Attachment 3 - February 24, 2021 Planning Commission Verbatim MinutesLOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 2/24/2021
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A P P E A R A N C E S:
Los Gatos Planning
Commissioners:
Kathryn Janoff, Chair
Kendra Burch, Vice Chair
Jeffrey Barnett
Melanie Hanssen
Jeffrey Suzuki
Reza Tavana
Emily Thomas
Town Manager: Laurel Prevetti
Community Development
Director:
Joel Paulson
Town Attorney: Robert Schultz
Transcribed by: Vicki L. Blandin
(619) 541-3405
ATTACHMENT 3
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P R O C E E D I N G S:
CHAIR JANOFF: This item is a request to
consider for approval a zone change from Residential
1D:LHP, Single-family Residential Downtown with a Landmark
and Historic Preservation Overlay, to C-2:LHP, Central
Business District with a Landmark and Historic Presentation
Overlay, and a General Plan Amendment to change the land
use designation from Medium Density Residential to Central
Business District for property located at 4 Tait Avenue,
APN 510-44-054. Zone Change Application is Z-20-002 and
General Plan Amendment Application is GP-20-001. Property
owner is the Town of Los Gatos and the Applicant is Mr. Jim
Foley.
First, may I see a show of hands from
Commissioners who have visited this property? Thank you.
Are there any disclosures? I see none. Ms. Armer, I
understand you'll be giving the Staff Report tonight.
JENNIFER ARMER: Yes, good evening. Good evening,
Chair, Vice Chair, Commissioners.
Before you tonight is a request for a General
Plan Amendment from Medium Density Residential to Central
Business District and the associated zone change from
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Single Family Residential Downtown to Central Business
District. The Landmark and Historic Presentation Overlay
would be retained, and this is on 4 Tait Avenue.
In contrast to many projects reviewed by the
Planning Commission, this proposal is just about changing
the rules that apply to the property. There is no
particular business that is proposed on the site at this
time and no improvements are proposed to the site or the
building. Also unusual, this is a property that is owned by
the Town, so the Town has additional involvement when a
specific subtenant is chosen.
The requested General Plan Amendment was reviewed
by the General Plan Committee in January of this year. This
committee forwards a recommendation of approval to the
Planning Commission and to Town Council. The proposed
General Plan Amendment and zone change would be consistent
with the pattern of land use and zoning in the adjacent
downtown commercial area. Additionally, the Applicant's
letter explains how the best use of the existing historic
building is a commercial use. For these reasons and the
analysis provided in the Staff Report Staff does recommend
that they make the required findings in Exhibit 2 and
forward a recommendation of approval to Town Council of the
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draft resolution in Exhibit 3 and draft ordinance in
Exhibit 4.
There was a Desk Item distributed today with some
comments and concerns from nearby neighbors.
This concludes Staff's presentation. I'd be happy
to answer any questions.
CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you, Ms. Armer. Do
Commissioners have questions for Staff? I don't see any
hands raised so at this time we will open the public
hearing and give the Applicant up to five minutes to
address the Commission.
DIRECTOR PAULSON: Thank you, Chair. I'm going to
allow the Applicant to speak. Mr. Foley, you can unmute
yourself and you have up to five minutes.
JIM FOLEY: Thank you, Mr. Paulson. Can you all
hear me?
CHAIR JANOFF: Yes, we can. Go ahead, Mr. Foley.
JIM FOLEY: Good evening, distinguished Planning
Commission. My name is Jim Foley representing Imwalle
Properties, Pennant Properties, and Tait Fire House LLC,
the Applicant. I'd just like to provide a bit of background
for you on the project.
The project is the result of an RFP process put
out by the Town of Los Gatos several years ago to create a
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public/private partnership with a qualified local real
estate company to restore, renovate, reposition and
ultimately lease and manage the two Town-owned museum
properties located at 75 Church Street, which is Forbes
Mill, and 4 Tait Avenue, which is the Tait Fire House on
the corner there.
The RFP proposed a master lease structure whereby
the private partner would enter into a long-term lease for
the property from the Town and essentially take
responsibility for the aforementioned activities, including
the expenditure of significant dollars associated with
improvements in return for an economic participation in the
project. The details of this can be found in the two master
leases entered into with the Town of Los Gatos last year.
Imwalle Properties was awarded the RFP and for
two years went through an extensive process to craft and
ultimately execute the two master leases for the properties
with a tremendous amount of participation from Town Staff
and significant oversight by the then Town Council who
ultimately approved the leases and authorized the Town
Manager and Town Attorney to execute lease documents last
fall.
The Forbes Mill property is already zoned for
commercial uses contemplated by the master lease for that
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particular property, however the Tait Fire House property
is zoned for residential use and needs to undergo the
proposed zone change and General Plan Amendment in order to
accomplish the goals of the master lease.
Please note that the only residential use that
has ever existed at the property is an ancillary use as a
component of the old fire house and outside of that has
always operated as a museum which was open to the public
and attracted outside visitors to the site.
The property is adjacent to the Central Business
District and the neighbor to the east is currently zoned
for commercial use. We want to be really clear that this
project has restoration at its heart and it does not
contemplate expansion or redevelopment. We understand the
property is bordering the residential neighborhood and the
nearby schools and church, and we've been in touch with
both of the schools and the church and they were supportive
of the rezoning effort as it is of utmost importance to get
the property back into regular service and occupied in
order to discourage vagrants and vandals that have entered
the property from time to time over the past several years.
We've also heard from many residential owners in
the residential neighborhood, most of whom are supportive,
with a few having concerns that will hopefully be
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alleviated as they watch the process unfold and a future
project is ultimately brought forward.
You'll note that the General Plan Committee, whom
some of you sit on, has recommended approval of the
application and Town Staff also recommends the Planning
Commission make a motion to recommend approval of the zone
change and General Plan Amendment to the Town Council. As
illustrated in our biography section, our team is highly
qualified, ultra-local, and has a vested interest in the
betterment of Los Gatos for several generations.
We'll be careful stewards of the property and are
really excited to move this project forward through the
process and we're here to answer any questions you may
have. Thank you.
CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you, Mr. Foley. Do
Commissioners have questions for the Applicant?
Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I obviously was on the
General Plan Committee when we heard this before, but I do
remember the discussion and I wanted to ask and make sure I
have it right, is that any potential applicant to take over
the lease in the facility would have to be approved by Town
Council, is that correct?
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JIM FOLEY: That's my understanding. I don't know
if Director Paulson…or it doesn't appear that the Town
Attorney is on this Zoom, but that is my understanding as
to how the lease is written. That could be verified, I
think, internally if you want to check.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: It was probably a better
question for Staff, so thank you.
JIM FOLEY: Okay.
CHAIR JANOFF: Any other questions for the
Applicant? Vice Chair Burch.
VICE CHAIR BURCH: I noted on the General Plan
Committee notes that the committee members discouraged
restaurant and personal service uses in this location. I
was curious, with the proposed changes do you agree with
that discouraging recommendation or do you find that the
interest in this space may fall more in line with a
restaurant or services?
JIM FOLEY: It's a really interesting question.
Since we started this process a number of years ago a lot
of things in the market have changed, not that that is a
direct correlation to what is or is not appropriate here. I
think that this particular property is very compatible with
the C-2 and the Downtown Central Business District just
because of its location and the neighboring properties. But
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we are on the border. I mean, we realize we're right there;
it is literally the edge of the residential neighborhood
and the edge of the Central Business District, so we've
seen some of the concerns and had some conversations with
the neighbors about what the uses are.
I don't know, I think it just depends on the
particular project. That's a very broad use. A food or
personal service use is allowed in C-2, but within those
designations there is a broad variety of how those things
could be executed, so I think it's just a matter of finding
something that's compatible. It's very likely that it's an
office project, but we don't want to preclude something
that could be really valuable to the community and to the
immediate neighbors that might fall under one of those use
categories.
The only other thing that I'll point out is I
think it was maybe only one, and possible two, but one of
the people that raised that issue at the General Plan
Committee meeting—there were not more than that—that had
that concern.
VICE CHAIR BURCH: All right, thank you.
CHAIR JANOFF: Commissioner Suzuki.
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COMMISSIONER SUZUKI: You mentioned earlier that
there was a preservation element in terms of history to
changing the zoning laws. Could you elaborate?
JIM FOLEY: This is something that I wanted to
clarify to you all that have a better understanding of it
than most, but also to the neighbors. We're not talking
about tearing these buildings down or redeveloping them or
adding things to them. These are historical buildings in
the Town; they're of significance. I think the
architectural style of them is fine. Maybe there could be
some refreshing done but it's not a project to try to
increase any density or add any square footage; it's really
to preserve these. The museums were doing that to a certain
extent and the Town was the steward of that for many years,
and they were keeping the buildings up and keeping them
maintained, so I think we just want to take it to the next
level. We want to touch up some of the exterior stuff,
maybe provide some changes, maybe restore.
The fire house has some opportunities to restore
it to maybe what it looked like I don't know how many
decades ago, four or five or six decades ago.
Forbes Mill probably on the other hand has
remained much how it looks now, and a lot of the
improvements are going to be focused on tenant improvements
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on the interior of the buildings rather than trying to
modify anything.
I think our hope is having been here a long time,
and we have interests in a lot of other historical
properties and commercial properties in town, I think that
we understand maintaining character in town and that's sort
of the goal here, as opposed to whatever somebody else's
objective might be, to use these postage stamps of land and
create something new or different. Our agenda is no, let's
preserve them but figure out what we can do to make them
revitalized on the interior and bring some life back into
them and keep that going for the long term. I hope that
answers your question.
CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you for that. Commissioner
Thomas.
COMMISSIONER THOMAS: Thank you. Adding onto
that, Mr. Foley, you mentioned that you felt like the space
and location would be attractive to maybe some small office
space. Is there anything in any of the plans that would
maybe make the space more attractive to some public use as
long as that is something that the neighbors are happy with
or comfortable with? Because like you said, it was a
location that attracted public visitors and people could go
and enjoy it, and as we know, living in California we don't
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have a lot of historic buildings in town and it is sad to
see it sitting there not being used and enjoyed by the
people of the Town, so is there anything with these changes
and any updates and renovations that could be done that
could make it more accessible and enjoyed by the public?
JIM FOLEY: That's a really good point. I think
it's too early to tell for this particular site, I mean
honestly. There's some property there and there is a
storage building kind of structure in the back that we
don't really know what the future of that is. It's going to
be particular to the project that we bring forward when we
bring an actual tenant improvement project forward where
we'll see, and if it's such that maybe not all of the space
is needed—it has a parking lot and is self-parked for the
size of the building, so short of reducing the size of the
building and trying to creating something might be
difficult—but maybe there is a way if the tenant doesn't
require it that we could repurpose some of the area to do
something, and I don't know what, but it would be
interesting to collaborate.
The cool thing with this project is we're a
public/private partnership with the Town, so everybody gets
to be involved and gets to talk about it, and if there's an
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idea that comes forward I'm sure we all want to entertain
that.
Just editorially, Forbes Mill has a much larger
opportunity for that to occur because the property there
actually, you may not know if you've been down to the
trail, but it extends significantly farther back than just
the Forbes Mill annex building. I know we're probably not
going to revisit that in this venue, but it's something
that we've definitely had on our mind and would appreciate
any feedback we can get on both of them as to what's
creative that we can do to make it an asset to the Town for
sure, so thank you for asking that and hopefully that
answers.
COMMISSIONER THOMAS: And thank you for following
up about Forbes Mill. I definitely can see how that site,
it's a little easier to envision that just because of its
location and accessibility in town and how it's slightly
more isolated from a neighborhood.
I did have a follow up question with regard to
the accessory structure, like the little storage area that
you mentioned. Is that part of the historic structure of
the property, or not? If you don't know, I can ask Staff
later.
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JIM FOLEY: Yeah, I don't know. I think Director
Paulson might know better than I how that would be treated.
CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you. Any other questions
from Commissioners? All right, seeing none, I will now move
to the public comments. Members of the public may choose to
state your name and/or address or to speak anonymously.
Please understand that the meeting is being recorded for
the public record. Do we have any members of the public who
wish to speak on this item?
DIRECTOR PAULSON: We do have a hand raised, so
the first person will be Kat.
KAT BATTAGLIA: Hi, my name is Kat Battaglia, my
husband is Robert White, and we submitted a letter today—
we're a little bit late to the party, I think.
Last year we purchased 300 West Main Street,
which is on the corner of West Main and Tait, so we are
directly across from 4 Tait. The whole side of our house
looks out at and is across from that building, so it's kind
of important to us what happens to it, particularly because
when we bought this house our research told us and the Town
told us that they were considering an old fire house
museum, not this sort of a new… It was kind of a surprise
to see this for lease sign go up, so we're concerned what
happens there.
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We agree that it needs some upgrades, but the
view that we have over that building that's kind of cute
and has potential was a consideration for purchasing this
property and I'm very concerned about what happens there
for traffic impact, for our views, for the foot traffic,
for the amount of parking.
As it stands now, the parking lot has been used
by young people for—at least during COVID times—kind of a
gathering spot for impromptu parties, which are always
broken up very quickly, but we've had some homeless street
people, wanderers around there. It obviously needs
upgrades.
We had actually offered to purchase the property
out of concern for what it was or what might transpire
there with the intention of upgrading it but preserving the
aesthetic style, the roof lines, and I'm worried about roof
heights and that sort of thing and a big change there would
mean more congestion.
The other thing that was a big surprise to us is
the traffic problem and I'm concerned about that dependent
upon what type of business goes in there, so it's parking
and more traffic coming in. It's actually kind of dangerous
because there's such a gridlock pattern that we can't get
out and emergency vehicles can't get in. I've actually had
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people during those times get out of their car and take
refuge under our birch trees for shade because they were
stuck, not moving on Tait for so long that she thought her
baby was going to perish; I've given water to people. So
I'm a little bit concerned about what goes in there.
And again, we welcome the property being upgraded
and updated. I'm concerned at this point, not knowing too
much and only speaking to Jim through one email reply
today, about what this will open up for the future.
DIRECTOR PAULSON: Time, Chair.
KAT GATTAGLIA: Oh, sorry. Is my time up?
CHAIR JANOFF: Yes, thank you for your comments.
Do any of the Commissioners have questions for the speaker?
I don't see any hands raised. Thank you very much. Do we
have any other speakers?
DIRECTOR PAULSON: Not currently, but let's give
it a couple seconds. Here we go. Ms. Quintana. Again I will
have to more her to panelist to allow her to speak. So, Ms.
Quintana, you go and unmute yourself and then you can
speak.
LEE QUINTANA: Just a couple of comments. This
was the first fire house in Los Gatos and a while back the
first fire bell was moved from its spot on the Town plaza
and moved back to what was then the Tait Museum with the
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understanding when that move was approved that there was be
a structure built to house the fire bell on that site.
My concern now is what will happen to the fire
bell as part of any plans for the site and whether the fire
bell somehow could be integrated into something that would
be available for public use, like a tiny pocket park maybe,
or something. That's one concern.
The other thing I would like to say is this. I
was one of the General Plan Committee members who had
concerns about the possible uses on the site since it is my
understanding that all of those uses that could be allowed
in the C-2 would be by-right uses and therefore it's not
clear to me what control exactly that the Town Council
would have over the use rather than just the architecture.
Those are my comments.
CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you for those. Do any
Commissioners have questions of Ms. Quintana? I don't see
any hand raised. Do we have any other speakers?
DIRECTOR PAULSON: One second. I have to get back
to the other room and see if anyone else's hand is raised.
The next is Jim Pappas.
JIM PAPPAS: Good evening, Commissioners. My name
is Jim Pappas. I live at 5 Tait Avenue here in Los Gatos.
Much like Kat I somewhat echo many of her comments. We've
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actually had a chance to talk about it. It was not quite on
the level of awareness of this level of the programming.
I guess my biggest concern would be much like Kat
said, yes, would love to see something developed there
because there is a lot of activity that occurs that's
rather nefarious in nature. In fact, even this afternoon
some high schoolers were parked there just exchanging
whatever at the time.
My concern really would be from the ability for
the Town to control what commercial is. Many towns or
cities have the ability to have commercial versus retail
versus office, and so the concern we would have as
neighbors is if it turns into retail, if you look at
downtown Los Gatos the likelihood of that retail changing
hands on a rotating basis would be of great concern. The
same thing with the restaurant. You're looking at in-and-
out traffic. That would be of great concern for that
location.
The other problem with a retail environment would
be beach traffic. That retailer would have no chance
whatsoever to survive because on Saturdays and Sundays they
can't commit any business during those times. That's why
our preference as neighbors, first would be residential; if
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that's not possible it would be for more of an office
nature.
A couple of us put that in writing to you today
and yesterday to enumerate those concerns and really lay it
out for you where we believe a professional type office—it
could be an architect, it could be an engineer, it could be
a financial advisor—something with low traffic but it
maintains the architectural view that you have there
without adding traffic to the area, because the reality is
if you talk about four sides of that building, three of the
four sides are residential, and I think that needs to come
in because when people talk about it they say it's a
commercial location. It's commercial on one side where you
have kind of a hair shop and massage place. Everybody else
on all other sides are all residential, so I'd like for you
to keep that in mind when considering what control you have
if you do make it commercial. I appreciate your time. Thank
you.
CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you very much. Are there any
other questions for this speaker? Don't see any hands. Any
other speakers?
DIRECTOR PAULSON: I don't currently see any
other hands, Chair. Again, we'll give it a second here.
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CHAIR JANOFF: All right, so at this time we
would like to hear from the Applicant again, who has up to
three minutes to add anything further. Does the Applicant
wish to speak again?
DIRECTOR PAULSON: Yes, Mr. Foley does. One
second.
JIM FOLEY: I won't take too long, but I
appreciate the comments by the neighbors and I was able to
see some of their letters, and to both of them or anyone
else listening, you received our letter reaching out and
I'm happy that you're engaged in the project. We just want
to make sure that everyone that's around there is on board.
We're excited that this is a project that we feel
keeps everybody aligned together: the Town, us as managing
the project, and the neighborhood. We're open to further
comment. This particular part of the process is very
technical; it's the rezoning and a General Plan Amendment.
As marketing proceeds and an actual project-level
project comes into focus where we know what the use is
going to be, we're going to have a lot more conversation
with everybody and we're really going to be open to making
sure that the immediate neighborhood isn't impacted and has
a chance to provide their input. So, everyone feel free to
contact us at any time with questions, concerns or updates
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about what's going on and we want to make it really
beneficial to everybody else. Any other questions we're
here to field. Thank you.
CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you, Mr. Foley. Do
Commissioners have any additional questions for the
Applicant? Commissioner Barnett.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: Yes, did you say that the
master lease with the Town is already executed? If so, I
have a follow up question.
JIM FOLEY: Yeah, it is. It's kind of a tricky
process that we're going through because the master lease
is kind of presupposed and had been supported by the
previous council that this is where we're headed, but we
still have to take this through the process, and there was
a lot of debate about whether the Town could take it
through the process itself or whether we as the master
tenant take it through the process, so we're here now,
doing it this way, and just hopeful that we still maintain
everyone's support. Whatever your next question is, I'm
happy to answer if I can.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: The follow up question is
whether you're aware in the lease itself whether there's
any control over the use of the property, the subtenants?
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JIM FOLEY: Yeah, my understanding is that the
Town of Los Gatos through the Town Council and supported by
your recommendations, and that the recommendations of Staff
and the Town Attorney has the final approval of any
subtenant that we have.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: Okay, that's good to hear.
Thank you.
CHAIR JANOFF: Commissioner Thomas.
COMMISSIONER THOMAS: I had a question for Mr.
Foley about the timeline. If this zoning is changed do you
have any perspective timeline of when renovations might
begin to occur?
JIM FOLEY: I think it's a typical project
timeline but it's going to be triggered by tenant activity,
and as one of the neighbors had mentioned we've had a
marketing sign up there for a little while. We've had some
interest and it's been really exciting to field all that
interest through the middle of the pandemic where everyone…
Generally speaking, I think that there's been more activity
in Los Gatos than a lot of other places, but for this
particular property, it's in a quieter part of the Business
District so it may not be immediately the first property to
go look at, so we have had some inquires but not a lot of
activity.
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As we go through the process and we emerge from
the pandemic I'm hopeful that activity ramps up and we're
able to field a lot of inquiry about what types of uses and
who is ready to come collaborate and bring a project
forward, so as that occurs let's call it the beginning of
summer, the next three months or so we'll hopefully have
more traction, but it could be a lot longer than that. Once
we have the tenant or a suitable tenant in line, then we're
in the middle of a tenant improvement project, so we'll be
going through if there's a necessary permit process that
takes several months. There is going to be a plan check
process for a Building Permit and it's going to take
several months, and there are going to be several months of
construction, so even if everything went lightning fast I
couldn't imagine anything getting in there faster than nine
months from now. It would be more like the end of the year
or the beginning of next year, unless there was something
that just needed very minor improvements, that was very
quick to be able to occupy, something could be in there
more like Q3, but my crystal ball says no, it's still a
ways out.
CHAIR JANOFF: All right, thank you for that. Do
we have any other questions for the Applicant? I don't see
any hand raised, so we will now close the public portion of
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this hearing and ask if the Commissioners have any
questions of Staff, wish to comment, or introduce a motion
for consideration? Commissioner Suzuki.
COMMISSIONER SUZUKI: I do have a question to
Staff. What was mentioned earlier was the property hasn't
actually been used for housing. Is there any potential in
the future that it could be used for housing?
DIRECTOR PAULSON: I can go ahead and answer,
unless Ms. Armer wants to start, but I'm happy to jump in
there.
There's always that opportunity. As was stated,
the former Town Council has entered into a master lease
agreement with this tenant, so it would take an action to
modify that. The challenge gets to be utilizing the
existing building, which is historic, it is in an historic
district, whether or not that could be rehabbed or whether
it would need to be significantly altered to make housing,
whether that's market rate or affordable housing, to work
on that site.
Those are always options. We are going down the
path currently, as the Applicant mentioned. This is a
necessary action that will ultimately need to be taken by
the Town Council whether or not the General Plan and zoning
designations get changed.
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But could it ever be used for housing? There is a
possibility that it could be used for housing. If these two
applications move forward and it is changed, then it could
either be changed back or we do actually allow residential
in a number of our commercial zones with Conditional Use
Permits. This doesn't negate the options for future
residential use, and hopefully that answers your question.
CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you for that. Any other
questions for Staff, or discussion?
I did have one further question for Staff. It's
been commented a couple of times, the control that Staff or
the Town Council has over who will potentially occupy this
site. There's been a lot of concern that was raised at the
General Plan meeting regarding what don't we want in this
space. So, if you could spend a minute just to help us
understand what type of controls would typically be in
place to make sure that the right fit for the neighbors and
the Town were decided upon.
DIRECTOR PAULSON: Generally, and I believe the
Town Attorney mentioned some of this at the General Plan
Committee, and so I can start and if Ms. Armer has
additional comments she would like to make.
The Town is the landlord for this master lease
agreement. There is language in there that we basically
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have the ability to refuse a subtenant who might lease it
from the Applicant. I don't have the specific language in
front of me to know whether or not that's the Town Council
and/or the Town Manager, but typically if we do come to a
situation in moving forward is that becomes a situation and
this obviously following the recommendation of the Planning
Commission to the Council, further clarification will be
provided.
I apologize for not mentioning earlier that the
Town Attorney unfortunately wasn't able to join us this
evening, but it's my understanding from his comments at the
GPC that the Town does have basically a first right of
refusal for subtenants that would lease from the Applicant
and their group.
CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you for that clarification.
I just wanted to point out that for those of us who were
thinking about the parcel's proximity to the neighborhood,
how tight Tait is, and the parking lot and its size
relative to ingress and egress and opportunities, we were
thinking hard about how to control that, and the fact as
stated by Town Attorney and confirmed tonight by Director
Paulson that the Town has quite a bit of control over
deciding who comes into that space gave us a lot of comfort
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to know that a good decision would be made if we were to
change the zone code.
Any other comments? Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I was just going to add on
a little bit to what Chair Janoff said, because we all as
well as Commissioner Burch at the time were members of the
General Plan Committee when we heard this, and I think that
there was quite a long discussion actually by the General
Plan Committee and this is for a recommendation that was to
come to us. I think the way that we got comfortable with it
was exactly what Chair Janoff said, which is that the
Applicant is the Town of Los Gatos and because the
Applicant is the Town of Los Gatos there's going to be a
lot of oversight as to what kind of tenant might be in that
place.
That combined with the fact that the use has
never really been residential since its inception, and I
don't know to what extent the Applicant mentioned this but
it's quite a bit more difficult for them not having the
zoning aligned with the actual use in terms of making the
lease happen, so putting all that stuff together.
Having said that, the General Plan Committee was
concerned enough about the possibility to personal service
or restaurants being in that location, being so close to
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residential, that that was included in the recommendation
that that shouldn't be considered. But again, it is just a
recommendation.
CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you for that, Commissioner
Hanssen. It's important to note that tonight we are making
a recommendation, or this motion will be a recommendation
to Town Council, and so if there are concepts that we would
like to see considered or not considered, now is the time
to put those ideas in place for their consideration.
I would just like to echo the comments of
Commissioner Thomas and perhaps elaborate a little bit. The
idea that this is a place of history is something that
really resonates for me, as it does I'm sure for those
members who are or were on Historic Preservation Committee—
thank you for the question, Commissioner Suzuki.
So, there's a real opportunity to do something
special here in terms of the kind of placemaking I think
that Commissioner Thomas is thinking of, and the notion
that there is a bell that is the possible focus for that
kind of opportunity for public enjoyment of this and its
history is a very compelling one, so I hope that those
comments go forward to the Town Council in terms of what
Planning Commission would like to see for this particular
location.
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Any other comments? And yes, Commissioner Suzuki.
COMMISSIONER SUZUKI: Since this is essentially a
recommendation in spirit to the Town Council I do want to
bring up a concern that I can't help but have. I understand
that there's been a lot of thought and deliberation placed
into executing this private/public partnership, but I can't
help but see that there is a pretty large opportunity cost
to designating this land specifically for commercial use. I
do understand that there could be a potential for
Conditional Use Permits and that maybe people could live
there, but in spirit, specifically in the use of commercial
use, I don't know if I could endorse that.
The Town needs to meet state housing quotas and
the Town is still struggling to meet those quotas by
literally hundreds of houses, even with the North 40 in
play, and if we don't the State of California, when they
have the resources they probably will sue us again.
In our Housing Element, HOU-1, "Expand the choice
of housing opportunities for all economic segments of the
community by supporting the development of affordable
housing in a variety of types and sizes, including a
mixture of ownership and rental housing." HOU-3,
"Preserving existing residential opportunities," which I
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believe is actually in line here, "including the existing
affordable housing stock."
After visiting the property personally I can't
help but to think that the property was quite large with a
lot of potential for housing development and specifically
for commercial zoning. I don't really see what the clear
benefits are here, and perhaps that's because a very clear
picture of what exactly the property will be used for
hasn't been made clear to me. Those are my thoughts.
CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you for that. Commissioner
Thomas.
COMMISSIONER THOMAS: I can't help but have some
of the same concerns as Commissioner Suzuki because I too
know, I mean we all know, that we're facing a housing
crisis in the State of California and Los Gatos is not
immune from that, and so I do think that it is our job to
be thorough and play devil's advocate and make sure that we
are looking at all the potential best uses of different
land space.
We were provided with the existing floor plan of
the property. Looking at it I thought could this be divided
into multiple smaller units? One of the reasons I asked,
which I did want to ask Staff about if they could follow up
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on that, but is the accessory structure part of the
historical designation or could that be removed?
Both Commissioner Suzuki and I are jumping into
this a little bit later than some of you because so many of
us are on that General Plan Committee, so I did have the
same questions initially looking at this. Has it really
been thoroughly looked at if this could be used for people
to live? Especially because it's so walkable to downtown
and this is a space where people could not need a car to
live, which is great. Providing housing in places like this
is just something that we're not only required to do by the
state but we want to do in the rewriting of the General
Plan.
Like I said, I love the idea of having it be a
placemaking situation. I do think you can provide that in
addition to allowing people to live there, right?
Especially if there is like a small courtyard with a bell
and some signage, incorporating some park or space where
people can sit. So anyway, that is one of my concerns. I
did have the question about the accessory structure and if
there's any historical significance to that.
My other question is if a General Plan update
would affect this at all, or the lease, or if it would be
grandfathered in because of that situation that's more of
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just like a technical question, I guess, for Commissioner
Hanssen maybe, or Chair Janoff; I don't know if you'd be
able to answer that.
CHAIR JANOFF: Let's start with the first
question regarding the accessory structure. Does Staff have
any idea whether that's… I have an opinion. Based on the
cinderblock structure I have an opinion about whether it's
historic, but I'll defer to Staff.
JENNIFER ARMER: I don't actually have any
specific information about the detached structure. Often on
historic sights it is the primary structure that we are
focused on, and as you said, the cinderblock nature does
indicate it might be more recent.
CHAIR JANOFF: Yeah, it's a tell. And
Commissioner Thomas or Suzuki, or for anybody else
interested in whether or not structures on a property are
considered historic, I would encourage you to visit the
library and take a look at the Sanborn Maps—and if you
don't know what they are, ask one of the librarians and
they'll show you—but you can look at these specific parcels
and see the structures that existed from 1895 through 1949,
I believe, or 1950, so there's a lot of information there
and I'm sure a quick look at this parcel would indicate
whether it existed in an historic timeframe.
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Regarding whether the change in zone would impact
the General Plan Advisory Committee work, I'll defer to
Chair Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Yes, we do have a very
large housing target, but this one property isn't going to
make a difference one way or the other. When we had this
discussion at the General Plan Committee, because we're all
well aware of the huge housing target that we do have,
again, this is a property that's owned by the Town of Los
Gatos, who is also very aware of the housing target that we
have and the growth that's expected, and they are
proceeding forward with wanting to change this to the
General Plan zoning as well as the underlying zoning to
commercial use because that property has never been done as
such.
So that was how the General Plan Committee got
comfortable with it. I don't think it's going to have any
impact on the work of the Committee. We'll be starting the
Housing Element later this year, and I sat on the Housing
Element last time, and yes, as Commissioner Suzuki pointed
out, we have had a tough time getting there, primarily
because we can only plan for housing but we can't force
developers to build it, so we do have ongoing issues but it
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don't think this one property is going to swing things one
way or the other.
DIRECTOR PAULSON: I would just add a couple
things, Chair.
We're not anticipating the General Plan update
process changing a whole bunch of General Plan
designations, so the General Plan update wouldn't affect
that portion.
The other is that the Town Council, we will be
doing verbatim minutes, so they'll get verbatim minutes of
everything that's been said on this item as it moves
forward to them.
The housing is interesting. The Town has not to
my knowledge been a landlord for residential, and so what I
image would happen if folks wanted it to go down a
residential path is the Town would look at selling. We
don't develop property. Even our below market price
properties are owned by individuals and/or property
management for the rental size, so we're not in that
business. There are some jurisdictions who do do that. The
Town just hasn't been one of those jurisdictions yet, but I
just wanted to make sure that everyone knows that all of
these thoughts and ideas will be forwarded to the Town
Council following this evening's meeting.
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CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you for that, and I did want
to comment.
I've been in this structure many, many times as a
former volunteer and associate of the museum that was
there. It could be subdivided potentially into three units,
very, very small, a couple of them, but one of the concerns
that I would have if the Town decided to sell it is that we
really have no control over what develops as a residential
structure, and from what we're hearing the appetite for
developing low-income housing in the downtown area in an
historic neighborhood, I'm going to say it's probably
pretty low, and so we might desire that outcome, and I
think it's an excellent point if there was a way to
incentivize someone to do it.
The Town could break the lease and then they
could sell the property and a lot of ifs fell into place,
but I agree with Commissioner Hanssen that the General Plan
in its update is attempting to identify a far larger and
probably more buildable set of affordable housing within
Los Gatos. So, I see better targets for development than
this, but I think it's an interesting point to forward to
the Town Council. Commissioner Thomas and then Suzuki.
COMMISSIONER THOMAS: Thank you for pointing that
out because I do think that it is important, but based on
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the comments just for this project and what could
potentially go in there neighbors have opinions and strong
feelings about that, and we would not want to make
assumptions but I do think that it is difficult to get low-
income housing passed in certain neighborhoods and I
appreciate that you pointed that out, so thank you.
I do think that if verbatim minutes are going to
the Town Council I would be interested to see if as part of
solving our housing crisis here we could become a
jurisdiction that does manage property and propose and
build and rent it. I don't know what the ramifications are
of that, but that might be a creative way that we can move
forward with dealing with our housing issues.
CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you for that comment.
Commissioner Suzuki and then Vice Chair Burch.
COMMISSIONER SUZUKI: Thank you for explaining
the political barriers to constructing additional housing
units; I very much appreciate that.
Along with Commissioner Thomas on including
certain statements for things in the verbatim minutes, I
want to address the idea that specific parcels of land are
not going to impact things one way or another or they're
not going to meet our quota unilaterally. I can't help but
to feel that we can say that about pretty much literally
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any piece of land. Like, no individual parcel of land is
going to meet those state requirements. That requires a
pretty holistic change in our philosophy as a planning
commission, as a town, pretty much across the board.
In this specific case that's the reason why I
said in my first comment after the Applicant finished that
in terms of spirit I am opposed to the property being used
commercially. Does that mean that I think that it would be
bad for the property to be used commercially? No, but I
think that the Town should very much prioritize the
construction of housing above not practically everything
else, but it should be really up there, probably above
commercial development specifically.
CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you for those comments. Vice
Chair Birch.
VICE CHAIR BURCH: I want to commend everybody. I
think that this is a great conversation, but I want to
bring us back to the application in front of us, and I was
prepared to attempt a motion if that's all right with the
Chair.
CHAIR JANOFF: Yes, please go ahead.
VICE CHAIR BURCH: Great. All right. I am going
to move that we approve the request for a zone change from
R-1D:LHP to C-2:LHP, and a General Plan Amendment to change
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the land use designation from Medium Density Residential to
Central Business District for property located at 4 Tait
Avenue. I can find the required findings for CEQA; this is
non-exempt. I can find the requirements that the proposal
is consistent with the Town's General Plan, that it is
internally consistent with the existing goals and policies
of the General Plan and its corresponding elements, and
that the proposed zone change is consistent with the
General Plan and its elements in that the proposed zoning
is consistent with the proposed General Plan land use
designation. I believe that was all the findings.
CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you for that. Do we have a
second? Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I second the motion.
CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you. Any comments on the
motion? Questions for Staff. Do we need to incorporate
Exhibit 3 and/or Exhibit A as part of the motion?
DIRECTOR PAULSON: As I understand it, the motion
includes the resolution for the General Plan Amendment and
the ordinance for the zone change with any attachments is
how I understood the motion.
CHAIR JANOFF: Thank you.
VICE CHAIR BURCH: That's correct.
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CHAIR JANOFF: All right, seeing no other hands
then, I'll call the question. Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Yes.
CHAIR JANOFF: Commissioner Tavana.
COMMISSIONER TAVANA: Yes.
CHAIR JANOFF: Commissioner Barnett.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: Yes.
CHAIR JANOFF: Commissioner Thomas.
COMMISSIONER THOMAS: Yes.
CHAIR JANOFF: Commissioner Suzuki.
COMMISSIONER SUZUKI: No.
CHAIR JANOFF: Vice Chair Burch.
VICE CHAIR BURCH: Yes.
CHAIR JANOFF: And I vote yes, so the motion
carries 6-1, and since this is a recommendation to Town
Council I'm assuming there's no appeal or other
considerations.
DIRECTOR PAULSON: That's correct. It's a
recommendation to the Town Council so there are no appeal
rights.
CHAIR JANOFF: All right, thank you.
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