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13 Attachment 2 - August 14, 2019 Planning Commission Verbatim MinutesLOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 8/14/2019 Item #2, Modifications to the Hillside Design Standards and Guidelines 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 A P P E A R A N C E S: Los Gatos Planning Commissioners: Matthew Hudes, Chair Mary Badame Kendra Burch Kathryn Janoff Tom O'Donnell Reza Tavana Town Manager:Laurel Prevetti Community Development Director: Joel Paulson Town Attorney:Robert Schultz Transcribed by: Vicki L. Blandin (619) 541-3405 1 ATTACHMENT 2 LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 8/14/2019 Item #2, Modifications to the Hillside Design Standards and Guidelines 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 P R O C E E D I N G S: CHAIR HUDES: We now move to the Public Hearings portion of our agenda and we will consider Item 2, which is a Town Wide application. The applicant is the Town of Los Gatos and it's considering modifications to Chapter… This is all of the Hillside Design Standards and Guidelines, and so it's modifications to Chapter III, Chapter IV, Chapter V, Chapter VI, Chapter VIII, Chapter IX, and Chapter X. I understand, Ms. Shoopman, that you'll be giving the Staff Report tonight. JOCELYN SHOOPMAN: Good evening, Chair and Commissioners. The item in front of you is consideration of modifications to Chapters III through VI and VIII through X of the Hillside Design Standards and Guidelines as recommended by the Town Council Policy Committee and forwarded to you for your recommendation to the Council. The recommendation from the Policy Committee proposes to modify the deciding body for single-story additions over 800 square feet or greater than 20-percent of the existing floor area from the Development Review Committee to the Community Development Director. LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 8/14/2019 Item #2, Modifications to the Hillside Design Standards and Guidelines 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 In addition, to modify the deciding body for homes over 5,000 square feet that do not exceed the maximum allowable floor area and are not visible from the Planning Commission to the Development Review Committee, remove the requirement that subsequent Architecture and Site Applications may not be applied for for the same property for a period of three years following the issuance of an Occupancy Permit, and to modify language regarding accessory dwelling units, viewing areas, below-grade square footage, fences, and entry gates to be consistent with previous amendments to the Hillside Design Standards and Guidelines and amendments to the Zoning Ordinance. This concludes Staff's presentation and we'd be happy to answer any questions. CHAIR HUDES: Great. Thank you. Are there questions? I had a question. This is about process. My understanding is that by moving the approval from the Planning Commission to the DRC the approval body is changing, is that correct? JOCELYN SHOOPMAN: That's correct. CHAIR HUDES: So, in terms of streamlining, are any steps being taken out of the process? JOCELYN SHOOPMAN: No, no steps are being taken out of the process. The same departments, which include LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 8/14/2019 Item #2, Modifications to the Hillside Design Standards and Guidelines 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Building, Planning, Fire, and Engineering are all still reviewing the application and it's still being publicly noticed. CHAIR HUDES: Okay. In the interest of understanding the benefits of streamlining, how often have we had appeals of this this type of a hillside development in the last five years or so? JOCELYN SHOOPMAN: Are you asking if we had any appeals or how many applications we've processed? CHAIR HUDES: I guess it's applications. JOCELYN SHOOPMAN: Okay, so we were able to pull data from the last three years and we were able to determine that 13 new hillside homes have been applied for, seven have been greater than 5,000 square feet, five of those did go to the Planning Commission and were approved at greater than 5,000 square feet, and six applications were approved by the Development Review Committee because they were less than 5,000 square feet. CHAIR HUDES: Okay. The other question I had was about on page 30, the criteria for the Planning Commission approving a residential project greater than the maximum that's allowed. Basically it states that, "The Town Council or Planning Commission may approve a project greater than the maximum when all of the following criteria apply," and LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 8/14/2019 Item #2, Modifications to the Hillside Design Standards and Guidelines 5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 I'm focusing in on #8, which says, "A significant below- grade square footage element is included in the design unless it conflicts with other standards." I'm a little bit confused about this one and what this achieves, so could you explain #8 and can you explain what's achieved by it? SALLY ZARNOWITZ: I'll take a stab at that, and then if the Director wants to join in he can, but the one issue would be how that is written and whether you wanted to change just the wordsmithing of it a little bit. I guess the other would be whether that would be required in order to approve that larger amount or whether that would be something that would be considered in approving the larger amount of square footage. CHAIR HUDES: I was just trying to understand the intention of it, because the way it's worded it appears that it would encourage or compel people to add below-grade square footage when in fact I think from some of the hearings I've been in the intention is to do a tradeoff where additional square footage is put underground rather than outside, and I'm wondering if the way this is worded it actually doesn't achieve that but encourages additional square footage to be put below-grade. SALLY ZARNOWITZ: Yeah, and I think that we can take that recommendation and look at that language before LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 8/14/2019 Item #2, Modifications to the Hillside Design Standards and Guidelines 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 taking this on to Council if that's what the Commission would like. JOEL PAULSON: Through the Chair, it's difficult to know—it was 2004 I think when these were originally adopted—what the intent was. In looking at it it does seem a little bit counterintuitive in that you're asking to exceed the FAR, we want you to put a whole bunch of square footage underground, which gives you more square footage, and then we want you to increase it above from a visible mass perspective. Now, the one thing that could come into play is you may have an existing house that has an existing cellar and you want to add 100 square feet, 500 square feet, so you already have that cellar element and so you're looking to request that. The opposite would be if someone came in and they had no cellar but they wanted to exceed the FAR. That's where we would be looking to try to get them to put that underground, which theoretically then would hopefully bring them down below the square footage, but if you want any specific language or ideas on how that should be worded the other option is that that could be removed if that's of interest from the Commission. LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 8/14/2019 Item #2, Modifications to the Hillside Design Standards and Guidelines 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 CHAIR HUDES: Well, when we get to deliberating I'll think about maybe some different language, because I don't know that it's accomplishing what the intention is as it's worded. Just it strikes me that the wording may not achieve that. Are there any questions further of Staff? Okay, then I will close the applicant's portion, and I have no cards from the public, so the public portion of the hearing is closed as well and we'll move into discussion, deliberations, and perhaps a motion. Any comments from fellow commissioners on this? Commissioner Badame. COMMISSIONER BADAME: I would agree with the Chair's recommendation. I would go along with some type of change to what he's suggesting. I wouldn't know what that might be but it seems to me it is counterintuitive there. CHAIR HUDES: The thought that I had was that if we're really trying to encourage a tradeoff so that additional square footage is put underground then maybe we just state that so that it's encouraged to put any square footage that would be beyond the FAR to be located underground if possible. That just seems a little more straightforward. Commissioner O'Donnell. COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: That's not what it says though. It's not even close, I think, to what it says, so LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 8/14/2019 Item #2, Modifications to the Hillside Design Standards and Guidelines 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 if you want to add some new concept I guess that would be fine but I think your original comment that this really doesn't make a lot of sense is true, and if I understand the rejoinder was yeah, it happened a long time ago and we're just trying to clean it up a little bit, but if you don't like it you can take it out. It's never been our attitude that if you put a basement in that's great because now you put more above. I remember many discussions where we said you've got this huge basement, but you haven't reduced the size of the house at all, and that was the original intent, so this language, I think, is better gone than there, and your comment may be a good comment but I don't think it has anything to do with #8. CHAIR HUDES: Well, actually, I didn't finish my thought, but my thought would be that the language that's in there would be removed and the language that I suggested would be added to encourage people if they do need to go beyond the FAR to put it underground. COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: So, it would be… CHAIR HUDES: I wouldn't make it a requirement as it is today, one of the eight that has to be (inaudible). COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: But there's no inhibition at the moment preventing them from putting in a LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 8/14/2019 Item #2, Modifications to the Hillside Design Standards and Guidelines 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 bigger basement. The thought again here is two things are happening. One, we're talking about the basement or cellar area, and two, we're talking about the above ground area. Your comment, if I understand it correctly, deals only with the underground comment. In other words, you don't get any bonus points for putting in a bigger basement, which I agree with you on, although originally the concept was we could say to people, "Why are you building such a big house when you've got a 2,000 square foot subterranean portion of the house?" and then we'd argue about that, but what you're suggesting we put in, I’m just not sure why we need that. COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Could we just get a reread? Because I'm not sure I heard what… CHAIR HUDES: Okay, so what I'm saying is that I think #8 may encourage development that we don't want, so my suggestion, as Commissioner O'Donnell said, would be to strike #8. Additionally, my thought was that since the concept isn't addressed elsewhere that if an applicant requires more than the allowable floor area ratio, to consider putting it below grade instead of asking for an exception to the requirement. COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: And I guess all I'm saying is wouldn't that… We would hope that would occur to LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 8/14/2019 Item #2, Modifications to the Hillside Design Standards and Guidelines 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 somebody, because if you stand pat on what you're going to grant above ground and they have an architect or somebody who knows what's going on they would tell them, "You can have a bigger basement." CHAIR HUDES: Right. So, basically you're saying it's not necessary to make that a statement? COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: That's what I think, yeah. CHAIR HUDES: Right, okay. Commissioner Janoff. COMMISSIONER JANOFF: I agree that it could be struck from the list of… Because you don't really want to encourage that as a requirement for approval, but I do think it makes sense to cover it elsewhere, and what I was thinking might be… Because what we're talking about is offsetting above-ground square footage but varying it, not adding to, so I would just simply say, "A significant below-grade square footage element is included in (inaudible) to offset above-ground square footage," and put that as a separate statement somewhere—I'm not sure where it would be appropriate—but make it a separate objective for hillside structures. CHAIR HUDES: And you're suggesting that it be removed as one of the criteria for allowing the Commission to decide whether to go over the FAR? LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 8/14/2019 Item #2, Modifications to the Hillside Design Standards and Guidelines 11 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Yes. JOEL PAULSON: Through the Chair? CHAIR HUDES: Yes. JOEL PAULSON: I guess the only thing that comes to mind for that is if someone does decide to put that square footage underground they no long will be exceeding the FAR. So, we can look at where that language should go to kind of encourage that rather than going through this process of exceeding the FAR. SALLY ZARNOWITZ: And also through the Chair, there is some language under Bulk and Mass that talks about excavate or use below-grade rooms to reduce effective bulk, so it looks like there are some recommendations there. CHAIR HUDES: What page is that? SALLY ZARNOWITZ: That is on page 38 of the Design Guidelines. CHAIR HUDES: And which one is that? Oh, that's K? Yeah. Is that sufficient do you think, Commissioner Janoff? COMMISSIONER JANOFF: I would say not because it doesn't specifically address square footage and so this could be the place where that language is inserted, but I would say as it reads now we're still missing that concept of the offset, go below to get the square footage. LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 8/14/2019 Item #2, Modifications to the Hillside Design Standards and Guidelines 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 CHAIR HUDES: Commissioner O'Donnell. COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I'm not sure it's our job to tell (inaudible) so what we're saying is you can't do it that way but you could do it this way. I just don't know why. If you read it you know that's the case. Do we have to say come look at this, you can make a bigger house, here's how you do it? Why do we want to do that? CHAIR HUDES: Commissioner Janoff. COMMISSIONER JANOFF: I'm relatively new on the Planning Commission but I have yet to see an application where we've seen a hillside design that doesn't try to exceed in every possible square or otherwise corner of the structure to maximize well beyond what is proposed, so I think it's reasonable. If the intent of the guideline or the intent of the Planning Commission or the Town at this time is to try to minimize the above-ground square footage it is reasonable to include language that says that. COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I don't think your proposal says that, but I don't see harm in it. To me we're telling people what the limits are and if we did that, what we've done each time is somebody comes in with a big basement and they still want to get, typically, every square foot they could possibly get, and then somebody—of us—gets up and says gee whiz, the idea of the basement was LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 8/14/2019 Item #2, Modifications to the Hillside Design Standards and Guidelines 13 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 to take away from the bulk and mass. Nobody pays any attention to that and typically we approve it. Now, adding this little thought you have is fine, nothing wrong with it, but I'm not exactly sure why we want to do that because we haven't…in my recollection we've said that every time: If you've got a big basement you don't need that in the house. I can't tell you statistically how many we've approved but I think a lot, so if you put it in we're saying gee whiz, would you please think again about the basement, and I'm just saying that's nice but anybody who has appeared before us or read our rules kind of knows that, but if you want to highlight it there's nothing wrong with it if you highlight it. CHAIR HUDES: We're at a point where maybe we should either entertain a motion with specific language or a motion to drop #8. I wonder if people have thoughts about whether we should continue and try to work the language now. Commissioner O'Donnell. COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I think we could divide that into two parts. I think probably we're all in agreement that #8 should just be deleted, because the discussion now is not about that sequence but to put it someplace else, so I'd like to make a motion just on that one point, and that motion would be that we strike the LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 8/14/2019 Item #2, Modifications to the Hillside Design Standards and Guidelines 14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 proposed section or paragraph #8 and then simply change the numbering and #9 of course would become #8, so that's the motion. CHAIR HUDES: Okay. Do we have a second? Commissioner Badame. COMMISSIONER BADAME: Second. CHAIR HUDES: Discussion? Okay, all in favor? It passes unanimously 6-0. The second thing is is there specific language? I didn't come prepared with specific language as you can see, and I don't know whether anyone else would like to take a try at specific language talking about the tradeoff. Okay, I think we may have other opportunities to deal with this in the future, so I think we can move to further discussion of this item. Are there other points that people would like to bring up? Commissioner Badame. COMMISSIONER BADAME: I would just like to say that we're just forwarding a recommendation to Town Council, so it could be that along the way Staff or Council also has an opportunity to refine some wording on this particular issue. CHAIR HUDES: Okay. The other point that I wanted to raise as part of the recommendation is my concern about removing the Planning Commission review of applications. As LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 8/14/2019 Item #2, Modifications to the Hillside Design Standards and Guidelines 15 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 I asked the question earlier, I don't think it achieves an objective of streamlining because there is still the hearing, there is still a notice, it's just the hearing shifts from Planning Commission to DRC, and there are compelling reasons to have certain items heard by a Planning Commission as compared to Staff, and in my mind one of the primary objectives that's achieved when you bring it to a hearing such as a Planning Commission is visibility and transparency. It isn't about the power of the Planning Commission, it's about the visibility that residents have to what's going on, and yes, they can attend a DRC meeting. A DRC meeting is typically at 10:00 o'clock on a weekday and given the number that we've heard of applications that met the criteria of going to Planning Commission—I believe it was 13 or so—that to me is limiting visibility to these things, and frankly, limiting some of the debate and discussion that goes on. It's doesn't achieve streamlining really, because it's still the same step. It's a hearing that's noticed, it's just a hearing before the Planning Commission that is being moved to a hearing before the DRC. Commissioner O'Donnell. LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 8/14/2019 Item #2, Modifications to the Hillside Design Standards and Guidelines 16 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I think that same comment can be made about every document we're going to look at tonight. It's clear that somebody would like to remove the Planning Commission from as much as possible with the theory being it will be faster if those guys aren't involved. That may be true, but your comment, I think, to a Planning Commissioner is persuasive. I like the concept that the public can participate, and I do think it's very difficult to show up at 10:00 or 10:30 in the morning, and when I read the minutes of what goes on at 10:00 or 10:30 in the morning almost nobody ever says anything and nobody ever shows up except the people who are directly involved. To me it's a fundamental issue. We serve at the pleasure of the Council and the Council gets to draft the rules, and if the Council says we'd like you guys to do very little, they can say that, but this is sort of like death by a thousand cuts and this whole thing tonight is about how can we get the Planning Commission out? We're going to really speed it up because we're going to have in many cases one person make the designation and no hearing is required but it can be appealed. It doesn't bother me that much. Maybe that's because I'm almost finished here, but that's the whole LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 8/14/2019 Item #2, Modifications to the Hillside Design Standards and Guidelines 17 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 point of tonight, and as I said, I happen to believe the Planning Commission allows people to get their comments in. It could be slower, but it isn't slower in the one instance you're talking about. But some of these we'll look at it doesn't go to a committee, in fact it takes away from that committee too and gives to Joel is what it really does. I'm not sure he's looking for that but he'll be stuck with it, and I don't know how that helps the public, the theory being that somehow things are so slow around here that they have to be speeded up, and I'm sure the Staff can tell me why things are so slow around here. I haven't observed that but I'm sure there must be a lot of war stories, and if those war stories suggest if only the Planning Commission wasn't involved we wouldn't have these problems, I've never heard that argument, but it sure would be nice if we did hear that argument, because that's what this is all about. CHAIR HUDES: I maybe want to just add one other point. Having now been involved in the Planning Commission for almost four years and having been involved in other Town committees and commissions I realize that we're at a point in time of a heritage and legacy of people caring about this town, and yes, things can get changed by the current council. A policy committee of two people, yes, can have a big impact, but there are many people over years who LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 8/14/2019 Item #2, Modifications to the Hillside Design Standards and Guidelines 18 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 put a great deal of effort and thought into our Hillside Design Guidelines and Standards, and the public remembers that and the public shows up for these hearings often because they care about what is going on in the hillsides, and so I am reluctant to make a change easily to the process that has served the Town well. I think the Town is really exemplary in the way we treat the hillsides. We treat things differently than many other towns, having looked at many ordinances where they don't distinguish; we do, and there's been a lot of care and thought put into the process, so for that reason, again, I would be reluctant to make a change to a process that served the Town well and doesn't seem to really add very much to streamlining. JOCELYN SHOOPMAN: Pardon me. Just to aid in your discussion of this, there are some differences too in the Architecture and Site Application either reviewed by the Planning Commission or the Development Review Committee, and that's the cost of the application and the length of time. So, applications that are reviewed by the Development Review Committee are typically approximately $3,700 less than being reviewed by the Planning Commission and can take about two months less time to process when they're reviewed by the Development Review Committee. LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 8/14/2019 Item #2, Modifications to the Hillside Design Standards and Guidelines 19 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 CHAIR HUDES: Thank you, and just as a follow up, what is $3,700 less? What is the total that we're talking about? JOCELYN SHOOPMAN: The total for an Architecture and Site Application to be reviewed by our Development Review Committee is $10,071.03, and by the Planning Commission it's $13,713.99. CHAIR HUDES: Thank you. Yes, Commissioner Badame. COMMISSIONER BADAME: Okay, so devil's advocate on the flip side here, if the Town likes revenue why do we want to reduce our revenue by reducing these associated costs? Just throwing that out there. CHAIR HUDES: Okay. Let me go to Commissioner Janoff. COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Just a clarification from Staff, please. As I read the modification it's fairly narrow, it's over 5,000 square feet but still within the maximum allowable floor area and it's not visible. When you mentioned that there were, I believe, 13 applications that came before the Planning Commission, did they meet that criteria or were they just hillsides over 5,000 square feet? I mean, I can't think of one that wasn't visible, so I'm just not sure what that number was. LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 8/14/2019 Item #2, Modifications to the Hillside Design Standards and Guidelines 20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 SALLY ZARNOWITZ: The 13 applications, this was just a snapshot in time, that's all of the Architecture and Site Applications for a new hillside home, so that's just to say within these three years 13 of those types of applications came in. Not all of those were over 5,000 square feet; seven of the 13 were actually over 5,000 square feet. And then in that same period of time we looked at how many applications for new homes in hillside over 5,000 that the Planning Commission saw, and that was five, and then how many under did DRC see, and that was six, so roughly half as they come in are either over or below 5,000 square feet, the 30,000 foot level. COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Okay, and just to clarify, the Planning Commission would still see applications that are visible? JOCELYN SHOOPMAN: Yes, if it was determined to be a visible home the way the guidelines define it, it would be reviewed by the Planning Commission. COMMISSIONER JANOFF: And, forgive me, there's no change to that? There's a change from viewing platform to viewing area in the associated papers that we have, but no change to the notion that there's an area from which you can view these properties? LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 8/14/2019 Item #2, Modifications to the Hillside Design Standards and Guidelines 21 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 JOCELYN SHOOPMAN: No change to that. CHAIR HUDES: Commissioner O'Donnell. COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Okay, so what I've heard now is in one way it will be more efficient, is it will save the applicant roughly $3,000, and the other way is it takes two months longer, sort of minimum it takes two months longer, so the applicant will benefit by an amount of money and the time, so I can see how that would be…I accept that as the case. I guess the only issue is when you use those objective standards on a fairly subjective thing, which is the approval of Architecture and Site and that kind of thing, it isn't a calculation of numbers that you add up and there it is, it's when you look at it and you listen to the public and you decide whether that's what you really want, so I would argue with the fact that you'll save $3,000 on some of these applications, and it will shorter. I guess the real question is are the distinguishing factors where you're going to save that enough to make sure that the public gets enough input? Because as I said before, maybe you have different experience with the I think it's 10:30 in the morning—it might be 10:00—whenever I read the minutes there's almost nobody there and it takes about four minutes before a LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 8/14/2019 Item #2, Modifications to the Hillside Design Standards and Guidelines 22 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 unanimous motion is made and it's approved. So, that's fine, that's very efficient, but if you weigh that against the consideration by seven people who have different jobs to do, is there a tradeoff? Because that's what we're dealing with, and personally when I went through all of these things the overarching message I got was the best way to solve this stuff is to have fewer people involved, and that kind of makes sense, because they said if we don't have the Planning Commission involved that ought to speed things up and save money, and then your other committee if we get rid of those guys and we have it all decided by Joel, that's going to save time and save money. That's kind of where we are, and if that's the case we can have a fairly short night. CHAIR HUDES: Well, we are just considering the first item. COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I know, but it's all the same. CHAIR HUDES: Personally, I do see some differences and I in fact don't have issues with some of the other ones, but this one in particular came really to my attention and it was just me recalling the hearings that we've had, the input from the neighbors and from the Town, and often we have people who come and speak about these who LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 8/14/2019 Item #2, Modifications to the Hillside Design Standards and Guidelines 23 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 are not noticed, because the hillsides are a treasure of the whole town and so people look at the Planning Commission agenda and they say, "I think I need to come and talk about this one," and I think we've had quite a bit of that. Now, they could do that at the DRC, they could, but the hearing is a different kind of a hearing, and I am reluctant to make that change given the investment that the Town has in the hillsides and the process that I think served us well. So, I'm prepared to make a motion on this, unless folks have other points. COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: It's clear that all we're doing is making a recommendation, right? So, your comment would go to whether or not we recommend that approval? CHAIR HUDES: Yes. COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Okay, that's fine. CHAIR HUDES: Commissioner Janoff. COMMISSIONER JANOFF: I would just ask that the motion… In making a motion I know the concerns that the Planning Commission has voiced will be heard by the Town Council, but I think it's useful to summarize the salient concerns in a motion. LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 8/14/2019 Item #2, Modifications to the Hillside Design Standards and Guidelines 24 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 CHAIR HUDES: Okay, I'll try, and then if someone would like to second and help me out, I'd appreciate that as well. I move that we forward a recommendation to approve the changes in Item 2, modifications to Chapters III, IV, V, VI, VIII, IX, and X as written with two exceptions: One is to strike on page 30 Item 8, and the second change is to leave in place the current language about the approval process for hillside development applications. So, that's the heart of the motion and I would add to that that I have difficulty in finding compelling evidence that this would make very much of a streamlining difference, but that it would in fact result in a loss of visibility and transparency on hillside developments. So, that's where I'm going to stop. Would anyone like to comment or second? COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I'll second. CHAIR HUDES: Okay, Commissioner O'Donnell seconds. Any further comments? Commissioner Badame. COMMISSIONER BADAME: I'm in agreement, so I will be supporting the motion. CHAIR HUDES: Any other comments? JOEL PAULSON: Through the Chair? LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 8/14/2019 Item #2, Modifications to the Hillside Design Standards and Guidelines 25 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 CHAIR HUDES: Yes? JOEL PAULSON: You stated that the changes that were proposed in Chapter 9 related to Development Review Committee. There's more than just the 5,000 square foot. Did you intend to mean all of the changes you don't agree with or just the homes over 5,000? CHAIR HUDES: What page are you talking about? JOEL PAULSON: Pages 66 and 67 have a number of changes to deciding bodies. The one that you've been talking about is the homes over 5,000 square feet going to the Planning Commission, but there a number of other changes moving from DRC to Building Permit, for instance, which is the Director of Community Development, so I wanted to make sure we have the distinction of are you talking about all of those or just specifically the 5,000 square foot homes? CHAIR HUDES: Just specifically the 5,000 square foot homes. JOEL PAULSON: Thank you. Commissioner Tavana. COMMISSIONER TAVANA: I was just going to say I think you summed it up very nicely and I'll be supporting the motion. LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 8/14/2019 Item #2, Modifications to the Hillside Design Standards and Guidelines 26 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 CHAIR HUDES: Okay, I'll call the question. All in favor? Opposed? Passes unanimously 6-0. There's no appeal, because this is a recommendation, correct? SALLY ZARNOWITZ: That is correct.