Attachments 1-2TOWN COUNCIL — November 3, 2015
REQUIRED FINDINGS FOR:
485 Monterey Avenue
Zone Change Application Z-15 -001
Requesting approval to rezone a property from O to Rl -D. APN 410 -16 -026.
PROPERTY OWNERS: Black Real Estate Investment LLC
APPLICANT: Michael Black
FINDINGS:
Required finding for CEQA:
■ The zone change is Statutorily Exempt according to Section 21083.3 of CEQA as
adopted by the Town, in that it is compatible with the existing general plan and the
adopted EIR for the existing General Plan.
Required consistency with the Town's General Plan:
■ That the proposed Zone Change is consistent with the General Plan and its Elements in
that the proposed zoning is consistent with the existing General Plan Land Use
designation.
N: �DEV\FINDINGS\2015\MONTEREY485 -RZ. DOCX
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A P P E A R A N C E S:
Los Gatos Planning
Commissioners:
Community Development
Director:
Planning Manager:
Town Attorney:
Transcribed by:
Kendra Burch, Chair
Mary Badame, Vice Chair
Charles Erekson
Melanie Hanssen
D. Michael Kane
Tom O'Donnell
Joanne Talesfore
Laurel Prevetti
Joel Paulson
Robert Schultz
Vicki L. Blandin
(510) 337 -1558
ATTACHNWM $
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P R O C E E D I N G S:
CHAIR BURCH: All right, we are now going to move
on to Item 2. This is a zone change application, Z -15 -001,
and an Architecture and Site Application, 5 -15 -018,
requesting approval to rezone a property from O to R -1D,
demolish an existing office building, construct a new
single - family residence, construct an accessory structure
with reduced setbacks, and obtain a Grading Permit. This is
APN# 410 -16 -026.
Are there any disclosures from any Commissioners
on this item? And has everyone had an opportunity to view
the site? Great.
Ms. Walters, I understand you'll be giving us our
report this evening.
ERIN WALTERS: Yes, good evening, Planning
Commissioners.
This property is located at the corner of
Monterey Avenue and Andrews Street, and the surrounding
neighborhood includes single - family homes and a few
duplexes and multi - family homes. There are office buildings
down the street on Monterey Avenue.
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The Applicant proposes to rezone the property
from an office to an R -1D. The R -11) zoning is compatible
with the surrounding zoning, and you can see that in
Exhibit 7. The shaded square is the subject site. This
would make the property consistent with the General Plan
designation of medium - density residential, which is also
seen in Exhibit 8. Again, the shaded square is the subject
site.
The Applicant proposes to demolish the existing
medical office building and construct a two -story Craftsman
style home and a detached garage. The Applicant has worked
with Staff and the consulting architect to modify the
initial proposed project to reduce the scale and mass and
to get an architecture that fits more within and is
compatible with the neighborhood.
Materials for the proposed house include cedar
shingle siding, stone veneer, composition roof, and a wrap-
around front porch with a standing seam metal roof. You can
see this display behind you on the materials board, as well
as attached in your Staff Report.
The proposed project meets zoning standards, and
it's not the largest home in the immediate neighborhood.
The Applicant has reached out to their
surrounding neighbors. The adjacent neighbor to the south
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has provided a letter of support, and that's attached in
the Staff Report. The neighbor to the west, or to the rear,
of the project has contacted Staff this last week with
questions, and tonight you were provided a Desk Item that
attaches her emails and addresses her concerns and support
of the project.
Three of the concerns of the project are that
there is an existing 14" diameter redwood tree located to
the rear of her property. Staff reviewed with a consulting
arborist, as well as applied the existing Conditions of
Approval, which would require the Applicant to provide
adequate tree protection measures to that tree.
The neighbor also wanted clarification on a
reduction of a fence height between the two properties.
That is due to the Town's traffic view area requirement, so
she spoke with the Applicant and discussed that and was
satisfied with that discussion.
The neighbor also expressed concern regarding
drainage for the site. The neighboring properties have
experienced flooding in the past due to heavy rains, and in
order to address this, Planning Staff and Engineering
worked together to include two additional Conditions of
Approval. One would require a drainage study to be prepared
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by the Applicant. Staff has attached that modified
Condition of Approval in Exhibit 19.
Staff recommends the Planning Commission
recommend approval of the proposed project for the zone
change and Architecture and Site Application to the Town
Council with modifying conditions that, again, are found in
Exhibit 19.
This completes Staff's presentation. I'm happy to
answer any question you might have.
CHAIR BURCH: Thank you. I want to make sure that
the questions that we now ask of Staff are directly related
to the report just given, or any procedures. Additional
questions of Staff about other items in the application we
will hold until after the public portion of the hearing. So
do we have any questions? Commissioner Talesfore.
COMMISSIONER TALESFORE: (Inaudible).
CHAIR BURCH: Okay. Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSONER HANSSEN: You mean her verbal report,
the one that she gave us?
CHAIR BURCH: Yeah, the verbal report that she
gave, which is the report that is in our packet. The Vice -
Chair and I have had some discussions with Staff, and what
we're going to be working towards is the questions for any
of the Staff giving a presentation need to be limited to
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that report or any procedural questions moving forward. All
other questions we're going to hold until we've given the
Applicant a chance to speak and we've heard public comment.
COMMITTEE MEMBER SAYOC: So if we have a question
that's in the report and she did specifically mention it,
we can ask it now?
CHAIR BURCH: Yes, absolutely, because it is a
part of the Staff Report.
COMMISSONER HANSSEN: Then I do have a question.
CHAIR BURCH: Okay, Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSONER HANSSEN: Thank you. I was glad to
see this application, because I know that a lot of times
we've seen a CUP as a replacement for a zoning change, and
it does appear that based on the maps and the things that
were presented that most of the General Plan designations
for that area are all residential.
My question was about is this the first time that
we've actually had a zone .change for that particular
neighborhood? I thought there was mention in the report
about some other sites that had been zoned as office,
General Plan designation of residential, but became
residential because of a CUP.
ERIN WALTERS: Yes, that's correct. The three
properties are located directly across the street on
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Monterey and in 1997 were approved through a CUP process to
allow residential, even though the existing zone was
office, so that did occur in 1997 for those three
properties. The three properties across the street do have
CUPs to allow residential on that zone.
COMMISSONER HANSSEN: And I had a second
question. It was about the Architecture and Site
Application. Although it complies, assuming that the zone
change is approved, there would be an additional request
for reducing the rear setback by 2' from what would be
allowed if it were in fact zoned as residential, is that
correct?
ERIN WALTERS: Right. The request by the
Applicant is to reduce the accessory structure's rear
setback to 31. That is something that is in the code that
can be applied for, and be examined to determine if that's
appropriate and compatible with the surrounding
neighborhood.
COMMISSONER HANSSEN: And the accessory structure
is the garage?
ERIN WALTERS: That's correct.
COMMISSONER HANSSEN: Okay, thank you.
CHAIR BURCH: Any other questions? Commissioner
Kane.
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COMMISSIONER KANE: Specific to your report, my
question is do you know that I think you and Staff should
be complimented for the response you gave to the letter
from the citizen, Ms. Page? She apparently brought up three
good points, and the Town responded with a lot of
substance: that you would look at the drains, you'd look at
the tree, and you'd look at the fence. I don't think we
always see that, so I was impressed, and do you know I
appreciate it?
ERIN WALTERS: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER KANE: I made it a question.
CHAIR BURCH: That was a good comment. Do we have
any other questions for comments? Seeing none, thank you.
All right, we're now going to open the public
portion of the public hearing and give the Applicant an
opportunity to address the Commission for up to ten
minutes. I know that I have your card, Mr. Black, and I
assume you are all... No, you're the neighbor. So the ten
minutes will be for both of you, so please just make sure
that you both take the time to introduce yourself so it's
Ion record.
MICHAEL BLACK: Hi, Commissioners. Thank you very
much for having us. I'm the Applicant, Michael Black, and I
as well want to thank Erin and the rest of Staff for a
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thorough Staff Report. We're here to answer any questions,
and right now I'm going to hand it over to my architect to
go through the project.
BESS WIERSEMA: Good evening, Commissioners.
Thank you for your time.
I just prepared a quick process so you can
understand what we went through for the project. It's two -
parted. As you know, we have the zoning change, and we also
have the Architecture and Site Application.
CHAIR BURCH: For the record, will you state your
name?
BESS WIERSEMA: I'm sorry. Bess Wiersema,
Studio3. I apologize.
As you know, we're here for a rezoning. This was
bright to us by the Planning Department. They requested
that instead of a CUP, which the three properties directly
across the street had, that to be more conforming with the
General Plan that we would rezone from office to an R -1D.
You've seen all of these reasons in your previous Staff
Report; I think they're pretty straightforward. The project
then moves forward with an R -1D proposal in terms of
setbacks, et cetera, compared to office.
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If you've got any questions about these, I'm
happy to answer them after, but again, the Staff Report was
very thorough on the logic behind rezone versus a CUP.
As a reminder, we are the property that's
highlighted right here, on the corner. Those three
properties that you see across the street are the three
properties that while they're showing up on Erin's previous
diagram as office, are indeed residential houses on them.
This is just a quick analysis also of square
footage and EAR that was conducted to be sure that we met
the design guidelines. A little error on our allowed side;
I believe it's 2,862 is allowed and our proposed square
footage is 2,853. We are not the largest house in the
immediate neighborhood, as deemed by the Town.
We've also broken out just the detached garage,
the porch and deck areas, et cetera, so that you could
understand overall square footage.
Lot coverage, I think you've seen is also on the
plans. We do have a 32% coverage. I think the neighborhood
has up to 33% around it and immediate neighborhood
neighbors.
Just a reminder; I'm sure you've been there.
There is an antiquated office building from the sixties on
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the site. We are proposing obviously removing that, and a
new single- family home built in place.
This is just a brief analysis of the style and
type that exists in the neighborhood. The sources used are
the field guides that are commonly accepted by urban
planners, planning departments, et cetera. The same
neighbors that you saw previously, we've broken down a
neighborhood analysis in case there are any questions on
materials or style, plate heights, et cetera. We've given
you the address, a picture of the house, and the housing
type.
What you basically see is that this is a
neighborhood —I'll just kind of click through these —that is
somewhat consistent in character in terms of new
traditional homes being more in the Craftsmen type style,
but definitely varied; everything from Italianate to post-
war ranch, to some random commercial projects tucked in
here or there.
On our site, obviously we have the corner of
Andrews and Monterey. The house pulled to the left side to
help navigate the corner setbacks.
The garage with the reduced side setbacks is
tucked up against the back corner. One of the reasons we
want to do that is obviously it's a garage, it's a lower
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building and it's kind of more in conformance with what you
see in our 1D neighborhoods right now.
And also with the clipped corner due to view and
engineering giving us that little bit of extra room at the
back of the site is nice, because we have to get out of
this additional corner setback that exists there. It is a
detached garage, lower square footage and lower heights,
roof plates.
First and second floor plans. Just show this as a
house.
And then we have our proposed exterior
elevations. As you probably read in the Cannon Group's
multiple reviews of the project, we started off initially
with more of a farmhouse Victorian, which is common
downtown, and it was requested the we move more into a
Craftsmen type style home to feel a little bit better in
the neighborhood.
What you see here are details that make that
statement. We do have the lower pitched roofs. We've broken
down instead of having stacked bays that existed on the
front elevation before. We've had use of mullions,
shingles, railing details, column details, et cetera, that
are consistent in character with something deemed kind of
Craftsmen. You can see the materials are continued around
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Ithe whole fagade. We do have a back porch. Our garage is
very simple. Obviously a garage door faces our side street
access, and then just standard walls around the sides.
These are just examples of similar homes that
combine post, painted post, shingles, and metal roofs. Some
of them are in Los Gatos, others are just examples of the
types of material combination that we're talking about.
You saw our materials board. Unlike this that
just has the scanned images, we've got pieces of the roof,
the stone, and the shingle painted in the proposed color,
as well as images from Jeld Wen for the windows.
This is our response to Larry Cannon's comments
as we process through the project, and I think those are
important to go through from an Architecture and Site
Application standpoint.
One of the things that Larry brought up was he
didn't like the two -story projecting bay at the front,
which I'm not sure if you've seen the original proposal. So
what we've done is change that front fagade to tuck back
the back windows and the wrap- around porch.
The next one had to do with roof pitches. We
reduced those roof pitches to be more in keeping with
Craftsmen type roof pitches rather than shingle style or a
farmhouse Victorian style roof pitches, and also addresses
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open gables and hipped roof options around the house, as
you can see on the plans.
We are requesting a 10' first floor plate height,
and that is something that we would like to keep. One of
the things that we've done to help navigate that is we
actually lowered the house by 6 ", and also then the
shifting of the roof plates to a lower roof plate lowered
the overall home to about 1' lower than the maximum allowed
height.
We also have added additional beam details and
trim details at the porch, so that it's further detailed
and has a lower look; just see straight into the house.
Again, we addressed his roof pitch comments.
Let's see, number six. Again, this just has to do
with the porch.
An element that was really important to us
architecturally, especially because this house does sit on
a corner, was to have a wrap- around porch, so we have two
street frontages that are our front. We really wanted to be
responsive to that and not have a side house that was
inappropriate for the long side of the property, so that
front porch element is a critical architectural element to
us. It's detailed very nicely, so even though the main
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level and subsequent porch have a 10' plate height, it does
stack, wrap, et cetera, detail -wise, and drops down.
We are using a standing seam metal roof. You can
see the detail. I think Michael brought some extra pieces.
They're in the back there, I think. You can see where we've
added that detail, and that detail exists not on our main
roofs but on our accent roofs, things like the porch and
some of the gable pieces.
Siding. Larry wanted our corners mitered instead
of having trim corners; that's not a problem, we're happy
to do that.
And then windows. We do have a Jeld Wen aluminum
clad, exterior painted, wood interior window. Did you bring
a window corner? Okay. You can see a picture of a Jeld Wen
on the materials board.
Okay, I think that's it.
CHAIR BURCH: Questions? Commissioner Badame,
then Commissioner Talesfore.
VICE CHAIR BADAME: The accessory structure, at
774 square feet, to be used as a garage. Why wouldn't you
trim the size to meet the rear setback?
BESS WIERSEMA: We're allowed to have a garage
that is that big, and at this time we're not proposing a
basement, so the garage is for storage for the home as well
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as garage space. It typically takes about 500 square feet
to have a garage today, so the additional 200 - and - some -odd
square feet are used for storage.
VICE CHAIR BADAME: Thank you.
CHAIR BURCH: Commissioner Talesfore.
COMMISSIONER TALESFORE: Let's just continue with
the garage. What is the height of that garage?
BESS WIERSEMA: From our maximum height I want to
say that the ridge is 14'.
COMMISSIONER TALESFORE: About, or it is?
BESS WIERSEMA: I'm getting there. Just one
second. 141, 3.5" to be precise.
COMMISSIONER TALESFORE: By 21. And what's the
length of that? The reason I'm asking the question is that
it's a very narrow lot. Well, it's actually patterned after
most of the other lots in that neighborhood, and this does
seem to run the length of a lot of the fence, but I would
like to see that elevation again with the plan on the site.
BESS WIERSEMA: So obviously this is our proposed
garage element. We have the engineering- required pull -in
space to get off the street or be able to back up; that's
what's maintained here, more than maintained actually. I'll
get you the dimension on the long wall of the garage in one
moment. 331, 8 ".
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COMMISSIONER TALESFORE: And the width of the lot
Iis?
MICHAEL BLACK: 60'.
COMMISSIONER TALESFORE: Okay, so it takes up
about half of the lot.
Let's move on. Just some housekeeping pieces, and
I'm referring to Larry Cannon's August 18th design review.
I'm really disappointed that you didn't have the window
here, because he actually asked that you supply a sample
window. I think what he wanted us to see was that it
actually did replicate a wood window, and what I would like
to know is are we at a gloss finish? Are we at a non -gloss
finish? What is the finish of that window?
BESS WIERSEMA: The finish is standard factory
satin finish that you see on any aluminum clad metal
window. I believe that Larry Cannon's question came because
on our original set of plans we labeled the windows as
"metal" windows, so it came up that perhaps were they steel
sash or case windows as opposed to a typical aluminum clad,
wood interior painted window. There was a misunderstanding
about a label on the original drawings that was leading
Larry to believe that it was a steel sash window, which is
more of a commercial storefront type of window, which is
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not what we're using. We're using Jeld Wen products or
equal. Colby, Jeld Wen, et cetera.
COMMISSIONER TALESFORE: When you say "satin," I
have no idea the gloss of a satin window. I mean I know
what satin is in some cases and not others. It's just a
point that it would have been helpful, because you do have
a lot of windows.
MICHAEL BLACK: It's a standard factory window.
COMMISSIONER TALESFORE: Thank you. That's really
not going to help me now.
And I just wanted to check that you're using real
wood shingles, is that correct?
BESS WIERSEMA: Yes.
COMMISSIONER TALESFORE: Is that what that gray
color is?
MICHALE BLACK: It's a real wood cedar shingle
that's painted on top.
COMMISSIONER TALESFORE: Okay. And then Larry's
other —and I happen to agree with him on this —is about
lowering the porch and the first floor plate height to a
uniform 9' elevation.
BESS WIERSEMA: Hold on; let me get to the
elevations. In our original submission to Larry Cannon we
had some stacked bays that gave a very vertical feel to the
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home. We also were missing things like an additional fascia
and gutter line, as well as cross beam line, that you see
on more traditional homes. What you see here is we've added
that detail in, so that when you're looking at this porch
from the front and the side, the sides and the corner, you
have a porch that is perceptively lowered based on the fact
that there are now structural elements that are visible and
clad nicely with trim.
One of the reasons we don't want to lower the
plate of the porch and the plate of the house is that we're
already set back because we're a corner, and we're applying
this wrap- around porch concept to be really responsive to
the neighborhood. If we start lowering all these pitches,
this roof pitch of the porch as it extends out, because
it's got fairly decent depth to it so that we can pull back
off that corner, it starts getting low just by geometry,
math.
What we propose to do to help bring down the
height of the building, like I said earlier, was to lower
the house a little bit than what we really wanted to, and
it also lowers the roof pitches. So we are whole foot
underneath what's allowed from a height perspective
overall.
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COMMISSIONER TALESFORE: One thing, I think you
said in one of your papers here that your design is an
interpretation of a Craftsmen, I believe is what you said.
Right. It's, "consistent with a current interpretation of
the more updated Craftsmen."
The question I have, there are a couple of issues
that I've seen and maybe you can help me understand this.
You're on a corner lot, so you have a very prominent place
in that neighborhood, and you have a house that I believe
is 29', 1.5 ", and the roof that you have chosen to use with
this interpretation seems to be adding to the bulk of that.
I'm questioning how you could bring that down
further if you really were trying to design this after a
Craftsmen, because one of the outstanding features of a
Craftsmen home is the low pitched roof with the gable end,
and I don't really see that here at all, so I'm wondering
if you could help me understand.
BESS WIERSEMA: Well, I think as with all current
architecture that you've seen —I shouldn't say all —most
current architecture that you've seen, if you study the
field guide of American architecture, you'll actually find
that they're all considered new traditional with influences
of something. So it's not a real Craftsmen home, it's not a
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real shingle home; they're all hybrid interpretations or
blends of those.
I think we say it's an interpretation of
Craftsmen here because we're also using shingles to be a
little bit more traditional in some other details. Those
are materials that you do see on Craftsmen, but you also
see on shingle style homes, so perhaps we should call it a
hybrid version of Craftsmen and shingle style homes. We do
have a lowered roof pitch, the open gables. Are you
referring to the metal roof as bringing up the bulk and
mass, or you're referring to the rest of our comp shingle
roof?
COMMISSIONER TALESFORE: No, I'm referring to
Larry's comment about lowering this house to the 9' floor
plate.
BESS WIERSEMA: I'm sorry; I thought your
question was about the roof.
COMMISSIONER TALESFORE: Well, it is, and it's
about could you lower the roof any more to accommodate that
9' floor plate, or not, if it was designed this way?
BESS WIERSEMA: Let's just take a look at the
side elevation for a second. Our maximum height occurs
right here. It doesn't occur across the whole body of the
house. Pulls back from the corner, so what you're seeing
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here is actually way back in the house. I think we've
actually done a fairly good job addressing the overall bulk
and mass of the roof by pulling that back, and addressing
the corner with a lower roof at the wrap- around porch.
I think lowering the roof pitch from what it is
right now to just gain a little extra height actually
flattens out what you see for some of the roof and is
disproportionate to the walls of the home that you'll see.
I think then actually the house looks bigger, because
you're looking at a lot of vertical fagade versus something
that's pitching away, or back from you, in all directions.
You'll notice we've kind of hipped away from the corner and
the adjacent neighbor.
COMMISSIONER TALESFORE: Thank you.
CHAIR BURCH: Commissioner Erekson.
COMMISSIONER EREKSON: It was my understanding
that Mr. Cannon was satisfied when you lowered the floor
and left the plate level at 10' based on the fact that you
had lowered the floor level, and that there were both
Ihouses in the neighborhood that had 9' and 10'. Is that
consistent with your understanding with your last
interaction with Mr. Cannon? Was he satisfied?
BESS WIERSEMA: Yes, I believe that that was...
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COMMISSIONER EREKSON: No, it's a simple
BESS WIERSEMA: Yes, yes.
COMMISSIONER EREKSON: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER TALESFORE: A follow up to that?
CHAIR BURCH: Yes.
COMMISSIONER TALESFORE: Then should I not be
referring to August 18th? Was there another meeting with Mr.
Cannon after August 18th? I should ask Staff, or whom should
I address that to? The Applicant?
ERIN WALTERS: You're right in that Larry Cannon
Group provided a last review of the project and that the
Applicant provided a response. In that time Staff had many
conversations on the phone with Mr. Cannon to address those
issues, and working with the Applicant as well. What is
summarized in the Staff Report describes that we had worked
with them, talked about it, looked at all adjacent
neighbors and existing properties, as well as the elements
that the Applicant introduced to address Mr. Cannon's
concerns.
COMMISSIONER TALESFORE: Thank you. That would
have been clearer if you had noted it in the Staff Report
that you had subsequent telephone conversations. Thank you.
ERIN WALTERS: Okay, thank you.
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CHAIR BURCH: Commissioner Badame.
VICE CHAIR BADAME: Following up on that, Mr.
Cannon still does not support the metal roof over the
porch; he wants the roofing material to match the rest of
the home.
ERIN WALTERS: In our conversation —and I
apologize for not clarifying the conversation in the
report —he said that it can go either way. There are
examples in architecture that show, as we've shown tonight,
a mix, and then there are also projects that show complete
one solid roofing material.
VICE CHAIR BADAME: But in this particular
neighborhood there is no metal roof that you know of?
ERIN WALTERS: That is correct.
VICE CHAIR BADAME: Thank you.
CHAIR BURCH: Do we have any other questions of
the Applicant? Commissioner Kane.
COMMISSIONER KANE: I wanted to share my concern
regarding the garage.
Also, in the Residential Design Guidelines we
have that famous 5 -2 -2 to decide immediate neighborhood,
and special attention is given to a corner parcel. I think
it was brought out earlier that whereas it may be a very,
very fine house, it's on a very, very clear corner, and I
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Ifelt some of the imposition of the size of the house on
that corner lot. It certainly changes the viewscape, and
the neighbors, in terms of 273 and 276, are one - stories.
I'm concerned about compatibility of
neighborhood. Now, I'm not an architect; clearly you are. I
just wish that thing were further away from the corner.
You know, the response on the garage question was
a little more ameliorating. Garages don't count in the FAR,
except in special circumstances.
JOEL PAULSON: Garages have their own FAR
calculation.
COMMISSIONER KANE: Okay, so the garage is about
twice the size of the neighbor's, that is, those who have
garages. We have reasons for having FAR standards, and I
just feel a circumvention of adhering to the square feet on
the house by about 10', and then having an almost 800
square foot garage when everybody else has got 400 square
feet —I exaggerate to make my point, but the numbers are
pretty close —I feel we're just cutting corners to create
quasi- additional FAR in the form of an 800 square foot
garage, and at the same time that that 800 square foot
garage needs a waiver on the setbacks. It's like if you
want to put a super garage in there, at least abide by the
setbacks.
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I'm expressing my concerns to you now, because
when the mic gets closed I don't know if we can discuss it
further, but I want you to know where I'm at. I walked all
of those streets, back and forth, up and down, and that's
not a disclosure. I talked to neighbors, but I didn't
really talk about anything of substance. It's a
neighborhood in transition, and anything likely to be built
on that corner would be a great improvement, and the
neighbors are looking forward to that great improvement.
I'm looking forward to communicating with you
that those corner lots, mass and size within 2" of pushing
the envelope and then an 800 square foot garage, I need
some castor oil to get that all down. It's a bit much, and
we'll talk more about it, I suppose, but I wanted to let
you know I agreed with some of the other comments.
CHAIR BURCH: Do we have any other questions of
the Applicant? No? All right, thank you. I will now call
Brigitte Ballingall.
BRIGITTE BALLINGALL: My name is Brigitte
Ballingall; I live at 511 Monterey Avenue, and we are
indeed very excited about this proposed project.
We built our house —it was approved, it had a very
large garage, we are not on a corner —in 2007. It was a new
1construction with a full basement, and I think we almost
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maxed out the amount of square footage that we could build,
and we have loved the neighborhood.
It is a neighborhood in transition, you're
absolutely right, and so we are very excited to see this
project come.
My only concern, and my only comments to you and
to the builder, is that I'm just concerned about
maintaining any mature trees. I think that's of a greater
impact than the mass of the house. There have been homes
that have gone up around us that changed mature trees, and
it's really changed the whole landscape of the neighborhood
more than the buildings that were constructed after the
trees were taken down.
My other concern is also the drainage. I'm not
concerned that the project is going to impact the drainage
as much as I'm concerned that the Town allows the water to
be pumped, and for many months of the year the water is in
the street, which I see as a health and safety issue. So I
would just want to comment that we would hope that the
drainage issue in that area would be improved with this
project and not go in the opposite direction. Thank you
very much.
CHAIR BURCH: Thank you. Do we have any
questions? Commissioner Kane.
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COMMISSIONER KANE: I appreciate your concern for
the trees. As part of the public record there is an
extensive arborist's report on this project that determines
which trees are going to go, and therefore are eligible for
replacement. The number of trees that are going; if those
trees were to be replaced in the same number, it would be
an encumbrance, so not all the trees are being replaced.
There will be an in lieu fee paid for the trees that are
not replaced, and the big guy in the back is being totally
protected. Were you familiar with all of that?
BRIGITTE BALLINGALL: I was not. The tree that
I'm also concerned about, which is also fairly mature, is
the tree that's on the property line. I don't know if that
impacts construction or not. I'm also sensitive to the fact
that sometimes trees need to come down, but that's my own
personal preference. I do think there has been some
significant impact to that neighborhood with the reduction
of mature trees.
COMMISSIONER KANE: Well, concerning the tree on
the property line, Erin knows which trees are which by
name, and it's an extensive report by the arborist. I
appreciate your interest in those trees.
CHAIR BURCH: Do we have any other questions? I
wanted to ask a quick question just for clarification on
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the comment you made concerning drainage. I wanted to
clarify, is your concern that this project in any way will
(increase drainage issues, or were you just outlining some
drainage issues that just exist in the area?
BRIGITTE BALLINGALL: I do not believe that this
project is going to add to the drainage issues. I do think
that there are drainage issues on that street. I know when
I went through my construction project we were required to
ameliorate some things that had to do with sidewalks. Not
drainage, but sidewalk and the street; we had to rebuild a
portion of the street.
I'm just hoping that if there's an opportunity to
put in additional drainage as a part of this project,
whether it's a collaboration with the Town, if it's the
Town's responsibility or the homeowner's responsibility,
that that would be taken into effect, because this is one
of the worst drainage situations I've seen in any city, but
certainly here in Los Gatos. There is a running river down
adjacent to the property that's been a concern of mine
since I moved there. Anybody who is familiar with that
street knows what I'm talking about.
CHAIR BURCH: All right, thank you. Any other
questions? No? Thank you. Our next speaker is Lee Quintana.
LEE QUINTANA: Lee Quintana, 5 Palm Avenue.
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I would just like to say that I support the zone
change, changing the zoning to conform to the General Plan
rather than circumventing the intent by using a CUP. So,
thank you for that, and I hope you support that.
I did not really look at the architecture, but in
reading the report the one thing that did stand out to me
was the size of the garage in comparison to the other
garages on the street; plus the fact that it is not deep
enough to do tandem parking, and therefore in a sense it's
a storage shed. If it were a separate structure, it would
be counted towards the FAR for the house, and I believe
that in the past the Commission has looked at garages that
have space other than for the parking of cars as space that
is counted towards the FAR.
That's just the comment I wanted to make,
especially given the fact that the garage seems out of
scale with all of the other garages in that neighborhood.
Thank you.
CHAIR BURCH: Wait. Hold on, Lee. Commissioner
Kane.
COMMISSIONER KANE: So Ms. Quintana, you were for
many years a Planning Commissioner; we know that.
LEE QUINTANA: Yes.
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COMMISSIONER KANE: But I'm wondering, you said
something to the effect that it was not the intent to
create storage. Were you there when they wrote it, that the
garage was exempt from the FAR? Were you there when they
expressed an intent that it was for cars.
LEE QUINTANA: I was not there. I could give you
some background, but it would just hearsay, maybe. Maybe
I'll just say it.
In the past, when I was on the Planning
Commission, I did question the size of the FAR for garages,
because they seemed very large in comparison to the size
lots they could occur on, and the Planning director at the
time said to me that, well, they just sat down and in a
half an hour they just picked the number and decided that
the house FAR could be this and the garage FAR could be
that. So especially with garages, since most of them don't
max out the garage space, it just adds to the mass of the
house.
I didn't go look at this. I know the
neighborhood, but looking from the drawing, it looks like
it's a pretty massive house, and then you're adding a very
big garage.
COMMISSIONER KANE: I have my answer, thank you.
I wanted to know if you were there and could establish
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intent of the garage, thinking that you might have been one
of the authors.
LEE QUINTANA: I know my storage space in my
garage counts toward my square footage.
CHAIR BURCH: All right, I assume there are no
other questions. No? All right, we now can have the
Applicant come back and address anything that you just
heard. You have an additional five minutes.
BESS WIERSEMA: This is the planning diagram. I
just want to point out the detached and less then 5'
setbacks that exist locally on accessory structures,
whether they are used as a garage, a storage shed, a not-
so-legal secondary dwelling, or whatever it may be that's
happening in the back yard.
So this is where we're proposing to do it, and
ours actually aligns with what's immediately behind us
pretty closely, and I'll show you that on the site plan as
well. These are all other detached garages. From a scale
perspective, something that's sitting between these two is
approximately a 400 square foot garage, just so you can
understand. We've had this one shot on a civil survey, so
we are clear on that from a scale perspective. But I'd just
like to point out that garages detached and whatever they
may be, I think that our intent proportionally...
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Let's go the site plan. Here's that garage that's
immediately adjacent to us, sits closer to probably 450 -500
square feet. Here is the garage that's immediately behind,
and you can see we're not coming out as far as they are,
although we are pushed further back. So just from a
proportion perspective, I feel like we're sitting at a
really good, responsive spot on the site, and within the
allowable FAR of the garage.
US.
I'm just supposed to address garage stuff, right?
CHAIR BURCH: You have five minutes to address
BESS WIERSEMA: Okay, so let's see. Commissioner
Talesfore, in response to your question about the window,
it occurred to me while sitting here that there is a window
and a sample that we had made free for a previous project
that I think you saw this evening, and that's a Jeld Wen
window as well, and that is an aluminum clad, wood window.
I can't unscrew it from the sample, because it's a life
size sample, but you can see that it has that satin finish;
it's the exact same manufacturer and is a standard clad
window you can flip around and see that it's wood on the
inside, but the same type of details. That same sheen, but
in a bronze, not black, color is what's being proposed.
COMMISSIONER TALESFORE: Thank you.
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BESS WIERSEMA: All right, thank you for your
CHAIR BURCH: Commissioner O'Donnell.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Looking at the garage
again, what is the width of the garage insofar as two
vehicles are concerned? What would you normally allow for
two vehicles, forgetting the present size of the width of
that garage? What is sort of the minimum size one can have
if you're going to have a two -car garage?
BESS WIERSEMA: Well, code minimum is very
different than what people's SUVs fit into. I would say in
my office I don't like to see a garage that's less than 24'
wide. To put it in perspective, a parking space at Safeway
is anywhere from 9'x18' to 10'x20', depending upon which
one you have, the kind of posts and all.
Flipping to our garage plan. Hold on.
CHAIR BURCH: While you look for that, I think,
Joel, you were going to give us some clarification on the
Town Code.
JOEL PAULSON: Sure. Town Code for a two -car
garage is 20'x20' inside clear is the minimum.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Okay. Would you remind
me then what is the width as designed, when you get a
moment?
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BESS WIERSEMA: Sure. So, 20'x20' inside clear
means that in the end we net obviously closer to 21' on the
outside, and we are at 231.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Okay. I noticed in the
drawing, the upstairs area where it says "Attic," I don't
know, but I assume you could probably use some storage in
the attic. But the storage that you otherwise would use, is
there room in the garage, and if so, where, for storage?
BESS WIERSEMA: Let me get to the garage plan. So
you can see, here is our very simple garage. We're at 23'
wide to the outside, not the inside, and we are at 33.8'
outside dimensions, again on the long dimension. As you
know, we come in here on a driveway off the street, so the
intent is to be able to pull two cars in, have bikes, et
cetera, and then a cut - across storage that's in this
direction that's responsive to our back door, which is also
on the far side of the property, kind of down over here.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: What's the depth of that
storage?
BESS WIERSEMA: The depth of that storage? We're
at 33', so by the time we get a car in there, maybe 8'.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Just so I understand, so
you might have as much as 8' when you go behind the front
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of the car as it drives in. You might have as much as 8'
for storage or a workbench or whatever?
BESS WIERSEMA: Correct. And circulation out that
back door.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Thank you.
CHAIR BURCH: Other questions? Commissioner
Talesfore.
COMMISSIONER TALESFORE: Will parking be
available on that driveway? Can cars park in that driveway?
BESS WIERSEMA: Yes.
COMMISSIONER TALESFORE: It will be able to
accommodate two cars?
BESS WIERSEMA: Yes. That's an engineering
requirement, that we have to be so far back.
COMMISSIONER TALESFORE: Okay, thank you.
CHAIR BURCH: Any other questions? Commissioner
Erekson.
COMMISSIONER EREKSON: I'll pitch in on the
garage as everyone else has, so I don't feel left out. If
you were going to reduce the garage, you would presumably
reduce the length of the garage, not the width of the
garage, I'm assuming from your comments about needing a
certain size car to get in.
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BESS WIERSEMA: If we're forced to, yes, because
we can't really reduce the width and have it work.
COMMISSIONER EREKSON: Right. I was sure that I
was making the same assumption. So in your opinion as an
architect, if you in fact did that, would it change the
look of the garage to anyone? In other words, change the
mass and the scale of the garage from a viewpoint, from the
side street or from the neighbor, or anyone else. You would
presumably shorten it on its backside, not on it's front
side. I assume you wouldn't push it further into the
property; you would cut off the 8' of the back end of it.
So in your opinion as an architect, if in fact you did
that, would it change the feel and look of it in the
neighborhood?
BESS WIERSEMA: No.
COMMISSIONER EREKSON: Thank you.
CHAIR BURCH: Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSONER HANSSEN: To add on to the question
that was just asked, if you had to comply with the rear
setback requirement and move the garage forward, what would
that do to the rest of the design?
BESS WIERSEMA: I think that we would just end up
with unusable space on two property lines, behind the
garage and adjacent to the garage.
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COMMISSONER HANSSEN: But that's what's required
in the Residential Design Guidelines.
BESS WIERSEMA: No, I believe we're allowed to
ask for a reduced side and rear setback for an accessory
structure, correct?
CHAIR BURCH: Any other questions? No? All right,
thank you. We're going to close the public portion of this
item, and I will ask my Commissioners if you have any
questions of Staff, discussion, or if anyone wants to make
a motion? Commissioner O'Donnell.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I'd like to make a
motion. I realize that it may not go very far, but I'd
still like to make a motion.
I would like to make a motion in favor of the
project, and find that the proposed project is
categorically exempt pursuant to 15303 of the Environmental
Quality Act, see Exhibit 2; and the findings required by
our Section 2910.09030(e), also in Exhibit 2, and that
relates to the granting of approval of a demolition of a
commercial building; make the finding that the project
complies with the Residential Design Guidelines, see
Exhibit 2; make the required considerations as required by
Section 29.20.150 of the Code for granting approval of a
Architecture and Site Application; and forward a
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recommendation to the Town Council to approve Architecture
and Site Application S -15 -018 with the conditions contained
in Exhibit 3, and the development plans attached as Exhibit
17. That would be my motion.
CHAIR BURCH: Commissioner O'Donnell, part of
this needs to be the rezone, so you need to include. So
could you add those findings, please?
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Yes, I will definitely
add those findings set forth in the October 14th Planning
Commission Staff Report at subparagraph (b), and those are
the required findings.
CHAIR BURCH: Commissioner Kane.
COMMISSIONER KANE: Will the maker of the motion
consider dividing the motion tres partes. One is the
zoning...
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: (Inaudible).
COMMISSIONER KANE: You know that, Tom. That one
be the zoning, another be the demo, another be the A &S?
Would there be any practicality in that to help us move
forward?
CHAIR BURCH:
Yeah,
I do
think...
COMMISSIONER
KANE:
Well,
I'm asking the maker of
the motion.
CHAIR BURCH: Okay.
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COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I have no problem with
doing that, but I guess I've got to understand it better
first. Would you explain to me again what you want?
COMMISSIONER KANE: Well, I've heard no objection
to the zoning; I've heard compliments on the thought
process that went into it. I've heard no objections on the
demolition. So maybe these things could progress, and I
think there's going to be discussion on the third part.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Well, I think there's
going to be discussion in any event, but I have no
objection to doing that, although I suppose I might break
it in two, because as stated by you, apparently there
should be no anticipated objection to the first two
matters, unless Commissioner Erekson has a problem with
that. I'm perfectly happy to do it any way my fellow
commissioners would like.
progress.
COMMISSIONER KANE: I just thought we could make
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: No problem, but I'm just
saying I think you'd divide it into two now.
CHAIR BURCH: I believe Commissioner Erekson has
a comment, and unless he's about the say the same comment
as me, I'll follow up with him.
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COMMISSIONER EREKSON: Mine is actually a
question, which is probably for the Town Attorney, but it
could be for Mr. Paulson. I was going to ask this before
any motion was made.
I'm not presuming what the pleasure of the
Commission is, but let's assume that we were going to
forward a positive recommendation for the zoning change to
the Town Council. That clearly has to be an action of the
Town Council. An Architecture and Site Application is not
required, is within the jurisdiction of the Planning
Commission, but I understand that the zoning change would
need to be made in order to allow the Architecture and Site
Application to go forward.
But could we craft a motion — assuming that we
could figure out what was right to approve with the
Architecture and Site Application, if it's what they
proposed or some changes we had to make to it; that's not
the question for the moment —where we actually approved, not
recommended, to the Town Council, to approve the
Architecture and Site Application contingent upon the
zoning change being adopted, so that the Town Council would
not then hear the Architecture and Site Application?
JOEL PAULSON: I think the short answer is yes,
that is a possibility. Staff actually explored that
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possibility, but determined that since the zone change had
to move forward to the Council anyway, that both
applications would move forward. Should the Planning
Commission wish to separate those out and approve it with
an additional condition that obviously this is based on the
ultimate decision of the Council for the zone change, then
unless the Town Attorney has a different thought, that
would be my opinion.
ROBERT SCHULTZ: This is a very unique situation,
trying to approve an A &S before the zone change is through,
but I believe we can craft those conditions to make certain
there are no vested rights that occur until that zoning
occurred.
COMMISSIONER EREKSON: I was just trying to be
friendly to the Council and relieve them of some work.
CHAIR BURCH: That's very thoughtful of you.
COMMISSIONER KANE: Well then, to the maker of
the motion, let's do that. Clearly something is going to go
there, and clearly it's going to be an improvement, so
let's doing the zoning piece, and then we have one or two
separate pieces.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I will attempt to do
that, and I look forward to comments from my fellow
commissioners. But as I look to the Applicant, and I think
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Commissioner Erekson's point is well taken, so ultimately
I'd like to do that; we'll see if I can.
The application summary says we are requesting
approval to: Rezone the property from O to R:1D; to
demolish an existing office building; to construct a new
single - family residence; to construct an accessory
structure with reduced setbacks; and obtain a Grading
Permit.
Now, I don't quite understand how the Grading
Permit fits in here, since we've heard no evidence on the
Grading Permit, so I'd ask Staff on that.
JOEL PAULSON: I would defer to page 10 of your
Staff Report, subparagraph (b), which really splits out the
zoning by itself and has just those three subparagraphs
that would accomplish the zoning recommendation.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: What does that do within
the application summary being for the Grading Permit? In
other words, Grading Permit would not be part of the
motion.
JOEL PAULSON: Correct, that would be part of the
Architecture and Site motion.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: But it would be part of
a motion that we are making this evening, and I'm just
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asking you if perhaps you can also share with me where in
our report do we discuss the Grading Permit?
JOEL PAULSON: I will look to the project
planner, but the Grading Permit is part of the Architecture
and Site Application, but I'll let Ms. Walters.
ERIN WALTERS: Yes, it's just a part of the
Architecture and Site Application. At a certain point, if
an applicant cuts and fills over 50 cubic yards on a site,
then they have to apply for a Grading Permit. Actually, a
Grading Permit is issued through Public Works, but we take
it through the Architecture and Site Application first.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Does this indicate that
it's going to be more then 50 cubic yards, or not?
ERIN WALTERS: I can look up the numbers.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I'd just like to know
what it is we're being asked to do, and it's not clear. So
while you're looking it up, I would like to try to parse
the motions now, as suggested.
Commissioner Erekson has suggested that we
consider a motion on the Architecture and Site approval,
subject however to the rezoning, which can only occur if,
as, and when the Council does that. I would make that
motion, make one motion, concerning the Architecture and
Site approval, but before I do that, because that's the one
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I think we'll want to discuss, I would make the motion now
to rezone the property from O to R:1D; to demolish the
existing office building; to construct a single - family
residence without approving the Architecture and Site
Application at the moment; and to construct an accessory
structure, again, without approving at the moment the ASA
part of that, which is the design.
And I'm waiting to hear on the Grading Permit.
ERIN WALTERS: Sure, thank you. I have that
information. The total cut for the site is 33 cubic yards,
and the fill is 19. When you add it together, it is 52
cubic yards, and so our threshold is 50 cubic yards.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I take it Staff has no
objection to the issuance of that Grading Permit?
ERIN WALTERS: None at all.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Okay. So included in the
motion then would be for the issuance of the Grading
Permit.
The only thing I tried to leave out of this is
the Architecture and Site approval, which I think everybody
may want to discuss. So the first motion I'm making, if
it's at all clear —might be surprised —is as to all those
other matters, and the findings for those mattes would be
the same findings that I previously indicated, including
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one brought to my attention by our Chair, which I think
then would cover the necessary findings.
CHAIR BURCH: It does. I don't know which one of
us want to jump in on this. Essentially it's my
understanding from what we've been saying over here is
there is going to be one motion specifically for the
rezoning, and all you need for the rezoning motion, which
is a recommendation to Council, are these three findings.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Okay.
CHAIR BURCH: That is standalone. That doesn't
include the demo or anything; that's a simple rezone. The
other items are all wrapped into this Architecture and Site
Application, so if you want to go ahead a make a motion.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Well, I have a question.
The question I have though, and I appreciate your advice,
is I don't know that we have any problem with the
demolition. We don't have a problem with much of anything,
I don't think, except the design of the two buildings.
CHAIR BURCH: Right.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: The only discussion I've
heard is that. So you're telling me, I think, one could not
lump together everything but the design of the two
structures? Then I'll follow the Chair's helpful
suggestion, so that we only need the three findings we
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previously identified, and the motion does not include
anything to do with the Architecture and Site Application.
CHAIR BURCH: Correct. Commissioner Badame.
VICE CHAIR BADAME: I would second that motion.
CHAIR BURCH: Is there any additional discussion
on the motion that is being made to recommend approval for
the rezoning? No? All in favor? All right, that passes
unanimously.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I'd like to make the
second motion, which relates to the Architecture and Site
approval, because this is the one I think want to discuss,
but it might be helpful to discuss it by making the motion,
assuming I can get a second, in which case we can discuss
it, amend it, whatever we want to do.
The motion that I would make now would be for the
approval of the Architecture and Site Application, which
would include the demolition of the existing building; the
construction of a single - family residence; the construction
on the accessory structure with reduced setbacks; and I
assume the issuance of the Grading Permit as described to
US.
The findings there I think are the findings which
are set forth in the report which we all have, and those
are set forth on page 11, and that's 1 -5. Hopefully that's
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enough at least to start the process moving, so if we can
get a second, we could discuss it. If not, we can do
something else.
CHAIR BURCH: Before we do have discussion, Joel
said that there's a change that we need to make in that.
JOEL PAULSON: On page 11 it references the
conditions contained in Exhibit 3, and we have a revised
set of conditions to deal with some drainage concerns as
Exhibit 19, so let the record reflect that would be your
motion.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: (Inaudible) called it to
our attention earlier today by email, and we subsequently
got it this evening too, yes.
JOEL PAULSON: Thank you.
CHAIR BURCH: All right. Do we have a second, or
continued discussion? Commissioner Erekson.
COMMISSIONER EREKSON: I'll second it to
facilitate the discussion.
CHAIR BURCH: All right. And do we have any
discussion, or do we want to take a vote? Commissioner
Kane.
COMMISSIONER KANE: I'll say it again. Something
is going to go on this property, and we have the skill to
elongate things for weeks and weeks, and months and months,
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and I wanted to see from Counsel why we can't separate out
the demo, so that something can start to get done?
ROBERT SCHULTZ: The grading and demo is part of
the A &S; it's part of that application. It's not a separate
Demolition Permit. There might be other issues and we worry
about if it was just going to be demolition without a
rebuild.
A good example of that is if you were to grant a
Demolition and Grading Permit, and then the rezone didn't
happen and a demolition and grading occurred. We have other
issues that we're concerned about with an empty lot there
with nothing built on it, with grading issues or other
issues that we wouldn't look in, because we know a building
was going to be built there. And that's why we included it
in the A &S. It wasn't separated out for this application.
COMMISSIONER KANE: So you've answered my
question. There's nothing we can do to facilitate some
progress on this project; it's all or nothing.
ROBERT SCHULTZ: Right. You have to get a rezone.
COMMISSIONER KANE: All right.
CHAIR BURCH: Commissioner Erekson.
COMMISSIONER EREKSON: I just suggest to my
colleague, Commissioner Kane, my reason for separating the
two was to allow for the project potentially to go forward
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faster, because sometimes it's challenging for the Staff or
the Town Manager's Staff to get items agendized for the
Council. This would allow it to be agendized for the
Council where even if -and I'm not suggesting we'll do this -
we were to continue the Architecture and Site Application
to a future meeting tonight, that stays with us and isn't
held up by the agendizing for the Town Council.
COMMISSIONER KANE: I agree with you. That's why
I wanted to break it into three parts 20 minutes ago, but I
guess we can't.
CHAIR BURCH: Commissioner O'Donnell.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: The question I have is
if we decide the A &S after approves the zoning, the A &S is
appealable, as I understand it. Now it would be appealed to
the Council. I just point that out; I wouldn't change my
agreement with your proposal. The Council can be involved
in both of these, depending on whether there's an appeal.
CHAIR BURCH: I believe that if we were to take
apart the A &S application I think that we all feel fine
with the demo and the grading, so I thing what we need to
do is -we do have a motion and a second - discuss within that
motion are there items that perhaps we would like to add to
that? Are we looking for some modifications to the
architectural portion? I would be looking to my fellow
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1commissioners for some thoughts on those particular items.
Commissioner Talesfore.
COMMISSIONER TALESFORE: Sure, I'll start. Why
not? And by the way, I agree with that bifurcating of the
motion. Thank God we had that in there, because if any
neighborhood in our Town is in transition, this is the one.
It's an interesting neighborhood, because some of
those office buildings probably will stay for a very long
time. Some of them, you don't even know they're there
because of all the tree coverage that is there, and somehow
it seems to not bother us.
But the one thing that you cannot mistake about
this neighborhood is its scale. It is obvious, and it is in
conformity to each other. It presents a wonderful harmony
on that street. The buildings, I checked and the height of
all of those homes, the shortest home is at 21', and the
tallest home is at 26'. This structure would be coming in
at 29', 1.5 ". It would be even taller than the apartment
building across the street from it.
Now perhaps it wouldn't bother me so much, except
that it's on a corner lot. It is the predominant lot in
that neighborhood, and it really sets the tone. What I look
at when I see this is the complexity of the roof forms,
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which really add to its mass, which is why I brought that
W2
If it's an interpretation of a Craftsmen, if it's
a new transitional current Craftsmen interpretation, one of
the elements of a Craftsmen that stands out is its gable
ends. What I was trying to get at was that if the roofs
could somehow be lowered or made less complex, perhaps we
had a chance of not recognizing that this would be the
tallest house in the neighborhood, but I can't.
And so because of that, I have an issue, and I
would like to see this possibly come back with some
expiration of that roofline and bringing it down. We have
these Residential Guidelines for something. People worked
long and hard on this, and it means a lot to me. That's my
comment for now.
CHAIR BURCH: Commissioner Badame.
VICE CHAIR BADAME: To add to that, I can't make
the finding for the exception to the rear setback on the
garage, the accessory structure at 774 square feet. You're
required with new construction to bring the building, the
application, to current code, and although there might be
older homes in the neighborhood that do have a reduced
setback, they were built long ago.
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I cannot make the finding, the compelling reason,
Ito make an exception on that rear setback for the garage.
CHAIR BURCH: Any other comments? I'll share my
I comments .
I agree with my two fellow commissioners. I would
like to see some type of reduction in the massing on the
corner, hopefully through the working on the roof; but
mostly the rear setback with the garage, I'd like to see
that revisited and make sure that it does meet the Town
guidelines. Commissioner Erekson.
COMMISSIONER EREKSON: I was trying to understand
Commissioner Talesfore's concern. If I look at the chart on
page 8 of the Staff Report, there are five single - family
homes in that chart, of which four are two- story. Does
Staff know what the heights of those are? Is there a
significant height difference between those four and the
proposed height of this one?
VICE CHAIR BADAME: It's about 51.
COMMISSIONER TALESFORE: About 5'. Exhibit 15 has
the streetscape with the dimensions, and Studio3 Design
provided this.
on that?
CHAIR BURCH: Ms. Walters, did you have something
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ERIN WALTERS: Yes, it's Exhibit 15. The house is
located on the west side of Monterey Avenue. Number one
shows it 26' in height. It does have the same plates, and
this house is being measured because it's being lowered, so
it's very similar to that house that's one over.
COMMISSIONER KANE: What's the address?
ERIN WALTERS: That's a great question. Let me
grab that.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: It's called number 1 on
Exhibit 15.
COMMISSIONER KANE: Yeah, I'm working on this
chart.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I know, but if you look
at it, you can see it, Exhibit 15.
ERIN WALTERS: I don't have them all memorized.
COMMISSIONER KANE: I'm okay. Thank you.
CHAIR BURCH: I'm not sure I follow. You're
saying notwithstanding the height as shown, 29.5' is
similar to 26' because why?
ERIN WALTERS: Actually I did just find the
address; it's 461 Monterey Avenue. That was a remodel of an
existing home. As the Applicant described, and is described
in the report, they have lowered the foundation to be
lower, so they're measuring from a lower elevation than
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this house on 461 Monterey, but they have the same plate
heights.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I think you said they're
measuring from the foundation?
ERIN WALTERS: They're measuring from below
grade, so at the crawl space.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: So the 26' you're
assuming is being measured from grade?
ERIN WALTERS: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: And the 29' is being
measured from below grade?
ERIN WALTERS: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: By 6" below grade?
ERIN WALTERS: I believe so. That's what it said
in the report.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: So instead of being 29',
1.5 ", it would be 28'- whatever.
ERIN WALTERS: And you can see in the attachment,
27', 7.5" from grade.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Okay, so it's roughly
1.5' higher than 461 Monterey?
ERIN WALTERS: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Okay, thank you.
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CHAIR BURCH: All right, do we have any other
questions of Staff, or comments? Otherwise, we do have a
motion and a second. Yes, Commissioner O'Donnell.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Let me just say this: I
put this motion out so we could see where we are. If enough
of us are not comfortable with this, then I would be happy
to withdraw the motion, because I'm not doing this just to
lose, go down in flames or something. If in fact the
majority of the Commission wants to do something else, I'm
not going to beat a dead horse.
But so far I guess I've heard from three people,
so clearly if I hear from one more person, I withdraw the
motion and we ought to do something else.
COMMISSIONER KANE: Commissioner O'Donnell, how
are you? No, I'm in support of the other concerns.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Okay. Because I've heard
differing views on this. Can I withdraw the motion if I get
the seconder to agree?
ROBERT SCHULTZ: Yes.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: All right, so I would
like to withdraw the motion, and I think Commissioner
Erekson, he's the second, if he concurs with that.
CHAIR BURCH: Do you agree with that,
Commissioner Erekson?
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COMMISSIONER EREKSON: An alternative would be to
ask fellow commissioners to propose amendments to the
motion to address their concerns.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: That's true. Let me just
say this. I have heard —and I may be wrong —but what I'm
hearing is that enough of my fellow commissioners would
like a redesign. I don't know how we can prove something is
subject to a redesign until we get a chance to look at the
redesign. So I'll ask you once again, and it's up to you.
COMMISSIONER EREKSON: I don't have any problem.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Okay. So if that's
(inaudible) it's not complex, I don't think, at the moment.
I think you're asking for a redesign, and that would be
that we move to continue this matter to a date certain...
CHAIR BURCH: Yes.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: ...asking the Applicant,
based on what they've heard this evening, to deal with two
issues. One is the bulk and mass, particularly the height I
suppose, of the proposal. And secondly, dealing with the
garage, and we've heard different things on the garage.
Now, obviously the Applicant doesn't have to do
anything. This is the request of the Planning Commission,
and whatever the Applicant does is up to the Applicant.
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The motion is simply that we continue this to a
date certain, and I'll ask for some directions on a date
certain, so that the Applicant, after having heard the
discussion this evening, can decide whether the Applicant
wishes to resubmit to address some or all of those issues.
That would be the motion.
CHAIR BURCH: All right. Do we have a second for
the motion? Commissioner Kane.
COMMISSIONER KANE: A question first.
CHAIR BURCH: Okay.
COMMISSIONER KANE: If we give guidance on the
redesign and a date certain, Mr. Paulson, how would that
effect appeal rights? Would that slow the process down? Can
they go forward and request an appeal? What would happen?
JOEL PAULSON: There are no appeal rights,
because you haven't taken an action.
COMMISSIONER KANE: I'll second your motion and
see what happens.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Let me say this: The
reason I think it's important that we do it is the Planning
Commission exists to deal with these kinds of issues. It is
true that under many circumstances the final decision is in
the hands of the Council, but I think we ought to do our
work, and our work is...
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very frankly, I would have approved this this
evening, so we have a wide variety of opinions, but it's
clear to me that we have at least four people who are not
happy with this, and I think therefore the motion will help
everybody, and if at the end of the day they submit
something that we still don't like, then I think you're
probably right, we should just send it along.
COMMISSIONER KANE: I still second the motion,
and we look for a date certain if we get the vote.
CHAIR BURCH: Right. Commissioner Erekson.
COMMISSIONER EREKSON: I'm fine with us
continuing and can support the motion. I think we need to
be clear about the direction that we're giving to the
Applicant in fairness to them.
I heard two different concerns with the garage —
one was the size of the garage, and the other was the
reduced setback —which are not related to each other;
they're two separate issues. If I were the Applicant, I
wouldn't know which of those we were not moving forward on
the basis of the garage.
The other issue, I think, is the perception by
some members of the Commission that it's out of scale in
the neighborhood; that's a summary of it. I don't know if
that's an accurate articulation of the concerns, because
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they can't redesign if they don't know what the direction
is.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Could I just say that I
think that is accurate, but I do think the setback does
influence the size of the garage, because unless you move
the garage, if you increase the setback from 3' to 5'
you're going to impact the wrong size of the garage. I
don't like impacting the width; that doesn't make any sense
to me.
But they are connected insofar as if you increase
the 3' to 5' you're either going take it away from the size
of the garage as proposed, or you're going to move the
garage. Either one can do, but I'm just saying they
conceptually are related.
I don't know if it's worth our while to sit here
tonight and go through precisely... It's fairly clear to me
there are a number of people who think the garage is too
big, period. There are some, and I don't know how many, but
I know that one of my fellow commissioners is particularly
concerned in addition to that with the setback, but I don't
know that it's worthwhile to poll that.
So I would like to stay with the same motion. I
personally, if I were sitting in the chair of the
Applicant, there's a lot of direction here. It may not be
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direction they want to take, and it may not be direction
they need to take, but it is direction.
CHAIR BURCH: All right. So we have a motion and
a second. Any further discussion? We need to determine a
date certain, so if there's no more discussion I'm going to
open the public portion of the hearing again to ask the
Applicant that based on this, as we look at dates, to
determine a date together that would work with. Mr.
Paulson.
JOEL PAULSON: November 11th would be the first
opportunity, so I would just look to the Applicant to see
if they believe they are able to make those changes by the
11th. Should they not be able to make those changes by the
11th, then we would just continue it again, but the 11th
would be the soonest opportunity.
BESS WIERSEMA: Can we have the 28th?
JOEL PAULSON: No.
CHAIR BURCH: All right, so the 11th. I'm going to
reclose the public portion then.
And so we have a motion. We have a date certain,
that the item will be continued to November 11th. All in
favor? Passes unanimously.
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Mr. Paulson, since we did have a two -part motion
here, one was referring approval, and the continuance, so
there are no appeal rights to this?
JOEL PAULSON: Correct.
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