Attachment 30 - Public Comment
From: Michael Glow
Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2022 4:09 PM
To: Matthew Hudes <MHudes@losgatosca.gov>; Rob Rennie <RRennie@losgatosca.gov>; Laurel
Prevetti <LPrevetti@losgatosca.gov>; LosGatos, Weekly Times
Cc: Maria Ristow <MRistow@losgatosca.gov>; Marico Sayoc <MSayoc@losgatosca.gov>; Mary Badame
<MBadame@losgatosca.gov>; Sandy Decker Sheri Galvin
; Ed Clendaniel ; Robinson,
James H.
Subject: Town of Los Gatos General Plan
EXTERNAL SENDER
In the latest Town Council meeting discussion of the Town General Plan, Matthew Hudes and Rob
Rennie were the voices of reason. Councilman Hudes got it exactly right when he made the clarifying
statement, "The proposal I've made is to adopt the RHNA allocation of 1,993 plus a 15% for 20 years
(plan)-- not for (the) 8 years (plan)." Even more appealing was Mayor Rennie's suggestion of staying
with the current Town General Plan limit of 5 units per acre. But in the face of radical development
voices (Lauren Prevetti), the Mayor's suggestion would at best lead to a reasonable compromise from
the excessive 12 units per acre, or even 10 units per acre.
It should be logicly apparent that Los Gatos has a unique problem due to its geographic location in the
narrow neck of the funnel of Silicon Valley's route to Santa Cruz, which is the reason for the horrific
traffic our little Town has to deal with. The uniqueness of this problem needs to be emphatically related
to Sacramento so that the demand for forced growth is moderated when taken into consideration. At
times there is traffic backed up on Route 17 all the way to Camden Ave and on Santa Cruz Avenue all the
way to Winchester at Lark Ave.
In total, there are three major issues with encouraging town growth:
- TRAFFIC
- SCHOOLS The impending impact from the North 40 alone is going to result in much higher
student/teacher ratios in our schools. Every property owner in Los Gatos is aware that our schools are
the reason for the above average valuation of our homes.
- WATER With climate change causing the movement of rainfall to the north, Oregon is now being billed
as "the NEW Wine Country''. So it is already apparent that the drought and scarcity of water is NOT
a temporary phenomena. Water is NOT an unlimited resource... Wake Up!
(To the newspapers; you have my permission to publish this email.
Michael Glow
Los Gatos, CA 95032
ATTACHMENT 30
From:
Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2022 10:55 AM
To: Shelley Neis <sneis@losgatosca.gov>
Cc: Town Manager <Manager@losgatosca.gov>; Arn Andrews <aandrews@losgatosca.gov>; Phil Koen
Rick Van Hoesen Lee Fagot
Peter Hertan Ann Ravel
Barbara Spector ; Colleen Wilcox ; Don
Livinghouse Joanne Benjamin
; Joanne Rogers ; Rob Stump
Sandra Livinghouse ; Sandy Decker
Steve Rice ; THOMAS J. FERRITO
Timothy Lundell
Subject: 6-30-22 Council Meeting – Agenda Item 1 for tonight's meeting
EXTERNAL SENDER
6-30-22 Council Meeting – Agenda Item 1
Mayor Rennie, Councilmembers and Staff,
Thank you for this opportunity to address this Draft General Plan.
When this General Plan (GP) process began, the Council thought the 2020 plan just needed tweaking,
and we agreed. We, and the majority of the Town citizens were shocked when the GPAC hijacked the GP
process, increasing the prescribed 1993 homes by up zoning the entire town. Los Gatos was one of only
two cities in the entire state of California that we could find that increased their RHNA allocation. Please
recall that the state increased the 2020 RHNA allocation from 619 to 1933 for 2040 – a 312% increase
over 8 years! For unknown reasons, the GPAC thought this was too small an increase, and raised the
number by up zoning the entire Town to at least 14,000 more residences. That more than doubles the
homes we have today.
The California Dept of Finance and the Town’s own consultants said the growth would not exceed 1900
home over 20 years. The GPAC and Planning Commission need to explain how they could possibly justify
doubling the Town’s size. Please don’t tell us that we’ve never grown at a high rate before. The Town
has never thrown open the doors to developers like the GPAC and Planning Commission are proposing.
Who can predict what will happen? We are hoping the Council understands that the state’s Department
of Finance, as well as the Town’s own consultant are better equipped to make projections than a group
of untrained residents.
Being paranoid of the GPAC’S direction, we began talking to the public to see if we were off-base. We
weren’t, so we paid for an independent company, EMC, to conduct a public opinion survey. Even in
those early days, 62% of the town’s population were adverse to the GP. Months thereafter, the Town
conducted a survey using their firm, ETC, and found that the one issue most concerning, with the biggest
impact, was the growth of the Town. A meager 24% of the Town were satisfied with how the Town was
managing growth, and 44% were dissatisfied. 62% were concerned about how the Town was managing
growth.
• In 2016, the Council turned down a sales tax opportunity supported by 64% of the residents
that would have provided $4.8 M in revenue annually. Today, our General Fund balance is 24%
less than it was in 2016. But it gets worse.
• Based on the Town’s forecast, if the salary and benefit increases given by the Council and
recommended by staff, are included, the General Fund will be at least $8.9 million in the hole
within 4 years, and at least $23 million in the hole in 5.
• In 2018 the Alliance had to press the Council to pay down at least $10M of pension debt.
Doing so saved the town $14M in interest costs.
• In 2020, the Alliance sponsored and paid for two initiatives; the Finance Commission and Term
Limits. The Council completely misread the Public’s desire for these changes. One passed by
57%; the other by 85%
• Today we’re hammering on an ill-conceived General Plan. We gain nothing personally with all
of these changes noted above with the exception that we would live in a Town that could
function much better financially.
• There will be no bridges over Hwy 17; there will be no Promenades nor Music in the Park if we
don’t have money. We predict that this GP, if approved above the 1993 will create more
financial agony that can only be supported by more taxes that will drive us further into debt.
• Three members of this council refused to do a Financial Impact Analysis of this mega growth.
One even told me that we didn’t need such a study as we can’t even afford to repair sidewalks.
She said "We need money"!! This is the kind of thinking we have witnessed in the past 6 years.
The Community Alliance has been ringing the alarm bells since 2016, predicting these numbers would be
coming. The numbers don’t lie. We just interpolate the Town’s published numbers and now we are
weighing the impact of mega growth promoted by the GPAC and the PC. They are advocating more debt
by ignoring the economics and worse, they have total disregard for the climate, traffic impacts, water,
schools, etc. as well as the will of the citizens as expressed in two polls. And should you want more
proof, go back and read the letters sent to you. See how few support the GPAC/PC positions.
Growing by 312% is more than enough. Please bring these numbers back to 1993 plus buffer.
Los Gatos Community Alliance
--
Jak Van Nada -
Los Gatos Community Alliance
Facts Matter; Transparency Matters; Honesty Matters
www.lgca.town
From: Jeffrey Suzuki
Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2022 10:45 AM
To: PublicComment <PublicComment@losgatosca.gov>
Subject: Public Comment Item #1
EXTERNAL SENDER
To the Los Gatos Town Council,
The Los Gatos Anti-Racism Coalition supports the General Plan. We believe that the Racial, Social, and
Environmental Justice Element has fairly robust and progressive language that moves the right direction
for the Town of Los Gatos. Additionally, we agree with staff recommendations on maintaining the
current number of housing units for development. Please do not downsize the number of units. If we
care about socioeconomic and racial diversity in town, we have to make it economically possible for
people from marginalized communities to live here. We need affordable housing.
As a final note, the town's "small-town character" is not something that should be included in the
General Plan. As a former planning commissioner, I can see this specific line being used by future
Planning Commissioners to justify not continuing and expanding Town participation in planning
processes in neighboring jurisdictions, Santa Clara County, and regional agencies and organizations to
develop innovative, effective, and coordinated land use, transportation, and hillside development plans
and standards. The last thing we need is to codify our preservationist sentiment into a legal document
lasting 20 years.
Regards,
Jeffrey Suzuki
President of the Los Gatos Anti-Racism Coalition