Draft Mins 01.26.17 Special Mtg N40
110 E. Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 ● 408-354-6832
www.losgatosca.gov
TOWN OF LOS GATOS
PLANNING COMMISSION
REPORT
MEETING DATE: 03/08/2017 ITEM NO: 1
DRAFT
MINUTES OF THE PLANNING COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING
JANUARY 26, 2017
The Planning Commission of the Town of Los Gatos conducted a Special Meeting on Thursday,
January 26, 2017, at 7:00 p.m.
MEETING CALLED TO ORDER AT 7:00 P.M.
ROLL CALL
Present: Chair Tom O'Donnell, Vice Chair D. Michael Kane, Commissioner Mary Badame,
Commissioner Melanie Hanssen, Commissioner Matthew Hudes, and Commissioner Kathryn
Janoff.
Absent: Commissioner Kendra Burch
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Vice Chair Kane led the Pledge of Allegiance. The audience was invited to participate.
SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS/COMMISSION MATTERS
None.
VERBAL COMMUNICATIONS
None.
CONSENT ITEMS (TO BE ACTED UPON BY A SINGLE MOTION)
1. Approval of Minutes – None.
PUBLIC HEARINGS
2. North Forty Specific Plan Amendments
Consider the General Plan Committee’s discussion and provide recommendations
regarding the Town Council’s suggestions for amendments to the North 40 Specific Plan.
Continued from December 15, 2016.
Applicant: Town of Los Gatos
Project Planners: Sally Zarnowitz and Joel Paulson
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Opened Public Comment.
Charles Erekson
- There are four issues with respect to the North 40: economic vitality versus community
vitality and how that might relate to commercial development; grade, height, and open
space and why increasing open space to increase height is the wrong approach; proposed
changes to the allowable square footage of hotels and the type of hotel the town would
like in that space; and community space and the need for a new location for service clubs
to meet.
Jolie Houston
- She represents Grosvenor, SummerHill, and Eden Housing who believe it is premature to
revise the North 40 Specific Plan because there is a pending lawsuit, it is not known what is
feasible in the revisions since they have not seen a complete recommendation, and it
cannot be assumed that there are no CEQA impacts since development would be
redistributed over the site.
Paul Grams
- Since the developer would make tens of millions of dollars on the North 40 development
they should be able to put mitigations in place to reduce the traffic impacts, such as
increase the Lark/Highway 17 on ramp going north to three lanes, increase Lark Avenue an
additional one or two lanes from Los Gatos Boulevard to Highway 17, increase Los Gatos
Boulevard from four lanes to six from Lark Avenue to Samaritan Drive, and increase the
Highway 17 overpass with an additional one or two lanes.
Markene Smith
- With respect to health impacts to residential units close to the freeway, both entrances
near south Main Street and Highway 9 have 100 feet of trees on either side of the freeway
entrance; however, the gateway to Los Gatos on the north side is barren. She asked that
the Specific Plan amendments contain a change to make a 100-foot tree easement
between northbound Highway 17 and any occupied buildings, which would increase the
health of the area and add to the beauty of Los Gatos as well.
Lee Quintana
- There are many terms used in the Specific Plan that do not say “should” or “shall,” such as
“provide,” “require,” “encourage,” et cetera, and because it is divided up between
standards in one chapter and guidelines in the other chapter, but there are some guidelines
that use the same language, as do some of the standards, it should indicate which of those
words means “shall” and which means “should”.
Closed Public Comment.
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Commissioners discussed the matter.
MOTION: Motion by Commissioner Badame to forward the Planning Commission’s
recommendations and comments to the Town Council for consideration
of amendments to the North 40 Specific Plan, making the required
finding for CEQA and the required consistency with the town’s General
Plan. Seconded by Commissioner Hudes.
VOTE: Motion passed unanimously.
OTHER BUSINESS
3. Report from the Director of Community Development
None.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 9:47 p.m.
TOWN OF LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION
January 26, 2017
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
_____________________________
Joel Paulson
Community Development Director
Prepared by
_____________________________
/s/ Vicki Blandin