Draft Mins 07.25.18
110 E. Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 ● 408-354-6832
www.losgatosca.gov
TOWN OF LOS GATOS
PLANNING COMMISSION
REPORT
MEETING DATE: 08/08/18 ITEM NO: 1
DRAFT
MINUTES OF THE PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING
JULY 25, 2018
The Planning Commission of the Town of Los Gatos conducted a Regular Meeting on
Wednesday, July 25, 2018, at 7:00 p.m.
MEETING CALLED TO ORDER AT 7:00 P.M.
ROLL CALL
Present: Chair D. Michael Kane, Vice Chair Matthew Hudes, Commissioner Mary Badame,
Commissioner Kendra Burch, Commissioner Melanie Hanssen, Commissioner Kathryn Janoff,
and Commissioner Tom O’Donnell
Absent: None
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Commissioner Hanssen led the Pledge of Allegiance. The audience was invited to participate.
SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS/COMMISSION MATTERS
Historic Preservation Committee
Commissioner Hudes
- HPC met 7/25/18 and considered four items:
o 16928 Kennedy Road
o 81 Fairview Plaza, Unit A
o 214 Caldwell Avenue
o 245 Almendra Avenue
VERBAL COMMUNICATIONS
None.
CONSENT ITEMS (TO BE ACTED UPON BY A SINGLE MOTION)
1. Approval of Minutes – July 11, 2018
MOTION: Motion by Commissioner Badame to approve adoption of the Consent
Calendar. Seconded by Commissioner Burch.
VOTE: Motion passed unanimously
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PUBLIC HEARINGS
2. 50 University Avenue
Conditional Use Permit Application U-18-009
APN 529-02-044
Property Owner: Federal Realty, Inc.
Applicant: Tyneise Beyer
Project Planner: Azhar Khan
Requesting approval for a restaurant (Joe and the Juice) on property zoned C-2:LHP:PD.
Azhar Khan, Assistant Planner, presented the staff report.
Opened Public Comment.
Tyneise Beyer
- She is with MSA architecture + design and is the project architect.
Tobias Larsen
- He is a retail associate for Joe and the Juice, which was founded in Denmark and has stores
in New York, San Francisco, and Burlingame. The proposed Los Gatos store would serve
juice of all kinds, sandwiches, breakfast, coffee, yogurts, and shakes with the emphasis on
sit-down breakfast products in a cozy and relaxed atmosphere. The stores would have a
Scandinavian design. Their products are freshly made to order at a bar, so there is no need
for a kitchen.
Katelin Slifer
- She is one of the owners of juice co. LG located at 155 North Santa Cruz Avenue. She and
other local businesses do not favor the approval of Joe and the Juice in the downtown,
because it is a large global company with 260-plus locations worldwide and has been
referred to as the “future Starbucks,” and it would drive the small town focus into more of
a corporate, urban landscape.
Tobias Larsen
- Joe and the Juice is not coming to Los Gatos to take over or destroy the neighborhood,
because they love the area and think their business would be a community asset. All their
employees would be local, and the same for their products that would all be locally sourced
from California. Most of their stores are in Europe, with only eight or nine in San Francisco.
Closed Public Comment.
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Commissioners discussed the matter.
MOTION: Motion by Commissioner O’Donnell to approve a Conditional Use Permit
for 50 University Avenue. Seconded by Commissioner Janoff.
VOTE: Motion passed 6-1 with Vice Chair Hudes opposing.
3. 15299 Los Gatos Boulevard
Architecture and Site Application S-18-027
Conditional Use Permit Application U-18-006
APN 424-19-047
Property Owner/Applicant: David Mordick, Robinson Oil Company
Project Planner: Azhar Khan
Requesting approval for expansion of retail area in an existing automobile service
station (Rotten Robbie) and exterior modifications on property zoned CH.
Azhar Khan, Assistant Planner, presented the staff report.
Opened Public Comment.
Erin Graziosi
- She represents Rotten Robbie. They have actively upgraded existing sites throughout their
locations, and the project on Los Gatos Boulevard would allow them to upgrade and
update their current building and remodel it into a small store, allowing them to provide
increased value to their customers through additional food and beverage options.
Closed Public Comment.
Commissioners discussed the matter.
MOTION: Motion by Commissioner O’Donnell to continue the public hearing for
15299 Los Gatos Boulevard to a date certain of August 22, 2018.
Seconded by Chair Kane.
VOTE: Motion passed unanimously.
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4. 15921 Rochin Terrace
Architecture and Site Application S-18-002
APN 523-25-009
Property Owner: Patrick Hancir and Monica Zaucha
Applicant: Davide Giannella, Acadia Architecture
Project Planner: Sean Mullin
Requesting approval for demolition of an existing single-family residence and
construction of a new single-family residence on property zoned R-1:8.
Sean Mullin, Assistant Planner, presented the staff report.
Opened Public Comment.
Jeff Takeuchi
- He lives two houses down from the subject property. He has lived in his home for 26 years
and to his knowledge the subject house has never been remodeled. He and his wife
reviewed the plans with the property owner and support the look, design, and feel of the
home and think it would update and complement some of the surrounding homes.
Patrick H. Hancir
- He and his wife bought the property because it is the perfect neighborhood in which to
raise their children. It is an architecturally diverse neighborhood. They did a tremendous
amount of community outreach, including an open house and going door-to-door. They
reduced the overall building height in response to view concerns from the neighbors, many
of whom now support the property. The home design is a combination of functionality and
appearance with an emphasis on being green. The preservation and safety of the very tall
redwood tree in the back yard and the foundation of the home informed the design.
Davide Giannella
- He is the architect. Their approach was to not mimic features of the existing surrounding
buildings that were perhaps designed 50 years ago, but to interpret the proportion, size,
and massing of the existing surrounding buildings. They utilized shallowly sloped roofs that
slope backwards in order to keep the height as low as possible considering it is a two-story
home on a corner lot, which saves about five feet and makes the height 25 feet.
Patrick Hancir
- They received some complaints about the roof. The extended neighborhood is eclectic with
many different styles, including mid-century modern and contemporary houses with flat
roofs. The contemporary style in the immediate neighborhood is not an aberration. They
took great care to ensure that they feature the common architectural elements, and the
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trend in Los Gatos and their own neighborhood has been towards more and more
architectural diversity.
Joan Kjemtrup
- She lives on Rochin Terrace at the end of the cul de sac. She supports the application to
build a new home. She liked the architectural design and thought it would make the
neighborhood more interesting.
Vida Parsi
- She and her husband live diagonally one house across from the subject property. She and
three other neighbors’ main complaint is the roof, because it does not blend with the rest
of the neighborhood. She loves Los Gatos and her neighborhood the way it is and is not
looking to modernize it in this way. The story poles show the house would block the
mountain views, even with a flat roof. She asked the Planning Commission to save her
neighborhood.
Patrick Hancir
- Based on complaints from the neighbors they proactively lowered the overall height. Unlike
normal situations where the immediate neighborhood is the overwhelming consideration,
they felt that more emphasis should be put on the extended neighborhood, which has
close to ten different architectural styles. The Residential Design Guidelines encourage
architectural diversity and they have followed the rules and regulations.
Davide Giannella
- With respect to mass and height, it is almost contradictory considering the house, because
the second floor over the garage is pushed back so much that half of the house is almost a
one-story house, but with the other half of the house, the real two-story portion, only the
stairwell glass is two-story and everything else slopes down, so they are more than five feet
lower in height than they could have been and the mass is very little.
Closed Public Comment.
Commissioners discussed the matter.
MOTION: Motion by Commissioner O’Donnell to deny an Architecture and Site
Application for 15921 Rochin Terrace. Seconded by Commissioner
Badame.
VOTE: Motion passed unanimously.
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OTHER BUSINESS
5. Report from the Director of Community Development
Joel Paulson, Director of Community Development
• The Town Council will consider North Forty Specific Plan amendments again on August
7, 2018.
• The Town is currently recruiting for a number of boards and committees, including the
General Plan Advisory Committee.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 9:32 p.m.
This is to certify that the foregoing is a true
and correct copy of the minutes of the July 25, 2018
meeting as approved by the
Planning Commission.
_____________________________
/s/ Vicki Blandin