did not include in his plan the maintenance
of the existing parking spaces for people living in Pueblo
De Los Gatos. Therefore, the curve in front of his property
should be straightened enough to elevate the flow and
safety of traffic as well as to enable emergency vehicles
in and out of Alberto Way, and to allow for at least some
parking spaces that he’s taking away from the residents of
Pueblo De Los Gatos.
Furthermore, we would like to ensure that new
development preserves and promotes existing commercial
centers consistent with the maintenance of a small town
atmosphere and image. It’s going to be concrete, and it
doesn’t honor the current design of the town. It should be
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designed in keeping with the small town character and charm
of Los Gatos; that’s why we all live there.
Lastly, we would like to protect existing
residential areas from nonresidential uses by assuring that
buffers are developed and/or maintained. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Thank you. Are there
questions? If not, thank you very much. The next speaker
will be Julie Thorne, and I’m going to add to the list
Lewis Darrow. So, Ms. Thorne.
JULIE THORNE: Hi, my name is Julie Thorne; I’m
an owner at 420 Alberto Way, Los Gatos.
I’m here to talk about the 2020 General Plan.
Policy LU-4.2 says that, “to allow development only with
adequate physical infrastructure,” and all the business.
Los Gatos presently lacks the road infrastructure to
support both existing and added traffic on Highway 9.
The Highway 9 congestion stems in part by the two
small lane road on Los Gatos Boulevard from Van Meter to
Town Hall. Roads would need to be widened before increased
development. This project generates far more public cost in
infrastructure than its benefit to the community. A crown
jewel for the developer, and a crown of thorns for our
entire community.
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I was watching a story on KQED the other day and
it reminded me of Los Gatos. It was a time, post-World War
Two, when developers were busy with plans to completely
fill in the San Francisco Bay for building. It was going
on. Can you imagine not having a city by the bay? Thank God
some men and women in the community spearheaded a movement
to save the bay.
It’s just that our small town of Los Gatos is not
big enough and doesn’t have the transportation
infrastructure to support a building this size with all its
cars. Even if 300 workers walked and rode their bikes to
Alberto Way, there’s no safe way for pedestrians and
bicyclists to cross over the 17 at Highway 9. We need a
separate foot/bike bridge, not unlike the one behind the
high school that connects to the back of Old Town; you know
the one I’m talking about?
I’m not saying development is bad; it’s a good
thing when used right and in the right order.
Infrastructure first. Let’s not put the cart before the
horse, as they say. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Are there any questions?
If not, thank you very much. The next speaker I have is
Melanie Kemp, and I will be adding Maura Burns.
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MELANIE KEMP: Good evening, my name is Melanie
Kemp; I live at 174 Cuesta De Los Gatos Way in Bella Vista
Village at the very end of Alberto Way.
I’ve been a resident in this development for 18
years; I’m one of the original owners there, and I’ve
served on the board of directors there for many years, and
I’ve been involved in more than 20 real estate transactions
there, representing buyers, sellers, or sometimes even
tenants. As such, I’ve had a lot of conversations with a
lot of my neighbors, perspective buyers who are concerned
with both the size and the design of this proposed
development.
I do want to reassure the developer here that if
he’s ever inferred that everybody here is totally opposed
to any development whatsoever, it just isn’t true at all.
I’ve talked with a lot of these people and we very much
look forward to a development that is smart and will add
value to both our neighborhood and our community.
We want to work with the Planning Commission here
to make sure that they are aware, however, of an issue that
we’ve been dealing with in Bella Vista Village for the past
18 years, and that is the issue of water runoff with the
very high water table that we sit on.
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Shortly after construction was completed some of
the residents in our development started complaining about
excessive water condition under their homes on the lower
end of our development here. Under some of these homes
there was actually a stream of water that was evident. A
stream. After months of litigation and several engineering
reports we learned that the problem was twofold.
One problem was that there was an excessive
amount of water runoff from the hill above us, up here. I
know the Planning Commission is very familiar with this
area because of previous hearings on Bella Vista Avenue,
which is the street up here. For several years, and after
numerous hearings, the Planning Commission has examined the
effect this hillside has had on Bella Vista Village. On the
upper elevations of our development you’re going to find
sloping streets and retaining walls.
The Bella Vista developers soon realized they had
underestimated the amount of water runoff that flows from
Bella Vista Village hillside, down through our development,
directly down onto Cuesta De Los Gatos Way, and eventually
ends up on Alberto Way.
The first problem was exacerbated by the second
problem, which was we sit on an unusually high water table.
Let’s take a look at the map from Santa Clara County Water
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District in 1962; it’s in your packet. You’re going to
notice here in this area, the area in red here is 1-10’
below the surface level. I’m going to show you another map
now, here, this one shows this development, and this map
shows what has happened here in the past three years in the
water level rising in this area.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I’m going to have to
stop you. I’m sorry, but the time is up. Let’s see if there
are any questions. Vice Chair Kane.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Ms. Kemp, what’s your point?
MELANIE KEMP: The point is that there’s an
excessive amount of water that rolls off of the Bella Vista
Village development, rolling down Alberto Way; it’s at a
low point there. It also rises, if you go up Alberto Way up
to the highway. So we have a flooding condition on Alberto
Way whenever we have rainfall now.
VICE CHAIR KANE: How would this building affect
that?
MELANIE KEMP: When you have displaced water,
when you have two levels of underground parking, that water
gets displaced, it has to go somewhere; it’s going to roll
downhill to Alberto Way. So Dr. Geissler’s hydrology report
that you’ve already received, has said it’s going to be an
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extra burden on the drainage system of Alberto Way. That
water has to go somewhere.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Thank you very much.
We’ll have one more speaker before we take our break, and
that will be Lewis Darrow, and I’m going to add to our list
here Jennifer Leibthal. So, Lewis Darrow.
LEWIS DARROW: My name is Lewis Darrow, and my
background is a project manager. I’ve been working
currently on a project that’s very similar. It’s a 100,000
square foot for a big corporate institution. I’m very much
in favor of good development. It has underground parking.
This project is not consistent with blending into
the existing neighborhood. It’s the wrong site. Development
is good, but this is the wrong site. It’s out of scale with
all surrounding buildings, its revised mass of 83,000
square feet paid no attention to Planning Commission’s last
meeting where the Commissioners requested the developer to
reduce the square footage by a third, and even that might
not be enough, but that was a starting point. The
developer, Mr. Lamb, indicated at a meeting at the Los
Gatos Commons that anything under 83,000 square feet would
not be profitable to them.
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What’s profitable to a developer, well, he’s not
the only one there. This potential building could decrease
the property values of the people living there. There are
some 400 people living there, and this has a direct impact
on that.
The proposed building mass replaces a complex
that was in scale with the surrounding community. They
contributed to the community fabric; it had housing
services or professionals and small businesses, which often
contributed to the community. It’s being replaced by a
massive building that will be off limits to the people who
live on Alberto Way. It will add close to 400 cars-plus per
day to a one-street entry that empties into Los Gatos Road,
which is already a congested intersection at both morning
and afternoon peak hours.
If the mass and scale of the building is not
enough, the fact the developer ignored the request to
reduce the building size by a third is an alarming signal
that he is not listening to the comments of the Town or the
people who live there.
The additional traffic created by this project
will have very significant ramifications. It’s a single
entry street with over 400 occupants with two additional
office buildings at the other end of the street. The
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developer claims to have had great success with the Netflix
building, and I really agree, he did have great success,
but this is the wrong site.
This project is a small site surrounded by
residential units, it’s on a corner of a congested
intersection, you’re adding 400 cars, it will add multiple
trucks for deli service deliveries and maintenance, it will
add buses, it will create additional air pollution from
idling cars and trucks entering, and it will add to the
summer traffic mess in Los Gatos.
When the Town closes Santa Cruz Avenue, where do
you think all the cars are going to go? To the next exit
down. And what do you think is going to happen with that
intersection then all summer? It only takes a little common
sense to know if you block the mouth of a river you get a
mess behind it and you forever change the landscape in
front of it.
The proposed traffic movement at the intersection
does not work. You have two narrow lanes from Alberto Way
to Saratoga, which will continually be tied up by the cars
trying to make the right-hand turn.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Your time is up. Are
there any questions of the speaker? Thank you very much.
LEWIS DARROW: Could I add one thing?
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COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: How about ten seconds?
Go right ahead.
LEWIS DARROW: You made a comment about widening
Alberto Way.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I didn’t.
LEWIS DARROW: Or somebody did, one of the
Commissioners. Please think seriously about that, because
cars speed so fast between the office building in back and
the office building in front, and the older gentleman who
had a question about walking across the street slowly, it’s
going to be a very dangerous situation as cars speed up to
try to get out of there.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Okay, now there’s a
question for you from Commissioner Hudes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Thank you. I was one of the
folks who were talking about widening Alberto Way. It’s not
quite clear to me how much it has actually been widened in
the current proposal, and I’ll have some questions for the
developer.
My question for you is if a development went into
this location—and I’m not saying it’s going to be this size
or another size—would you see a benefit in widening Alberto
Way for some of the reasons that were discussed earlier?
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LEWIS DARROW: I think it would have to be very
carefully done, because when you widen a street you’re
going to give the propensity of increased speed, and with
bookends of corporate offices where people are rushing to
go in and out it’s a very dangerous situation for the
people who live in the neighborhood.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Okay, thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: All right, thank you
very much. The next, after we come back from our recess,
will be Maura Burnes, and then we’re going to have Jennifer
Leibthal, and then we’re going to have Marilyn Basham.
Thank you very much. We’ll take a ten-minute break.
(INTERMISSION)
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: All right, the next
speaker is Maura Burns.
MAURA BURNS: My name is Maura Burns and I’ve
been a resident of 443 Alberto Way in the Commons for 11
years, and as an owner for the last seven. I moved there to
care for my late mother who chose to live there because it
provides safety, community, and support to otherwise
potentially vulnerable senior citizens. I’d note that there
are few such options in this area like this, a fact that is
not likely to change for the better in the future given our
current real estate situation.
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The proposed two-story underground garage of this
project first struck our group as a potential problem
because of the nature of the soil and the high water table
at the site. It was noticed that the ENGEO study upon which
the EIR’s geology and soil section drew did not address the
issue of otherwise neighboring properties being affected.
This was surprising, because the General Plan Safety
Element calls for this assessment.
We had to hire our own expert, a civil engineer
and hydrologist. As you saw in Dr. Geissler’s report, we
face serious risk to our property if this underground
garage is built, in the form of breaking pipes and cracking
slabs. The ENGEO supplement responded to the Geissler
report about potential damage to our properties by arguing
that there is a low risk of damage and that damage is
unlikely, but ENGEO cannot say that there is no risk to us
or that such damage isn’t possible. We should not have to
bear any risk due to this project. The financial loss and
social disruption of the Commons and its neighboring homes
due to such damage would be great. We urge you not to
approve this project.
Since I have time and speak too fast, I will add
that I, too, disagree with Mr. Lamb’s assertion that the
residents of Alberto Way want no development on this site.
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We do want a more reasonably sized development that fits
into the site. This current plan, however, does not. I’m
not surprised that he would characterize our objections as
unreasonable, however, as he is determined to get this
project done at its current size regardless of our
reasonable issues with it as it is currently proposed.
Thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Thank you. Any
questions? If not, thank you very much. All right, I’m
going to call Jennifer Leibthal, and I’m going to add to
the list here Dr. Peter Geissler, so he will be third.
JENNIFER LEIBTHAL: Hello, my name is Jennifer
Leibthal; I’m the owner at 120 Alberto Way. I wanted to
first thank the Planning Commission for listening to the
residents’ concerns today. I know your job is not an easy
one, and I thank you for serving this amazing town.
When I moved to Los Gatos I was drawn to the
unique character and overall ambiance of this charming
town. The commercial buildings in and around downtown Los
Gatos have rarely struck me as commercial structures as so
many blend with the overall scale and quiet architecture of
the town. My biggest ask is that you consider something
directly out of the Town design guidelines. “The sensitive
interface of commercial development with adjacent
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residential neighborhoods,” and, “avoidance of
architectural trendy buildings in favor of timeless
qualities.” I feel that this new proposed building does not
follow the intent of the Town design guidelines and General
Plan regarding aesthetics in the following ways.
Number one, maintain a building scale that is
consistent with the Town’s small-scale image, existing
small town feel, and General Plan policy CD-1.4, which
states, “Development on all elevations shall be of high
quality design and construction, a positive addition to and
compatible with the Town’s ambiance. Development shall
enhance the character and unique identity of existing
commercial and residential neighborhoods.”
This new complex is in no way compatible with the
ambiance of the neighborhood. The buildings in the
neighborhood are all small with meandering grass areas
throughout the complexes that not only break up the
buildings, but also provide a lovely openness to the
complexes. The old buildings are small in density and
height. This new building will be one much larger structure
in height and size. Separating this into a few smaller
buildings will be more consistent and fitting for a
residential neighborhood.
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Number two, “Reinforce a special quality of the
Town’s visual character and maintain a sense of place and
views of the surrounding hills preserved.” In the General
Plan Policy 1.1, which states, “Building elements shall be
in proportion with those traditionally in the
neighborhood,” and CD-1.1, which states, “New structures,
remodels, landscapes, and hardscapes shall be designed to
harmonize and blend with the scale and rhythm of the
neighborhood and natural features in the area.”
The hills of Los Gatos are iconic. As I drive
around town I’ve always loved the views of the hills you
get at every turn. The overwhelming commercial feel of this
building will distract from the views as Los Gatos
residents drive down Highway 9 into town. The structure
will also distract from the beautiful views of residents of
Bella Vista and those who often stand on Bella Vista Bridge
to enjoy the open view towards downtown, in my opinion one
of the most beautiful views in town.
It will also distract from my view in my unit.
This will directly impact the value of my property and that
of other residents. Right now I have a beautiful view, and
if anybody wants to come to my balcony you’re welcome to;
it takes away the entire view from my unit.
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I know that you have been responsive to
residents’ issues in the past, and I hope that you will
support this request. With your leadership and support I
know a balance can be struck that will preserve the
character of the residential neighborhood and enhance its
livability. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Thank you. Any
questions? Thank you very much. The next speaker will be
Marilyn Basham, and I’m adding a name to our list: Carol
Rosenberg. So, Ms. Basham.
MARILYN BASHAM: Thank you. My name is Marilyn
Basham. I’ve been a resident in Los Gatos since 1982, and
I’m now a resident at Los Gatos Commons, which is 95%
senior. I’m a part owner of a small business here in town
since 1982. I’m a retired physical therapist with over 30
years of experience, and I have first hand knowledge and
observation of the people and the seniors of Alberto Way.
The EIR talks about the soil, the air, the water, but what
have been missing is the people, and I want to give you
that perspective.
The Los Gatos Commons community is 95% senior and
it’s situated on a dead end street. If the commercial
development is approved, the only way out for us is through
a construction zone full of noise, unexpected traffic
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hazards, and congestion. Seniors are cautious drivers, and
the idea of competing with over 200 diesel truck trips a
day is overwhelming. Many residents are already fearful
that they’ll become physically and socially isolated during
the 16 to 18 months construction period, and in the long
term fear the isolation from continued traffic gridlock.
Some of the residents enjoy walking outside, even
if they have to bring along their oxygen concentrators, but
they fear this pleasure will be prohibited with the
particulate air pollution problems and noise from
construction.
Many of the residents on Alberto Way are on fixed
incomes and cannot financially afford the repairs of
cracked concrete and broken pipes. Even if the risk is low,
the question is why should we seniors have any risk at all?
Tonight I’m the voice for my neighbors with
mobility issues who could not be here in person, but are
opposed to this development because of its size and scale.
I speak for all my neighbors when I declare the Commons is
our home. The developers have other options. They can move
on. We cannot. This is our home.
We are asking the Planning Commission to insist
that the development reduce the size to one half and keep
120 above ground parking places. The proposed garage is
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dramatically different than any other in Los Gatos. It is
two levels, and never been done in Los Gatos, and it would
be dug on a dead end street where the majority of the
residents are seniors. Please, do not excavate on Alberto
Way. It is the old streambed of Los Gatos Creek. Once water
is hit, construction will stop, and we seniors will be
trapped even longer on our dead end street. We’re asking
the Planning Commissioners to allow seniors who have
contributed their time, talent, and tax dollars to retire
without isolation and fear in the town they helped to
build. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Pardon me; Vice Chair
Kane has a question.
MARILYN BASHAM: Thank you.
VICE CHAIR KANE: You said 95% are seniors. In
your estimation, how many seniors are you talking about?
MARILYN BASHAM: There are 110 units. Ninety-five
percent of them are seniors. Some are single, and some are
couples.
VICE CHAIR KANE: And that’s just at the Commons?
MARILYN BASHAM: That’s just at the Commons.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Any other questions? If
not, thank you very much. The next speaker is Dr. Peter
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Geissler, and I’m going to add John Mittelstet to our list.
Dr. Geissler has, I believe, acted both as a professional
in submitting something to us, but as I understand it, you
also live in the neighborhood, is that correct?
DR. PETER GEISSLER: No, that’s not correct. No,
I live in San Francisco.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Oh, okay.
DR. PETER GEISSLER: And although this is broadly
San Francisco, I don’t have any special knowledge of the
area with regard to the sociology.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: So you’re speaking on
your own behalf, or others?
DR. PETER GEISSLER: No, I’m here on behalf of
many residents who have retained me to make comments
regarding the ENGEO report.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Fine. I didn’t mean to
interrupt you. Thank you very much. Go ahead.
DR. PETER GEISSLER: Thank you. My name is Dr.
Peter Geissler; I’m the principle of Geissler Engineering.
I founded the firm in 1978. I spent 20 years on the faculty
at the University of California. I went to Stanford. I have
a PhD from Yale. I have another PhD from the University of
California, and I’m acknowledged to be an expert on the
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issue of hydrology and liquefaction and soil subsidence in
differential foundations of buildings.
My primary concern here is really twofold. The
first is the methodology that has been used so far with the
EIR, and in particular I would like to ask the Planning
Commission to rethink having their experts, never having
visited the site, respond to the EIR. I think it’s
inappropriate that your experts have never come to the
site, and it was indicated in a recent correspondence, and
I would like you to correct that.
The second thing is that I would suggest that
ENGEO be encouraged to go back and do fundamental science.
They are relying on third party reports for the fact that
there is no liquefaction potential here in these soils
underlying this building. I don’t hold that opinion. I hold
the reverse opinion. I think the alluvial fan, the alluvial
deposits, that underlie the Los Gatos Creek in fact are
quite susceptible to liquefaction.
I’ve done calculations of differential foundation
settlement. ENGEO has also done calculations of
differential settlement. They predict that the building
will settle differentially one side from another on the
order of about a half inch, and I think their estimates are
low. I do not agree with that.
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Now, let’s talk about the issue of why
liquefaction and settlement and cracking of the building is
very important, and that is because this is a two-story
underground garage. I’ve heard that there are 330 cars that
are going to be parked there, and we’re talking about 330
people who drive their cars there. If the building cracks
in the event of an earthquake, and it indeed is a submerged
structure, potentially you’re looking at 330 deaths due to
drowning. Water can come into the building readily. Thank
you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: That gives you another
30 seconds.
DR. PETER GEISSLER: Oh, I see.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: And then we’ll have
questions, I’m sure.
DR. PETER GEISSLER: So fundamentally the issue
that’s technically important is what are the soils like
underneath this particular building? I hold the opinion
it’s an alluvial deposit. In other words, the sands and the
clays and the silts were deposited there underwater
historically because of the location of the creek. ENGEO
differs. I hold the opinion that there’s going to be
liquefaction and settlement. ENGEO differs. I hold the
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opinion that the building is going to crack and water is
going to come flooding in.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Okay; now we’ll get to
questions. Vice Chair Kane.
VICE CHAIR KANE: I’ve read your letters, Doctor,
and the rebuttals and the rebuttals, and both sides are
going back and forth, and it makes my head spin, because I
don’t understand a lot of it, but if what you’re saying in
your letters is true, my layman’s reaction is how can we
build anything anywhere?
DR. PETER GEISSLER: The answer to that question
is the building above grade is not at risk. If you just
eliminate the subterranean, submerged parking.
VICE CHAIR KANE: So your issue is with the
garage?
DR. PETER GEISSLER: Only the garage.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Okay, thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Other questions?
Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I wanted to thank you,
too, for your comments, and like Commissioner Kane I was
kind of watching the flow of information going back and
forth. So if I understand, your opinion is that the
Applicant’s engineering consultants didn’t actually visit
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the site, so they might not have been as thorough as you
are, so that explains the difference in your views.
What I wondered is as I was hearing this I noted
that the two-level garage was taking it down pretty deep.
Is there a one-level garage underneath that could be
feasible, or is it nothing…I think the water table was at
12’ underneath?
DR. PETER GEISSLER: That’s a very good question.
The water table varies, of course, during the year, and it
varies from year to year. At the sort of normal rain
conditions the range is probably from 10’ below grade to
12’ below grade, and of course in drought conditions it
could be as deep as 18’ or 20’ below grade. Let’s say it’s
10’ or 12’. Can you build an underground garage and keep it
so that the top of slab is above water? The answer is yes;
of course it can be done.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: And have you seen in your
experience any garages built under the water table that
hasn’t had issues?
DR. PETER GEISSLER: Yes, I have, and I’ve built
them myself, in fact. The issue really is building the
building strong enough and rigid enough to arch over areas
where there is soil subsidence. In other words, can you
build a building so solid and so strong that even if there
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is some local movement of the soils below the building, the
building will stay intact? It requires a slab thickness
that’s about 4’ thick, and walls that are about 2’ thick,
and good waterproofing, but yes, it is possible.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Okay, thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Commissioner Burch.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: I just wanted to go through
how you determined a couple of the opinions that you stated
in your letter, one being the building settling. The
Applicant has told us that the building would settle
differently on each side, about a half an inch, and it’s
your opinion that’s going to be different. I know a lot of
us in here, just for the sake of everyone, would like to
know what your opinion is on how you think the building
will settle and why you think it’s going to be differently
than what was stated in the Applicant’s package.
DR. PETER GEISSLER: I must say that all
calculations are built in assumptions and have a certain
amount of judgment associated with them. My approach to the
calculations and my judgment leads me to the conclusion
that the differential foundation settlement is in excess,
and I haven’t specified the exact amount, but if I were
pressed on the point here I would say my estimates were
about three times higher than the Applicant’s.
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COMMISSIONER BURCH: All right, thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Commissioner Hudes, I
think, was next.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Thank you. A number of
areas.
One with regard to in your letter you talk about
upstream dam failure, is that correct?
DR. PETER GEISSLER: Yes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: And you say that the most
significant hazard is posed by the possibility of an
upstream dam failure, is that correct?
DR. PETER GEISSLER: The reason I say that is
because the upstream dam failure is sort of an instant
death situation. It’s not a matter of a little bit of
cracking, a matter of a little bit of soil subsidence, but
if there’s an inundation into a submerged underground
garage, the chances of getting out are slim to none, so
it’s a catastrophic result for the occupants in the garage.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: So your concern about the
dam is related only to the underground garage, is that
correct?
DR. PETER GEISSLER: Yes, that’s right.
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COMMISSIONER HUDES: And so other underground
garages within that area in Los Gatos would be subject to a
similar risk, correct?
DR. PETER GEISSLER: Yes, and I would express the
same concern.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Are you aware of others?
DR. PETER GEISSLER: No, I am not.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: I believe there are several.
One of the things in terms of understanding some of the
language about possibility of a failure or risk in my mind
is to understand…to begin to put these into at least rough
quantification, and I think about trying to quantify the
magnitude of the impact and the likelihood of the impact,
because I think they’re related to each other. For
instance, an extremely impactful event potentially in
magnitude may have a very tiny probability of occurring.
DR. PETER GEISSLER: Exactly.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: You would agree with that?
DR. PETER GEISSLER: Absolutely.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: And so when you use the term
possibility of the dam failure, are you considering it in
that light? Are you weighing both the probability of the
occurrence as well as the magnitude?
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DR. PETER GEISSLER: I’ll say it in my own words
instead of just saying yes or no to yours, if that’s all
right.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Of course.
DR. PETER GEISSLER: My expectation is that the
dam is perfectly safe but for a nearby earthquake, and of
course we’re all familiar enough with seismology and the
probabilities associated with earthquakes, but then once
that dam breaks, then there is a 100% change of having a
big problem as a result, and so it’s the combination of the
severity of the consequence and the improbability of the
initiating event that makes me still feel that it’s a
concern, it’s a factor that should be taken into
consideration.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: With regard to the building
settlement issue, I guess all buildings settle. This
building is, I believe, an approximately 40,000 square foot
footprint. How much is acceptable in a building that size?
DR. PETER GEISSLER: That’s an excellent
question. If there’s an underground garage, and then the
building has a half-inch crack in it, how much water is
going to come in and how fast is it going to come in. You
don’t even need to do the math; you can sort of see it in
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your mind’s eye with the water flowing in the half-inch
crack.
Now, I’m not saying that a half-inch of
differential settlement necessarily implies that all of
that differential movement occurred exactly in the same
place and there’s one half-inch crack. It might have been
that there are eight sixteenth-inch cracks. But the point
is that there is a lot of water that is going to be coming
into the building, because it’s not just seepage from the
subsurface seepage coming from the uphill neighbors, but
it’s flowing in, it’s flooding in, because the building is
submerged below the ground water, and so the question of
how much cracking is acceptable, again, like that dam
question, is it acceptable that we have a building that
cracks and we’re having occupants in a two-story garage,
and the building is maybe 14-15’ below the water table?
Absolutely, it’s not acceptable. I want no cracks.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: So zero cracks, zero
settling?
DR. PETER GEISSLER: Zero cracks, minimal
settlement, but the strength of the building should be
adequate to resist the cracks, even if there is a little
bit of settlement.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: I had one other area.
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COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Before we get to that,
Commissioner Janoff has a question.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Having worked with
engineers for many, many years, I understand that it’s
impossible to design out 100% of the risks, and so that’s
not what we’re asking for. But I do have a question
regarding the risk of a one-level submerged garage versus a
two-level. Most of the concerns you’ve raised have to do
with the second level. If we were to limit the subterranean
garage to one story, would you have similar concerns, or
what would those concerns…
DR. PETER GEISSLER: Much less, and so it boils
down to the numbers again. The ground water table is, let’s
say, 10’ or 12’ below grade. If the only floor of the
underground parking structure were, let’s say, 8’ below
grade, there would be no problem.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Generally speaking.
DR. PETER GEISSLER: Yeah. If it were 10’, it
would be no problem. If it’s below 10’ and a crack
occurred, you’d get a little standing water in your
building, in your parking garage.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: If it were a single level,
lower level garage, would you be recommending that they
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beef up the thickness of the concrete similar to the way
you’re asking for the 4’ if it were a two story?
DR. PETER GEISSLER: Probably less so.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: But still more than…
DR. PETER GEISSLER: But still more than the 1’
that has been recommended. I think that’s just wanton
disregard for public safety.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: One more question on a
similar but slightly different topic. We’re talking about
catastrophic events in the form of an earthquake or a dam
break. Let’s talk about the things that might not be
catastrophic, but that would be reasonable to expect on a
regular basis, let’s say, after we had a torrential rain
season, such as we’ve just had, what the effect of that
level of rain and rainwater and runoff has on a low level
area.
We’ve heard from public testimony that there is
an issue with displacement of water and its effect on the
neighboring houses and foundations. In your opinion, has
the EIR taken into consideration to a satisfactory degree
the impact of this development on the neighboring
properties?
DR. PETER GEISSLER: Not yet, but they could. It
could be modified and addressed. That’s one of those things
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that are an addressable issue. It’s not a drop-dead
concern, like what we’re talking about with flooding into
an underground garage. Those issues of sight improvements,
and raising up grade, and building a swale. For instance,
on Highway 17 as you’re going north on the on ramp there’s
a little tiny drainage swale on the right-hand side of the
shoulder, and then there’s a little berm outside of that,
and then it drops down again. And I think you’ll see in one
of my correspondences, one of the recent letters, I think
section 9 in one of the architectural drawings shows the
very little protection that we have from runoff. I don’t
remember what page it’s on, but you might remember that
little vision. I put a little red circle around something
that was obviously a deficient berm.
But those things are addressable and those can
all be fixed. If ENGEO is asked to go back, and the civil
engineers are asked to go back and do an honest job of this
and do a proper analysis, I’m sure they can do a better job
and they’ll be able to address those sight issues.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: One last related question.
If they are determined to have a two-level subterranean
garage, does the effect of the displaced ground water on
the neighboring properties get correspondingly worse, yes
or no?
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DR. PETER GEISSLER: Yes.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: And is that on a relatively
ongoing basis, or an occasional basis?
DR. PETER GEISSLER: That’s an ongoing basis.
It’s not just during the course of construction.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I think Commissioner
Hudes was next.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: My question was about the
impact on neighboring properties. If you could maybe walk
us through that, it sounds like there are several aspects
of it, so I’d be interested to understand what impact you
think this project would have on neighboring properties.
DR. PETER GEISSLER: Well, let’s assume for the
course of this next five minutes that we’re talking about a
two-story underground submerged garage instead of a one-
story, and assuming that ENGEO has been asked to go back
and properly evaluate liquefaction and the differential
foundation settlement and they come up also with a correct
notion that their thickness of slab is about 4’, that means
that the building excavation has to be approximately 25’
down from current grade, and of course they’re below water
at that point, so the excavation that occurs has to be
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associated with dewatering, and that dewatering is done by
using sump pumps to draw the water in and excavate it out.
So when you suck that water out, of course the
water is going to be flowing underneath the cofferdam and
coming from the uphill neighbors, and associated with that
flow into the excavation the silts move away from the sand
and you get a little bit higher permeability than ever
before; it’s called a piping failure that’s occurring, and
so there are what we would call well development that is
occurring. As water percolates down below the cofferdam and
into the excavation it causes a little bit of sort of micro
soil erosion, so the next aliquot of water that’s
percolating below the cofferdam has a little easier time,
et cetera. So percolation causes soil erosion below grade,
soil erosion below grade enables more percolation of water,
and you end up getting a lot of water into this excavation.
The net result of that dewatering is likely going
to affect the uphill neighbors, and they’re going to see a
settlement of their slabs. Some people might have the happy
situation where their whole settling occurs uniformly,
other people might have the situation where the downhill
portion of their slab settles more than the uphill portion,
and they get slab cracks.
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Now, those kinds of problems are just during the
course of construction. Once the construction is done, the
water will come back up to its normal level, it will
hydrate the soils and those slabs should come right back up
more or less to where they were before. But it’s cracked
the slab and it needs to be repaired, and the way in which
it’s repaired is typically doing some epoxy crack repair of
those cracked slabs, and it’s not difficult, but it’s
expensive. It costs about $150 a lineal foot to do crack
repair of slabs that have been cracked as a result of this
problem. That’s the kind of thing that happens to the
uphill neighbors.
There might also be some sewer pipes that have a
displacement. The downhill portions of the sewer pipe might
be displaced a little bit more than the uphill portions. It
might be that the 18” corrugated metal pipe that is the
storm water drain cracks; it might be that the sewer line
is cracked. All fixable, but it’s an economic cost. And of
course you’re not doing these repairs on the developer’s
side of the fence, you’re doing these repairs on the
homeowner’s side a bit uphill. But there’s safety of
concern. Those are not life threatening conditions, it’s
just an economic loss, and it’s fixable.
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COMMISSIONER HUDES: And those losses would be
caused by this development?
DR. PETER GEISSLER: They’d be caused by the
dewatering that was necessary for the construction to
occur. It’s only during the construction phase that those
problems occur.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Commissioner Burch has a
question.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Is what you’re referring to
the item on page 6 that’s called the radius of influence,
or is that in addition to the influence, I guess, that
would be occurring during the construction?
DR. PETER GEISSLER: No, that is exactly the
radius there. It’s obviously localized, but it’s not as
localized as you would like. It affects uphill neighbors
more that are close and less that are farther away.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Understood. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: All right, I think that
concludes our questions of you. Thank you very much.
DR. PETER GEISSLER: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: The next person I will
call is Carol Rosenberg. I’m going to add to our list
Victoriya Rufanova.
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CAROL ROSENBERG: I’m Carol Rosenberg, a
homeowner at Los Gatos Commons. My talk is strictly
unscientific.
When my husband had a heart attack two years ago
we decided to move from San Diego to San Jose to be near
our family. We knew nothing about the lack of affordable
housing. When our agent found a residence not yet listed,
it was in Los Gatos. We bought it. We loved Los Gatos. We
loved Los Gatos Commons; quiet, safe, friendly. Even when
my husband died two years ago I knew that I would stay in
Los Gatos. With the specter of 401-409, now I wonder can I
handle the stress of the increased traffic, the noise, and
the pollution for three years? Is there a solution? I’m an
anxious person. Perhaps there is.
On page VIS-3 of the General Plan of the Town of
Los Gatos, we read, “The benefit of new development is
measured against the ability of the proposed development to
harmonize with the existing development while minimizing
impact on existing residential neighborhoods and
infrastructure.” I assert that the proposed project 401-409
will not minimize, but rather exacerbate, the impact on the
existing residential neighborhoods.
The closing sentence of that paragraph states,
“Input from surrounding residents and property owners is a
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major consideration during any development review process.”
I ask that the Planning Commission carefully consider our
input and our concerns. Los Gatos Commons, Pueblo De Los
Gatos, Bella Vista Village, and Las Casitas are a major
asset to the Town, and the Town should protect them.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Let’s see if there are
any questions? Any questions? No. Thank you very much. So
the next person is going to be John Mittelstet, and I’m
going to add Jean Jones to the list.
JOHN MITTELSTET: Good evening, I’m John
Mittelstet from Los Gatos Commons. I’ve been a resident of
Los Gatos since 1978. I feel up here a little like
Churchill must have when contemplating a half full quart of
scotch and said, “So much left to do, and so little time to
do it.”
The Applicant has spent the last month not trying
to reduce his 83,000 square foot monolith like you asked
back on August 24th, but asking his experts to counter the
arguments we had at ready for the April 12th meeting. We
Alberto Way neighbors still feel that though the
Applicant’s experts continue to rely on what they term as
low and very low risk associated with the planned
development’s location, which is directly above both a
recognized liquefaction hazard zone and a concealed fault
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rupture hazard zone as depicted on slides I have on the
computer for your viewing later, that we should not be
subjected to either the risks identified to our or to the
public’s safety, nor to those associated financial risks
that only we neighbors would bear five, ten, fifteen, or
twenty years hence when an earthquake induced liquefaction
sets off a chain of events that result in cracked
foundations and broken pipes beneath our units, regardless
of how low or very low those risks are considered by the
developer.
It was Edward Aldophus Murphy, Jr., an aerospace
engineer in the forties and fifties who may have said it
best when he said, “Anything that can go wrong, will go
wrong.” We in this room, and all the residents of Oroville,
know this to be true. Why should we, the residents of
Alberto Way, be asked to bear any of the risks associated
with this development, let alone put up with 16 to 18 weeks
or more of unhealthy construction, stirred air, and impeded
traffic, only to be left thereafter with an 83,000 square
foot building that has no place on our quiet, lovely
street.
We respectfully ask that you deny tonight the
developer’s proposal, and not certify the EIR, but rather
ask that it be amended to reflect all hazards with suitable
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mitigations identified and re-circulated for the benefit of
future developers.
Do we have time to view the maps? 2002 fault
rupture hazard zone and liquefaction hazard zone map slides
from both the Town and Santa Clara County…
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: May I point out, you
have 30 seconds you can use any way you want.
JOHN MITTELSTET: …and Santa Clara County both
clearly shows the project atop each zone. These pink lines
are the fault rupture hazard zones. This doesn’t show the
blue, but the big thing surrounding the cloverleaf is a
liquefaction zone, and that Santa Clara map and these Town
maps both show the same thing, that we have that.
So I’d close by saying, please, let’s not ignore
Murphy’s Law in the face of this evidence of risk, be it
small or great.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Any questions? Thank you
very much. The next card I have is Victoriya Rufanova. And
I’m going to add Marietta Riney.
VICTORIYA RUFANOVA: My name is Victoriya
Rufanova, and I am an owner in Las Casitas, which is the
closest site to the proposed construction, and I just want
to talk about several concerns of our community.
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According to the hydrology report, as we all just
heard Dr. Geissler explain it very well, due to excavation
and dewatering of two-story garage most likely our property
will get those settlements and cracks in the basement and
pipes existing. And again, in the current proposed we don’t
see the builder mitigate this story, and it looks like we
as owners will be responsible financially for all fixing
and restoration of our broken properties, and we are not
happy with this at all.
Another point, privacy issue, because we are the
closest site, so the buildings which are directly adjacent
to the proposed site, and they have bedroom windows right
there. It’s like maybe as far as this site, and it’s very,
very close, and they have like two-story building proposed,
and second story windows. They will be looking directly
into the bedrooms of our owners and occupants, and that’s
not good. That’s not good.
In addition, they propose to remove the wall
between our property, and I assume that all trees will be
gone, because they intervened with the old trees, so light,
commercial lightening.
And again, second story windows, they will be
just directly across, like very, very close to our
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bedrooms, and it’s also a privacy concern for us. People
not (inaudible), I believe.
Another point, we have like about 20 kids in our
property, and I’m not sure what the plan is to separate our
residential property from the commercial one, but kids,
they can do a lot of things which are unexpected, and with
about 400 new people coming to town and 400 cars probably,
maybe hopefully a little bit less, that’s a safety concern
too. Overall, in Alberto Way we have about 60 kids going to
elementary school every morning and coming back in the
afternoon, and considering the longevity of the
construction site, it might also be a safety concern for
us.
So, again, please think about this too, and if
something can be done, please address it. It’s important.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Thank you. Are there any
questions? If not, thank you, again. The next speaker card
I have is Jean Jones, and I’m going to add George Dailey.
JEAN FARREN JONES: My name is Jean Farren Jones,
and I live at 443 Alberto Way in the Los Gatos Commons.
I’ve been a resident of the Los Gatos Commons for the past
four years and I’ve enjoyed the many things in the town:
the convenience of the library, the adult recreation
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center, the concerts at the civic center, the Jazz on the
Plazz, and all the shops and restaurants.
The Commons is the oldest structure on Alberto
Way, and it was constructed on farmland in 1977 and with a
small town neighborhood atmosphere, and I’m concerned that
the proposed plan for 405 Alberto Way will affect the
quality of my life and all the residents on our little
street.
Before coming to Los Gatos I lived on the east
coast, and I was a part owner in an excavating company, and
I have an idea of the disturbance that the trucking and the
excavating equipment and the demolition equipment can cause
with the dust, the pollution, the noise, and everything
involved, and I’m concerned about that and the pollution.
I’m aware that something is going to be
constructed there, and I don’t object to that. It was said
that all of us object to having anything built there; that
is not true. We know that something will be constructed
there, but I’d like you to consider that we have been there
for a very long time at the Commons, and I’d like to have
you take that into consideration, and thank you for the
time.
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COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Any questions? Thank you
very much. The next card I have is Marietta Riney, and then
I’m going to add Kalane McDonald. So, Ms. Riney.
MARIETTA RINEY: My name is Marietta Riney; I
live at 449 Alberto Way, which is in the Los Gatos Commons
condos.
The Vision Statement of the 2020 General Plan for
the Town of Los Gatos identifies, “Residents want to
protect their community from the increasing development
pressures of the region. Residents expect all new
development to fit into the fabric of the community.
Furthermore, new businesses will enhance their quality of
life.” These vision statements are not being applied to the
401-409 Alberto Way project.
The policies of the Land Use Element of the
General Plan are designed to, one, “Protect existing
residential areas from the impact of a non-residential
development.” They are designed to prohibit uses that may
lead to the deterioration of the residential neighborhood.
They are designed to prevent an adverse impact to the
public safety of the residential neighborhood. And they are
also designed to discourage the broadening of the tax base
as a sole reason for allowing new commercial development or
approving a change in a commercial land use.
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We are not seniors of yesteryear. We are active
hands-on grandparents. Some of us run businesses. Some of
us volunteer many hours at nonprofit community
organizations, such as hospitals, libraries, and thrift
shops. Some of our residents provide transportation to
other seniors to get to doctor appointments, therapy
appointments, and grocery stores. Some of us are legal
advocates for Santa Clara County Juveniles. We are foster
parents, and some of us volunteer at suicide crisis
centers. Please do not discount the contributions that we
make to our communities, and please, don’t make it such an
obstacle to give back to our communities.
I have one further statement. The attorney said
that this developer has not asked for any real rule
changes. I agree with that. Policies are not the same are
rules, but some of these policies have been ignored. Thank
you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Are there any questions?
Thank you very much. The next card I have is George Dailey,
and I will be adding Suzanne Noble. So, Mr. Daily, please.
GEORGE DAILY: Good evening, Commissioners. My
name is George Dailey, and I reside in the Commons on
Alberto Way. I’m asking you tonight to deny the developer’s
request for this project.
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Like most developers, they’ll promise anything to
get approval for their projects. They will always paint a
pretty picture. They’re claiming that demolishing the
existing buildings, hauling away the remains, digging an
underground garage with dirt removal, and construction of a
new structure won’t cause any adverse disruption in this
tiny neighborhood.
To say the least, it will be a total disaster and
create great chaos for several years. Construction crews
will have to provide flagmen to direct and divert traffic
on Alberto Way, Highway 9, and entering Highway 17. I drive
through these intersections several times a day, and at all
hours, and I know only too well the traffic conditions
residents endure daily. Compound these normal conditions
with added construction traffic and it would be easier to
fly to the moon than get out of our neighborhood.
I’m 85, and too old to have to endure these
disruptions. My suggestion to the developers is to abandon
this location and to move it to the North 40 where it is
more suitable. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Are there any questions?
There are no questions. Thank you very much. The next card
if have is Kalane McDonald, and I’m going to add Brad
Martin to the list.
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KALANE McDONALD: Good evening, ladies and
gentlemen. Thank you for the opportunity. My name is Kalane
McDonald. I live at 443 Alberto Way, and unlike all my
neighbors I’m a new resident of Los Gatos. I actually moved
from San Francisco six months ago. Why? Congestion,
traffic, noise, difficulty driving on streets, cranes, too
many Ubers, on and on. I love Los Gatos.
Without this firestorm of this project I would
never have gone to my computer to look up the 2020 General
Plan for the Town of Los Gatos. It was adopted in 2010, as
you know. I would like to read just a couple of statements
from the Vision Statement.
“Los Gatos is an oasis of calm within one of the
major economic engines of the world, Silicon Valley. It’s
truly a special place, and residents want to protect their
community from the increasing development pressures of the
region,” and it goes on. There were two sections that I
pulled out of the plan just to address briefly.
One was the Safety Element, which has been
addressed extensively tonight, and in that section, which
is Chapter 11, under Goals, Goal 1, “Will Policy 1.2
restrict new development and redevelopment based on the
levels of acceptable risk,” et cetera, but the one that
really, I think, pertains, 1.11, the last part, it requires
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geologic and geotechnical expert reports, et cetera, and
then it says, “To protect, as well, the existing residences
in the vicinity from identified hazards.”
And then the other part that I really appreciated
was the Land Use Element, and there were a number of policy
statements in that, and rather than read them all I could
refer you to those, and I’m sure you use this General Plan
as your bible when you make decisions, so I’d be happy to
give you those.
Oh, and I wanted to show you, I had to sign this.
As you know, when you buy property, this is the disclosure
report, and liquefaction is one of the things I had to
acknowledge.
But in closing, all I want to say is the final
line of the plan. “The General Plan is the Town’s guide to
achieve this vision,” the vision for Los Gatos. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Thank you. Are there
questions? There are not, so thank you, again. The next
speaker would be Suzanne Noble, and I’m going to add
Angelia Doerner, and she is the last card that I have. I do
have one card here that says two, but no name on it, so if
somebody feels they’ve been ignored. So, Suzanne Noble.
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SUZANNE NOBLE: Thank you. My name is Suzanne
Noble, and I live at the Commons, and I expect that to be
the last address I have in Los Gatos after 57 odd years.
Our attorney, Rachel Mansfield Howlett wrote a
letter to the Planning Commission and submitted it last
Friday. It was the last item of the Staff Report submitted
to you on the 5th. Yesterday, on the 9th, the developer’s
attorney rebutted Ms. Manfield Howlett’s letter, which left
her with no time to do her own rebuttal to the Buchalter
letter, so she asked me to read the following into the
record tonight. On her behalf, I read to you:
“The May 9, 2017 Buchalter letter misstates and
misapplies the law concerning the adequacy of an EIR. My
letter of May 4, 2017 correctly lays out the legal standard
applied to the adequacy of an EIR as confirmed by the
California Supreme Court’s decision in March of this year
in Banning Ranch Conservancy v City of Newport Beach (2017)
2 Cal, 5th 918. The Supreme Court confirmed that the
adequacy of the EIR is an issue of law decided de novo and
is not the substantial evidence standard claimed by
Buchalter. Claiming that all EIR issues are governed by the
substantial evidence standard is common practice among the
development community. The claim is false and ignores the
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clear standard of review set forth in the cases cited in my
letter.
The Buchalter letter further claims that the
evidence put forward by the Los Gatos community, their
attorney, and their expert, amounts to unsubstantiated
opinion. Again, this misstates and misapplies the law
concerning what constitutes substantial evidence. Citizens’
testimony is based upon facts, reasonable assumptions
premised on facts, expert opinion, and firsthand
observations that are based on specific knowledge of the
project site and its surroundings. Hundreds of published
cases confirm that this kind of evidence constitutes
substantial evidence and may not be discounted.” End quote.
Thanks for allowing me to do this for Ms.
Mansfield Howlett. I have a copy for each of you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Oh, thank you very much.
Are there any questions of the speaker? If not, thank you
very much, Ms. Noble. The next card I have is Clair
Ferguson.
CLAIR FERGUSON: Good evening, Commissioners. My
name is Clair Ferguson; I am a resident of Los Gatos
Commons on Alberto Way, and as a 40-year resident of the
Los Gatos area and with 25 years of laboratory experience
both in the medical field and the environmental field. It
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is the environmental impact of the 401-409 Alberto Way
project that brings me here today to plead for the health
of the residents on Alberto Way, half of which are seniors.
In addition to the plain construction being
stressful, potentially unsafe, and disruptive, my major
concern is the environmental impact of the construction on
the health of the residents. Although the EIR for this
project was submitted, it was in direct conflict with the
directive in the General Plan, Environmental Sustainable
section, page 30-31, in particular the air quality section
that states, “Senior populations are more susceptible to
the effects of air pollution then the general population.”
In other words, people with heart, lung, and circulatory
problems common to senior populations are at risk.
To address this concern Environmental Policy 12-5
states that, “Site plans should be reviewed to assess the
potential adverse impact from air pollution.” The addition
of 330 vehicles plus the diesel trucks used during the four
stages of the project will exacerbate an already high level
of engine emission compounds: carbon monoxide,
hydrocarbons, particulates, NOx, and ozone.
We are at the intersection of two major arteries,
Highway 17 and Highway 9, and our homes at the Commons are
within a few feet of Highway 17 where there are hours of
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idling cars in stop and go traffic at least five days a
week. We are already subjected to above average automobile
engine emissions.
Following are the health hazards for each of the
five hazardous emission compounds from gasoline and diesel
as described by Washington State Department of Ecology
Emission Check Study.
Carbon monoxide diminishes the blood’s ability to
supply oxygen to the brain, heart, and other tissues, and
results in great danger to people with heart problems, even
some danger to healthy people.
Hydrocarbon is identified by California
Department of Health to contain benzene; it’s a carcinogen
linked with leukemia. The obvious…
I’m sorry, I have two others, but I’m going to
run over time.
Particulates, small size, allows them to bypass
the nasal passage and go deep into the lungs, causing heart
and lung damage. NOx combination of nitrous dioxide,
related nitrous oxides contribute to ozone production and
that causes harmful changes…
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Your time is up.
CLAIR FERGUSON: …to breathing passages,
absorbing oxygen…
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COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Excuse me, your time is
up, but I think we’re all fairly well familiar with the
difficulties…
CLAIR FERGUSON: Can I make my conclusion?
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: As long as it’s short.
CLAIR FERGUSON: Okay. Obvious conclusion to be
drawn: fewer vehicles, fewer pollutants, fewer health
hazards; more vehicles, more pollutants, more health
hazards. As this conclusion applies to us, the residents of
Alberto Way, this project is an insult to our intelligence
and hazardous to our health. We did not work hard to be
able to live here at the Commons in order to have our
health compromised. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Thank you very much.
Let’s see if there are any questions. There are none, so
thank you, again. The next to the last card I have is Brad
Martin.
BRAD MARTIN: Hello, my name is Brad and live at
435 Alberto Way, right next to the proposed project.
I’ve written two letters to the Council on this.
It’s too big in the Town. It’s too close to Town; it’s too
big of a structure for that area.
I talked to this gentleman. I was there once, and
I said, “You know, I understand you want to get a big
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building on here to make your money, but we’ve got a
development across the street, the Los Gatos Lodge, that’s
not going to stay that way. Eventually that will turn; it’s
way underutilized. And the guy at the end of our street,
his property is underutilized. And the hotel got a lot of
square footage on their property somehow. You develop all
those properties along with this one, and that’s going to
be a nightmare intersection. It’s too big.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: All right, thank you.
Are there any questions? All right, thank you very much.
BRAD MARTIN: One more comment.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Go ahead.
BRAD MARTIN: Their artist’s rendering showed
trees next to our property. If they’re going to put big
redwood trees, all that debris is going to go on our
property; it’s going to block all the light too.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: All right. Thank you,
again. The last card I have is Angelia Doerner, our first
speaker this evening and apparently our last.
ANGELIA DOERNER: I’m proud to be a bookend.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: All by yourself.
ANGELIA DOERNER: Angelia Doerner, proud resident
of the Almond Grove and of Los Gatos. As I mentioned
before, these people are my neighbors. What happens in
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their neighborhood will happen next in mine and everyone
else’s who are watching.
I first really want to thank Mr. Geissler for the
dewatering and liquefaction education that he just gave us.
I found it extremely valuable, and through you, I’d like to
thank the residents of the Commons or whoever else hired
him and paid for him, and might even the Town to consider
using him in the future, because of the clarity of his
responses and the diligence in his work.
Something reminded me here when we’re talking
about the potential damages to neighborhood properties.
When companies sell or get acquired, it’s very routine to
set up litigation reserves or something that can be held
for uncertainties, so that those monies are available and
not given to the “sellers” until those risks are reasonably
mitigated. I started thinking about that, and thought that
a construction period escrow account type account,
construction period plus a settlement period, settlement
meaning settlement of the building, period, where funds of
an amount to help mitigate these neighboring property
issues might be used before those funds are released back
to the developer.
I believe that the things that were pointed out
by Mr. Geissler and discussed through your Q&A are
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significant enough to require modifications to the EIR, and
at a minimum must be continued. If the developer does not
make supplementary analyses, and I believe including those
related to if a one-story were to be built based on the
proximity of this to the creek, then the thing has to be
denied. If modifications are made and quantified, you guys
can still make additional Conditions of Approval providing
some compensatory mitigation safeguards like the
consequential escrow type fund. Something reasonable could
be quantified using various actuarial scenarios that would
provide some level of protection to surrounding property
owners and could be held for a long enough period of time
to make them feel a little bit more comfortable with what
ultimately gets developed. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Thank you very much. No
questions? All right. As far as I know, I’ve gone through
all the cards, so we’re going to close. Oh, well, we’re not
going to close. I forgot all about the Applicant.
All right, please join us. You have five minutes
of rebuttal. Those are the rules. To the extent there are
questions you will have more time.
ALICIA GUERRA: Thank you, Planning Commission
and the public for the comments. I’m just going to run
through really quickly some general comments and provide
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some responses, and then I’m going to turn it over to ENGEO
to address Dr. Geissler’s comments this evening.
Specifically, there were some comments regarding
construction worker driveway, garbage truck access, where
are they going to park? There are conditions 102, 103, and
104 that address no construction vehicle parking on the
street, that the Town has already required that the project
address, plus there’s also the requirement for a
construction management plan, which we’ve addressed since
August of last year. Those deal with those specific issues.
Parking will be provided onsite, of course, for any tenant
use and construction vehicle traffic. Staging will occur
onsite as well.
With respect to crossings, there were issues
related to pedestrian crossing from the Commons to Alberto
Way and crossings on the northbound on ramp. Condition 80
speaks to the requirement to provide improved pedestrian
access, including signage and lighting for that. With
respect to the Commons and Alberto Way, as was provided in
information before, there are improvements associated with
Alberto Way that will facilitate both pedestrian and bike
access, so that addresses that concern as well.
Regarding the comments concerning the jobs to
housing ratio and how this project violates the General
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Plan policies concerning the jobs to housing ratio, under
the EIR discussion about population and housing impacts
this project was found to be consistent with the General
Plan projections, so there are no impacts, there is no
violation of those provisions.
Related to VTA approving funding prior to
completion of this project, what VTA does, what Caltrans
does, with respect to regional improvements, those impacts
have been addressed. In fact, as a CEQA matter, reasonable
worse case impacts were already evaluated through this EIR.
There were no assumptions about improvements that have not
yet been completed as part of the baseline road improvement
conditions, meaning that the worse case project impacts
were assumed, and we didn’t assume that somebody else was
going to fix the impacts. The impacts truly represent what
the impacts of the project are, and the project is required
to fix its impacts, so those issues have been addressed.
With respect to the displaced water, surface
runoff, Dr. Geissler’s comments, I’m going to let ENGEO and
also Kiren Wright address those technical issues.
With respect to any transportation related
impacts, Gary Black can also address those concerns.
Then finally, I just want to clarify something,
and it concerns me that I think some of the comments of a
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legal nature have kind of obviated what CEQA actually says.
The statute says that analysis is supposed to be based on
substantial evidence. When decisions are brought before the
appeals court, the appeals court reviews them de novo, but
the analysis itself is based on substantial evidence, and
the reason for my letter was speculation and all these
worse, worse, worse case conditions, that’s not what CEQA
calls for; it calls for a reasonable person standard based
on facts, opinions supported by facts, expert opinions, and
even if you have a disagreement among experts, it doesn’t
invalidate the analysis that has already been done, and in
fact, in this case you have not only technical consultants
who prepared analyses based on the rules that the Town
applies, as well as every other agency in the State of
California when it comes to preparing an EIR.
You also have taken into consideration the case
law that informs that process. You have the Town’s peer
review consultants and you have the Town’s own staff
reviewing this, so it’s not like all of a sudden on some
other day some judge gets to decide no, I disagree with
that. Everything has to be based on facts, and so I’m going
to turn it over to the technical consultants to address
that, and then Mr. Lamb also had a couple of comments just
related to the specifics about the project.
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COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Note that you have 30
seconds left.
ALICIA GUERRA: Okay.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Let me just say
something, and let’s kill the clock for a minute. It’s
clear to me—at least I think it’s clear to me—that we’re
going to have a number of questions, so once the five
minutes are up the Commissioners will have the opportunity
to direct any questions they want to any of your experts,
so even though 30 seconds is an awfully short time, your
presentation will be over in about 30 seconds, but we will
be asking you questions, so hopefully that will work out
for you. I realize everybody has put a lot of time into
this, so finish your 30 seconds.
ALICIA GUERRA: I’m done. Thank you very much,
though. Do you want to just say something?
RANDY LAMB: Well, one, thank you for being here,
and for Peter Geissler, thank you for coming and saying
hello. You’re right, we don’t agree, but we can still agree
that we both have our opinions, and we can be friendly and
we can go that route.
I want you to take a good look at the consultants
in this room. They are some of the finest, most sought
after consultants in California, let alone our own Bay
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Area. These people don’t wake up one day and say gosh, I
want to be a hydrologist, or gosh, I want to be a civil
engineer. These are people that we have used for 20-25
years. In fact, the Town uses many of the same consultants.
Not only are the consultant discussions that you have seen
of I think John suggested we had battling consultants and
this and that going on, we had such a fire… We were
drinking water out of the fire hose as all these comments
came from the neighbors. And I want to thank every one of
our consultants that stepped up, took a very high level,
answered everything as they should have. But I want you to
know they are the best. That’s why you hire them, and
that’s why we hire them.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Thank you, your time is
up. Now, I’m going to encourage my fellow commissioners to
ask questions, and I’m going to start with Commissioner
Burch.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: This is for Mr. Lamb,
please. I know we’re going to have a ton of questions for
all the experts, but I’m going to ask a very high-level
quick question that has come up multiple times. Is your
hardline the lowest you can go on the square footage
related to this 83,000 square feet?
RANDY LAMB: Yes.
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COMMISSIONER BURCH: Below that, you’re not…
RANDY LAMB: Yes, I’m not interested. And that
would include the two stories of underground parking.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: May I ask a follow up
question to Mr. Kirby related to that?
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Sure.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: In your review of the
building and how it’s situated on the site and the two
stories versus one stories, I’m sure you’ve done more
renderings than you care to. Is there any situation on this
site with the building where this could be compiled in a
partially single-story/partially two-story—which I’m asking
that specifically because of some of the view questions, so
I’m sure you know where I’m going with this—that would
enable the Applicant to meet the square footage that’s
required for this to be financially feasible, yet would
allow for a design that met the needs of the neighbors? I’m
not even addressing the parking garage; that’s a whole
other story. I’m talking about above ground at this point.
DAN KIRBY: The short answer to your question,
Commissioner Burch, is that the only way to reduce the
visible impact of this building any further is to reduce
the square footage, which is apparently not an option with
our client. So we have done everything in our power by
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pushing the building back to the rearmost setback line, by
going to a concrete structure to reduce the… We’ve
minimized the floor-to-floor heights, we’ve minimized the
amount of roof, mansard roofs, that we need to conceal the
HVC equipment.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: No, I appreciate the
articulation.
DAN KIRBY: We worked with our civil engineer to
depress the building down as far as we can, we’ve done
through all of that exercise, so I just don’t see…
COMMISSIONER BURCH: I totally understand.
DAN KIRBY: Anything you do to increase height or
reduce height elsewhere is going to increase height
somewhere else, so it’s kind of…
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Do you want to rephrase
the question, or…
COMMISSIONER BURCH: No, no, no.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: You’re all right?
COMMISSIONER BURCH: I totally understand what
he’s saying and I appreciate the articulation you put into
it.
DAN KIRBY: Did my response made sense to you?
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Perfectly.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: As long as it did.
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COMMISSIONER BURCH: I speak Dan.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Commissioner Hudes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Thank you. I have a follow
up to that. What’s the square footage of the existing
office building?
DAN KIRBY: The buildings that are there onsite
now? Thirty thousand.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Thirty thousand? And how
much of that 30,000 is below grade?
DAN KIRBY: Of the existing buildings?
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Yes.
DAN KIRBY: None, as far as I know. Underground?
COMMISSIONER HUDES: So are you aware that you
have to step down below the grade of the parking lot?
DAN KIRBY: Oh, I’m sorry, you’re talking about
the existing buildings. Yeah, correct. Twenty-percent is
below grade.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: And in your design have you
considered a similar design where part of the building
would be below grade, as it is now?
DAN KIRBY: We did consider that. One of the
options was to depress the grade level down 4’ below grade.
The concern there is that it makes the building more
difficult to lease, because we don’t have the floor to
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ceiling windows that most tenants are demanding in
commercial Class A buildings. So we did talk about that at
one point, and it wasn’t viable from tenant marketing
standpoint.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Vice Chair Kane.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Mr. Lamb. I guess I was just
quite taken aback. I wasn’t prepared for what you said.
Commissioner Burch said is 83,000 your line in the sand,
and you said yes, and we’re going to do a two-story garage.
I don't know where to go from here with that. I mean we’re
both negotiators, I think, and you just told us that the
motion we made back at the August 10th meeting, which was
quite extensive, which seems not to have been addressed, is
definitely not going to be addressed, is that what you’re
saying?
RANDY LAMB: What wasn’t addressed?
VICE CHAIR KANE: The motion was, “Return with a
significant reduction in scale and size of the building,
perhaps by one-third. Examine moving the building away from
the residential. Maintain the LEED certification on the
underground parking site. Reexamine the traffic safety
measure immediately adjacent to the site, with particular
attention to straightening and widening of Alberto Way.
Work with Staff to approximate a Complete Streets concept.
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Work with Staff and Caltrans to improve visibility at
Highway 9. Increase conformance with the Commercial Design
Guidelines, all of Section 1.4,” and as you’ve heard many
times tonight, General Plan Policies LU-1.8, LU-6.5,
“Incorporate…” It goes on and on and on, and you’re saying
83,000 is it, boom.
RANDY LAMB: I would tell you with a straight
face that we did 80-90% of those. Let me just go back to…
VICE CHAIR KANE: I’m going to interrupt,
because…
RANDY LAMB: Can I answer the question? How about
if I answer the question?
VICE CHAIR KANE: Yes, sir.
ROBERT SCHULTZ: The answer to the question is in
my opinion we did 80% of what was asked. We were asked to
take a third of the square footage off the building as an
arbitrary number. We’re already building within what the
envelope allows. Thirty-five foot height, two-story
project, and 50% coverage. We’re now 9,000 square feet less
than that, we’re 5’ and 6’ below that, we took 25% of the
mass and volume out of this building, which was what we
asked, which if Jennifer wants to show you again, you can
take a look at the blue versus the orange tape out there
for the story poles, and you can see what was done.
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We did the Complete Streets, the bike lane, and
the traffic safety. What else was there? Reduction of the
size of the excavation of the garage. We took 58 stalls
out.
Chair O'Donnell asked if we could provide surface
parking on our site, one, to offset any of the street
parking that was there, but also for the restaurant that’s
across the street for overflow, what have you. We jumped
from seven stalls to 42 stalls.
And we did straighten the frontage. We do have
three dedicated lanes out front on Alberto Way. We have a
bike lane. We have a bike box. We are also committing to
having communication from Los Gatos Boulevard to Alberto
Way. What didn’t we do?
VICE CHAIR KANE: Make the neighbors happy.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Yeah, we don’t want a
colloquy.
RANDY LAMB: Well, okay.
VICE CHAIR KANE: No, I’m serious. Eighty…
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: You know what, Michael?
We’re not going to have a colloquy here. You can ask a
question. You can answer the question.
RANDY LAMB: Yeah.
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COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Then we’re going to move
on. Okay. So, are there other questions? Commissioner
Hudes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: I had some questions about
one of the items that was requested, and that’s the
widening of Alberto Way, and I had difficulty understanding
how much that’s been done and where it’s been done. I guess
I’m referring to C-2.0, and could you tell me how much it’s
been widened and what length the widening has occurred?
DAN MITCHELL: I’m Dan Mitchell with Kiren Wright
Engineers.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Is that a document that we
have?
DAN KIRBY: Yes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Which one is that?
DAN MITCHELL: I know that we were trying to
straighten it out. We wanted to widen the road to allow
for…
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Excuse me, is that a
document that we’ve been provided, or do we go by C-2.0?
JENNIFER ARMER: Exhibit 41 has that as its last
page.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Okay, great. Excuse me, let
me just try to find that. Is that before the plans?
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JENNIFER ARMER: It is the last sheet of the
project information sheet prepared by the Parks and Public
Works Department as Exhibit 41; it’s attached to the May
10th Staff Report.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Okay, thank you. Go ahead.
DAN MITCHELL: In an attempt to straighten
Alberto Way out so you have a little more visual, I guess,
so you could see upcoming traffic, the intersection, we
have pushed it back; I believe it was about 3’. Instead of
more of an arc, we put in a little more of a straight line,
so it’s a straighter shot in the frontage of the property.
This also allowed us to add the bicycle lane and be able to
have the appropriate width for the…
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Along that length, could you
indicate where that 3’ occurs? Is it the entire length from
the property line to Highway 9?
DAN MITCHELL: Yeah, let’s see. I believe it’s
about the first driveway, and it varies all the way up
around here, and then at the very end it ties back into the
original property line.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Where the hydrant is, or at
the property line? Does the 3’ continue along the whole
length from the property line to the driveway?
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DAN MITCHELL: It varies back basically from
three… When it hits the final driveway up here, it varies
back to zero.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: How much wider is Alberto
Way at the intersection with Highway 9?
DAN MITCHELL: Which portion?
COMMISSIONER HUDES: The intersection of Alberto
Way and Highway 9.
DAN MITCHELL: Oh, right here?
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Yes. How much wider is it at
that point?
DAN MITCHELL: Yeah, I’m not sure. I know we
pushed that back.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Okay, thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Commissioner Hudes,
you’re finished at the moment? Okay, Commissioner Burch.
Oh, and we’re going to take a recess in a few minutes. One
of the Commissioners has a very bad back, so we pause
occasionally so we won’t have somebody crying up here. All
right, Commissioner Burch.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: I get cranky when my back
starts hurting really bad. I had a question on that same
vein, but I think maybe Hexagon may be able to answer my
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question concerning the widening of that road, because I’ve
heard both sides of this story.
So as we widen we somewhat straighten out that
curve. I obviously see a lot of benefits to it, but at the
same time, I’ve driven up and down that street and people
do drive excessively fast on it. Do you think that by
straightening that out and widening it we may be opening
ourselves up to more excessive speeding, or do you think
that honestly it will maybe fix the problem where sometimes
people speed up a little bit more on curvier roads? I want
to make sure we’re solving the problem for the residents
when this goes forward, so I want to make sure that this is
the right solution.
GARY BLACK: Well, there are a lot of tradeoffs
in road design, as I’m sure you can imagine. You make the
road wider, you solve some problems and you create other
problems.
This is a fairly minor treatment, so I don’t
think it would be very much perceived by the driver that
this road looks a lot wider now. It may even be perceived
as being narrower, and we need to look at the perception in
addition to the reality, because what we’re doing is we’re
painting additional lanes on there. We’re painting a bike
lane, we’re also painting the turn lane, so the lanes to
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the driver will appear narrower, and so that kind of
offsets the facts that the street is slightly straighter.
It’s only slightly straighter; you can see that it still
has a curve in it, and it’s slightly wider, but I imagine
to the driver it will look a little bit narrower.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: All right, thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I’m going to ask a
question. I want to ask your hydrologist, or whoever is
responsible for your hydrology, we’ve had a black and white
comparison here, and you’re all credible, because I am not
an expert, but I’ve heard a wonderful exposition here. I
would like to get the other side’s exposition, because they
can’t both be right.
So if you would allow your expert to take the
microphone and explain to us, for example, we’ve had some
illustration that if you draw down water while you’re
putting in the two stories, you’re going to have an effect
in the area, which to a layman at least makes sense. You’re
going to be sucking water out, and if you suck water out,
you’re going to be bringing other water in, and you’ve
heard the whole conversation.
One, do you agree with that? And two, if you do,
or if you don’t… Well, let me put it this way. If you do,
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what steps, if any, would you take to avoid the
consequences?
JANET KANN: Sure. Just introduce myself. I’m
Janet Kann with ENGEO. I’m a geotechnical engineer and
engineering geologist; I’m registered in both, having
worked on many different projects in the Bay Area in the
past 14 years. I’ve built several basements in San Jose,
San Francisco, and down the Peninsula; underground water
too.
Dewatering is a basic understanding of
engineering properties where you create a draw down cone,
as explained by Dr. Geissler, however, the cone could be
controlled by pumping rates. There are a lot of properties
in San Francisco specifically where there are zero lot
lines, and builders are building deep foundations and
drawing down ground water too, so this is a known problem
with known engineering solutions.
One way to do it is create a pumping rate that
doesn’t create a big enough draw down cone. The draw down
cone size is determined by the depth of dewatering. What we
are assuming here is a high ground water level at 12’.
During construction, where in the summertime usually the
ground water level would be lower, so all we need to do,
say, for instance, if the ground water is 15’ deep, we only
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need to draw down 15’ of water rather than ten to the
bottom of the… So the column of water you need to draw down
is lower, so your cone of influence is also smaller. So by
controlling the amount of water we’re dewatering, that will
reduce the impact from the property to the neighbors.
There are other methods, including installing a
cut-off wall, a soil cement (inaudible) wall along the
property line, and that creates basically an impermeable
barrier within your excavation and you only dewater in your
excavation, so you’re not drawing down any ground water
outside your barrier wall.
So we look at a lot of different conditions, and
we do need to do that evaluation before construction,
because this is part of the shoring and dewatering plan
that typical excavation projects have to go through, and
these are solutions and conditions that we need to look at
to make sure the draw down cone does not impact any
neighboring properties.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: So let me understand.
With your experience with other jurisdictions, do they
actually then impose upon your permits this kind of
restriction so that one could evaluate what the cone of
influence is going to be, and/or use the wall that you have
described to us?
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JANET KANN: Yes.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: So that’s something Los
Gatos could do, in your experience?
JANET KANN: In areas where you need to dewater
for construction monitoring, it is very common to install
piezometers around the perimeter to basically monitor the
draw down, and as an electronic device that sends signals
to engineers. There are several thresholds, and if the
threshold is starting to alarm but is not hazardous, we get
an alert on our cell phone right away. So we evaluate these
draw downs and we basically stop construction whenever
there is an unexpected draw down that could potentially
impact other neighbors; we stop dewatering. And these are
very typical construction monitoring processes that most
projects in the Bay Area implement.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: All right, one other
question then. One comment was that your proposal for the
floor, I guess I would say, of the second level of the
garage as mentioned, I forget how thick it was as proposed,
but the good doctor was suggesting it should be at least
4’. Do you have any comment on that?
JANET KANN: Let me quickly respond.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: It’s nice to have you
respond. Thank you.
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JANET KANN: From a geotechnical standpoint we
evaluate settlement and potential ground loss. We did run
our analysis using the guidelines that all engineers in the
Bay Area use, and we came up with a ½” differential in a
total of 1” settlement, and these are design criteria, so
the structural engineers are required to design a mat
foundation that has to span a void underneath the mat, and
they might come up with 12”, 14”, or 4’ in extreme cases,
but the thickness is determined by the amount of soil
support and also the amount of settlement underneath it.
In our case, for a ½” differential settlement,
these are actually very minor. Most homes can tolerate 12”,
including most single-family homes’ mat. The thickness of
the mat is highly dependent on soil conditions.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: The comment was,
however, that as I understood it, most of the experts have
never visited the site. Now, I realize that’s not always
necessary, but on the other hand, the testimony has been
because historically that was a creek bed, and that creek
bed had flooding, and therefore there was an alluvial fan
there, I suppose, that you can hit water fairly shallowly.
I’m just wondering if what you submitted to us is the final
opinion, or are you saying some further work is done?
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JANET KANN: No, it’s our final opinion, and we
review historical photographs that are geo-referenced, and
also to scale, so we can accurately overlay the site over
historical photos where there might not be roads or
identifiable structures to locate the site, and by
reviewing all these photos back 50 years we didn’t observe
any signs of the creek flowing through our site. The creek
has been rerouted, we acknowledge that, we can see that,
but the creek…
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Well, it’s a concrete
channel.
JANET KANN: Yeah, it’s a channel.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Do you know when that
channel was put in?
JANET KANN: No, it’s a creek that flows, and
then the creek got rerouted.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: But it flows within the
channel unless it’s an unusual flood season, and before the
channel was put in we did have more flooding; it’s part of
the reason the channel was put in. So I’m wondering if you
happen to know when the channel was put in?
JANET KANN: Typically our practice is to review
historical photos, which I don't know if we have it on
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exhibit, but I believe we included them in our response
letter. It is in there?
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: All right, that’s enough
questions from me. Yes, go ahead, Commissioner Janoff.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Just to be clear, you’re
saying that your analysis tells you presently that the 12”
concrete mat is sufficient, but there’s a subsequent
analysis from a structural engineer that’s going to confirm
that, or the structural engineering analysis has been done?
JANET KANN: As far as I understand, our design
parameters have already been applied by the structural
engineer and the 12”… Oh, not yet? Oh, sorry.
DAN KIRBY: I think there’s a very important
basic point that needs to be made here to the Commission as
well as to the neighbors. We have not engineered this
underground garage yet; that all comes after the
entitlement phase. What you’re looking at right now is a
design proposal, and we will take the recommendations of
the soils report and then we will engineer the garage, so
it hasn’t been done yet.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Okay, follow up question.
If it turns out your structural engineer agrees with Dr.
Geissler in that there needs to be a 4’ pad in order to
support the structure as well as the hydrology of the soil,
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would just the sheer construction cost of having to install
a 4’ concrete pad be prohibitive? This is probably a
question for Mr. Lamb.
DAN KIRBY: It won’t be prohibitive, and I can
assure you, it will not be 4’, because I’ve done dozens of
these. The largest amount I’ve ever designed for a three-
story garage under the water table was 3’.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: That’s question number one.
Question number two, if you have to excavate three
additional feet to get to a 4’ thick concrete pad to
establish proper support over the soil that you have, does
that not further exacerbate the ground water dislocation
that is already considered to be a problem with just your
12” pad with a two-story subterranean garage on the
neighboring properties? Am I making sense?
DAN KIRBY: Yeah, you are. It does make sense,
and the answer to the question is not if the proper
dewatering is executed in terms of flow rates.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: I’m not talking about
during the construction phase, my question for Dr. Geissler
was two part, one not during the construction but what are
the ongoing concerns of having displaced that much watery
soil on the surrounding properties? It’s not the
construction phase, but subsequent.
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DAN KIRBY: As Dr. Geissler indicated, once the
construction is complete and the garage basement is
completely waterproofed and constructed, the dewatering is
deactivated and the water table restores itself back to the
same condition it was before.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Let me stop this for a
second. I don’t think we’re through, but I did promise that
we would take a break, and so I would like to keep this as
close to five minutes as we can, but this is truly a
stretch.
(INTERMISSION)
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: We’re beginning again.
Now, we were right in the middle of some hydrological
discussions, and I think Commissioner Janoff was
questioning. I don't know if you’re finished, or if you
have other questions. I know it’s hard to remember.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: I don’t even remember. I
guess my question was that if the pad needs to be deepened
for structural purposes—this really for the structural
engineer who isn’t in the room; okay you’re close enough—
then under operation, after construction, during operation,
then the deeper, the two-story garage with 1’ or more
concrete pad is going to present an ongoing problem for
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displacing the water of the high water table to this
surrounding neighborhood?
DAN KIRBY: Basically what you’re creating is a
bathtub within the water table, and once the dewatering
pumps are turned off the water just encloses the bathtub.
The bathtub is waterproof; water doesn’t get into the
garage.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: But doesn’t Euclid say that
when you displace water, if something else happens and
you’re displacing that amount of underground high water
table with a mass, and that water is going to have to go
somewhere. I could have the wrong scientist.
JANET KANN: I totally understand your thought.
What you’re thinking is a pool where you put a box in, but
this is not the case, because we dewater first, so the
center of the area is already dry. We put the box in, we
turn off dewatering, the cone of water is already just like
right next to our excavation, so when we turn it off it
flows back around our excavation and is stabilized, so
we’re not pushing water up or down. This is a regional
ground water condition and we’re doing a small excavation
of a big region, if you look at it that way.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Okay, I haven’t heard
Euclid cited in a long time. Commissioner Hudes.
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COMMISSIONER HUDES: I had two questions that
were ones that were posed to Dr. Geissler.
The probability of dam failure, in his report I
know that it was also rebutted. Could you for the record
tell us what you think, whether that is the most serious
issue, the possibility of dam failure?
JANET KANN: We include a potential dam
inundation map in one of our responses, and I believe Dr.
Geissler also referred to it.
Half of the Town of Los Gatos is mapped within
that inundation map, so if there is a catastrophic failure
of the dam it’s a hazard to pretty much all the residents
in the map zone. It’s not unique to basements; it could
flood everyone. But the likelihood is low, because there
are reputable consultants who evaluated the dams recently,
and ran analysis after analysis, more exploration, and
determined the dam is actually safe. I don’t know if we
will be seeing an updated inundation map soon, but based on
the studies, the dam is safe.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: I understand that response,
but particularly Dr. Geissler says, “The most significant
hazard is posed by the possibility of an upstream dam
failure,” which to me means that the other possibilities
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are lower than that, because that’s the most significant
hazard. Do you agree that that the most significant hazard?
JANET KANN: The most significant hazard? No, I
don’t agree. I think the most significant hazard is the
liquefaction, because liquefaction could happen at a higher
frequency than dam failure, and already mapped, and we know
it could happen and we could have earthquakes, so I believe
liquefaction is the higher hazard.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Okay, and I had one other
question.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Before you do that, let
me just check. As I understood Dr. Geissler, he said he was
particularly looking at the second level of the garage,
whereas, yes, flooding can occur in lots of places in Los
Gatos, including unfortunately where I live. But we also
heard, I think, testimony that there are no two-story
basement garages in town, so the one-story down to, let’s
say 10’, he was saying you take a cataclysmic event, which
the likelihood of that occurring, almost infinitesimal, but
once you say well yeah, it could occur, then as I
understand the testimony, where we’re really hurt—heard a
lot of things—but where we’re really hurt would be the
second level of the garage, and were you to have one level
of garage, then that risk would be reduced. And I guess the
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question is, one, do you think that’s what he said, and,
two, do you think that’s correct.
RANDY LAMB: I need to point you to your own
website. If you go on your website, the website actually
talks about exactly what this is. The Town, your own
website says that the chance of this is very low, and that
in the event of a dam failure the entire area from Los
Gatos Boulevard all the way through downtown would be
inundated with water in six minutes.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I don’t think you’re
listening to what I’m saying or he said. There are two
levels to this garage, let me finish, and he was focused on
the second level. The Town of Los Gatos does not have
another one, so whatever happened to the rest of the Town
of Los Gatos is very interesting, but the subject before us
is the two-level garage, so if you want to speak to the
two-level garage.
RANDY LAMB: I will speak to it.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: It’s not on our webpage.
RANDY LAMB: I’m trying. So the two-level garage,
what Peter’s comment was, and I would love to get our own
consultants, cracks that would fill… I think his actual
point, and he said tonight, was that if you had 300 people
working in that building, and that if they were down there
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they would all drown. That’s a stretch beyond all stretches
I’ve ever heard in any planning entitlement or anything
else, and I’m actually surprised he said it.
Secondly, in our particular case we have
drainage, we have backup systems, we have everything
possible in a garage like this for the safety of our
residents. Anybody that’s in there at the moment that
they’re there has full safety.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Except for a cataclysmic
event when the dam breaks.
RANDY LAMB: When the dam breaks, the entire… Our
garage is not going to matter.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I’m not arguing with
you, but what you said is you have everything that really
works great, unless the dam breaks.
RANDY LAMB: There are going to be people
floating by separate of what’s going on in our garage.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: So the answer is yes,
that’s true. Okay, any other questions? Commissioner Hudes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: This question relates to the
water table, and I know there’s been some evidence
presented about the water table, and there was a document
that we received that said that the water table is 55’
higher than it was in 2014, and I believe there was a graph
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that Dr. Geissler presented that showed a cycle of the
water table. In your opinion, is that true? And secondly,
how do you account for seasonal and cyclical rainfall
differences in the water table when you’re doing this
analysis?
JANET KANN: First of all, I haven’t seen the
exhibit that you talk about with the cyclical, but based on
my experience that’s not really true for this area.
However, our study looked at historic high groundwater
maps. There are published maps for the entire Bay Area that
present the historical high, and those high groundwater
levels are used for engineering analysis assuming the worst
case scenario. So that’s what we did.
And we also looked at the Department of Water
Resource water database. They have an online water database
for the entire state, so we looked at that database. That
database is compiled by existing wells in the area and
collected groundwater levels in those wells, so as a
continuous data that we can track and look, and we have
looked at that database.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Other questions? All
right, if there are no other questions of any of their
experts, I’m going to close the public input of this
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hearing. So I will close that, and now I will look to my
fellow commissioners.
This evening I’m going to say something, which I
want Staff to correct me on if I’m wrong, but we have two
principle matters to deal with this evening. One is the
CEQA issue, and that is on the EIR. We either certify it or
we don’t.
Typically, if you say we’re not going to approve
the EIR, you would not go further on the project. On the
other hand, that doesn’t seem very helpful to me. What I
personally would like to do is discuss the EIR, decide
whether we believe it is complete. No matter what we decide
on that, I would like us also to discuss the merits of the
rest of the proposal before us, because I think that would
be helpful to everybody, including the Applicant. If we
should not approve the project, I would anticipate an
appeal, and if there were an appeal, I would want to give
as much of our thoughts to the Council as possible. So that
being the case, can we do that?
JENNIFER ARMER: You can discuss all of the
elements. As you said, if the EIR is not approved, then you
can’t approve the project. You can discuss and give
feedback on both parts as background and justification for
whichever decision you decide to make.
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COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Just to be clear about
this, and I don't know, I’ve not discussed this matter with
my fellow commissioners. If we assume for the moment that
we don’t approve the EIR, and then we go ahead and discuss
the relative merits of the balance of the case, as far as
you’re concerned there would be only one decision made, and
that is that we don’t approve the EIR, is that correct?
JOEL PAULSON: We would be looking for you to
deny the project, and then you don’t have to certify the
EIR, would be proper.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: But, I have a feeling,
just having heard all the discussion of this, okay, so
you’re saying if we deny the project we don’t get to the
EIR?
JOEL PAULSON: Correct.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I was hopeful that if we
had some comments about the EIR it might be helpful to the
Council.
JOEL PAULSON: You can make those comments;
that’s fair.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Okay, so what we should
first do then is not discuss the EIR, we should discuss the
relative merits of the substantive matter—not that the EIR
isn’t substantive—before us. So with that being the case,
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unless there is some further questioning by my fellow
commissioners I would invite conversation on the matters
before us, which are three, I suppose: Requesting approval
to demolish three office buildings and construct a new two-
story office building with underground parking,
Architecture and Site Application, Conditional Use Permit,
and Environmental Impact Report. It would be the first two,
Architecture and Site Application and the Conditional Use
Permit, so I would invite my fellow commissioners to make
some comments. Yes, Commissioner Burch.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: I will start by
acknowledging that there has been a lot of work done in a
lot of parts of this project. I appreciate the bike lane; I
appreciate the widening of the street; work to be done on
the crosswalk by 17, although I still think Town-wise there
should be more conversations to help tweak that, having
walked it myself.
But without getting into all of those debates, I
think fundamentally what it comes down to is the overall
size of the project and understanding that for the
Applicant there is an understandable line where this is a
profitable project.
As I listen to all the neighbors and everyone
around, it just seems that the size that is currently being
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proposed is too large. I think for myself, I’m not going to
get into architectural details or all the other things,
just because that seems to me like that’s a line, and I
can’t work around that, so I would look to my other
Commissioners for their comments.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: All right, other
comments? Yes, Commissioner Janoff.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Just a couple of comments.
I think that the design does not accommodate the desires of
the neighborhood to achieve sensitivity to the surrounding
properties. It is too large, and not because of the size of
the acreage, but because of the impact to the surrounding
neighborhood. And this is a really unique place; because
it’s quickly becoming a neighborhood that could get
subsumed by these large developments around it, and I think
we need to be careful about that.
I have an issue with the second level of the
garage, and understanding the catastrophic events that
could occur I would say I think that the issue of the
impact of the garage on the surrounding neighborhood is an
issue for me.
Which leads me to the comment that it strikes me
that the EIR analysis should do as much as it can to
reasonably understand the impact of any kind of
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subterranean excavation on the surrounding neighborhood,
and I’m not sure that it goes far enough for me. That’s it.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I asked earlier in the
hearing about the other office building and also about some
office buildings in town, not because it’s directly in the
neighborhood, but because it seemed to me that this would
be one of the larger office buildings we would be building.
I’ve been looking really heavily at the
Commercial Design Guidelines as well as the General Plan,
which as someone said, is sort of like our bible; it’s our
strategic plan, and I think that although we definitely as
a town need Class A office space and there’s a big demand
for it, the question of location comes in and I think that
this would be a great building somewhere else in Los Gatos,
but on Alberto Way we have a really unique situation with
not only a lot of residential traffic, it’s the single
access point, and then we have a lot of the senior citizens
as well, and there are additional concerns, and so I can’t
get comfortable with a development this size. There’s
probably a size that could work, but there doesn’t seem to
be any flexibility on the part of the Applicant.
Then there are other things that I would go into
if we were thinking about approving it relative to the
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garage and the architecture, but I think it’s probably most
important to focus on the size.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Commissioner Hudes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: I think that significant
steps were taken since the Planning Commission in August,
and I think that directionally it’s going the right way,
however, I think that not enough attention was paid to
reducing the size of the structure. I am not persuaded that
the volume reduction equates to the square footage
reduction, and so I think the square footage reduction on
the order of 10% didn’t address the concerns that the
Planning Commission had in August.
However, I think there are other issues that I’m
concerned with as well in the application, and my
understanding is that it’s unlikely that… Well, let me put
that aside. Let me articulate the other issues that I have.
I think that either there’s a misplacement of the
story poles, or it’s an incorrect statement that there’s
been 10’ of additional setback made, based on my
observation of the site. I think that there are actually
some very elements of the existing building that if were
followed could help develop a building that’s larger but
not quite as imposing as the current proposal. The existing
building has a portion—I’m not sure if we got testimony on
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it or someone called it out—there is 20% that’s below
grade, and I think that lends itself to that particular
site to not have this massive building completely above
grade, and since there is already discussion about putting
a parking garage below grade it seems to me that part of
the office space could be below grade, as it is currently.
The other issue that I’m concerned about, and one
that was a big part of our discussion in August, was safety
of the residents in the adjacent housing units,
particularly with the gridlock traffic situation that
occurs on Highway 9 and the difficulty in getting emergency
vehicles onto a street that’s narrow, and that issue I
don’t think has been resolved.
I was not convinced that the widening is
sufficient, or maybe it wasn’t presented clearly to me to
address that safety concern that I have about being able to
get an emergency vehicle down that street, remembering that
we have a fundamental structural issue with our traffic
that we have a temporary fix for but we don’t have a
permanent solution to, and that is the gridlock that occurs
in various neighborhoods in Los Gatos due to the beach
traffic following the directions from Apple Maps and Google
Maps and variance other GPS, and to me that is a structural
issue almost like we had a bridge out, and we don’t have a
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permanent solution to that, and here, with that kind of
gridlock that occurs on Highway 9, it presents a safety
hazard to me in getting emergency vehicles onto a street
that has a population that probably would like to have
access to those vehicles, so I don’t think that that issue
has been solved sufficiently in the existing proposal.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Thank you. Vice Chair
Kane.
VICE CHAIR KANE: On the question of development
we often come to, I used to discuss with Mike Wasserman,
not to name drop, but you’ve got the existing people and
the appropriate preservation of the Town, and you’ve got
future people and the necessary development of the Town,
and you’ve got to weigh these things. They don’t come in
numbers, they don’t come in specifics, they don’t come in
science, they come in listening to people. Anybody count
the amount of letters we got last year and this year?
Hundreds of letters.
And we had extensive testimony from the neighbors
at our previous hearings, and what I get out of that is
that there is a great deal of fear in this room, and there
is a great deal of fear in these letters, and I feel that’s
not being acknowledged to the degree that it needs to be,
given the job I’m supposed to be doing in balancing current
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people and future people, and the direction that was given
about the size of the project, which is, I don't know, 90%
of the problem, was not adhered to.
I went back and listened to the tape of the first
meeting we had. I went back and listed to the tape of the
second meeting we had. I’ve been working on this for a
week. I really wanted to remember what happened last year,
because I can’t remember what happened yesterday. And it
was clear what the Commission was saying at that time, and
what I heard tonight, is it doesn’t matter, I can’t make
any more movement than I have, and I think that’s very
unacceptable to the existing people, and I’m moved by that
fear, I’m moved by these tears, I’m moved by changing
people’s lives.
In it’s present form, I can’t support it. We gave
lots of reasons about these social aspects. 1.3 in the
Commercial Design Guidelines, all of them. 1.4 in the
Commercial Design Guidelines. We’ve heard General Plan
provisions cited tonight. We’ve heard land use provisions
cited tonight in the policy. There are a lot of numbers in
there, but those are the guidelines, the guardians of the
social concerns, and the project being the way it is, those
are the guidelines I’m going to use when I make my
decision.
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COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I’ll make my comments. I
could not approve this project either. It isn’t because of
the dam; that is not an issue that would cause me to say no
on this.
The two-story garage does bother me, and I do
think the water issue, both in the EIR and the proposal, is
very troublesome to me.
But the basic reason that I would not approve
this project is the General Plan. I am empathetic with any
developer who comes in and says we did all the numbers
right, and let’s assume for the moment they did all the
numbers right, we still have a General Plan, and
fortunately we have a General Plan.
For example, in the Vision Statement when it
talks about harmonizing with the existing development,
that’s something we’re supposed to pay attention to. When
it talks about the goals, it talks about to provide for
well-planned, careful growth that reflects the Town’s
existing character and infrastructure. When it talks about,
“The type, density, and intensity of new land use shall be
consistent with that of the immediate neighborhood. New
construction, remodels, and additions shall be compatible
and blend with the existing neighborhood.” It goes on and
on with that kind of language. That makes it very difficult
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for a developer, but it is good for the community, and I
think only when the developer really pushes that the
developer is guaranteed to run into the General Plan, and
here, the size of this project is too big, and I think that
flies in the face of the General Plan, and because of that
I would not support it.
I also agree, and I think Commissioner Janoff
perhaps said it best, with some of the debilities in the
EIR, but since we don’t have to get to that, if in fact,
and that’s what I’ve heard, if we are to deny the project.
If we deny the project the Applicant can
certainly appeal and we’ll find out what the Council will
do, but I would now entertain a motion, because we’ve all,
I think… Unless somebody else wants to say something, I
would entertain a motion on the question of the project
itself, not the EIR. Don’t all rush to do it.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Okay, if I venture a motion,
I want to make sure I’m clear, I’m only venturing the
motion of the Architecture and Site Application right now,
is that correct?
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Well, also the
Conditional Use Permit Application. As I read this, and
I’ll defer obviously to the Town Attorney and the other
Staff, it says the subject is the Architecture and Site
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Application, the Conditional Use Permit, and the
Environmental Impact Report. Now, we’ve just said we’re
going to defer any issue at the moment on the Environmental
Impact Report, so that leaves two things, the Architecture
and Site Application and the Conditional Use Permit, if I
understand correctly.
JOEL PAULSON: That’s correct. It may be a simple
motion that you make to deny both the Architecture and Site
and Conditional Use Permit applications, and then you can
state any reasoning for that.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: All right, so I will make a
motion to deny Architecture and Site Application S-15-056,
and Conditional Use Permit Application U-15-009, 401 to 409
Alberto Way.
I’m going acknowledge the work that the Applicant
has done as far as the many requests that we made as far as
the bike lane, the widening of the road, and redlining the
curb. I think that there has been a lot done on this
application; I want to make sure that I acknowledge that.
I think it simply comes down to a compatibility
with the neighborhood issue, and the size, and I certainly
hope that if appealed and the Applicant does go to Council,
perhaps there is some wiggle room found there and something
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could be brought to Council that would be more compatible
with the neighborhood.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Is there a second?
Commissioner Hanssen, you’re seconding?
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I will second.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: All right, is there any
discussion of the motion? Vice Chair Kane.
VICE CHAIR KANE: In what form should this go to
Council? Should we articulate the provisions in the General
Plan, commercial guidelines, land use, or have we done
that?
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Personally, the Council
will have a written record of our discussions, and I would
think that should be adequate, and I will defer to Staff to
see if that’s correct.
JOEL PAULSON: That is correct. There have been a
number of things that have been expressed this evening,
both by the public and at former hearings by the
Commissioners. If you feel more comfortable trying to add
some more specificity to that, and the maker of the motion
and the seconder are okay with that, that’s fine.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I want to be careful
that we don’t narrow it down too much, because we’ve had
lengthy conversations over a period of time, and anybody
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that reads the record will get a fairly… Well, they’ll get
a very good indication of why, and if we try to enumerate
those things, that would be fine, but I want to make sure
that’s not the exclusive basis. Commissioner Hudes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: I would agree with the Chair
on that point, that I would have difficulty supporting the
motion if it were narrowed down too much. I think this is a
level that points out the inconsistencies with the General
Plan and the issues, and I think that I would be
comfortable supporting it in this form.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Commissioner Janoff.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: I just wanted to make one
point regarding the attempt at the reduction in size of the
building, and while it’s been acknowledged that the
reduction in mass is perhaps on the order of 20-25%, and
the reduction of square footage only at the 10% level, that
I would like the Council and others to know from my
perspective that reduction in size has two impacts. There
is the visible, mass, scale, views, which had been
partially addressed with the reduction in mass, but the
reduction of square footage relates to the reduction in the
number of tenants/maintenance/whatever else is happening to
bring additional persons to that site. So I think it’s
important to understand that we’re really hung up on the
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reduction in size as it relates to reducing the number of
tenants.
VICE CHAIR KANE: And construction.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Well, yes, that’s not
exclusive, but you’re saying as to that point, you’re
amplifying. That’s fine. But we’re saying it’s the whole
record, and that’s fine. That’s the motion.
So if there’s no further comments or questions,
I’ll call the motion. All those in favor, say aye. The
motion passes unanimously. And now we could get your
comments on the appeal.
JOEL PAULSON: There are appeal rights. Anyone
who is not satisfied with the decision of the Planning
Commission can appeal that decision to the Town Council.
Forms are available in the Clerk’s Office. There is a fee
for filing the appeal, and the appeal must be filed within
ten days.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Thank you all for being
here.