08 Attachment 14 - September 28, 2020 Planning Commission Desk Item, with Exhibit 17_RedactedPREPARED BY: JOCELYN SHOOPMAN
Associate Planner
Reviewed by: Planning Manager and Community Development Director
110 E. Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 ● (408) 354-6872
www.losgatosca.gov
TOWN OF LOS GATOS
PLANNING COMMISSION
REPORT
MEETING DATE: 09/28/2020
ITEM NO: 2
DESK ITEM
DATE: September 23, 2020
TO: Planning Commission
FROM: Joel Paulson, Community Development Director
SUBJECT: Consider Approval of a Request for Modification to an Existing Architecture
and Site Application (S-13-090) to Remove Underground Parking for
Construction of a Commercial Building (Market Hall) in the North 40 Specific
Plan Area. Located at 14225 Walker Street. APN 424-56-017. Architecture
and Site Application S-20-012. Property Owner/Applicant: Summerhill N40,
LLC. Project Planner: Jocelyn Shoopman.
REMARKS:
Exhibit 17 includes an additional letter from the applicant responding to a public comment on
the project’s compliance with the parking requirements in the Specific Plan.
EXHIBITS:
Previously received with August 26, 2020 Staff Report:
1.Location Map
2.Required Findings and Considerations
3.Recommended Conditions of Approval
4.Project Description
5.Letter of Justification
6.Development Plans, received May 18, 2020
7.Public comments received by 11:00 a.m., Friday, August 21, 2020
Previously received with August 26, 2020 Addendum Report:
8.Public comments received between 11:01 a.m., Friday, August 21, 2020 and 11:00 a.m.,
Tuesday, August 25, 2020.
Previously received with August 26, 2020 Desk Item Report:
9.Public comments received between 11:01 a.m., Tuesday, August 25, 2020 and 11:00 a.m.,
Wednesday, August 26, 2020.
ATTACHMENT 14
PAGE 2 OF 2
SUBJECT: 14225 Walker Street/S-20-012
DATE: September 23, 2020
EXHIBITS (continued):
Previously received with September 9, 2020 Staff Report:
10. Public comments received between 11:01 a.m., Wednesday August 26, 2020 and 11:00
a.m., Friday, September 4, 2020
Previously received with September 9, 2020 Desk Item Report:
11. Public comments received between 11:01 a.m., Friday, September 4, 2020 and 11:00 a.m.,
Wednesday, September 9, 2020
Previously received with September 23, 2020 Staff Report:
12. Applicant’s response to the project’s compliance with the parking requirements in the
Specific Plan
13. Town Attorney Memorandum
14. Public comments received between 11:01 a.m., Wednesday, September 9, 2020 and 11:00
a.m., Friday, September 18, 2020
Previously received with September 23, 2020 Addendum Report:
15. Applicant’s response to a public comment regarding the project’s compliance with the
parking requirements in the Specific Plan
16. Public comments received between 11:01 a.m., Friday, September 18, 2020 and 11:00 a.m.,
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
Received with this Desk Item Report:
17. Additional response from the applicant responding to a public comment regarding the
project’s compliance with the parking requirements in the Specific Plan
VIA E-MAIL
Jocelyn Shoopman
Associate Planner
Town of Los Gatos
110 E. Main Street
Los Gatos, CA 95030
September 23, 2020
Re: Los Gatos North Forty; Request for Modification (S-20-012) to an Existing
Architecture and Site Application Approval (S-13-090)
Dear Ms. Shoopman:
SummerHill Has prepared the attached response to the Letter submitted by Barbara Dodson and
included in the Staff Report Addendum. As we have previously stated, our application is for
Market Hall, Lot 27, but in order to help answer questions from the community and the Planning
Commission we have prepared and provided Exhibit A: Transition District Parking Summary,
which accurately summarizes the parking that is required and provided for the Transition
District.
As can be seen in Exhibit A, the Market Hall meets the Towns parking requirements and based
on the Gross Square footage from the approved A&S, the Transition District as a whole will
have a surplus of 46 parking spaces.
Please let us know if you need any additional information.
Very Truly Yours,
SummerHill Homes
Michael Keaney
CC: Joel Paulson
EXHIBIT 17
SummerHill Responses to Letter from Barbara Dodson Received 9/21/20:
Responses Provided in Red Text
Los Gatos, CA 95032
September 20, 2020
Dear Members of the Planning Commission:
Obviously it’s hard for members of the community to keep up with SummerHill’s ever
changing story. SummerHilll submitted an application in which it said it would be providing
either 330 or 331 parking spaces in the Transition District. Now, with its new Exhibit A, it
says it will be providing 319 spaces. Previously SummerHill claimed excess of 52 spaces;
now the excess is 46.
Response: Our application was for a modification to Market Hall on Lot 27. It does not
propose any changes to the parking for Building A1, A2, B2, or C1. Our Project Description
included a table that showed Transition District Parking. It has Parking Area A, B and C as
unchanged and only changed Market Hall. The total is correctly shown as 331 spaces. The
parking for Area A, B and C is based on counting the surface stalls shown on the Site Plan
from the approved A&S plan set. The Market Hall has a surplus of 52. The Transition
district as a whole has a surplus of 46 spaces based on the square footages and land uses
proposed in the A&S Plans on Sheet 3.22.
Can approval really be based on an addendum that contradicts the original proposal?
Response: The request for a modification for the Market Hall on Lot 27 has always identified
a required parking of 124 stalls and a proposed parking of 176 stalls. This is included in our
Letter of Justification which is Exhibit 5 of the staff report.
Assuming that Sheet A.11 had old information that is no longer reliable, we still have Exhibit
4 that SummerHill created for this proposal. Based on Exhibit 4, we should still have 331
spaces. Where did the 12 spaces shown in Exhibit go when Exhibit A was put together?
What is the breakdown? If we accept Exhibit 4, there should still be 176 spaces in a garage
without an underground area. There should still be 155 spaces in Parking Areas A, B, and C
combined. So why aren’t there still 331 parking spaces in the Transition District?
Response: Exhibit 4 includes a table showing “Original Parking” in the A&S Approved Plan
set and what was included for Market Hall with the basement parking. The “New Parking”
column has the 176 stalls for Market Hall proposed in our modification, and shows the
remainder of the Transition District as unchanged. Exhibit A is a summary of:
1. Required parking per the Town Code
2. Proposed parking for Market Hall without the basement and surface parking as
shown on the Phase I Commercial Parking Spaces Exhibit prepared by MacKay
and Somps.
The approved In-Tract Private Improvement Plans include 58 surface parking stalls, the
same as shown on the approved A&S Plan Set. The 12 space difference between 331
shown in Exhibit 4 (Approved A&S Plan Set) and the 319 in Exhibit A (Mackay and Somps
Phase I Parking Exhibits) is a result of conceptual modifications to the commercial surface
parking lots. This still results in a surplus of 46 parking stalls for the Transition District. It
should be noted that the commercial surface parking lot designs are preliminary and no
application has been filed at this time. The remaining commercial buildings in Phase I will
have to comply with the parking requirements in the Town Code and the Specific Plan to
obtain a building permit.
It looks like SummerHill aims to reduce the parking in Parking Areas A, B, and C along with
eliminating the underground garage. In Exhibit 4, Parking Areas A, B, and C provide a
combined total of 155 spaces. Exhibit A lists only 143 spaces to be provided in addition to
the spaces in the above-ground garage. It looks like SummerHill plans to reduce the parking
in Parking Areas A, B, and C by 12 spaces. Doesn’t SummerHill have to apply for approval
of this additional change as well?
Response: Our application only applies to Market Hall, Lot 27. All other information is
provided for reference only. The remaining commercial buildings in Phase I will have to
comply with the Town Code parking requirements and the Specific Plan to obtain a building
permit.
I urge you to deny this application on the basis that SummerHill has provided ever changing
numbers, making it impossible for the Commission to make a decision. If Exhibit A now
provides accurate numbers, this just shows that the application itself contains numbers that
are NOT accurate and statements that are false.
Response: Our request to remove the basement parking from the Market Hall and provide
176 parking stalls, 52 more than required by the Town code is described in our Letter of
Justification and Project Description. It is accurate and has never changed.
Some questions:
From the SummerHill comments, it sounds like parking requirements in the Town Code
were different in 2016 when the Phase 1 proposal was approved. It sounds like the old
requirements are used in Sheet A.11 (which shows a requirement for 354 parking spots
in the Transition District A, B & C)) and that SummerHill is reducing parking based on
requirements that have changed since 2016. If that’s the case, wouldn’t SummerHill still
have to abide by parking requirements that were in place at the time of approval?
If the above question is not relevant, what changed between 2016 and now so that 354
spaces were required then but only 319 are required now?
SummerHill was party to the 2016 proposal that was approved by Town Council, along
with Grosvenor and Eden Housing. Why should SummerHill now be allowed to distance
itself from what was approved just because Grosvenor has pulled out?
Response: The Specific Plan Parking Requirements for Parking Non-Residential Parking is
established in Section 2.5.8.a: Non-Residential Use: The number of off-street parking
spaces shall be consistent with the parking required in Downtown as required within
Division 4 of the Zoning Ordinance. This section of the code was updated after the
approval of the A&S for Phase I. Exhibit A reflects what is required by the current Town
Code.
Just as a note, I find it alarming that SummerHill projects that it will provide roughly 9% less
parking than the Town used as part of the basis for approval of Phase 1. The 2016 proposal
included a total of 1,039 parking spaces. SummerHill now plans to provide a total of 900
spaces for Phase 1.
Response: With the proposed modification there are currently proposed to be 46 more stalls
than are required for the Transition District.
Thank you for your service to the community.
Sincerely,
Barbara Dodson
Commercial SF
Commercial Transition District Square Footage Affordable 1-Bedroom 2-Bedroom
Gross Commercial
Required Parking
1:300
Gross Community
Room
Square Footage
1:590
Affordable
Residential
Required Parking
0.5 per unit +
0.5 per unit
(guest)
1-Bedroom
Required Parking
1 per Unit +
0.5 per unit (guest)
1-Bedroom
Required
Parking
1 per Unit +
0.5 per unit
(guest) Subtotal
Proposed Parking
Provided
Market Hall
Gross Commercial SF 20,760 69 69
Gross Community Room SF 2,772 5 5
Affordable Residential 50 50 50
Subtotal 124 176
Building A1
Gross Commercial SF 11,438 38 38
1 Bedroom Residential 6 9 9
2 Bedroom Residential 4 10 10
Subtotal 57
Building A2
Gross Commercial SF 11,198 37 37
Building B2
Gross Commercial SF 5,745 19 19
Building C1
Gross Commercial SF 10,644 35 35
Subtotal: Building A1, A2, B2, C1 39,025 130 149 143
Transition District Total 62,557 50 6 4 199 5 50 9 10 273 319
Surplus 46
Square Footage Based on approved Building Permit and Minor Revisions Estimated with the Elimination of the Basement
Gross Commercial Square Footage Based on Column 18 on Sheet 3.22 of A&S Approved Plans
Unit Count Based on Column 1 on Sheet 3.22 of A&S Approved Plans
Notes:
Prepared By: Michael Keaney, SummerHill Homes
Date: September 14, 2020
1. The total in the Gross Commercial Required Parking column has one more parking space than required when adding up the column because when the decimals are aggregated and rounded off, it
results in one more parking space being required than there would be if each parcel is considered separately.
Transition District Parking Summary
Residential Units Required Parking
Exhibit A
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