212-216 N. Santa Cruz Ave - Desk Item & Exhibit 11TOWN OF LOS GATOS
PLANNING COMMISSION STAFF REPORT
Meeting Date: April27, 2016
PREPARED BY: Jocelyn Puga, Assistant Planner
jpuga@losgatosca. gov
APPLICATION NO: Architecture and Site Application S-16-002
Conditional Use Permit Application U-16-001
ITEM NO: 8
DESK ITEM
LOCATION: 212-216 N. Santa Cruz Avenue (Located on the east side of N.
Santa Cruz Avenue, between Royce Street and Bachman Avenue)
APPLICANT: Luba Senatorova
CONTACT PERSON: Joey McCarthy Jr.
PROPERTY OWNER: McCarthy Santa Cruz Ave , LLC
APPLICATION SUMMARY: Requesting approval of exterior modifications to an existing
commercial building and approval for a new fitness studio (Soul
Cycle) with group exercise classes on property zoned C-2. APN
529-04-085.
EXHIBITS: 1-10. Previously received with April27, 2016 StaffReport
REMARKS:
Received with this Desk Item Report:
11. Comments received from 11:01 a.m. on April 22, 2016 to
11:00 a.m. on April27, 2016
The attached public comment (Exhibit 11) was received after distribution of the staff report.
Approved by:
Joel Paulson
Community Development Director
JSP:JGP:sr
N :\OEV\PC REPORTS\20 I 6\NSC2 I 2-2 I 6 _ des ki tem .docx
Iri na Caldera
251 Vis t a De Sierra
Los Gatos, CA 9 5030
H :408.39 5.2028
Email: irinacaldara@comcast.net
April 25th, 2016
Town of Los Gatos
Att: Planning Department
110 E Main st
Los Gatos, CA 95030
To Wh om It Ma y Concern :
I am a resident of Los Gat os liv in g at the address above
~ECEIVED
/~i 'k (: J 2016
' . ' I "F LOS GATOS
I LA f\!l~li~G DIVISION
I am writing to voice my protest of the Conditional Use Permit being considered for the Soul
Cycle property at 2 12-216 North Santa Cruz Avenue Los Gatos
Unfortunately, I am not able to attend the upcoming planning meeting due to international
travel but I request that this letter is being read by the planning staff in the public forum in
order to bring visibility to the concerns regarding th is application.
I am an occasional customer of Soul Cycle in Palo-alto where classes run all day and are
generally full to capacity. In Palo-A lto Soul Cycle is located in the Stanford Shopping Center
area which has thousands of car parking spaces.
The placement of th is style of business in the heart of our downtown will have serious negative
impact t o the public. The load this use places on an already busy downtown traffic and
parking environment represe nts a serious inconvenient and danger to residents and visitors.
The applicant has stated the capacity required for use (57 total customers+ staff) and has
also noted that they hold 12 classes on weekdays and 8 on weekends. If the publicly
available schedule for all other Soul Cycle is to be followed at this location, and there is no
reason to suggest it would not, this means "back-to-bock" classes for busy periods of the day.
The 15 minutes between classes at busy times is NOT sufficient for exiting students to complete
post-class activities (changing I shower etc) and get to their car to free up space for
incoming students. The actual impact to parking and traffic in the downtown area is
therefore closer 114 people.
I understand this is not the forum to challenge the 1 space for every 3 students code to
determine parking vs use but I would like to go on record as to say that, based on evidence
from EVERY workout business in Los Gatos and from Soul Cycle in Palo Alto, almost EVERY
person attending Soul Cycle classes drive and will require parking.
I have visited the parking area of the proposed site, the parking stalls marked in green are
NOT compliant with the towns parking code as they lack the "U" shaped interval between
each stall. I note that the Engineering Division response to the CUP application requires that
"All work shall conform to the applicable town ordinances". I therefore assume that prior to
passing final inspection, the tenant will be required to bring all spaces into compliance.
According to the application documents it is clear that the applicant has assumed that the
current layout of non-compliant parking will remain which is in error and clearly not aligned
with public convenience. The "U" shape in compliant parking stalls will reduce the total
amount of spaces by at least 4 spaces (2 on each row)
Another general concern is that a service such as Soul Cycle, or any Gymnasium is
completely out of place in the downtown area, this has always been an area dedicated to
public use such as retaiL restaurant and service. These use types offer residents and visitors to
Los Gatos the opportunity to enjoy these services and the change to a use that is non-
complimentary to surrounding use. Residents or visitors enjoying retail shopping will not use
Soul Cycle, nor will those enjoying the downtown for its selection of restaurants. It simply does
not fit in our downtown.
Spend some time outside any gym and you will see the condition of people exiting after
intense classes (as described in the CUP application) and you will see that none of these
have the intention of shopping or eating at high quality restaurants.
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Soul Cycle, like other workout businesses is a destination, people go there for the workout and
leave. They require parking to accommodate all the guests + staff of both current and follow-
in classes when the interval between is small
The loss of sales tax revenue opportunity from this area of town should also be considered ,
Sou l Cycle sell a small amount of apparel but nothing on the scale of a retail store that should
be in this space generating sa les tax dollars which directly benefit the town.
To summarize my concerns in th e format of the CUP process, I believe that approval of this
Conditional Use Permit should not be approved for the following reasons:
1. The proposed use is neither essential or desirable at this location. The use represents a
significant inconvenience to public due t o the massive additional traffic and parking
load on the area.
2 . The proposed use will absolutely impair the integrity and character of the zone, it is not
complimentary to any surrounding use in the central business district. Soul Cycle is a
destination business for exercise it has no place in a reta il I restaurant I service business
zone
3. The proposed use will be detrimental to public safety, the additional traffic associated
with this use could cause serious delay in emergency services getting through the area
I implore the planning commission to reject this conditional use permit request.
Sincerely , ~
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