Staff ReportMEETING DATE: 03/17/15
ITEM NO: 11
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COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT
DATE: MARCH 12, 2015
TO: MAYOR AND TOWN COUNCIL y
FROM: GREG LARSON, TOWN MANAGER� ts�i1ul
SUBJECT: CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT APPLICATION U -12 -002 AND
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT EIR -13 -001. PROJECT LOCATION:
300 MARCHMONT DRIVE. PROPERTY OWNER: HILLBROOK SCHOOL
APPLICANT /APPELLANT: MARK SILVER. APPELLANT: PATRICIA
ELLIOT (AND OTHERS).
CONSIDER AN APPEAL OF A PLANNING COMMISSION DECISION
APPROVING A CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT MODIFICATION TO
INCREASE SCHOOL ENROLLMENT AND MODIFY OPERATIONS OF AN
EXISTING PRIVATE SCHOOL ( HILLBROOK SCHOOL) ON PROPERTY
ZONED HR -1. APNS 532 -10 -001 AND 532 -11 -011.
REMARKS:
On February 17, 2015, the Council began its deliberations on the Hillbrook School Conditional
Use Permit (CUP) and continued the matter to March 17, 2015. The Council motion included a
request that Hillbrook School provide traffic count data from June 2014 to the present. Hillbrook
School provided the data to the Town and the data were posted on the Town's website on March
2, 2015: http: / /www.losgatosca.gov /107 /Traffic.
This staff report begins with considerations for potential traffic- related conditions, clarifies the
definition of vesting for purposes of the proposed CUP modification, identifies a possible
framework for the Council to work through its decisions of conditions for the CUP, provides
information on public school maintenance hours, and includes a refund request from Elliot et. al.
PREPARED BY: LAUREL R. PREVETTI C'cZ
Assistant Town Manager/ mmumty De elopment Director
Reviewed by: N/A Assistant Town Manager b6own Attorney N/A Finance
N: \DEV \TC REPORTS \2015Namhinont300 }.17.15.doex Refonnatted: 5/30/02
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MAYOR AND TOWN COUNCIL
SUBJECT: 300 MARCHMONT DRIVE/U -12- 002 /EIR -13 -001
March 12, 2015
A. Considerations for Potential Traffic Conditions
1. Traffic Counting System
Town staff was provided access to the Sensys system, which monitors vehicle trips at the
Hillbrook exit gate, on February 27, 2015. The system currently allows retrieval of
aggregated hourly volumes of daily traffic. The time stamped raw data for individual
vehicles are not available for upload from the system at this time. Sensys has indicated
that it is feasible to obtain the raw data from the system, which would make it an
acceptable system in the view of Town Staff. The individual time stamped vehicle data
are necessary so staff can accurately monitor the data for compliance with the
Conditional Use Permit.
If the CUP modification is approved with a condition for reporting and monitoring
compliance, then staff would work with Sensys to obtain the time stamped raw traffic
counts and would develop a reporting and monitoring method through a third -party traffic
engineer. In the event staff finds Sensys fails to provide raw data or the data fail to meet
the expected accuracy and reliability, a different permanent counter system would need to
be installed. The cost of any new system would be borne by the school.
2. Ongoing Data Validation
The January 27, 2014 Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA) Addendum for Hillbrook compared
five weekdays of daily traffic volumes collected by Baymetrics hose counts to the Sensys
data and found the difference between counts was between zero to six percent. Under
general traffic engineering practice, a ten percent variation is considered acceptable and a
five percent variation is considered very good. All traffic count methods have varying
degrees of error. To ensure ongoing accuracy of the system, staff suggests random
sample checks using hose counts for each monitoring period, to be carried out by a third
party traffic engineering company. Council could consider a condition to address ongoing
data validation composed of the following:
• Town would contract for a random manual traffic count for one day, once each
semester. The data would be compared with Sensys data and results provided to the
Town Traffic Engineer.
• If the Town Traffic Engineer finds the school out of compliance, the Town would
contract for additional data collection, with a one week mechanical (hose) traffic
count to verify the counts.
• The school would be considered out of compliance if any mechanical readings exceed
the Sensys counts by more than five percent and where the readings are above the
Average Daily Trip (ADT) or maximum as established by the Town Council.
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MAYOR AND TOWN COUNCIL
SUBJECT: 300 MARCHMONT DRIVE /U -12- 002 /EIR -13 -001
March 12, 2015
• If the Sensys data continues to demonstrate ongoing non - compliance, the discrepancy
would trigger the compliance proceedings portion of the CUP.
The school would be required to reimburse the Town for all staff and contract
services associated with these conditions.
3. Trips Unrelated to Hillbrook
There are currently two Sensys counters placed outside the school gate for counting
exiting traffic. These counters are also in the path of vehicles using a residential driveway
that is at the end of Marchmont Drive. A number of non - school trips are picked up by
the counter per day due to trips to and from this residence. The counter may also pick up
some vehicles turning around outside the school gate. To address this issue, staff offers
the following suggestions:
• The school could consider an alternative location for the counter to prevent the trips
not associated with the school from being counted.
The Town could allow for an added number of trips associated with the residence and
from the U -turns outside the school gate. The Institute of Transportation Engineers
(ITE) allows for approximately 10 daily trips per single - family residence, an increase
the Council could consider to address the added trips associated with the residence.
Additional trips may be considered to address turn around traffic.
4. Real Time Display
A real time display counter would allow traffic to show on a display at the exact moment
a vehicle crosses the sensor. Currently, real time display is not available with the Sensys
system. Staff is not aware of a traffic counter system that is capable of providing real
time display of individual vehicle records at this time.
5. System Reliability
There is no stand -alone counter system that maintains 100% reliability all of the time.
Currently, the Sensys system shows missing traffic counts for some hours and days (four
school days and two weekend days have some or all data missing in the fall of 2014). The
missing counts may be due to the system's downtime or other electronic, server, or
communication issues. Council could consider an ongoing reliability standard similar to
the following:
The school must install an alternate counter if the Sensys counter is not functional for
three consecutive days. The installation must occur by the beginning of the fourth
day.
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MAYOR AND TOWN COUNCIL
SUBJECT: 300 MARCHMONT DRIVE/U -12- 002 /EIR -13 -001
March 12, 2015
• The school is deemed out of compliance with the CUP if the counter system is down
for any five individual days in a 30 day period.
6. Fall 2014 Average Daily Traffic and Highest Daily Traffic Volumes
Staff has uploaded nine months of traffic counts to the Town website from June 2014
through February 2015, directly from the Sensys system. The traffic counts were
collected with two traffic counters placed outside of the school gate in the outbound
direction.
Using this information, staff calculated the average daily traffic (ADT) volumes and
identified the highest daily traffic volumes for the days of the week from September 2014
through February 2015 (Attachment 32). In addition, staff extrapolated the data to
estimate the daily traffic volumes for 99 additional students, assuming no additional
Traffic Demand Management (TDM) efforts (Attachment 33).
B. Vesting
The January 13, 2015, Town Council Staff Report discussed when vesting of the subject
Conditional Use Permit (CUP) would occur. Pursuant to Town Code Section 29.20.335,
an approval is vested when the activity approved is commenced in a substantial, as
distinguished from tentative or token, manner. For this CUP, substantial shall mean any
increase in student enrollment above 315. Staff proposes that Condition of Approval 2
read as follows:
EXPIRATION: The Master Plan approved May 7, 2001 (Resolution 2011 -048) is
vested. The Conditional Use Permit modification will expire two years from the
approval date pursuant to Section 29.20.320 of the Town Code, unless the approval
has been vested. Pursuant to Town Code Section 29.20.335 an approval is vested
when the activity approved is commenced in a substantial, as distinguished from
tentative or token, manner. For this Conditional Use Permit, substantial shall mean
any increase in student enrollment above 315.
Hillbrook could chose not to accept a CUP modification and to continue its operation
under the existing CUP, which allows 315 students. If Hillbrook chooses to continue its
operation under the existing CUP (PRJ -99 -062), the Town can initiate its own
proceedings to modify Hillbrook's CUP pursuant to Town Code Sec. 29.20.310.
The Council may include a condition that requires traffic monitoring and /or a deciding
body to evaluate the monitoring results prior to Hillbrook adding one new student. The
school would be taking on this work at its own cost and it would not be considered a
vesting act. Only the increase in students would vest the CUP modification.
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MAYOR AND TOWN COUNCIL
SUBJECT: 300 MARCHMONT DRIVE/U -12- 002 /EIR -13 -001
March 12, 2015
C. Conditions of Approval
In the course of its deliberations in February, the Council identified topic areas to
consider for conditions of approval. To assist the Council in its decisions associated with
the CUP modification, Attachment 34 contains a Conditional Use Permit template. The
template contains sample language for typical conditions associated with a school and
identifies in bold face type the decision points for Council consideration. This is being
provided only as a suggested framework and if the Council finds it useful, the Council
may address conditions in any order it chooses. For example, the Council may first wish
to determine the traffic maximum or ADT.
Alternatively, Attachment 35 contains a list of topic areas previously identified by
Council, priority topics, and other topics. Priority topics are parameters that have not yet
been discussed and require Council guidance; other topics are parameters that can be
incorporated as conditions without further guidance.
D. Public School Facilities and Grounds Maintenance Hours
A Council member requested information regarding typical public school facilities and
grounds maintenance hours. The Los Gatos Union School District cleans classrooms
daily Monday through Friday between 2:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. Grounds maintenance
occurs Monday through Friday 7:00 a.m, to 3:00 p.m. The Los Gatos Union School
District performs major cleaning and maintenance projects during the summer months.
The Campbell Union School District cleans daily, every other day, or after an event,
depending on the room or facility. Cleaning occurs between 6:00 a.m. and the beginning
of school, and 2:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Grounds maintenance occurs Monday through
Friday 6:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. every two weeks.
E. Fee Refund Request
Elliot et al. are requesting a waiver of fees associated with the appeal (see page 2 of
Attachment 12). At this time, Elliot et. al has paid $1,408.00 for the appeal and
$1,942.50 for transcribing the Planning Commission minutes. The February 17, 2015
meeting cost $3,092.04 in staff time and each appellant will be invoiced for half. The
March 17, 2015 meeting may result in similar costs.
Every year, the Town Council adopts fees to cover the costs of appeal proceedings. The
fees paid by the appellants cover the time and materials to process an appeal that takes
one hearing. The Town Code does not provide a process for a fee waiver request for
appeals, only for administrative violations. To grant the request to waive fees, the Town
Council could consider:
a. Adopting a new fee schedule that exempts both appellants of the Hillbrook School
CUP modification application from paying appeal fees; or
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MAYOR AND TOWN COUNCIL
SUBJECT: 300 MARCHMONT DRIVE/U -12- 002 /EIR -13 -001
March 12, 2015
b. Using the General Fund to pay for Elliot et al.'s appeal fees; or
c. Modifying the Town Code to include a process for a fee waiver request for select
Town fees.
PUBLIC COMMENTS:
Additional public comments are attached as Attachment 35.
Attachments previously received under separate cover:
1. Public Comments received August 6, 2012, to November 21, 2012 (228 pages)
2. Draft Environmental Impact Report (previously received February 7, 2014)
3. Public Comments received November 22, 2012 to August 19, 2014 (305 pages)
4. Final Environmental Impact Report/Comments and Responses
5. September 24, 2014 Planning Commission Staff Report
6. September 24, 2014 Planning Commission Desk Item
7. September 30, 2014 Planning Commission Desk Item
8. October 6, 2014 Planning Commission Staff Report
9. October 6, 2014 Planning Commission Desk Item
10. Planning Commission approved CUP
11. Hillbrook Appeal
12. Elliot et al. Appeal (formerly identified as Neighbor Appeal)
13. Hillbrook consent to waive 56 -day Appeal hearing requirement
14. Elliot et al. consent to waive 56 -day Appeal hearing requirement (formerly identified as
Neighbor consent to waive 56 -day Appeal hearing requirement)
Attachments previously received with January 13 2015 Staff Report:
15. September 24, 2014 Planning Commission Verbatim Minutes
16. September 30, 2014 Planning Commission Verbatim Minutes
17. October 6, 2014 Planning Commission Verbatim Minutes
18. Hillbrook Supplemental Appeal Information
19. Elliot et al. Supplemental Appeal Information
20. Peak period outbound trip counts completed after the Traffic Impact Analysis Addendum
21. Resolution to deny the appeals and uphold the Planning Commission's decision to approve
the project (with Exhibit A)
22. Resolution to deny the appeals and modify the Planning Commission's decision to approve
the project
23. Resolution to grant one or more aspects of the appeal(s) and approve the project with a
modification(s) to the conditions of approval
24. Resolution to grant one or more aspects of the appeal(s) and deny the project
25. Public Comments received 11:01 a.m. October 6, 2014 to 11:00 a.m. January 8, 2015
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MAYOR AND TOWN COUNCIL
SUBJECT: 300 MARCHMONT DRIVE /U -12- 002 /EIR -13 -001
March 12, 2015
Attachments received with January 13, 2015 Addendum:
26. Traffic consultant explanation of average versus maximum trip counts
27. Public Comments received 11:01 a.m. January 8, 2015 to January 9, 2015 11:00 a.m.
Attachment received with January 13, 2015 Addendum B:
28. Public Comments received 11:01 a.m. January 9, 2015 to 11:00 a.m. January 12, 2015
Attachment received with January 13, 2015 Desk Item:
29. Public Comments received 11:01 a.m. January 12, 2015 to 11:00 a.m. January 13, 2015
Attachment received with the February 17, 2015 Staff Report:
30. Public Comments received 11:01 a.m. January 13, 2015 to 11:00 a.m. February 12, 2015
Attachment received with the February 17, 2015 Desk Item:
31. Public Comments received 11:01 a.m. February 12, 2015 to 11:00 a.m. February 17, 2015
Attachment received with this Staff Report:
32. Average and Highest Daily Traffic Volumes — September 2014 to February 2015
33. Estimated Daily Traffic Volumes For 99 Additional Students
34. Conditional Use Permit Template
35. Topics for Conditions of Approval
36. Public Comments received 11:01 a.m. February 17, 2015 to 11:00 a.m. March 12, 2015
Distribution:
cc: Mark Silver, 300 Marchmont Drive, Los Gatos, CA 95032 (on behalf of Hillbrook)
Patti Elliot, 269 Marchmont Drive, Los Gatos, CA 95032 (on behalf of Elliot et al.)
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