Draft Mins 09.27.17
110 E. Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 ● 408-354-6832
www.losgatosca.gov
TOWN OF LOS GATOS
PLANNING COMMISSION
REPORT
MEETING DATE: 10/25/2017
ITEM NO: 1
DRAFT
MINUTES OF THE PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING
SEPTEMBER 27, 2017
The Planning Commission of the Town of Los Gatos conducted a Regular Meeting on
Wednesday, September 27, 2017, at 7:00 p.m.
MEETING CALLED TO ORDER AT 7:00 P.M.
ROLL CALL
Present: Vice Chair D. Michael Kane, Commissioner Mary Badame, Commissioner Melanie
Hanssen, Commissioner Matthew Hudes, and Commissioner Kathryn Janoff
Absent: Chair Tom O'Donnell, 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
Angelia Doerner
- Traffic is a serious concern in Los Gatos, and the Town needs to take a much more
aggressive standpoint with so much development going on in Los Gatos that impacts
Highways 9 and 17 and Santa Cruz Avenue. A Los Gatos citizen was killed in the crosswalk
at Massol and Highway 9; she has requested a light at this intersection five times.
CONSENT ITEMS (TO BE ACTED UPON BY A SINGLE MOTION)
1. Approval of Minutes – September 13, 2017
MOTION: Motion by Commissioner Badame to approve adoption of the Consent
Calendar. Seconded by Commissioner Hanssen.
VOTE: Motion passed unanimously
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PUBLIC HEARINGS
2. 300 Marchmont Drive
Conditional Use Permit Application U-12-002
APNs 532-10-001 and 532-11-011
Property Owner/Applicant: Hillbrook School
Project Planner: Jocelyn Puga
Annual review of a Conditional Use Permit modification to increase school enrollment
for an existing private school (Hillbrook School) on property zoned HR-1.
Jocelyn Puga, Associate Planner, presented the staff report.
Opened Public Comment.
Mark Silver
- He is the head of Hillbrook School and a resident of Los Gatos. The school has abided by its
Conditional Use Permit, and worked to mitigate traffic and be a great neighbor. Hillbrook’s
relationship with the neighborhood has improved dramatically. Over the last two years the
school’s traffic has dropped dramatically, and they have not violated their CUP.
Chuck Hammers
- He is the Chairman of the Board of Hillbrook School. The school chose a third party, Sensys,
to do the counting, because it was important that they get data to the Town directly from a
county mechanism without Hillbrook being involved. They believe Hillbrook can be the
guideposting for other schools, through Safe Routes to School, to show how they can lower
traffic.
Patti Elliot
- The main concern is there are very specific requirements under the CUP for counting, and
while she appreciates the school’s work, the key is to have a reliable, accurate, verifiable
counting system, because the CUP is based around that. The trip numbers are worse than
last year’s number, and it is critical to find out why before adding additional students.
Barbara Dodson
- With respect to the 24-hour situation, there is quite a bit of traffic before 7:00am, not so
much after 7:00pm, but on the ten days when they have evening activities traffic is
significant, and so they should definitely be counting for a 24-hour period. Going forward,
as the school population increases, will Hillbrook continue to do a good job of staying in
compliance with the CUP? That is why it is so important to have a reliable counting system.
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Vlado Herman
- He is on the board of directors and head of the finance committee for Hillbrook. His two
children attend Hillbrook, and they take the bus to school every morning. He reminded the
Commission that there would be large fines levied if Hillbrook falls out of trip count
compliance.
Chuck Hammers
- They started with the goal to grow the middle school and create more opportunity for
grades six through eight. Hillbrook has done such a good job with the traffic because of the
parents who are committed to decreasing the school’s traffic numbers.
Closed Public Comment.
Commissioners discussed the matter.
MOTION: Motion by Vice Chair Kane to approve an annual review of a Conditional
Use Permit modification for Hillbrook School and grant the request to
increase school enrollment by an additional 33 students for a maximum
of 414 for the 2018-2019 school year.
Commissioner Hudes requested the motion be amended to urge that Hillbrook School be
diligent about ascertaining the operation of the monitoring systems and to incorporate the
suggestion for calibration on Exhibit 2, page 2.
The maker of the motion accepted the proposed amendment to the motion.
Commissioner Hudes requested the motion be amended to urge Hillbrook School to follow
the updated data collection workflow from W-Trans in Exhibit 9.
The maker of the motion accepted the proposed amendment to the motion.
Commissioner Hudes requested the motion be amended to select three non-consecutive days
to include a sports day in at least one of those three, and to define the counts in the future on
a 24-hour day period.
The maker of the motion accepted the proposed amendment to the motion.
Seconded by Commissioner Hudes.
Commissioners discussed the matter.
VOTE: Motion passed unanimously.
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3. Town Code Amendment A-17-003
Applicant: Town of Los Gatos
Project Planner: Sally Zarnowitz
Consider amendments to Chapter 29 (Zoning Regulations) of the Los Gatos Town Code
to comply with adopted 2016 State Legislation regarding accessory dwelling units.
Sally Zarnowitz, Planning Manager, presented the staff report.
Opened Public Comment.
Cathy Weiner
- She has a legal secondary accessory building. In the spirit of the law, the Commission
should consider allowing someone with a detached secondary accessory dwelling to also be
able to use part of their home as an additional accessory dwelling.
Linda Swenberg
- When she bought her home, it came with a pool house fully permitted for habitation, but it
does not have a kitchen installed because of the Town’s parking requirement. Her mother
in law resides in the home now, but is not as comfortable as possible because she does not
have a kitchen. It does not make sense to prevent citizens from using structures in this
manner when they are built to code and done legally with permits.
Jennifer Kretschmer
- She is a local architect. She supports making the current regulations less intrusive to
homeowners, because there is an affordable housing issue in Los Gatos . One thing they
have done is put high-density affordable housing in one location in town, creating a
separate and not equal location. ADUs would help in integrating people with low incomes
into the town.
Angelia Doerner
- She asked for a confirmation of what is conforming versus nonconforming with respect to
residential properties. She didn’t see how the Town could require 80% AMI on the rental
amount; she doesn’t understand that provision or where it came from and why the Town
thinks that’s allowed. The Town needs to make sure they use the same definition of
household as the North 40.
Marie Rector
- They have a freestanding shop on their property that they would like to convert to an ADU
for second income. Their plans meet all of the state’s criteria, but they are still awaiting
approval from the Town, because it has not adopted the rules laid out by Governor Brown.
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Jeff Loughridge
- ADUs can help Los Gatos meet its housing needs. Requiring large minimum lot sizes for
ADUs, and not allowing small lot sizes, can restrict their potential development. As long as
ADUs meet the maximum square footage, FAR, setbacks, and maximum lot coverage, a
small lot size, such as 7,000-8,000 square feet or even smaller, could be appropriate.
Justin Draa
- He is interested in the impact these potential revisions would have, and how HR guidelines
would play into it. Asked if a four-acre hillside property with sufficient flat land to build on
would be prohibited from building an ADU, as it must be over five acres?
Lee Quintana
- She was in favor of expanding the permitted zone. The process is not clear, because there
are things in the staff report and in the ordinance that suggest there are discretionary
points, but there are also indications that the laws now require mandatory or ministerial
approvals, which doesn’t allow for discretion. Parking should be one spot per bedroom, or
none, but a minimum of one spot.
Thomas Pratt
- He supported the ADU amendments to Chapter 29, and was pleased that they may
consider accessory dwelling units on hillside lots. He was curious as to what factors might
or are expected to apply to granting approval for lots less than five acres, and curious as to
what restrictions there may be regarding affordability.
Closed Public Comment.
Commissioners discussed the matter.
MOTION: Motion by Vice Chair Kane to continue the public hearing regarding
Town Code Amendment A-17-003, Accessory Dwelling Units, to the
meeting of November 8, 2017, with the request that the issue be heard
on the agenda as early as possible. Seconded by Commissioner Badame.
VOTE: Motion passed unanimously.
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OTHER BUSINESS
4. Report from the Director of Community Development
Joel Paulson, Director of Community Development
• Town Council met 9/19/17; continued 105 Newell; completed public testimony for the
Alberto Way office building, with deliberation to take place at the 10/3/17 Council
meeting; the North 40 moratorium was extended an additional ten months and 15 days,
so the Town can look at completing modifications, with discussion to take place at the
10/3/17 Council meeting regarding modifications to the specific plan.
Robert Schultz, Town Attorney
• Update on motion of attorney fees filed by Grosvenor and SummerHill asking for
$600,000 in attorney’s fees and $90,000 in costs. The Court denied their motion for
attorney’s fees and gave them nothing, and gave them $35,000 in costs.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 10:30 p.m.
TOWN OF LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION
SEPTEMBER 27, 2017
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
_____________________________
Joel Paulson
Community Development Director
Prepared by
_____________________________
/s/ Vicki Blandin