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Attachment 36 public commentsJoe Sordi Sr 212 Marchmont Drive Los Gatos, Ca 95032 February 17, 2015 Los Gatos Town Council RECEIVED 110 East Main Street Los Gatos, California 95030 FEB 17 2015 Subject: Misuse of The TIRE Index to Establish a Traffic Threshold TOWN OF LOS GATOS PLANNING DIVISION Dear Mayor Jensen and Town Coucil Member: The following is from a paper, "Assessing the Environmental Capacity of Local Residential Streets" as presented at the 12s' WCTR in July, 2010. See: http: / /it. canterbury.ac.nz /bitstream/1 00 92 /4 5 4 6/l /12626638_02428.pdf) "The "Traffic Infusion on Residential Streets (TIRE) index (City of Palo Alto 2002) uses in a number of North American cities, is an alternative approach to evaluating impacts on local streets to evaluate the change in average vehicle per day along a street segment. Originally developed by Donald Goodrich, the TIRE index provides a numerical representation of residents' perceptions of the effect of local traffic on residential activities and has values that range from 0.1 to 5.0.... The TIRE index however dons short of defining a tbreshodd at which a volume change should be considered unacceptable or a significant impact" (emphasis mine). The paper addresses the environmental capacity of local streets and notes that early thresholds were set to be between 2000 and 3000 and while that is the general rule of thumb, it was established over 50 years ago and perhaps today, a 1500 to 2000 threshold is more acceptable. Los Gatos traffic calming criteria uses 1500 as a maximum before traffic calming measures could be considered. Joe Sordi Sr ;ATTACHMENT 3 6 Jennifer Savage From: John Shepardson <shepardsonlaw @me.com> Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2015 8:07 AM To: Marcia Jensen; Council Subject: Hillbrook and outdated data Follow Up Flag: Follow up Flag Status: Completed Out dated data increases risk of poor evaluation of present situation. Assumptions when data available is unnecessary risk - taking. Example: Quoting from http• / /www of mil /News /Artic]eDisilay /tabid/223/ Article /503218 /air- force - rebuts - report- due -to- outdated- data.asnx "The data in the report is a year old," said Lt Gen Robert Otto, Air Force deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. "The Air Force is only buying 346 aircraft, 55 fewer than the 401 figure contained in the report and we've only received about half that number. The projected total Reaper fleet of 346 is far less the service had originally estimated prior to sequestration." JS Sent from my Whone Joe Sordi 212 Marchmont Dr RECEIVED Los Gatos, Ca February 20, 2015 FEB 2 0 2015 Subject: Hillbrook Staff Entering in the Morning TOWN OF LOS GATOS PLANNING DIVISION Dear Major Jensen and Town Council Members: In my opinion, it's not a good idea to require that Hillbrook staff enter between 7:30 and 8:30 a.m., when both Hillbrook traffic and local public school traffic is heaviest. I am at my home office desk facing Marchmont nearly every school day morning. From here, I see traffic entering and exiting on upper Marchmont just east of Hilow. On normal school days, Hillbrook school staff begin entering at 7 or perhaps even a bit earlier. By 7:30, 20 to 30 autos have headed east toward the school. From 7:30 to 8:30, almost all student transportation enters and leaves the school, with the highest concentration between 7:45 and 8:00. It appears that a few parents sometimes leave after 8:30. Regards, Joe Sordi Jennifer Savage From: John Shepardson <shepardsonlaw @me.com> Sent: Friday, February 20, 2015 11:18 AM To: Marcia Jensen; Council Subject: HB (Why reward bad behavior ?) This is a big deal for the Town. How do we deal with a repeat offer of key terms of a CUP? How can we push the "reset" button on human behavior? How does one erase past behavior and move forward if there is a refusal to acknowledge past mistakes, refusal to acknowledge learning from them, and refusal to provide current information to provide the transparency for a "reset" to occur? Why make a decision on a matter that has caused problems for over 15 years without insisting on being provided current CRITICAL data that an applicant has? If traffic counts are now lower, then an assumption that there is a need for an average and a higher number like 960 has less validity? More fundamentally, why make a key decision on an assumption when the key data exists? Why reward any applicant for withholding key data that exists now, is readily produceable, and has been requested by the Town? How can you have "reset" transparency when the applicant is telling you with its actions that it doesn't want it? If I was HB I too might to not produce the counts if I thought the TC would not require it. If I was them, I might try to get away with as much as I could for my school, particularly since I have gotten away with exceeding student limits, and other violations of the CUP. The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. I predict HB will materially and repeatedly violate a new CUP if there are not strong financial penalties that are enforced. HB likes to go 80 in a 60 speed limit zone, and we don't write tickets and issue fines. Bottom line: There must be strong penalties that are enforced. Quoting http:/ /familvdoctor org /familvdoctor /en/ kids / behavior - emotions /child- behavior - what - parents- can- do -to- change - their- childs- behavior.html One way to encourage good behavior is to use a reward system. Children who learn that bad behavior is not tolerated and that good behavior is rewarded are learning skills that will last them a lifetime. HB violated CUP, and now they seek being rewarded with 99 more students, over $ 2.5M to school, little money to the Town, and lots more cars entering and exiting Los Gatos. JS Sent from my iPhone Jennifer From: John Shepardson <shepardsonlaw @me.com> Sent: Friday, February 20, 2015 3:45 PM To: Council Subject: HILLBROOK (INCENTIVES) HILLBROOK HAS MONEY AND HAS PARENTS THAT AFFORD CREATIVE SOLUTIONS. THE NEIGHBORS ARE ANGRY BY VIOLATIONS. HILLBROOK WANTS MORE STUDENTS. NEIGHBORS WANT LESS IMPACTS, PARTICULARLY CAR TRIPS. WHY NOT STRUCTURE A CUP THAT ENCOURAGES HB TO REDUCE CARS? IN OTHER WORDS (WITH DAILY CREDIBLE ONLINE DATA) HB GETS MORE STUDENTS AS ITS CAR TRIPS DECREASE. STRUCTURE SO THEY SEE LOWERING CAR TRIPS AS A CHALLENGE AND THAT THEY WILL BE REWARDED FOR MEETING THE CHALLENGE. I BET HB WITH SHUTTLE RUNNING CONSTANTLY FROM BH PARK, THAT IT COULD REDUCE CAR TRIPS TO SAY 500 A DAY. SEE STANFORD'S Marguerite Shuttle AT http://transportation.stanford.edu/marguerit Jennifer Savage From: John Shepardson <shepardsonlaw @me.com> Sent: Friday, February 20, 2015 3:50 PM To: Rob Rennie; Council Subject: HB (NEGOTIATIONS...) M 99 STUDENTS WAS A NEGOTIATION NUMBER. THEY CAME IN HIGH, FIGURING THE THE NUMBER WAS GOING TO BE CHOPPED DOWN. WHY WOULD WE ACCEPT THEIR HIGHEST FIRST OFFER, WHEN THERE IS ROOM TO REASONABLY REDUCE THE NUMBER WHICH IS A CONCESSION TO THE NEIGHBORS. AND MORE STUDENTS DOESN'T BRING REVENUE TO THE TOWN, JUST IMPACTS. JS Jennifer Savage From: John Shepardson <shepardsonlaw @me.com> Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2015 8:42 AM To: Rob Rennie; Marcia Jensen; Council Subject: The Tale of 2 HBs •.. There r 2 HB's. The nice respectful parents, and the school leadership which has repeatedly and deliberately made choices to defy the student cap and other plain CUP requirements. I've been thinking about your expressed concern about setting HB up for failure in the next CUP. I have a more fundamental question: Why reward HB's systemic failure? HB repeatedly failed to comply with its max of 315, so why reward it with more students? And up to now HB has failed to provide recent car trip info? As for need for 99: That dog won't hunt. They say they need 99 to have a cushion to get to class sizes of 18, and enrollment numbers can vary. First, HB since 2001 exceeded 315 11 years, hit 315 3 years, and NEVER under enrolled. HB consistently over enrolled. Moreover, quite tellingly, the last 2 years, as I understand, HB has exactly hit 315. To me this says they can hit a target number, and so the cushion of 24 students for lower levels (20 students per class -- remember only need 18 for optimum) is unnecessary student growth even under HB's standards for max educational benefit. Therefore, we can safely eliminate 24 students right now and not harm HB's desire for a max educational benefit. 99 -24 equal to 75. Of course my personal view is we should not reward failure, and only 0 -36 students should be allowed, to increase middle school size, get a new CUP now, allow the $725K /yr in increased student fees to accept, and keep student numbers down so going forward they meet the 880 hard cap - -set up for success. I suggest the financial penalties not b capped at 5K for fear they run up violations because after $5K in violations, no additional costs. Each additional violation should cost something rather than the other way around. Since HB brings in little revenue, and does on a daily basis impact our roads on Marchmont and elsewhere, it is a net draw against Town financial resources JS:) Jennifer Savage To: Janette Judd; janety.ehrhardt96 @gmail.com Cc: Joel Paulson Subject: RE: North 40 and Hillbrook School - - - -- Original Message---- - From: Janet [ mailto :ianety.ehrhardt96 @gmail.comj Sent: Sunday, March 01, 2015 6:55 PM To: Council Subject: North 40 and Hillbrook School Keep the traffic to a minimum. Los Gatos Blvd. is getting worse and the approved developments have only begun. Keep North 40 housing to seniors who will not drive as much and have not children to impact the schools. No more medical! Keep Hillbrook School as its present enrollment... most of the traffic generated by HB through our neighborhood is from people who live outside of Los Gatos. Janet Ehrhardt 62 Fillmer Ave., Jennifer To: Janette Judd; John Shepardson Subject: RE: HillBrook and Accountability From: John Shepardson [mailto:sheoardsonlaw@me com] Sent: Sunday, March 01, 2015 9:54 PM To: Marcia Jensen; Council Subject: HillBrook and Accountability Quoting from htip: / /www.goodreads.com/work/ciuotes /7261277- the - gifts -of imperfection When we fail to set boundaries and hold people accountable, we feel used and mistreated. This is why we sometimes attack who they are, which is far more hurtful than addressing a behavior or a choice. Bren6 Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are Now is the Town's time to hold HB accountable. We don't hold them accountable when we not only don't impose any penalties, we actually reward them for violating the 315 boundary with more students. Really holding them accountable could include reducing their 315 cap to say 275 or 250, right? John Shepardson Sent from my iPhone This Page Intentionally Left Blank Jennifer To: Janette Judd Subject: RE: Slide 1 Vested Rights (Hillbrook) - - - -- Original Message---- - From: John Shepardson [mailto:shepardsonlawc@me com) Sent: Monday, March 02, 2015 10:10 PM To: Marcia Jensen; BSpector; Council Subject: Slide 1 Vested Rights (Hillbrook) http:// www. nclm .org /SiteCollectionDocuments /Resource /Vested %20Rights %2OCa n %20Cost %20You. pdf W Ar �. aJ �A %V ..r a WAWA �V W -c f OC v oif �'1 V .C: O N C U ry N 1 E V- ML W Y C C/1 r O co 15 tm u 1 (~' U I..L L c *4 a O EftIVA4 k b b A 0 � 0 H �y Y m 3 p 1Q M" i O D b h O u y o 0 Y 4 Y tl 0 m O y Y A fiNfi H : � N b q • Y yb N•` `w C M \ 0 v Y u 0 4 u b u V u b C r N k 0 W Y y j u � L .L tr n ZD r4-r bb ° htl "a F C .rCNa° pc c ti u Y b J. y O u tl= L. k 4 Q. p a CX IS tz >, b b ti W a -0 o 43 k w M ur z Bit . s y Y q a 4 u k c C j. °. tl b .tl Y\ 4 b M y b y r •° S ; y Y .O F- u VNY4w '4N p� C w b HU `tltl z i C U b v ts b C 0 d C C y° b b y m Y I^ N Y C t f tl d y ,ft qs ��� N y tl r t p� b o y p�• t a `v r ` y p � £W OU`tl'3are�yQ aYO4 �' oQQGQL N YC -VO h C u Vr. ; w ` V >. y< w O O m y `•-0 °b -0 O p of b j� F a r-0 p�v- U Y Q F U r V tl Y tl lu 1-0 to F C .�' pG � M � b tl � � p �. � � O v6V6vi -bS � '� V Y M t yu• O .` v� 6♦ p�� tl u, b ° p t V F ` .0 O p .w. qY„ '` 4 bN�"N p SGYp u , b y b` � [-0 tl U b to c� t OW 0, E b E e ^`• °.t o tl.c v "aYb a .o'° tl r g r 0 tl t i YO ZZL V w r^ 1 34 U tl F Y W 0 h .° —ts CL IX Y e Y a~ b q r o u K` y a m V 4 k �.M ... r N V �•�y L -[ -0 Y C� L w 0 � � 4 ti tib Yb $ O -C Y_ ° V tl 0 y u V V h Min .0 Y tr 3 -0 O i H� � U y x� ♦� V�� a YG t 4 u b Y Y N d i w U w Z u O iri -0 b Q W J u" W y~ c-Y ~ E u u Z H C Y Y O Y .°. 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At 6:15 AM, Hillbrook School's trash service ran its large garbage truck up Marchmont Drive and down again somewhere around 6:20 AM, brakes squealing all the way down the hill in front of our home. 2. A large U.S. Foods tractor trailer went up the hill to Hillbrook School just after 6:15 AM. Mark, this is a repetitive pattern of Hillbrook disrupting our quiet neighborhood well prior to 7 AM. These large noisy trucks disrupt our rest. We have complained repeatedly to you about this and you seem to be unable to prevent these service vehicles from interrupting our early morning peace. I am compelled to notify the Town Council of this repeating issue. Reuel Warkov 269 Marchmont Drive Los Gatos From: riwarkov@comcast.net [mailto:rjwarkov(c�comcast net] Sent: Tuesday, March 03, 2015 2:20 PM To: Elliot, Patti Subject: Hillbrook School service vehicles this morning on Marchmont Drive Mark, I observed two service vehicles this morning on Marchmont Drive prior to 6 AM. 1. At 6:00 AM the Hillbrook School's trash service ran its large garbage truck up Marchmont Drive at 6:15 AM and down again somewhere around 6:20 AM, brakes squealing all the way down the hill in front of our home. 2. U.S. Foods tractor trailer went up the hill to Hillbrook School at 6:15 AM. I did not observe it's descent and am unable to tell you if and when it left your campus. Mark, this is a repetitive pattern of abuse of our existing agreement to forbid access to Hillbrook School's grounds prior to 7 AM. Theselarge truks a lot of noise, we have complained repeatedly to no affect. 1 Please be assured I will notify the Town Council of this repeating issue. Reuel Warkov March 6, 2015 RECEFIVEF® Mayor Marcia Jensen and Members of the Town Council MAR _ Town of Los Gatos 8 ?015 130 E. Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 TOIVN OF PL4NNINGDIVISIONS SUBJECT: An Appropriate Cap for Hillbrook's Daily School Year Traffic Dear Mayor Jensen, Vice Mayor Spector, and Council Members Leonardis, Sayoc, and Rennie: Hillbrook repeatedly told the Council and Planning Commission that it was impossible for the school to survive with an 880 daily limit on traffic. This is clearly not true. The data released this past Monday showed that Hillbrook is completely capable of surviving and prospering with a limit of 880 daily trips. Hillbrook provided data for 106 school days between June 1, 2014 and February 28, 2015. On only 4 of these days was traffic above 880. These 4 days appear to have been days that would be included among the 10 exception days. On only I I of the 106 days was traffic above 840. Hillbrook may claim that it should not be forced to accept a cap of 880 or lower as a result of the good work it has done with traffic. The fact is Hillbrook has only now — finally— reduced its traffic to levels called for by the 2001 CUP. Only now -14 years after the current CUP was approved —has Hillbrook complied with the agreements it made about traffic. In 2000 -2001, as now, Hillbrook reduced its traffic levels in an effort to get a new CUP. Once the CUP was approved, traffic almost immediately increased to previous levels. Within a year of the CUP approval, Hillbrook was called before the Council to explain why it was exceeding its peak period traffic caps. The 2001 CUP placed limits on traffic of 165 exiting cars for morning and afternoon peak periods. Almost all traffic was supposed to take place within the peak periods. There were a small number of children in daycare who arrived and left outside of the peak periods, and there were 44 staff members who were expected to leave campus after 3:45. The original peak period limit was 150; it was increased at the last minute to allow Hillbrook time to reduce its traffic. Hillbrook agreed to require every new parent to carpool, and it agreed to institute a busing /vanpooling program. These things did not happen, and traffic returned to previous levels within a year. Here's the math that Hillbrook should have been complying with since 2001: Almost all students enter and exit during the peak periods for a maximum of 660 daily trips. Some children arrive and leave daycare outside of the peak periods, so let's add 40 trips. In 2001, there were 44 employees. They arrive during the morning peak period, but they are required to leave after 3:45, so let's add 44 exiting trips. With some allowance for deliveries and visitors, the daily traffic in the last 14 years should have been way below 880 daily trips. Without any of the carpooling or busing it was supposed to implement, the school traffic should have been roughly 800 daily trips. Hillbrook likes to claim that it has a "right" to the amount of traffic it had in 2011. I disagree with this claim. Hillbrook had the 2011 level of traffic (1) without requiring parents to use carpooling, busing, or walking/bicycling; (2) after it had instituted afternoon programming not permitted or foreseen by the 2001 CUP; (3) at a time when it was overenrolled, so was creating additional traffic with extra students; and (4) had increased employees from 44 to 60. We have sent Council members numerous scenarios showing how Hillbrook traffic could be far lower than even 800 daily trips if all parents were required to use busing, carpooling, or walking/bicycling. Our scenarios show that traffic (with 315 students) can be as low as 256 daily trips; this scenario involves every student being bused. With carpooling plus busing plus walking/biking, daily trips can be as low as 354. With latitude for carpools having 2 rather than 3 students, daily trips can still be well below 600. Hillbrook has apparently told at least one Council member that Hillbrook has been decreasing its traffic since last spring because it was understood that an 880 average was the traffic they would maintain with an increased enrollment. There certainly could not have been any such understanding. In its May 2014 neighborhood meeting, Hillbrook stated that it would seek a 960 traffic average. At the September 24 Planning Commission meeting, Hillbrook asked for a 960 traffic average with a 1,200 cap. The 880 number was not discussed and approved by the Planning Commission until the October 6 meeting. Hillbrook says it has "premitigated" so that it can increase its traffic with increased enrollment. But this "premitigation" has finally produced a more appropriate level of traffic for our neighborhood. We would like to see this level of traffic maintained. Now that the data is in front of you, you know what Hillbrook can do WITHOUT mandatory busing, carpooling, and walking/bicyling. Clearly the school could do more with a mandatory, enforced TDM program. Please support the neighborhood by requiring Hillbrook to limit its normal daily traffic to no more than a generous 840 daily trips. This is not greedy. This is a number that is supported by Hillbrook's own data, the data that Hillbrook had to be forced to share. Sincerely, Barbara Dodson Jennifer Savaae From: Barbara Dodson <btdodson @aol.com> Sent: Saturday, March 07, 2015 12:26 PM To: Marcia Jensen; BSpector; Steven Leonardis; Marico Sayoc, Rob Rennie Cc: Jennifer Savage; Robert Schultz; Laurel Prevetti Subject: Request Not to Allow Third Parry Use at Hillbrook Attachments: Letter.ThirdPartyUse.docx; LMoncharsh.Letter to PC - final. September 24, 2014.pdf Dear Mayor Jenson, Vice Mayor Spector, and Council Members Leonardis, Sayoc, and Rennie: I am writing to ask you to follow what the Planning Commission did and prohibit third party use of the Hillbrook campus in the new CUP Attached are two letters: (1) a letter explaining my point of view on this issue; and (2) a letter written by our lawyer Leila Moncharsh to the Planning Commission on September 24, 2014. Starting on page 5. Ms. Moncharsh explains legal reasons why thirid party use of a campus like Hillbrook's is not allowed. Thank you for your very hard work on the Hillbrook issue Sincerely, Barbara Dodson March 7, 2015 Mayor Marcia Jensen and Members of the Town Council Town of Los Gatos 130 E. Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 SUBJECT: Third -Party Use of the Hillbrook Campus Dear Mayor Jensen, Vice Mayor Spector, and Council Members Leonardis, Sayoc, and Rennie: During the February 17 Town Council, there was no mention or discussion of Hillbrook's request to allow third -party use of the campus. The Planning Commission denied this request and prohibited third - party use — although the Planning Commission condition contains a definition of "third party" that does not effectively limit use. Our neighborhood group has suggested the following revision: THIRD PARTY USE/RENTAL/LEASE: Any third party use, rental, and/or lease of the campus is prohibited, except that Hillbrook School may provide educational programs for its Academic Year enrolled students or Academic Year staff by contracting with a third -party instructor to provide services for the programs and by providing that all enrollment in any such program is counted in Hillbrook's enrollment cap and any fees for participation in such programs are paid directly to Hillbrook School. We ask that Town Council, like the Planning Commission, prohibit third -party use. Hillbrook makes the argument that `it shouldn't matter what we do on campus so long as we limit traffic.' In fact, it matters very much what happens on campus if third parties are involved. General Issues Relating to Third Party Use at Hillbrook Here are some reasons why third party use at Hillbrook should not be permitted: • Hillbrook would rent, lease, or otherwise allow use of the campus at times when the campus would not normally be in use. These times would include periods when neighbors would look forward to relief from traffic -- winter break, spring break, and vacation periods. Hillbrook has already demonstrated its clear intention to hold activities outside of normal school days and a short summer session by hosting tournaments during breaks. • Hillbrook would not supervise third party activities. No one would be responsible for the actions of the third parties. • Third parties would be unfamiliar with the neighborhood's often narrow, windy streets and with its traffic limits. This would likely lead to speeding and increase the possibility of accidents. • Third parties would not have been educated into the rules of the neighborhood roads, which involve the lower traffic limits and stop signs, and would not have been educated about where to park. • Third parties would not be part of any traffic mitigation program. • Third -party uses would not be part of a regular schedule. Neighbors would not know when to anticipate the traffic that these uses would create. According to our lawyer, Leila Moncharsh, who works in Oakland where private schools similar to Hillbrook are located, third party uses created problems for neighborhoods there. One school, Head Royce, for example, was doing third party rentals —calling them "partnerships" as Hillbrook has done. According to Ms. Moncharsh, third party use was very disruptive for the neighborhood due to the noise, lack of supervision by the school, and the traffic problems. People would come to campus for what seemed like legitimate uses, but regardless of what the stated purpose was for use of the property, would end up having parties. Events would take place at night, and people would drive around not even knowing where they were or where to park. The participants did not know the traffic rules, and so they would make U- turns, speed around the neighborhood, and park wherever they felt like. They would come out of the events late at night and make lots of noise going back to their cars. The school made money from the events, and so it had no incentive to stop them. Ms. Moncharsh and a community group complained to the city, and the city planner forced Head Royce to stop because the school did not have a community activity permit. In our own case, as has been mentioned to you frequently, Hillbrook has rented its campus to many groups since 2009. Notably, it rented its campus to Steve & Kate's Camp during summer 2011; along with the 900 campers at that camp, there were additional children in Breakthrough Silicon Valley and Hillbrook's own camps. The enormous and uninterrupted traffic during that summer ruined the summer for residents. Third party uses by the Santa Fe Leadership Center, Saso High School Prep, Way to Go Foundation, and others also created extra traffic. The third party Breakthrough Silicon Valley program doubles the amount of summer traffic residents were used to before 2009 and extends the hours and weeks of campus use —and thus traffic— beyond what had previously been seen as acceptable. While these uses were occurring, Hillbrook gave no notice to the neighborhood about when to expect extra traffic and how much extra traffic to anticipate. Please use the experiences at Head -Royce as well as our own experiences with third party uses to inform your decision making. Please help the Marchmont neighborhood avoid the problems that occur when a JK -8 school allows third parties to use its campus. Legal Issues Relating to Third Party Use at Hillbrook On September 23, 2014, Ms. Moncharsh sent a letter to the Planning Commission in which she discussed why allowing third party uses would not even be legal. That letter is the second attachment to my cover email. Ms. Moncharsh's discussion of third party use begins on page 5. In that discussion, Ms. Moncharsh writes that "the staff correctly advised the Planning Commission against granting the request (to allow "adult education to a general audience" and third party uses in general). Please see the letter for details. Here are some of the main points in Ms. Moncharsh's letter: • Hillbrook's request to allow third party uses would not be permitted under the zoning code or would require a different CUP. • The grant of the use permit to include third party rentals is inconsistent with the zoning code and the General Plan. • The grant of the use permit to include third party rentals would violate CEQA. "(T)he project would require at least a supplemental EIR to discuss the inconsistencies between the General Plan and allowing the Hillbrook facility to be leased by third parties." Included in Ms. Moncharsh's letter is the table from the Town Code specifying what uses are and are not permitted in an HR -1 zone unless there is a CUP. 2 Finally, I ask that the new CUP define Hillbrook as a "JK -8 private school," not broadly as "an educational institution." The broader definition, I believe, leaves room for the school to use its campus for purposes other than the education of JK -8 students. Here is Hillbrook's own definition of itself from its 2011 tax filing: " Hillbrook School is an independent junior kindergarten through 8`s grade school whose program uniquely balances academic rigor with a humanistic approach to learning." Thank you for your incredibly hard work on this issue. Sincerely, Barbara Dodson LAW OFFICES VENERUSO & MONCHARSH DONNA M. VENERUSO (d.'09) 5707 REDWOOD RD., STE 10 LEILA H. MONCHARSH OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA 94619 TELEPHONE (510) 482 -0390 FACSIMILE (510) 482 -0391 September 23, 2014 Planning Commission 110 East Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 Re: Conditional Use Permit U -12 -002: EIR 13 -001 — Hillbrook School Dear Commissioners: My law firm was retained by LG CATS to review the staff report and submit comments to your commission regarding Hillbrook School's ( Hillbrook) application to increase its enrollment. I am a land use attorney with a master's degree in urban planning. Over the last 20 years, I have periodically analyzed projects where private schools have sought agency permits for their expansion plans. The staff report demonstrates a high level of planning skill, negotiations between Hillbrook and its neighbors, and some understanding by the planner of the different stakeholders' needs. In this correspondence, I will focus on the "averages" in car trip conditions 9 and 10, and on the use of the Hillbrook property for leasing and renting (condition 7). (Exhibit 7 CUP proposed conditions). In my experience both of these requests are problematic as they invite conflict and problems between private schools and surrounding residents. I recommend modifying the proposed condition so that the traffic vehicle count number is set at a specific number, not averaged, and denying Hillbrook's request to rent or lease to third parties. A. Background Information As with many private schools in Northern California, there has been growing interest by parents wishing to enroll their children in Hillbrook, as opposed to public schools. To stay competitive with other private schools, and take advantage of that increased interest, Hillbrook has intensified the use of its campus, especially over the last 14 years. A quick review of the permit issuance history in the staff report demonstrates that in the 1980s there were only two Hillbrook requests for permits, none in the 1990s, and then five permits were issued between 2001 and 2007. In 2012, neighbors raised concerns about Hillbrook's compliance with its use permit and requested that the Town investigate various compliance issues. (Staff report, p. 4.) On page 11 of the staff report, the planner reported that during the EIR comment period, she verified that "in the past, Hillbrook School did exceed their enrollment limits" under their use permit. The above history is very familiar as it is almost identical with problems posed by several private schools in the Oakland area. Expanding private schools in residential neighborhoods present challenges that are not immediately apparent to planning Planning Commission 110 East Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 Re: Hillbrook School September 23, 2014 Page 2 commissioners. In the early part of the last century, most schools were "neighborhood- serving." Children walked, or rode bikes or busses to their school, which was typically not more than half an hour's ride from their homes. Residents not only used the local schools around them, but they did not mind the traffic since it was fairly limited. The older school model is no longer true with Northern California private schools, which often compete for students outside of their own city or town boundaries. It is not unusual for busy parents to come speeding through a neighborhood with one child in the car, drop them off, and then speed back out of the neighborhood. In the competition for more students, the areas immediately around private schools become saturated and in order to attract more students, the school is forced to seek increased enrollment from considerable distances, which then invites more single occupancy vehicle trips. Another difference is the management model that applies to private schools. Gone are the days when the school master lived on the campus and stood outside making sure that the parents and children all behaved properly as they came and left the school. Private school upper management is not answerable to a superintendent of the school district or a school district board. The head -of- school is generally completely in charge of day to day operations with little to no oversight. The board of trustees is limited to "making policy decisions" and even if the head is a poor manager, their only recourse is to fire him or her, under the school's bylaws. The board of trustees often consist of busy, professional parents who leave the board after two or three years, which does not allow for the kind of continuity that is necessary to really oversee operations, even if the bylaws allowed them to do so. By increasing enrollment, the school then increases the amount of often speeding traffic in the morning and afternoon, the length of time for drop -off and pick -up, the number of deliveries including the size of trucks and hours of deliveries, the number of events, the number of staff, and the amount of noise that is experienced by the residents. Poor management and a disinterest in the residential community around the school all add to the school's incursion into the residential part of the neighborhood. The school in effect "institutionalizes" the neighborhood, which defeats the General Plan goals and policies for the residential zone. Planning Commission 110 East Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 Re: Hillbrook School September 23, 2014 Page 3 B. Traffic Management Planning Requires Using a Set Number of Vehicle Trips, and Not Relying on "Averages" 1. The TDM Is Vague and Without Specifics; Therefore, the School Is Not Required to Comply with Any Specific Permit Conditions Related to the TDM The Nelson Nygaard Transportation Design Management Plan (TDM), dated September 14, 2012 correctly identifies a number of disincentives for parents to use transportation methods, other than taking one or two children to Hillbrook in a car. They include: 1. The cost of the shuttle in the form of an annual fee that is tacked on to the already high cost of the tuition at over $28,000 per student. (TDM, pp. 2, 8, 10.) 2. Children who are too young for public transportation (TDM, p. 4.) 3. Parents wishing to have flexibility and independence (TDM, p. 8.) 4. After school activities (TDM, p. 8, 10.) 5. Inconvenient shuttle stops and slower shuttle rides than car rides (TDM p. 9.) 6. Distance between home and school is too long to walk or bike (TDM p. 9.) The list is consistent with what we could guess using common sense will occur when you ask busy professional parents to choose between taking children to school in their own cars on the way to work versus using a different method. However, then the TDM fails to provide specific solutions which can be included in conditions of approval. For example, on page 14 of the TDM, the authors recommend "lower shuttle prices." However, that is not an incentive to ride the shuttle and it is vague — how much lower ?" An example of an incentive that would cause parents to put their children on the shuttle would include a five or ten percent reduction in the tuition charge in exchange for a commitment to use the shuttle. Incentives also tend to work best when both the parent and child are rewarded for using a shuttle, bus, or carpool. A discount at the school store, free tickets to sports events, a surprise gift after riding a certain number of times on the shuttle would be examples of incentivizing the child to turn down rides from parents and use the shuttle, bus or carpool. None of these incentives are in the conditions, and they should be. Missing from the TDM is a GIS map showing with dots where all of the students live. If they all live in Los Gatos, there should not be any reason why bike, walking, Planning Commission 110 East Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 Re: Hillbrook School September 23, 2014 Page 4 shuttle service, and public transportation are not sufficient for their transportation needs. Because that information is missing, there is no inclusion in the conditions of required pick -up and drop -off locations for the shuttle. Nor is there any evidence in the TDM of a carpool system that is specific enough to include in the conditions of approval. On page 16 of the TDM, the authors suggest that Hillbrook requires flexibility to adjust shuttle sizes and routes. However, a condition of approval could require that the school produce a firm TDM now and provide any adjustments to the planner for review and approval. That would be an administrative task and not normally require a new permit. Yet, it is left up to Hillbrook as to how it chooses to adjust the shuttle sizes and routes. Similarly, the suggestions regarding increasing carpool use are not mandatory. An example of a condition that would make them mandatory would require that Hillbrook include in its contract with each parent an agreement as to how their child will arrive and leave school 90% of the time, and that at least 40% of all parents must contract to use a carpool as a condition of enrollment at the school. (The numbers are random for purposes of the example.) I understand that the Head of School in 2001 promised the Town and neighbors in writing that, "We are informing each new family to Hillbrook that we expect that they will carpool as a part of their acceptance to the school." By now, Hillbrook should be a 100% carpooling school. The result of a weak TDM is evident in the number of vehicle trips allowed under the proposed conditions. 480 vehicle trips each way appears to represent little use ofnon- auto transportation. A good TDM should reduce that number significantly by at least a third, assuming strong recommendations contained in use permit conditions. 2. Given the Weak TDM and No Specific Auto Trip Reducing Conditions, Averaging the Trips Compounds the Traffic Problems In Oakland, Bentley School's use permit includes an "averaging" condition very similar to proposed Condition number 9. Our experience has been that instead of focusing on reducing car trips to and from the campus, the school focuses on "gaming the averages." All it takes to bring the school into compliance with the average vehicle trip count cap is for the school to have a half -day or a closed day of school to bring itself into compliance. The neighbors are unhappy because they see the daily violations and then complain to the planner that the average count does not adequately reflect the negative impact on their neighborhood from excessive car trips. It would have been far better to have a set number for the school to use as a "no more cars" rule that it must comply with than the averaging method. Planning Commission 110 East Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 Re: Hillbrook School September 23, 2014 Page 5 Here, the use permit condition does not meet the real goal of reducing car trips and it allows for increasing the traffic impacts on the neighborhood. The neighbors were already complaining that the number of cars entering and leaving their neighborhood was inconsistent with a residential, single - family neighborhood. To add another 99 student load on this one neighborhood is inconsistent with the Los Gatos General Plan goals and policies: Goal LU -1: To preserve and enhance the existing character and sense of place in residential neighborhoods Policy LU -6.1: Protect existing residential areas from the impacts of non- residential development Policey LU -6.2: Allow non - residential activity in residential areas only when the character and quality of the neighborhood can be maintained. C. The Planning Department's Advice to Refuse Third Party Use, Rent, or Lease of Hillbrook's Facility Is Correct (Condition 7) 1. Hillbrook's Request Would Not be Permitted Under the Zoning Code or Would Require A Different CUP Hillbrook's request to use the school facility for events outside the immediate school community comes up twice in the staff report: page 13 — Hillbrook's request to provide "adult education to a general audience" and on pages 16 -17 — Third Party Uses. In both instances, the staff correctly advised the Planning Commission against granting the request. These two requests are not consistent with the permit application and if granted, would further add to the deterioration of the surrounding residential neighborhood due to traffic. I have attached the Los Gatos Municode, section 29.20.185. While I was unable to find a code definition for "school," the code does indicate the types of uses allowed in each area of the town. The closest category that matches allowing a nonprofit or business to offer services to the general public would be "Community Services" and the specific use would probably be "community center." If the rentals involved outdoor activities, it might fall within "park." It also might qualify under the general category "Recreation" and the specific category "commercial recreation and amusement establishment" if Hillbrook intended to rent to organizations claiming to offer, for example, summer day camps for children. The later category is not permitted at all in the area of the school and the other two categories require a CUP. Planning Commission 110 East Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 Re: Hillbrook School September 23, 2014 Page 6 According to section 29.20.190, attached, Hillbrook would have to show that the "proposed uses will not impair the integrity and character of the zone" and that they would not be detrimental to the general welfare. The uses would also have to be in harmony with the General Plan. Given that Hillbrook is already causing traffic congestion for the neighborhood, it seems highly unlikely that it could meet these criteria. 2. The Grant of the Use Permit to Include Third Party Rentals Is Inconsistent With the Zoning Code and the General Plan As shown above, Hillbrook's request for use of its facility by third parties would fall under a different zoning code activity designation than the designation for a school, and the request does not meet the findings in section 29.20.190. The request is also inconsistent with the General Plan goals and policies, listed above and on page 20 of the staff report detailing the importance of preserving a good quality of life for the residents living around the school. 3. The Grant of the Use Permit to Include Third Party Rentals Would Violate CEQA An environmental impact report (EIR) must "discuss any inconsistencies between the proposed project and applicable general plans ..." (California Code of Regulations, section 15125, subdivision (d).) Chapter 4, "Land Use and Planning" in the Draft EIR (DEIR) does not cover the inconsistencies between the General Plan goals and policies listed on page 20 of the staff report and the proposed use of the Hillbrook facility by tenants or other third parties. There is no specific project description for this use and no evaluation of the potential traffic impacts from allowing the use. (Endangered Habitats League, Inc. v. Counry of Orange (2005) 131 Cal.AppAth 777. Therefore, the project would require at least a supplemental EIR to discuss the inconsistencies between the General Plan and allowing the Hillbrook facility to be leased by third parties. Thank you for considering my comments. Very truly yours, Leila H. Moncharsh, J.D., M.U.P. Veneruso & Moncharsh LHM:lm cc: LG CATS Municode Page 1 of 10 Sec, 29.20.145. Approval required. Architecture and site approval is required in all zones for the following (1) New construction of any principal building; (2) An exterior alteration that changes the architectural style of a single - family and two - family residence. (3) Any exterior alteration or addition to a building excluding: a• Alterations or additions to a single and two family dwelling that do not require approval by the Planning Commission or Development Review Committee pursuant to the Residential Design Guidelines or the Hillside Development Standards and Guidelines; b• Minor exterior alterations to commercial and multifamily buildings. (4) Intensification of land use. For the purposes of this section only, intensification of land use means all changes in use which require more parking and /or results In an increase in peak hour trips for mixed use, multi tenant commercial, industrial or multifamily development projects if the trips exceed the traffic generation factor assigned to the project at the time of approval and /or an increase of five (5) or more peak hour trips; (5) Residence conversions; (6) Any development in a floodplain as required by article IX of this chapter; and as otherwise specified in this article. (Ord. No. 1316, § 5.20.030, 6 -7 -76; Ord. No. 1328, 8 -2 -76; Ord. No. 1493, 3- 17 -81; Ord. No. 1521, 11 -2 -81; Ord. No. 1680, 3- 17 -86; Ord. No. 1736, 10- 19 -87; Ord. No. 1763, § 111, 10 -3 -88; Ord. No. 1815, § ill, 3- 19 -90; Ord. No. 1832, § 1, 7- 16 -90; Ord. No. 2149, § 1, 5 -1 -06) Sec. 29.20.180. Conditional use permits. The adoption of this chapter is based on the premise that there are uses which can be specified for each zone which, in practically all Instances, will be mutually compatible. In addition, there are other uses which might be compatible with ordinarily allowed uses if properly located and regulated. These are called conditional uses. They are listed in section 29.20.185. However, the listing of a conditional use does not indicate that the use must be allowed. There will be locations or instances where a specified conditional use is inappropriate in a zone regardless of the extent of regulation. (Ord, No. 1316, § 5.20.200, 6 -7 -76; Ord. No. 1363, 6 -1 -77) .� k Sec. 29.20.185. Table of conditional uses. An "X" indicates that an activity is allowed in a zone if a conditional use permit is issued. Activities listed in this table are only allowed where a conditional use permit is issued, or where the activity is specifically listed in the permitted uses for the zone. ABLE OF CONDITIONAL USES RC HR R1 D R -M R -1D RMH 0 C -1 -2 CH LM M t) lCommercial https: //library.municode.com/ print. aspx? h= &clientlD= 11760 &HTMRequest= https %3 a %2£.. 9/6/2014 Municode Page 2 of 10 https: // library. municode.com /print.aspx ?h= &clientlD= 11760 &HTMRequest= https %3 a %2f... 9/6/2014 6. Banks tK IX b. Kavines and loan office X C. rive -up window for X rny business d. u ermarket Ix u er drugstore Ix f. IDepartment store Ix q. �hopping center Ix h. Aotet otel estaurant including X X hose with outdoor fining areas or takeout ood k. tablishment selling lcoholic beverages for onsumption on remises 1. In conjunction X x x X ith a restaurant ithout food ervice (bar) 1. stablishment selling X lcoholic beverages for onsumption off - remises (this rovision only applies o establishments ommencing or xpanding off - premises ales after April 23, 1981 m. onvenience market I X n. ormula retail business Ix o. ormula retail business reater than 6,000 s.f. p, ersonal service usinesses (as set forth n section 29.60.320 q. qew office building X pproved or onstructed after May 1, 2006 r. ew retail sales of firearms, ammunition nd /or destructive evices as set forth in ection 29.70. 100 2 Recreation �p ommercial recreation X dh nd amusement stablishment 3. heater utdoor entertainment d. wimming pool for x x x x x X X on- incidental use e. x X x x X X X X https: // library. municode.com /print.aspx ?h= &clientlD= 11760 &HTMRequest= https %3 a %2f... 9/6/2014 Municode Page 3 of 10 https:lllibrary.municode.coml print. aspx? h= &clientID= 11760 &HTMRequest= https %3 a %2 f... 9/6/2014 vate sports joecreation club f. lf course 3 Community Services a. ublic building; police, ire, communi X X X X enter library, art a e ,museum b. tub, lodge, hall, X X rate or anization C. hurch, monastery, X X X onvent, and other nstitutions for eti ious observance d. Aortuary, X olumbarium, ausoleum e. ublic transportation X x x x Ix X X X nd Darkine facilities f. ar plaza, x x X x X la round S. Nonprofit youth groups 4 Schools Public schools or X X x X ollege not otherwise Ix ecified b. Irivate school or x x x x X x X x x X ollege not otherwise pacified; including a ew private school or ollege to be located n grounds or within uildings formerly ccupied by a public chool c. ursery school /day x x x X x X x X are center, provided hat each shall be on a ite not less than 0,000 square feet in rea and in a building of less than 2,000 quare feet in floor rea d. mall family day care x X ome e. arge family day care ome f. ocational or trade chool g. usiness or x X x x X rofessional school or olle e h. rt, craft, music, X ancin school 5 Health Services a. HosDitat https:lllibrary.municode.coml print. aspx? h= &clientID= 11760 &HTMRequest= https %3 a %2 f... 9/6/2014 Municode Page 4 of 10 https: //library.municode.coml print. aspx? h= &clientID= 11760 &HTMRequest= https %3a %2£.. 9/6/2014 onvalescent hos ital C. esidential care X acility -small family ome d. esidential care X X acility -large family ome e, esidential care x x X aciU rou home (6) Transmission Facilities /Utilities a. rubtic utility service X K X X ard, station, ransmission lines, torage tank, drainage I r communication acUlties b. kntenna facilities K x K X x X x X Aerated by a public or rivate utility for ransmitting and eceiving cellular elephone and other reless ommunications C. adio and /or Nroadcast studios (7) Automotive (Vehicle sales, service and related activities a. New vehicle sales and rental b. Used vehicle sales only incidental to new vehicle sales and rental C. Vehicle tires and accessories, sales, 6ervicine. reca in ody repair tin epair and X ara e VrI f. tation X lots or storage not accessory er use h. Car wash ruck terminal Iternating use of x X K x x x X ffs treet parking aces Fk. ecreationalvehicle and equipment storage and X X https: //library.municode.coml print. aspx? h= &clientID= 11760 &HTMRequest= https %3a %2£.. 9/6/2014 Municode Page 5 of 10 https:ll library. municode .comlprint.aspx ?h= &clientlD= 11760 &H7 MRequest= https %3a %2f... 9/6/2014 emporary auto torage for automobile eaters M. arking lots that serve nearby commercial se located on a reviously unimproved roperty in the R -1:12 one on an arterial treet 8 Residential Uses family dwelling X amil dwellin X X le- family X X n n house F X ent hotel home ark ntial X inium h. [Caretaker residence eserved j. onversion of a mobile ome park to ondominium wnershi k. ive /work units (9) Agriculture and Animal Services anical nurse X X 'n terinary hospital X 4ennel thout kennel e. mmercial and vate stables and n academies f. Wineries that have been legally and continuously operating or at least 50 years or is operated in conjunction with a vineyard g. viaries and other tholesating animal- ising facilities h. ineyards, orchards, nd agricultural or arming activities reater than 3,000 s.f. 10 Li ht Industrial a. rge recycling ollection facilities b, h arge recycling x x X X Follection facilities https:ll library. municode .comlprint.aspx ?h= &clientlD= 11760 &H7 MRequest= https %3a %2f... 9/6/2014 Municode Page 6 of 10 (Ord. No. 1316, §6.20.205, 6 -7 -76; Ord. No. 1363,8-1-77, Ord. No. 1367,9-19-77, Ord. No. 1369, 10 -3 -77; Ord. No. 1375, 11- 21 -77, Ord. No. 1405, 9 -5 -78, Ord. No. 1417, 2- 20 -79; Ord. No. 1476, 9- 15 -80; Ord. No. 1483, 12 -2- 80; Ord. No. 1493, 3- 17 -81; Ord. No. 1506, 7 -6 -81; Ord. No. 1531, 4.20 -82; Ord. No. 1546, 8- 16 -82; Ord. No. 1555, 10- 25 -82; Ord. No. 1571, 3 -7 -83; Ord. No. 1596, 10- 24 -83; Ord. No. 1654, 4- 22 -85; Ord. No. 1667, 12 -2 -85, Ord. No. 1701, 12- 15.86; Ord. No. 1724, 5-18-67: Ord. No. 1725, 6 -1 -87; Ord. No. 1729, 6- 15.87; Ord. No. 1732, 7 -20- 87; Ord. No. 1737, § V, 11 -2 -87; Ord. No. 1746, 3- 21 -88; Ord. No. 1835, § 111, 7- 16 -90; Ord. No. 1842, § 11, 4 -1 -91; Ord. No. 1896, § 1, 4 -6 -92; Ord. No. 1961, § I, 11- 15-93; Ord. No. 1993, § 1, 1 -3 -95; Ord. No. 2006, § IIA, 11 -6 -95; Ord. No. 2011, § 1, 3 -4 -96; Ord. No. 2107, § 11, 11 -4-02; Ord. No. 2115, § 111, 9- 15 -03; Ord. No. 2131, § 1, 5-3 -04: Ord. No. 2132, § 11, 5- 17 -04; Ord. No 2149, § 1, 5.1 -06; Ord. No. 2220, § I(Exh. A), 10 -7 -13; Ord. No. 2222, §I(Exh. A), 10- 21.13) Sec. 29.20.190. Findings and decision. (a) The deciding body, on the basis of the evidence submitted at the hearing, may grant a conditional use permit when specifically authorized by the provisions of this chapter if it finds that: (1) The proposed uses of the property are essential or desirable to the public convenience or welfare; (2) The proposed uses will not impair the integrity and character of the zone; The proposed uses would not be detrimental to public health, safety or general welfare; and (4) The proposed uses of the property are in harmony with the various elements or objectives of the general plan and the purposes of this chapter. (5) A hazardous waste facility proposal is subject to the California Health and Safety Code, Article 8.7, Section 25199- 25199,14 and shall be consistent with the Santa Clara County Hazardous Waste Management Plan. (b) The deciding body, on the basis of the evidence submitted at the hearing, may deny a conditional use permit for a formula retail business or a personal service business if any of the following findings are made: (1) https: // library. municode .com / print. aspx? h= &clientID= 11760 &HTMRequest= https %3a %2£.. 9/6/2014 perated by a public en ment rental and ruction materials e. i uel storage and eanin lants X dous waste ement facility 11 Other a. utdoorstorage b. hanging the activity X X x x X X x X x x X n a nonconforming uildin C. 4 hour businesses or x X usinesses open etween the hours of :00 a.m. and 6:00 .m. (Ord. No. 1316, §6.20.205, 6 -7 -76; Ord. No. 1363,8-1-77, Ord. No. 1367,9-19-77, Ord. No. 1369, 10 -3 -77; Ord. No. 1375, 11- 21 -77, Ord. No. 1405, 9 -5 -78, Ord. No. 1417, 2- 20 -79; Ord. No. 1476, 9- 15 -80; Ord. No. 1483, 12 -2- 80; Ord. No. 1493, 3- 17 -81; Ord. No. 1506, 7 -6 -81; Ord. No. 1531, 4.20 -82; Ord. No. 1546, 8- 16 -82; Ord. No. 1555, 10- 25 -82; Ord. No. 1571, 3 -7 -83; Ord. No. 1596, 10- 24 -83; Ord. No. 1654, 4- 22 -85; Ord. No. 1667, 12 -2 -85, Ord. No. 1701, 12- 15.86; Ord. No. 1724, 5-18-67: Ord. No. 1725, 6 -1 -87; Ord. No. 1729, 6- 15.87; Ord. No. 1732, 7 -20- 87; Ord. No. 1737, § V, 11 -2 -87; Ord. No. 1746, 3- 21 -88; Ord. No. 1835, § 111, 7- 16 -90; Ord. No. 1842, § 11, 4 -1 -91; Ord. No. 1896, § 1, 4 -6 -92; Ord. No. 1961, § I, 11- 15-93; Ord. No. 1993, § 1, 1 -3 -95; Ord. No. 2006, § IIA, 11 -6 -95; Ord. No. 2011, § 1, 3 -4 -96; Ord. No. 2107, § 11, 11 -4-02; Ord. No. 2115, § 111, 9- 15 -03; Ord. No. 2131, § 1, 5-3 -04: Ord. No. 2132, § 11, 5- 17 -04; Ord. No 2149, § 1, 5.1 -06; Ord. No. 2220, § I(Exh. A), 10 -7 -13; Ord. No. 2222, §I(Exh. A), 10- 21.13) Sec. 29.20.190. Findings and decision. (a) The deciding body, on the basis of the evidence submitted at the hearing, may grant a conditional use permit when specifically authorized by the provisions of this chapter if it finds that: (1) The proposed uses of the property are essential or desirable to the public convenience or welfare; (2) The proposed uses will not impair the integrity and character of the zone; The proposed uses would not be detrimental to public health, safety or general welfare; and (4) The proposed uses of the property are in harmony with the various elements or objectives of the general plan and the purposes of this chapter. (5) A hazardous waste facility proposal is subject to the California Health and Safety Code, Article 8.7, Section 25199- 25199,14 and shall be consistent with the Santa Clara County Hazardous Waste Management Plan. (b) The deciding body, on the basis of the evidence submitted at the hearing, may deny a conditional use permit for a formula retail business or a personal service business if any of the following findings are made: (1) https: // library. municode .com / print. aspx? h= &clientID= 11760 &HTMRequest= https %3a %2£.. 9/6/2014 Jennifer Savage To: Subject: Tara Moseley RE: Hillbrook CUP Application From: Tara Moseley <taradmoselev(a)yahoo.com> Subject: Hillbrook CUP Application Date: March 7, 2015 at 7:43:59 AM PST To: miensen @losgatosca.gov, bspector()losgatosca.gov, msayoc(ailosgatosca.gov, rrennie EDlosgatosca.gov Cc: jsavage a(�losgatos.gov, Iprevetti(a)losgatosca.gov sleonard is(olosgatosca.gov, Dear Mayor Jensen, Vice Mayor Spector, and Council Members Leonardis, Sayoc, and Rennie: First, I would like to extend a sincere THANK YOU to Council members for the time and attention you have given to our issues regarding the Hillbrook CUP Application. I would also like to thank you for your time spent in analyzing all the documentation and testimony to come up with well thought out conditions for the new CUP, including: a daily maximum traffic cap; focused study of the use of Ann Arbor/Wollin for pedestrian, bike, and car traffic; requirement that shuttle stops be approved as safe and suitable by the Parks and Public Works Department; summer use limited to six contiguous weeks; real -time posting of traffic counts accessible to the public; summer use limited to students enrolled at Hillbrook during the academic year; no pickup or drop -off on neighborhood streets. Second, I would like to kindly request that you consider the following points when continuing your deliberations on March 17, 2015: • Hillbrook has repeatedly said it would not increase traffic if it increased enrollment. They should be held to this promise and not go above the current levels of traffic. • The fall and winter levels of traffic were reached without a mandatory TDM plan. The traffic levels could be even lower if a mandatory plan were put in place (i.e. Require grades 5 -8 to ride the bus in the morning). An 880 maximum daily traffic limit is completely reasonable considering the data set. • Even with an 880 maximum daily traffic limit, Marchmont Drive, and the surrounding neighborhood streets, will continue to experience what the TIRE Index calls a "significantly impaired residential environment." That's because upper Marchmont on its own generates roughly 324 residential home owner trips per day. According to TIRE, the "significantly impaired residential environment" occurs when there are more than 890 daily trips on a residential street. When you add 324 to 880, you already get an unreasonable amount of traffic for a residential street. • Monetary penalties should be much greater than originally proposed by Mayor Jensen, to guarantee compliance with a maximum daily traffic limit. Thank you for reading this letter, and thank you for your service! Kind regards, Tara Moseley Environmental Engineer Los Gatos Resident Jennifer Savage From: donna.wallerstein @comcast.net Sent: Saturday, March 07, 2015 1:04 PM To: Marcia Jensen; BSpector; Steven Leonardis; Marico Sayoc; Rob Rennie Cc: Jennifer Savage; Laurel Prevetti; mike.wasserman @bos.sccgov.org Subject: Hillbrook CUP deliberation March 7th, 2015 Dear Mayor Jensen, Vice Mayor Spector and Council Members Leonardis, Sayoc and Rennie As residents of Marchmont Drive for the last nearly 6 years, we can attest to the daily traffic that Hillbrook school causes our otherwise relatively navigable neighborhood. We have very real concerns about safety for all of the residents of the neighborhood and for the children at Hillbrook who will be virtually trapped in the event of a disaster. Putting more children at the end of a one -way street is a terrible plan of action. There are at least 3 physicians who live on Marchmont Drive and we all know that in the event of a disaster, panic will ensue. Willfully endangering lives is not in the best interest of any plan, either for Hillbrook, Los Gatos or the residents of Marchmont Drive and the surrounding neighborhoods. Hillbrook simply should not be allowed to increase its enrollment at all. Hillbrook should be required to strictly mitigate the amount of traffic that they cause at all times, whether during the school year or outside the school year. Hillbrook should be held accountable for the use of their property by third parties so that neighborhood safety is maintained to the best of our ability at all times. We are aware that neighbors on Ann Arbor are vehemently opposed to opening the gate on their side of Hillbrook and have threatened to sue to keep the gate closed. In the event of a disaster, if even one child could be proven to have been injured due to slowed emergency response, the lawsuits that would occur would dwarf the threats of the neighbors. Having a plan to open the gate in the event of an emergency does not count the time it may take to find the person with the key or the time it will take emergency personnel to break the gate down. In an emergency, seconds count. Putting more children at the end of a one -way street is a liability for the town of Los Gatos. And since part of our neighborhood is not the town of Los Gatos, but is the jurisdiction of the County of Santa Clara, that liability will likely fall on the County as well. It is all well and good to consider fairness to all parties, but above all, do no harm Sincerely, Robert Wallerstein, MD Donna Wallerstein, MS 16557 Marchmont Drive Los Gatos, CA 95032 Copy to: Mike Wasserman, Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors This Page Intentionally Left Blank Jennifer Savage From: cvindasius @gmail.com on behalf of Cindy Vindasius <cindy @vindasius.com> Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2015 10:21 AM To: Marcia Jensen Cc: Town Manager, Jennifer Savage Subject: Hillbrook - a word on how to "Restore the Trust" Mayor Jensen- I just wanted to send a short follow up to you on the upcoming neighborhood proposal response in regards to the Hillbrook expansion issue. As you know - my goal is for doing what it takes to "restore the trust" between the neighbors, Hillbrook and the town and in someway to find a working solution everyone can get behind. I was very pleased that Hillbrook finally decided to release the traffic counts as requested by the council (and VERY pleased that the council requested these prior to going forward in making a decision). With that I have been closely involved with the neighborhood interpretation and response. I have been very vocal with the neighborhood that what we really need in place is an enforceable CUP where "100% compliance" is the goal. believe that if the MAXIMUM traffic counts are set at a reasonable level, the best measure to ensure compliance is to implement STIFF penalties for non - compliance. In my view, I feel like people in this town view the CUP as "guidelines" as opposed to "requirements" as the penalties do not warrant still penalties for non - compliance. If you miss the tax filing deadline, you have stiff penalties and fees. If you miss your credit card payment by the due date, your credit score goes down - all penalties people want to avoid which makes compliance within the parameters important and a priority. I want the same thing from Hillbrook. Given the current traffic count data provided, and the fact that the school has NOT implemented a mandatory traffic mitigation plan, I believe if the number is set at an 880 MAXIMUM, there is PLENTY of room for Hillbrook to meet stiff compliance objectives even with an increase in student population. What the neighborhood needs is reliability - what will make the tensions continue between the neighborhood, Hillbrook and the town is if the data is not shared regularly and if the traffic volume continues to "hover around the maximum" without penalty or incentive to remain compliant. I have been very vocal with the neighborhood about sticking to the 880 MAXIMUM number in exchange for stiff penalties for compliance. I think the sentiment of the neighborhood is one of "distrust" in that if they agree to 880 maximum - we will not get both the number AND STIFF penalties and thus they are planning to go with a lower proposed number so there is a basis for compromise for the council to not give in to exactly what the neighborhood wants - to show that both sides are having to compromise. All that being said - I feel very strongly about implementing stiff penalties in exchange for a reasonable traffic number - which does impact the neighborhood streets unjustly but not absurdly, allows for the additional students Hillbrook is requesting and rewards Hillbrook for its efforts in carpooling and remaining compliant. I also do not believe the penalties imposed below and included in the neighborhood response are unreasonable or unfair in any way - or financially detrimental if they "slip up" from time to time. However, any penalties proposed at less that what is proposed below - will definitely not have my support. Thank you again for all you time and effort on this matter. Hopefully we can get it resolved once and for all in the March 17th meeting. Good Luck! Regards - Cindy Vindasius 215 Rosalie Court Los Gatos, CA 95032 PENALTIES FOR EXCEEDING THE MAXIMUM DAILY TRIP CAP a. If the Town's review of the trip cap numbers at the end of any month (including either Academic Year or Summer month) reveals that the number of trips exceeds the maximum daily trip cap on any day, Hillbrook shall pay a penalty of $1,000.00 per day the cap is violated, plus $100 for each excess trip per day. b. If the Town's review of the trip cap numbers reveals that the number of daily trips exceeds the maximum daily trip cap for a second month during that Academic Year, Hillbrook shall pay a penalty of $5,000.00 per violation day, plus $200 for each excess trip. c. If the Town's review of the trip cap numbers reveals that the number of daily trips exceeds the maximum daily trip cap for a third month during that Academic year, Hillbrook shall: 1. Pay a penalty of $10,000.00 per violation day, plus $1,000 for each excess car trip, and 2. Reduce the maximum enrollment for the following Academic Year by 10 students. d. If the Town's review of the trip cap numbers reveals that the number of daily trips exceeds the maximum daily trip cap for a fourth month, and in any month thereafter during that Academic Year, Hillbrook shall pay a penalty of $10,000.00 per violation day, plus $1,000 for each excess car trip. In the event that Hillbrook does not voluntarily agree to these or similar penalty provisions, which are largely based on provisions the school itself submitted, as a condition of the Town granting the new CUP, the Town Council should deny the pennit application altogether. To: Los Gatos Town Council Joe Sordi Sr 212 Marchmont Dr Los Gatos, Ca 95032 / ecelliVe� 0,2015 MAR ?� Subject: Establishment of Hillbrook School Traffic Limits p01�/V19V N pF 15 Dear Mayor Jensen and Town Council Members: �NGO /S�/OHS A few of my neighbor have expressed a strong fear that if the Hillbrook traffic limit is an 880 average the school would somehow find a way to circumvent the limit. While it is true that with only an average limit there may be some days when traffic is unacceptably high, that can be remedied by having a daily limit in addition to the average. To prevent any attempts at skulduggery by the school, Council could require the daily publication on the Hillbrook website of both a daily count and an average -to -date, or "running average ". With both an daily count and running average, it becomes immediately clear if there are any irregularities in counts. An additional advantage is that one does not have to wait until the end of a trimester to see the average. The key issues that remain are to assure that the counts are accurate and that there are no attempts to bypass the counter. If Council decides to use a daily limit with no average, then it is important to find a limit that reflects a daily average of 880. The most recent counts and the counts from the Spring of 2014 both show a very small standard deviation. In other words the counts cluster tightly around the average. This allows a limit of about 10% over the average or in the 968 range. If only a daily limit is used, it is important that the limit not be too high. For example, with a daily limit of 1050, it is very likely that traffic will average higher than 880, resulting in too -high daily traffic under the limit. If necessary, the Council could employ a traffic consultant to determine what the daily limit should be. Finally, it should be noted that these limits apply to an enrollment approaching 414. If the enrollment limit remains 315, then recent improved traffic mitigation means limits can be lower than an 880 average and lower than a daily limit derived from the 880 average. Regards, Joe Sordi Sr This Page Intentionally Left Blank We greatly appreciate the time and effort that the Town Council has put into the Hillbrook issue. We feel that the Council has listened to our concerns and that we are finally on the way to creating a CUP that will protect the neighborhood without harming Hillbrook. The proposals that Mayor Jenson presented were particularly constructive and, if implemented in a new CUP, should protect the neighborhood from further negative impacts while facilitating Hillbrook's educational mission. We strongly support most of Mayor Jensen's proposals while having concerns about a few of them. We hope the Council will vote with Mayor Jensen on the following recommendations that she made at the February 17 meeting: • Daily maximum traffic cap • Times of use limited to 7:30 AM -6:00 PM except for 10 specified exception days for special events during the Academic Year • Hillbrook's enrollment cap remains at 315. Hillbrook can request a 33- student increase only after it has demonstrated for at least six months that it can comply with all CUP provisions (thus avoiding any vested right in an enrollment increase) • Requirement that Hillbrook may receive any successive enrollment increase of up to 33 new students, for a maximum total of 99, only after demonstrating continued compliance with the CUP (again, to avoid any vested right in an enrollment increase) • Focused study of the use of the Ann Arbor gate for pedestrian, bike, and car access • Shuttletbus stops only at locations approved by the Parks and Public Works Department as being suitable and safe or on private properties with which Hillbrook has negotiated agreements • Summer use limited to six contiguous weeks • Summer use limited to students enrolled at Hillbrook during the school year • Pickups and drop -offs not permitted on neighborhood streets • Compliance reviews biannually for the first year and annually thereafter • Real -time online posting of traffic counts accessible to the public • A permanent tube counter installed at the entrance to count vehicles entering and exiting, as a backup to the Sensys counter • Traffic monitoring costs to be paid by Hillbrook REQUESTS FOR CHANGES TO PROPOSALS We have concerns about a few of the mayor's proposals. Our strongest concerns are with the maximum number of vehicle trips permitted per day and with the penalty proposals, so we will begin with those. PecelvED March 10, 2015 Mayor Marcia Jensen and Members of the Town Council MAR 102015 Town of Los Gatos 130 E. iCA TOVVV P �NGD 00S Los Gatos, 95030 1 Dear Mayor Jensen, Vice Mayor Spector, and Council Members Leonardis, Sayoc, and Rennie: We greatly appreciate the time and effort that the Town Council has put into the Hillbrook issue. We feel that the Council has listened to our concerns and that we are finally on the way to creating a CUP that will protect the neighborhood without harming Hillbrook. The proposals that Mayor Jenson presented were particularly constructive and, if implemented in a new CUP, should protect the neighborhood from further negative impacts while facilitating Hillbrook's educational mission. We strongly support most of Mayor Jensen's proposals while having concerns about a few of them. We hope the Council will vote with Mayor Jensen on the following recommendations that she made at the February 17 meeting: • Daily maximum traffic cap • Times of use limited to 7:30 AM -6:00 PM except for 10 specified exception days for special events during the Academic Year • Hillbrook's enrollment cap remains at 315. Hillbrook can request a 33- student increase only after it has demonstrated for at least six months that it can comply with all CUP provisions (thus avoiding any vested right in an enrollment increase) • Requirement that Hillbrook may receive any successive enrollment increase of up to 33 new students, for a maximum total of 99, only after demonstrating continued compliance with the CUP (again, to avoid any vested right in an enrollment increase) • Focused study of the use of the Ann Arbor gate for pedestrian, bike, and car access • Shuttletbus stops only at locations approved by the Parks and Public Works Department as being suitable and safe or on private properties with which Hillbrook has negotiated agreements • Summer use limited to six contiguous weeks • Summer use limited to students enrolled at Hillbrook during the school year • Pickups and drop -offs not permitted on neighborhood streets • Compliance reviews biannually for the first year and annually thereafter • Real -time online posting of traffic counts accessible to the public • A permanent tube counter installed at the entrance to count vehicles entering and exiting, as a backup to the Sensys counter • Traffic monitoring costs to be paid by Hillbrook REQUESTS FOR CHANGES TO PROPOSALS We have concerns about a few of the mayor's proposals. Our strongest concerns are with the maximum number of vehicle trips permitted per day and with the penalty proposals, so we will begin with those. Mayor Marcia Jensen and Members of the Town Council Hillbrook CUP 3 -10 -15 1. TRAFFIC CAPS FOR THE ACADEMIC YEAR AND THE SUMMER SESSION The data Hillbrook released on March 2, 2015 demonstrates that Hillbrook is fully capable of keeping its traffic far below an 880 cap. Furthermore, the traffic levels the data shows are finally the levels that were promised to the neighborhood under the 2001 CUP. We have waited 14 years for Hillbrook to reduce its traffic to levels that are acceptable. This is the maximum level of traffic that is acceptable in the neighborhood. Hillbrook has repeatedly made the commitment not to increase traffic even if it increases enrollment. The current traffic levels are those that Hillbrook should maintain under any enrollment number. We ask that Council reduce the traffic cap called for in Mayor Jensen's proposal for two key reasons: (1) Hillbrook's March 2, 2015 data clearly demonstrates that the cap should be lower than 880; and (2) using the proposal to allow Hillbrook 880 daily trips would allow Hillbrook to continue to significantly impair the residential environment. During the eight months covered by the Hillbrook data, there were 111 school days, and data was provided for 106 of them. Traffic exceeded 880 on only 4 of the 106 days. At least 3 of these days were exception days. Therefore, the data does not support allowing Hillbrook to routinely impose 880 trips per day. During the period for which we have data, Hillbrook did not have a mandatory traffic plan. Thus, Hillbrook achieved its lower traffic this fall and winter without requiring parent participation in busing, carpooling, and walking/bicycling. Based on the March 2, 2015 data and the additional reduction in traffic that a mandatory traffic plan would provide, a maximum daily traffic cap of 814 is appropriate. According to the EIR, this is the average Hillbrook achieved by 2013 after implementing only some voluntary traffic mitigation. According to the March 2, 2015 data, Hillbrook traffic exceeded 814 trips on only 17 days (16 %) during the 8 -month period. Therefore, with a well- conceived mandatory traffic mitigation plan, which Hillbrook has yet to implement, Hillbrook could, if it wished to, contain its traffic to below 814 on all days other than the 10 exception days for special events. Hillbrook's traffic plan, we believe, should include mandatory participation by all parents and should have targets for participation in busing, carpooling, and walking/bicycling. Based on Mayor Jensen's proposals, it appeared that Council would ask Hillbrook to develop and implement and then carefully monitor and enforce a detailed traffic management plan. We believe the school should do this. However, if the Council were hesitant about an 814 limit, it might consider the higher traffic cap of 840 daily trips. The data received on March 2, 2015 shows that on 95 or 90% of the 106 days, Hillbrook's traffic was 840 or lower. Based on this data, with an 840 cap, the risk of exceeding the cap would be extremely low so long as Hillbrook practiced good management. Non - compliance should not be an issue with an 840 maximum. See the attached analyses of the March 2, 2015 data, titled "Daily Counts, Weekdays" and "Data Shows 814 Is Achievable." 2. Mayor Marcia Jensen and Members of the Town Council Hillbrook CUP 3 -10 -15 Summer Traffic Can We ask that you require a daily traffic cap for the summer session of no more than 275 daily vehicle trips. Summer traffic conditions should return to what they were before 2009, when Hillbrook improperly began allowing Third Party use of the campus. At least half of the current summer traffic results from a Third Party program, which should no longer be permitted under the new CUP. The proposal for summer traffic with a 440 cap would actually increase levels of summer traffic beyond what they were before 2009. The EIR failed to look at summers and came to the erroneous conclusion that cutting school year traffic in half for summers would provide "real relief from traffic." Daily traffic of 440 trips would be about double the summer traffic neighbors were used to. Also, before 2009, summer sessions ended by 1:00 PM. The mayor's proposal would increase the number of hours for summer sessions. Our proposal would make Hillbrook's summer school session consistent with the summer school session offered by the Los Gatos Saratoga Recreation Dept. in conjunction with the Los Gatos Union School District. We therefore ask that Council support our summer proposal. Summer Session: During the summer session, the maximum number of vehicle trips entering and leaving the Hillbrook campus at the Marchmont Drive Gate shall not exceed 275. The summer session, if any, shall occur over no more than six contiguous weeks between the end of one school year and the beginning of the next. Summer session activities may occur only on Monday through Friday from 8:30 A.M. to 12:30 P.M. The summer- session total enrollment shall be limited to 100 JK to 80' grade Hillbrook students. Documentation listing the number of students enrolled at Hillbrook School in the summer session shall be supplied to the Town at least two weeks before the beginning of the summer session. 2. PENALTIES FOR EXCEEDING THE TRAFFIC CAP We are concerned that the penalty provision the mayor proposed - -a $5,000 penalty for each quarter (three month period) during which the traffic cap was exceeded on any day - -would fail to provide any protection for the neighborhood. A penalty should act as a significant incentive to comply with the CUP Conditions. The proposed penalty would not be an effective incentive for the following reasons: • As we understand it, the penalty would not increase based on the number of days the cap was exceeded or based on the number of vehicles that exceeded the cap. Once Hillbrook exceeds the daily cap by a single day during any quarter, it could continue to exceed the cap with impunity without incurring any further penalty. We believe that the only way penalties will ensure that Hillbrook maintains traffic under the daily cap is to have the penalties increase based on the number of days the cap is exceeded and increase based on the amount by which the cap is exceeded each day. • As proposed at the March 17 meeting, the total maximum penalty per year to Hillbrook for all violations of the daily traffic cap would amount to no more than $20,000. This seems like an insignificant sum for Hillbrook to pay against the additional $3 million plus it will derive each 3. Mayor Marcia Jensen and Members of the Town Council Hillbrook CUP 3 -10 -15 year from the new 99 students enrolled. An annual maximum penalty of $20,000 would render the daily cap meaningless. The data received on March 2 clearly shows that 814 is a reasonable and achievable cap and that non- compliance should not be an issue. The goal of stiff fines is not to have Hillbrook pay large penalties but to provide a strong incentive for Hillbrook to comply with the CUP. Further, the penalty provision should contain a penalty of an enrollment decrease of at least 10 students for the following academic year in the event the cap is violated more than two months in the prior academic year. This should be for the life of the CUP. Again, the goal of penalties is to ensure compliance. The threat of an enrollment decrease would, we believe, act as a serious deterrent that would compel Hillbrook to remain in compliance. An enrollment decrease also makes sense because if Hillbrook is unable to control its traffic at a certain enrollment level, that enrollment level should be decreased to the point where traffic can be contained beneath the cap. In a meeting with Town Attorney Robert Schultz on March 9'n, attorney Schultz confirmed that a decrease in enrollment as proposed below is enforceable, after Hillbrook vests in the right to increase enrollment. Hillbrook's right to its first increase (33) would vest once they increase above 315. When Mayor Jensen made her penalty proposal, she said she was looking for numbers that would be "predictable and reasonable." At a neighborhood meeting Hillbrook hosted in May 2014, Hillbrook itself proposed much stiffer penalties -- $1,000 per car trip for the first evaluation period; $5,000 per car trip for a second evaluation period if there were violations during the first period, and $10,000 per cap trip for a third evaluation period if there were violations during the previous two periods. We believe that the Council should adopt a modified version of the penalties neighbors and Hillbrook already proposed. One goal of the new CUP is to restore trust between the neighbors and Hillbrook. Our new proposal reduces the penalty amount for individual car trips that exceed the daily cap while providing a penalty for each violation day. We ask that traffic be reported and evaluated for compliance at the end of each month, as recommended by Hillbrook's traffic consulting firm Nelson\Nygaard. Evaluating compliance with the readily available data would not be a burdensome process for staff. Data will be available 24n1365, via the Sensys system, with a backup from the tube counter, if necessary. In the event Hillbrook does not produce data for any day, that would be considered a violation per Mayor Jensen's proposal. We concur with that position. Data should be available for all days. The data set Hillbrook supplied on March 2nd was missing data on a total of 10 days (5 school days). That should not reoccur if trust is to be reestablished. We ask that the Council give serious consideration to the penalties proposed below: PENALTIES FOR EXCEEDING THE MAXIMUM DAILY TRIP CAP a. If the Town's review of the trip cap numbers at the end of any month (including either Academic Year or Summer month) reveals that the number of trips exceeds the maximum daily trip cap on any day, Hillbrook shall pay a penalty of $1,000.00 per day the cap is violated, plus $100 for each excess trip per day. a Mayor Marcia Jensen and Members of the Town Council Hillbrook CUP 3 -10 -15 b. If the Town's review of the trip cap numbers reveals that the number of daily trips exceeds the maximum daily trip cap for a second month during that Academic Year, Hillbrook shall pay a penalty of $5,000.00 per violation day, plus $200 for each excess trip. c. If the Town's review of the trip cap numbers reveals that the number of daily trips exceeds the maximum daily trip cap for a third month during that Academic year, Hillbrook shall: 1. Pay a penalty of $10,000.00 per violation day, plus $1,000 for each excess car trip, and 2. Reduce the maximum enrollment for the following Academic Year by 10 students. d. If the Town's review of the trip cap numbers reveals that the number of daily trips exceeds the maximum daily trip cap for a fourth month, and in any month thereafter during that Academic Year, Hillbrook shall pay a penalty of $10,000.00 per violation day, plus $1,000 for each excess car trip. e. Any day for which Hillbrook does not produce complete data shall be considered a violation. In the event that Hillbrook does not voluntarily agree to these or similar penalty provisions, which are largely based on provisions the school itself submitted, as a condition of the Town granting the new CUP, the Town Council should deny the permit application altogether. 3. PENALTIES FOR NON - TRIP -CAP VIOLATIONS We believe that to deter future violations, there should be penalties for all CUP violations. We ask that the Council give serious consideration to the condition below. PENALTIES FOR NON - TRIP -CAP VIOLATIONS. In the event that Hillbrook exceeds its enrollment limit for the school year or the summer session, Hillbrook shall pay a $58,000 penalty or twice the cost of tuition for that school year, whichever is greater, to the Town of Los Gatos for each extra student or child enrolled. In the event that Hillbrook exceeds its nighttime school year cap of 10 nighttime activities, Hillbrook shall pay a $5,000 (five thousand dollars) penalty per violation to the Town of Los Gatos for each violation. All other violations shall carry a fine of $5,000 (five thousand dollars) per violation per day. In this case, too, in the event that Hillbrook does not voluntarily agree to these or similar penalty provisions, which are largely based on provisions the school itself submitted, as a condition of the Town granting the new CUP, the Town Council should deny the permit application altogether. I. WEEKEND USE. Weekend use of the campus has always been limited to three Saturday events. There has never been any Sunday use. We believe there should be no expansion of weekend use. 5. Mayor Marcia Jensen and Members of the Town Council Hillbrook CUP 3 -10 -15 There have never been weekend activities lasting until 9 PM, and these should not be permitted now. Weekend activities should be limited to the following: Two Saturday tournaments lasting no later than 3:30 p.m.; One Saturday Open House lasting no later than 3:30 p.m. 4. THIRD -PARTY USE In her proposals, Mayor Jensen made no reference to third -party use. This is one Condition of the current CUP that needs to be strengthened. The 2001 CUP was intended to preclude use of the campus by all Third Parties. We continue to ask that no third party use be permitted on the Hillbrook campus. Third -party uses create the following problems for the neighborhood: • Hillbrook could lend or rent the campus at times when the campus would not normally be in use and cause intensification of use beyond what Hillbrook needs. These times would include periods when neighbors would look forward to relief from traffic -- winter break, spring break, and vacation periods. Hillbrook has already demonstrated its clear intention to hold activities outside of normal school use by hosting tournaments, conferences and outside programs during breaks and the summer session. • Third parties are unfamiliar with the neighborhood's often narrow, windy streets and with its traffic limits. This decreases safety in the neighborhood. • Hillbrook does not supervise third party activities. No one would be responsible for insuring compliance with the CUP. The Planning Commission CUP included a condition prohibiting third -party use, but unfortunately included an insufficient definition of "third- party." We ask Council to include the following condition to prohibit third -party use. THIRD PARTY USE/RENTAL/LEASE. Any third party use, rental, and/or lease of the campus is prohibited, except that Hillbrook School may provide educational programs for its Academic Year enrolled students or Academic Year staff by contracting with a third -party instructor to provide services for the programs and by providing that all enrollment in any such program is counted in Hillbrook's enrollment cap and any fees for participation in such programs are paid directly to Hillbrook School. Any such Third Party instruction shall take place only during regularly scheduled school days or during the six week summer session for Hillbrook enrolled students. To deal with the times of use issue that would relate to the third -party use issue, we ask Council to consider the following condition: TIMES OF USE. The Hillbrook campus shall be in use only during regularly scheduled school days and for six weeks during the summer. 1.1 Mayor Marcia Jensen and Members of the Town Council Hillbrook CUP 3 -10 -15 OTHER ISSUES Specific Language. In Mayor Jensen's remarks, it was stated that no specific language was being provided for conditions. Because of this, we would ask that when the specific language for the CUP conditions is drafted, that neighbors be allowed to review the specific language before the Town Council grants the permit. We believe that the "devil is in the details," and we'd like to make sure the details are correct. For example, we would hope that the specific language would include these details: The names of the streets on which no Hillbrook pickups and drop -offs were permitted. A condition that stated only that there could be no pickups and drop -offs "in the immediate vicinity of Hillbrook" would not be specific enough to protect all the neighborhood streets. We would like to see these streets specifically named in a condition about pickups and drop -offs: Robin Way, Hilow Road, lower Marchmont, Topping, Cardinal, Stonybrook Road, and all of upper Marchmont and its adjacent courts. All of these streets are places where Hillbrook parents currently park and then walk their children the remaining distance to the school. The definition of Hillbrook as a "JK -8 private school" rather than as an "educational institution." Here is the school's mission statement as presented as part of its Form 990 for 2011: Hillbrook School is an independent junior kindergarten through 8th grade school whose program uniquely balances academic rigor with a humanistic approach to learning. The specification that embedded counters count both entering and exiting traffic and that a tube counter be used as a backup. This is to the benefit of all, since Hillbrook would be fined if no data were made available. Exception Days. There should be no more than 10 exception days during which traffic can exceed the cap during any school year, and there should be no exception days during the summer. Please consider the condition below. It allows a total of 10 exception days, but does not specify that the exception days need to include nighttime activities. Hillbrook would choose the days it wanted to use as exceptions. These could include days with day events such grandparents' day as well as days with evening events such as school plays and Family Fun Night. Exception - "Special Event Days." The school may select up to 10 days per Academic Year to exceed the traffic cap maximum in recognition of events that are not representative of typical daily operations, but that are Permitted Activities consistent with this Conditional Use Permit ( "Special Event Days "). On those up to 10 Special Event Days, the total number of vehicle trips entering and exiting the campus shall not exceed 960. No days with traffic exceeding the summer cap and no nighttime activities are permitted during the summer session. Hillbrook is to supply the Town a list of dates for its 10 exception days for the upcoming Academic Year by August 1 of each year. Nighttime Activities. No more than 10 nighttime activities (activities that last past 6:00 p.m.) are permitted during any Academic Year. No nighttime activities are permitted during the summer. Nighttime activities on days in which the traffic cap is exceeded shall be included in the count of Exception/Special Event Days. VESTED RIGHTS. We are particularly worried about creating vested rights for Hillbrook. Our lawyer, Leila Moncharsh, in a letter to Council dated January 5, 2015 cautioned Council members against approving the phasing in of an increase in enrollment. In reference to this, we are including below some of what Ms. Moncharsh said on page 4 of her letter. 7. Mayor Marcia Jensen and Members of the Town Council Hillbrook CUP 3 -10 -15 The Enrollment Should Not be "Phased;" Instead, the Council Should Grant a Small Number of Additional Students at this Time or Deny the Application Hillbrook understands that the CUP currently approved by the Planning Commission would allow it to increase its enrollment by 99 students, phased in over a three academic -years period, depending on whether Hillbrook complies with the 880 trip limit. (Hillbrook Letter, page 2.) This method of addressing increased student enrollment creates a legal conundrum and logistics problems for planning staff. Once the Town grants a CUP for 99 additional students, the permission to have those 99 students becomes a "vested" property right of the school. The issue of whether it is in compliance or out of compliance at the end of each year is always debatable, especially when relying on averages for the 880 trip limit. Pulling back the permission in the CUP to increase enrollment by 99 students is not legally or realistically possible without an administrative hearing that provides due process to the school. With enrollment phases, a school with a history of use permit noncompliance will simply increase its enrollment when it feels like it and then argue that it has a "vested right" to do so under the phasing provisions in its CUP. When that occurs, the planning department's only recourses are either to hold a time consuming and expensive administrative hearing to modify or revoke the CUP, or hold a hearing before the Planning Commission to "legalize" the over - enrollment. The better strategy would be for the Town Council to increase the enrollment substantially less than what is requested now. Hillbrook will have to file a new application for modification of the CUP later on - - after the Town sees how well it does with complying with the COAs.... SUMMARY Once again, we would like to express our appreciation to the Council for responding to neighborhood concerns. We believe the general approach stated above allows Hillbrook to accomplish its stated educational goals while protecting the legitimate interests of the neighborhood and Town within the framework set by the General Plan and the Town Code. 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N M I Ln to 1, W m O N N M V Lo lD n W m O N N M 0 0 0 O O O 0 O 0 0 .-i r-i N N N N N m n T N M n N tD n N O N N 01 m O N LD O .ti N co M N W N Y F C fL0 r 1.L 0 IO W 0 0 E �o O � O m N v ° ^g � 0 r Q O 0 o ° �o N is M ,y o N p n ti b O ry N N � o ° o a o o •— �g � o r O N O �O O O O p E r o ry 0 ° o ° ° ON N e � M� o o U ci O N ry N O � N O e-I ° IR N N I N Oi r 1.L 0 IO W 0 0 �o O � O N v ° ^g � r Q O o ° �o N M ,y o N p n ti b O ry N N � This Page Intentionally Left Blank HILLBROOK / NORTH 40 PROPOSAL Is Hillbrook a sacred cow? Hillbrook is a BUSINESS. Los Gatos is a COMMUNITY. Regulations that aren't enforced ... are a face. Their CUP has been allowed to run over for far too long. Since no verifiable information on the traffic problem seems to be forthcoming, 1 Offer this suggestion: Surely someone is Los Gatos has a video (or just still camera) equipped drone that could stream time - stamped real -time and archived (and would give a true picture of the collateral damage in the surrounding neighborhoods). How about streaming with the assistance of KCAT TV to Council and Planning Commission meetings? And, why not also take advantage of how drone imaging could properly portray /convey the daily gridlock at Lark / Los Gatos Boulevard, and the feeder streets? Getting in / out of the North 40 — if developed — would be — an access abscess. There is no room for driveways between Los Gatos Boulevard and Highway 17. If drones were utilized effectively, here would be no need for city funds wasted on surveys. At present, these two problems are "up in the air." Launching drones would bring the 800 pound gorillas back to earth... RECEIVED MAR 11 2015 TOWN OF LOS GATOS PLANNING DIVISION oa o° a� R 0 n�°� ci aa• HP DIU 0. OfD' NR ag,y� Ia'QO a.0 f5'.A m g ENW�'fn'�n��mc�o CL c Gar". °' d � ° ° m ,�7•�m o �� a P' oo pp, 5,j R. Hillbrook Continued from page 1 day. Hillbrook appealed the 880 cap, asking in- stead for a more flexible 880 average. The school's residential neighbors appealed, too, cit- ing sections of the town's General Plan that are de- signed to pre servethe quality of life in residential neighbor- hoods. The neighbors con- tend increased enrollment will increase traffic. Council members circled around a variety of solutions to the controversy, but it was clear the distrust that has in- fected relations between the school and its neighbors has impacted members' thinking. Vice Mayor Barbara Spector, for instance, was disturbed about making a decision when the most re- cent traffic data she's seen is nearly ayear old. "Give me something I don't have now;" Spector said. ' Me information Pm looking for exists It's eaosted since June 2014 and it exists right now." Councilman Rob Rennie cited statistics provided by FMrook that demonstrate coo �'�,, "� C•� t7 r O Et r-r Zi o r°td`j < y"y� z �C� Cil rz� ;he school has reduced traffic traffic in recent years: L400 average daily ve- hicle trips in 2000 dropped to 996 in 2001, 961 in 20% 868 in 2013 and 834 in spiing2014. `It's clear we've had the right kind of progress,' Ren- nie said. But Councilman Steve Leonardis was less trusting, saying the town should pay for an independent traffic study.'? think we should pro- vide the data for the neat six months. Put a cable out there for 24 hours a day, collect the traffic data and find out what it really is," Leonardis said. "I think the only waywe're really going to get unbiased data is if we go out and collect the data over a period of tune." Councilwoman Marini Sayoc opposed having the town shell out money for a study, while Mayor Marcia Jensen said going forward she wants Ilillbrook's traffic counts posted on the web for all to see. The council voted unani- mously to have iillbrook release its traffic data from June 2014 to the present. The school has two weeks to do that. The council contur ued the fi'illbrook hearing to March 17. W I r s 4MUNITYNEWSPAPERS FEBRU, the Hillbrook campus." )ben though theyhave repeatedly said they will add enrollment without adding traffic, duringtheirpresenta- tion at the commissioner's hearing in October they showed that traffic wil[go up an "average" of 40 cars during the morning and afternoon peals alone. They also stated they could corn - mit to not exceed ],200 cars a day. Including the normal neighborhood traffic, that would mean 1,524 cats on a one -way, steep street in a day! Hillbrook is a wonderful school, and we appreciate the efforts ofthe parents who use carpooling and busing. However, it is inevitable that with a 32 percent enrollment increase, the traffic will increase. Please, town council, from the perspective of safety I struggle to see how anyone could vote to merease traffic in this neighborhood. KATW2ENWaaar Las Gatos lil*tobe struck byacar Police Sgt Kerry Harris: when walking inalocation 'The CUP modification without sidewalks as they application submitted by are when walking inan area Hrillbrook School has been with sidewalks" There are reviewed. The one area of no sidewalks and no bike concern to the department DAVm Lnw lanes on upper or lower is the impact on traffic and Los Gatos Marchmont, Englewood, pedestrian safety resulting Topping, Stonybrook, Cardi- from the increase invehicle How could anyone nalorH low. trips through theEnglewooc vote for more In this environment, we have neWrborhood children and Marchmont neighbor- hoods. The department JjMrook traffic? and Hillbrook schoolchildren would urge the licant to hying to navigate their way investigate ways My husband and I live in through car traffic, buses, the number of vehicle trips the neigbWrhood surround- delivery trucks and garbage through the residential ingHillbrookwithourtwo trucks. neighborhood, developing youngboys alongwithmany Even the police depart- traffic demand management otherfam..es with young ment is concerned. I will strategies to achieve that children who have moved quote a letter written in 2012 end, or to study alternative here in the past five years. by Y Los Gatos -Monte Sereno ingress and egress options tc Eery day, rain or shine, we - -- walk or bike to Blossom Hill School. Therefore, I am very concerned about a possible enrollment increase at 10- brook. Unlike all the other schools in this area, there is only one entrance and exit to Hiillbrook, which vehicles and pedestrians must share. According to a national study by the Safe Routes to School program, "Pedestri- ans are more than twice as 4MUNITYNEWSPAPERS FEBRU, the Hillbrook campus." )ben though theyhave repeatedly said they will add enrollment without adding traffic, duringtheirpresenta- tion at the commissioner's hearing in October they showed that traffic wil[go up an "average" of 40 cars during the morning and afternoon peals alone. They also stated they could corn - mit to not exceed ],200 cars a day. Including the normal neighborhood traffic, that would mean 1,524 cats on a one -way, steep street in a day! Hillbrook is a wonderful school, and we appreciate the efforts ofthe parents who use carpooling and busing. However, it is inevitable that with a 32 percent enrollment increase, the traffic will increase. Please, town council, from the perspective of safety I struggle to see how anyone could vote to merease traffic in this neighborhood. KATW2ENWaaar Las Gatos Q "C O 0 r n z 0 oS8e M% -row m y "3 gam- sv FED s o•� ry�' w �y"�rnQ°f C wee• yn � ��jUpD�i O l c A qUP. Pm 'G M �. .!—' K iD �W O . R P. Dun r6WU CL o m o �' �''�o,"�' Vim°.': �""•• 00 gr 9�' oo�ep�°n �po��Fj� sy�° 94 9 °tnOSw OOQ W CD �..rr o a o m "lN o cao m ° �m o N Oo� C 0 Sb M Ell or A,zo•�g o ir � ro v foo� �1 ybIb m e g- �a�° m o0a°o'" �o gn f�. x n m w Ol i .. �. 01 a o o, p,'d A hi �' t*' o f m• o mod °a. rs �cGa °j moS ° oc 0' yon o 3�.•0 �R.$ � w ti 0 O ti a.fs°e°c G.y m ,sm M � ° 00 'aim °-�� 0 O rmp� n om� mg� w v m ry m cr Y &gn CG o m gso t" � 0 � food� O. m A A t p' o Gov m OR ' Ron��`a°� M' mb•�. t7" FxmF�0 g o MW W a.no�ana o��.�°o oc 0' yon o 3�.•0 �R.$ � w ti 0 O ti a.fs°e°c G.y m ,sm M � ° 00 'aim °-�� 0 O rmp� n om� mg� w v m ry m cr Y &gn CG o m gso t" � 0 � food� O. m A A t IF m 0 is 9 m n 00 Cr t3, MO m Cm O N O- :L ,"j'4 aC n 0 00 " 0, 0 M" m '� `_' (D '`CY S N ov 'Y o 8 M Sz. PO X,¢mmwP'm�� .oK 'admx0 mm moms. mm. m o.o+�o.oC.S nv m m °� 00 OW r'M, Pn5n � ® O 0 h1 y n - v m b O O ;� tr'im ,M O O wo 4y a+VrO S'�O ?'K'17 G � moE0 o�'mSn' yy"G.oM,1� -+mm '•d R O �Oi /may ' o V m O m m as �' .� G r3• C P- w ", H �F mriy. o_mmo_mo M.fD� m7.n.....v�o O y//�pW m '6 o m � '� ��'�'❑ '1y >L"0 0 llo 5 m m �m ate. VM M W o 0 0� .�,o m cr n m z Co 00� omC3 `Y. v`Yi�mO.n+ nAnO< �y °J OO ago �w5 »y�z �p-omm am�mA.�.o Uq K + o� 05 mowc�E O �riia 0 c0 0 j�l sections of the town's Gen - H17 jj ® ®tom eral Plan that are designed to preserve the quality of Continued from page 1 life in residential areas. "It's not fair to set up a Opponerds also claim the EIR was flawed because it school to fail," IMrook boardebairmanChuckHarm did not evaluate opening a mers said "The 880 max gate on Ann Arbor Drive puts the school in a situation that would divert some traf- that it will cause us to violate fic away from Marchmont. Ann Arbor residents don't the conditional use permit 34 times in one year, and that's want that gate opened. So with 315 students. We're go- the controversy has pitted ing to fail without even add- neighbor against neighbor. ing a single extra student." am deeply troubled by Many Marchmont Drive the abandonment of civility homeowners don't trust in this Hillbrook debate, ex- Hillbrook, saying it has re- panson proponent Michael peatedly violated its 2001 Mulcahy said "I will even be student and traffic num- more appalled if the town re- hers, and wrongfully al- wards this land of hostile be- lowed summer activities. bewm' by a small selfish few. For its part FlUbrook has ThetownofLosGatosshould mitigated traffic by imple- not have to tolerate this ma- menting a bus and carpool mpulationofthepoliticalpro- Program, while encouraging cess. The entire Los Gatos students who live nearby community is watching, and to walk, bike or scooter to not just the connected few school But the neighbors that forced this showdown say that's not good enough. for a shutdown." "Even the environmental Opponents contend impact report with its many they're not interested in flaws found that I-Tllbrook's shutting down Hillbrook- its traffiecurrentlyereatesa sig- the traffic they don't want. nificantly impaired residen- "Keep in mind were only tial environment on March- Uldng about 220 families at mont that is the antithesis of Hi rook may, so why are what should be seen asa low - theresomanytripsinthefirst density residential zone," 20- placer' Robin Way resident year Marchmont resident Tara Moseley asked '7 hope Patti Elliot said "Please you ask yourselves that ques- reject ITllbrooles request tion during deliberations." to expand Any expansion The council set Feb. 17 would further deteriorate as the date to deliberate — the residential environment that's the earliest available and violate town code." time on their calendar. To change the planning Town council meetings commission's decision, the begin at 7p.m. in the council council must find that plan- chamber at 110E. Main St. ners erred in their deci- They are also televised live sion- making, which is why on %CAT TV, channell5 on the opponents' appeal cites Comeast cable. .m 71 e 0 Kit F Joe Sordi Sr 212 Marchmont Dr Los Gatos, Ca 95032 March 11,2015 To: Los Gatos Town Council Subject: Traffic Limit Relative to Enrollment Limit Dear Mayor Jensen and Town Council Members: If the Council decides sets a traffic limit for the current enrollment limit of 315, with the potential for for incremental enrollment limits of 33 up to a maximum of 414, then the Council should make clear that either a)The traffic limit remains the same no matter what the enrollment limit, or b) the traffic limit will increase incrementally with incremental increases in enrollment. If the Council choses b), then with a chosen traffic cap of 814 for 315 students, as an example, the number of daily trips per student would be 2.58 (814 divided by 315). With an incremental increase of 33 to an enrollment limit of 348, then the traffic cap would increase to 898 (2.58048). If Hillbrook is eventually allowed an increase to 414 students, the traffic cap would be 1068. • If the Council choses a), then with an eventual enrollment of 414, Hillbrook would have to improve traffic mitigation so that the number of trips per student would have to be under 1.96 to hold traffic under the 814 cap. Regards, Joe Sordi Sr RECEIVED MAR 1 1 2015 TOWN OF LOS GATOS PLANNING DIVISION This Page Intentionally Left Blank D HILLBROOK SCHOOL March 11, 2015 VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL ONLY Mayor Marcia Jensen And Members of the Town Council Town of Los Gatos 110 E. Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 Re: Hillbrook School Appeal Dear Mayor Jensen and Members of the Town Council: Last week, the Parks and Public Works staff released the Hillbrook School's traffic data front June 2014 to February 2015 as requested by the Town Council. The release of this data should confirm that the recent trip counts are fully consistent with the traffic data in the record and reveal no irregulari ties as to the school's traffic trends. The data further reinforces that Hillbrook has successfully "pre - mitigated" its traffic in order to accommodate additional students while being sensitive to the neighborhood's concerns. In order to contextualize the traffic data provided by Town staff, we are submitting a Nelson \Nygaard memorandum that summarizes the traffic data and extrapolates how it corresponds to the proposed 99 student increase; Briefly, the Nelson\Nygaard memorandum underscores the following points: • The 880 maximum number is an inappropriate metric because it converts the baseline average of 880 into a hard cap that ignores the baseline trips that were over 880. • Hillbrook's TDM program achieves approximately 95% participation; therefore, it is unlikely that further meaningful trip reductions can be achieved through more TDM measures. • A trip maximum of 880 vehicles limits Hillbrook's capacity to grow. • A trip maximum of at least 965 trips, with a minimum of 10 exclusions per semester (some of which float), is the more reasonable, recommended approach. Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, Wj 1. Mark Silver, Head of School Attachment Chuck Hammers, President, Board of Trustees Thus Page Intentionally Left Blank HILLBROOK SCHOOL March 12, 2015 VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL ONLY Mayor Marcia Jensen And Members of the Town Council Town of Los Gatos 110 E. Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 Re: Hillbrook School Appeal —Hours of Operation Dear Mayor Jensen and Members of the Town Council: We are writing to address a specific condition of approval discussed by the Town Council at the February 17ih hearing —hours of operation. We would like to briefly educate the Town Council as to the practical difficulties associated with the limitation that students and staff only be allowed on campus between 7:30 AM and 6:00 PM. We ask for your reconsideration based on the following information. 7:30 AM As you know, Hillbrook's start time is 8:00 AM. Students begin to arrive at 7:30 AM and enter classrooms at 7:45 AM. Busses and the majority of carpools and walkers enter between 7:45 - 8:00 AM. A 7:30 AM start time for faculty and staff simply allows no time to prepare the campus for the school day before students arrive. Teachers, like teachers at every school, do not simply show up and start teaching. They need time to prepare classrooms, connect with fellow teachers to coordinate the upcoming day's activities and prepare themselves for the school day which continues with little break until 3:45 PM. Kitchen staff need to cook meals. Maintenance staff need to unlock doors, inspect classrooms and resolve overnight problems - such as rainwater flooding during December rains - before students and staff arrive. To achieve this, kitchen and maintenance staff arrive between 6 - 6:30 AM. Therefore, an arbitrary arrival time of 7:30 AM unfairly handicaps the school administration from being allowed to operate a school and it penalizes the teachers and employees who are trying to do their jobs and share the common goal of nurturing and educating the students of Hillbrook. A 7:30 AM arrival time also will make traffic more congested on Marchmont in the morning because faculty /staff will be required to arrive within the same window as the students. This could result in the unnecessary intensification of morning traffic into a 30- minute window, traffic which otherwise could be dispersed over the course of the morning. Considering these impracticalities, we ask that the Town Council allow faculty, staff, and support services to arrive on campus before 7:30 AM. If there remains an important interest to be served by limiting student arrivals on campus, then the Council could require that Hillbrook students arrive on campus after 7:30 AM. This is a fair approach that lets Hillbrook function as a school with no impacts to the neighborhood. 2. 6:00 PM The 6:00 PM closing time is impractical because strict compliance would cause unnecessary hardship for Hillbrook families who experience the same kind of work, traffic accident, or health emergencies as all other Los Gatans, making timely school pick -ups challenging on occasion. The 6:00 PM closing time is overly restrictive and ignores the practical realities facing the school and its families. For example, if a Hillbrook parent, who is a single mom, has a health emergency that makes it impossible to pick up her child by 6 PM, would Hillbrook be in violation of its CUP such that it would not be allowed to add a traunch of 33 students? If the Head of School is advised on a Saturday night that there is a disturbance on campus or a pipe bursts and a building is flooded, can he/she or a maintenance worker visit the campus on the weekend to ensure that the school property is safe? Or would that be a violation too? Last summer following several thefts, we had a security guard patrol the grounds at night. Would this be allowed? These are consequences— intended or unintended —that the Town and school will be forced to address as questions arise, so a fair and practical approach now will set the right expectations moving forward. Similarly, the 6:00 PM closing time ignores the fact that the school has to be cleaned every single day. It would be impossible to accomplish this critical task while children are still on campus. The school is obligated to provide a clean, healthy environment for our students. This arbitrary closing time interferes with this very important obligation and serves no rational purpose with respect to somehow minimizing effects on the neighborhood. In closing, we understand that predictability is the Council's guiding principle relative to our CUP amendment application. However, the quest for predictability should not interfere with Hillbook's ability to be a school - cooks need to cook, rooms need to be cleaned, teachers need to be able to teach. Furthermore, the quest for predictability fundamentally conflicts with the modern -day unpredictable realities of running a school: people get hurt, kids get sick, traffic accidents happen, work runs late, fire erupts, pipes burst. Hillbrook cannot reasonably be expected to operate under conditions that fail to recognize the need for a certain amount of flexibility to deal with life's inevitable turmoil. We ask that the Council adopt more flexible hours of operation that let the school be a school. There is no harm to the neighbors with this fair and practical result. Sincerely, n Y Y l Mark Silver Chuck Hammers Head of School Chair of the Board Summary of Daily Vehicle Trips at the Hillbrook School (Summer Semester - Spring YTD 2014 -15) MEMORANDUM To: Town of Los Gatos Planning Commission From: Brian Canepa, Nelson\Nygoard Date: March 12, 2015 Subject: Daily Vehicle Trips at the Hillbrook School (Summer 2014 - February 13, 2015) and with Projected Enrollment Increase Overview This memorandum summarizes Hillbrook School's 2014 -2015 school year (to date) daily vehicle trips, estimates projected trips resulting from a proposed increase in enrollment from 315 students to 414 students, and recommends a future maximum daily trip count. Background Hillbrook School currently operates year round, with 315 enrolled students in the Fall and Spring Semesters and considerably fewer in the summer. Fall and Spring (to date) semester trip patterns are similar, with the Fall 2014 semester averaging 736 trips per day, versus 752 trips per day so far this Spring. The summer semester volumes were lower with an average of 287 trips per day. We understand that the Town of Los Gatos has proposed a maximum daily trip allowance of 880, with a certain number of exclusions for non - typical schooldays. As we opined in our January 12, 2105 memorandum, the 88o maximum daily trip allowancehas no real basis in the record for this application. As we noted in January, the 88o cap converts the baseline average into a hard cap, which ignores the fact that the 88o baseline is an average of a data set of trip counts, half of which were under 88o trips and half of which were over 88o trips. This puts the school in a situation where it needs to have traffic levels that are significantly lower than the 2011 baseline count if it wants to add any students beyond the current 315. Therefore, by imposing a maximum trip cap at 88o trips, the Town Council handicaps Hillbrook to a maximum that, in our professional judgment, will be extraordinarily difficult to achieve. It is worth stating here that we continue to believe that the 88o average is a methodology thatis much more reasonable to realistically attain and still provide for less traffic. This average also will more fairly represent typical school traffic and reflect the fluctuations inherent in the 88o average used in the EIR. Nevertheless, we are in full agreement with the TJKM letter dated January 7, 2015 which states that both averages and maximums may be applied, but that in order to account for variations in trips, "the maximum should be roughly 25 to 30 percent higher than theaverage." Figure 1 summarizes the trip counts, as measured by the counter. Note this analysis excludes non- school days (holidays and all- school conference days on October 24 and October 27), anddays with nighttime events (September 5, September 9 -16, October 14, November 12, andDecember 17). Nine additional days were excluded due to missing data due to equipment malfunction. See Figure 11 in Appendix A for a full list of daily vehicle volumes for days included in the analysis. Traffic volumes are generally consistent. Ninety percent of school days have traffic that is within 10% of the average. There is more variability in daily traffic volumes during the summer semester. Nelson \Nygaard Consulting Associates Inc. 1 1 Summary of Doily Vehicle Trips at the Hillbrook School (Summer Semester — Spring YTD 2014 -15) Figure 1 Summary of Daily Vehicle Trips for'14 -15 Summer, Fall, and Spring YTD at the HillbrookSchool Statistic Minimum daily trip count Summer 122 Fall 624 Spring YTD 650 Mean (average) daily trip count 287 736 752 Median daily trip count 289 723 750 Maximum daily trip count 526 872 876 Total days counted 56 58 26 Figure 5 through Figure 10 in Appendix A provide a summary of several measures of school traffic volumes for Summer 2014 - February 13, 2015 and as projected with 414 students, includingthe mean, median, and maximum traffic volume levels. Individual tables and figures are provided for the Spring semester year to date (Jan 5 - Feb 13, 2015), Fall (Aug 27 - Dec 18, 2014), andthe summer (Jun 4 -Aug 26, 2014). Travel Demand Management Hillbrook School's Travel Demand Management (TDM) Plan has been in effect since 2012.The addition of 11 measures in 2012 (in addition to those previously implemented by the school) have caused a demonstrated reduction in the number of vehicle trips to and from school. Figure 2 illustrates the downward trend in maximum trip volume each month from September 2012to February 2015. This trend (blue dashed trend line) reflects the school's success inimplementing its TDM plan, which includes measures such as transit shuttle service, carpooling, and kiss and ride programs. The program currently achieves approximately 95% participation from Hillbrook families . Therefore, regardless of the growth scenario, it is unlikely that further meaningfultrip reductions can be achieved through additional TDM measures. Based on the school's calculations of student related trips. Estimates are based on daily monitoring of bus ridership as well as morning and afternoon drop off trips. It estimates that only 4% of students arrive via a private automobile. Approximately 2% walk or bike, 33% take the bus and 60% carpool (assumed 3 Mclents pervehicie). Nelson \Nygaard Consulting Associates Inc. 12 Summary of Daily Vehicle Trips at the Hillbrook School (Summer Semester — Spring YTD 2014 -15) Figure 2 Maximum ADT by Month (Excluding Nighttime Events) 1120 1080 1040 1000 960 920 880 840 goo 260 120 680 640 600 Monthly Max ADT (Excluding Nighttime Events) °o °4 6 °o do % 2Ja v '1, ✓'c % o °� a Sa J2 J2 LJ2 J2 J3 J3 !.r` lJ3 �"!`� l3 J3 LJ3 !`a a' v PbJq ^JV J9 NG v QJ9 v v J9 a'JS Pd JS K Mcnthly Max — proposed Max (880) -- Linear(Monthly Max) NelsonlNygaard Consulting Associates Inc. 13 Summary of Doily Vehicle Trips at the Hi l l brook School (Summer Semester — Spring YTD 2014 -15) Approaches to Growth Using 2014 -2015 data as a basis, this section evaluates Hillbrook School's student growth scenario, asking: 1) How many students can the school add under the proposed 880 trip maximum with a designated number of exclusion days? 2) What combinations of trip maximums and exclusions would allow the schoolto expand from 315 to 414 students? Based on Hillbrook School's assessment that 30% of existing daily trips are made by staff, faculty, and support services, the approaches assume that trip growth will be limited to the 7o% share made by students (see Appendix B for details). It also assumes no further reduction in vehicle trip rates due to the existing 95% TDM participation of Hillbrook Schoolfamilies. Student Growth within Proposed 880 Trip Maximum As indicated in Figure 3, Hillbrook could expand by four additional students with theproposed 88o trip maximum and no exclusions. With five exclusions per semester, 39 additional students are possible. It would take more than 25 exclusions per semester to expand to 414 students with an 88o trip maximum. We recommend that at least half of these exclusions per semesterbe allowed as "floaters" in order to address the unanticipated and unpredictable aberrations in school traffic attributable to events beyond the school's control, such as bus breakdowns, weather, illnesses, etc. Figure 3 Number of Additional Students with the Proposed 880 trip maximum Exclusion Scenarios with :t Trip Limit o exclusions per semester Additional 4 5 exclusions per semester 39 10 exclusions per semester 48 15 exclusions per semester 65 20 exclusions per semester 76 25 exclusions per semester 95 Nelson \Nygaard Consulting Associates Inc. 14 Summary of Daily Vehicle Trips at the Hillbrook School (Summer Semester — Spring YTD 2014 -15) Alternate Daily Max and Exclusion Scenarios Figure 4 evaluates the daily trip maximum in the baseline Fall 2014 semester and three anticipated growth scenarios with the top 5,10, 15, 20 and 25 days excluded. There were no trips greater than the proposed 880 daily trip maximum in the Fall 2014 semester (holidays anddays with evening events were excluded, as described in the introduction), Using Fall 2014 figures as a basis, the remaining columns extrapolate the daily trips with the school increasing in increments of 33 students up to the desired expansion to 414 students. The school would be projected to exceed the 880 limit 28 days each semester with 414 students. The estimated daily trip maximum for Hillbrook's expansion to 414 students is 982 trips with 5 exclusions per semester. A lower maximum could be achieved with more exclusions per semester. Figure 4 Assessment of Trip Maximums and Exclusions per Semester Average daily trip count 736 789 843 892 Maximum daily trip count 872 935 999 1,057 Number of days above 880 /semester 0 5 17 28 Existing and Expected Maximum Trip Counts under a Range of Exclusions Max with 5exclusiona/semester 810 869 928 982 Max with 10 exclusions/semester 796 854 912 965 Max with 15 exclusions/semester 770 826 882 934 Max with 20exclusions/semester 754 809 864 914 Max with 25 exclusions/semester 728 781 834 883 Recommendation It is our opinion that a trip maximum of 88o vehicles limits Hillbrook School's capacity to grow. Based on the above analysis, some combination of a daily trip count maximum between 883 and 982, with a corresponding number of allowable exclusions between 25 and 5 per semester, would allow for this growth. We believe that the vehicle trip analysis, based on widely accepted industry standards, demonstrates that the 88o maximum trip cap is neither reasonable nor in keeping with best practices. The EIR shows that the 88o trip figure itself represents a vastly lowertrip rate than is considered practical and the more recent data analyzed herein confirms this. Consequently, based on the foregoing analysis, we recommend a vehicle trip maximum of at least 965 trips, with a minimum of 10 exclusions per semester, some of which are allowed as floaters to address unpredictable traffic conditions. NelsonlNygaard Consulting Associates Inc. 15 Summary of Daily Vehicle Trips at the Hillbrook School (Summer Semester— Spring YTD 2014 -15) APPENDIX A Traffic Volumes in the Spring Semester (Year to Date) 2015 Figure 5 Summary of Daily Vehicle Trips at the Hillbrook School (January 5- February 13, 2015and Projected for Same Period with 414 Students) Daily Statistic Minimum daily trip count Students) 650 Daily Students-Projected) 854 Median daily trip count 750 986 Mean (average) daily trip count 752 989 Maximum daily trip count 876 1,151 Total days counted 26 Figure 6 Summary of Daily Vehicle Trips at the Hillbrook School: January 5- February 13, 2015 with315 Students, and With Projected Increase in Enrollment to 414 Students • Daily Tips(vath 315 Students) • Daily Trips (With 414Students- Projected) 1,400 1,200 1.151 1.000 r 854 B00 i c 650 600 400 260 0 Mourn 986 989 Median Mean (average) Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates Inc. 16 Maximum Summary of Daily Vehicle Trips at the Hillbrook School (Summer Semester— Spring YTD 2014 -15) Traffic Volumes in the Fall Semester 2014 Figure 7 Summary of Daily Vehicle Trips at the Hillbrook School (August 27- December 18, 2014and Projected for Same Period with 414 Students) Statistic Minimum daily trip count Daily Daily Trips (With 414 Students) -, 624 8P0 Median daily trip count 723 950 Mean (average) daily trip count 736 967 Maximum daily trip count 872 1,146 Total days counted 58 Figure 8 Summary of Daily Vehicle Trips at the Hillbrook School: August 27- December 18, 2014 with 315 Students, and With Projected Increase in Enrollment to 414 Students ■DailyTrips(vA1h 315 Students) • Daily Trips (With 414 Students- Projected) 1.400 1.200 1.000 8 r t 600 a° 2 0 600 400 200 0 950 967 1.146 Median Mean (average) NelsonlNygaard Consulting Associates Inc. 17 Maximum Summary of Daily Vehicle Trips at the Hillbrook School (Summer Semester— Spring YTD 2014 -15) Hillbrook School Traffic Volumes in the Summer Semester 2014 Figure 9 Summary of Daily Vehicle Trips at the Hillbrook School (June 4- August 26, 2014 and Projected for Same Period with 414 Students) Figure 10 Summary of Daily Vehicle Trips at the Hillbrook School: June 4- August 26, 2014 with 315 Students, and With Projected Increase in Enrollment to 414 Students Fin Daily Trips (Wth 315 Students) • Daily Trips (With 414 Students- Projected) 1,400 1200 . 1.000 n H ? 800 a T R D 600 400 200 160 12� 0 Minimum 380 2t9 Median 377 2t7 Wan (average) Nelson \Nygaard Consulting Associates Inc. 18 691 626 Maximum Summary of Daily Vehicle Trips at the Hillbrook School (Summer Semester— Spring YTD 2014 -15) Hillbrook School Figure 11 Daily Vehicle Trip Counts at the Hillbrook School (Summer, Fall, and Spring YTD2014 -151 Nelson \Nygaard Consulting Associates Inc. 19 r. • 4 ADT 292 Date 7/25/2014 ADT 280 Date 9/22/2014 ADT�Date 808 11/21/2014 ADT 624 Date 2/4/2015 ADT 778 6/5/2014 250 7/2812014 258 9/23/2014 748 12/1/2014 708 2/5/2015 792 6/6/2014 266 7/29/2014 258 9/24/2014 810 1202014 698 216/2015 678 6/9/2014 284 7/30/2014 274 9/25/2014 716 1213/2014 744 2/9!2015 738 6/10/2014 326 7/31/2014 230 9/26/2014 660 12/4/2014 790 2110/2015 786 6/11/2014 296 8!1/2014 182 9/29/2014 716 1215/2014 686 2111/2015 832 6/12/2014 304 8/4/2014 200 9/30/2014 730 12/8/2014 728 2/12/2015 876 6/13/2014 318 8/5/2014 216 10/1/2014 670 12/9/2014 798 2/13/2015 770 6/16/2014 402 8/612014 194 10/2/2014 716 12/10/2014 698 6/17/2014 366 8/7/2014 152 10/3/2014 728 12/11/2014 680 6118/2014 308 8/8/2014 122 10/6/2014 718 1211212014 768 6/19/2014 316 8/11/2014 164 101712014 712 12/15/2014 764 6/20/2014 366 8/12/2014 196 10/8/2014 660 12/16/2014 712 6/23/2014 388 8/13/2014 222 10/9/2014 796 12118/2014 772 6/2412014 386 8/14 /2014 204 10/10/2014 638 12119/2014 694 6/2712014 238 8/15/2014 1 204 10/15/2014 770 1/5/2015 672 6/30/2014 234 8118/2014 286 10/16/2014 802 1/6/2015 712 7!1/2014 230 8/19/2014 264 10/17/2014 636 1/7/2015 824 7/2/2014 204 8/20/2014 286 10/20/2014 762 1/13/2015 766 7/7/2014 302 8/21/2014 300 10/21/2014 720 1/14/2015 736 7/8/2014 314 8/22/2014 278 10/2212014 708 1/15/2015 844 7/9/2014 338 8/25/2014 384 10/23/2014 826 1/16/2015 650 7/10/2014 378 8/26/2014 526 10/28/2014 784 1/2012015 710 7/11/2014 342 8/27 /2014 840 10/29/2014 724 1/21/2015 746 7/14/2014 318 8/28/2014 744 10/31!2014 860 1/22/2015 762 7/15/2014 310 8/29/2014 722 11/3/2014 706 1/23/2015 694 7/16/2014 350 9/2/2014 758 11/11/2014 650 1/26/2015 776 7/17/2014 360 9/3/2014 726 11/1312014 712 1127/2015 730 7/18/2014 418 9/4/2014 788 11/14/2014 682 1/28/2015 732 7/21/2014 326 9/8/2014 798 11/17/2014 706 1/29/2015 820 7/22/2014 232 9/17/2014 846 11/18/2014 694 1/30/2015 680 7/23/2014 294 9/18/2014 872 11/19/2014 684 2/2/2015 704 7/24/2014 320 9/19/2014 754 11/20/2014 700 202015 754 Nelson \Nygaard Consulting Associates Inc. 19 Summary of Daily Vehicle Trips at the Hillbrook School (Summer Semester — Spring YTD 2014 -15) Hillbrook School Appendix B Additional traffic with expansion of the number of students at Hillbrook School is not expected to increase proportionally to the number of additional students. The reason is that some types of trips would not be expected to increase, such as staff trips, supply delivery, and overnight trips. Based on existing data from Fall 2014 and the school's best estimate of trip types based on time of day, Figure 12 below identifies trip types that are expected to increase proportionally with an increase in students and those expected to remain constant. Overall, it is expected that approximately 7o% of trips would increase with each additional student while approximately 30% would remain constant. Thus, each new student is anticipated to generate approximately 70% of the existing number of trips per student. Figure 12- Calculation of percent increase in trips for each new student 315 348 381 414 Ti il) type students F students a112014 Average Morning drop -off 71 78 87 93 Increase proportionally Parent visitation 40 44 48 53 Increase proportionally Support 40 40 40 40 Constant Afternoon pickup 88 97 106 116 Increase proportionally Staff 75 75 75 75 Constant After school 41 45 50 54 Increase proportionally Overnight 13 15 15 15 Constant Average daily trips 736 789 843 892 % increase in trips Baseline 7.3% 14.6% 21.3% % increase in students Baseline 10.5% 21.0% 31.4% % Increase in tripststudent for each new studentz NA 69% 69% 69% ] Percent increase in trips / Percent increase in students Nelson \Nygaard Consulting Associates Inc. 110 HILLBROOK SCHOOL Transportation Report February 2015 As of the end of February, the following are the transportation statistics: Bus: We have added a number of shuttling options to our current program, and we continue to bring significant numbers of students to and from campus by shuttle. Between the start of school and the end of September, we have averaged 120 students on the bus in the morning and 90 students on the bus in the afternoon. This represents about 38 percent of traffic arriving during the peak period in the morning and about 29 percent of exiting traffic during the peak period in the early afternoon. Bike/walk: We have had between 5 - 10 students walking or biking to school each day, depending on the day of the week and weather. During our Safe Route sponsored Marching Mondays, we often see up to 30 - 40 students walking. This represents about 2 - 5 percent of our student population arriving in the peak period in the morning. 'a ls: Currently, about 57 percent of families carpool in the morning, and 64 percent of families carpool during the afternoon peak period. Car counter: We installed a car counter at the start of the 2012 -13 school year and have been tracking our counts each day. The average from the start of school through the end of September has been 72 cars between 7:30 - 8:30 am and 89 cars between 2:30 - 3:45 p.m. Over 98% of our student population participate in our Transportation Demand Program in the mornings and approximately 93% during the afternoon peak period. The successful implementation of our Transportation Demand Management program allows Hillbrook to be well within the peak period car count limit of 165 cars. Sin�ce^rely�, I Y`d)/l ) J Mark Silver, Ph.D., Head of School Morning Drop Off Afternoon Pickup 7:30 - 8:30 am 2:30 - 3 :45 pm Students Trips Students Trips Walk Bike 9 3% 0 3 1% 0 Bus 120 38% j 3 j 90 29% j 4 Carpool 180 57% 60 201 64% 67 Non TDM 6 2% 9 21 7% 18 Total 315 72 315 89 Sin�ce^rely�, I Y`d)/l ) J Mark Silver, Ph.D., Head of School This Page Intentionally Left Blank