To: Mayor Furtado and City Council Members Date: February 24, 2026 From: Rob Eastwood, Community Development Director
Via: Brian Loventhal, City Manager
Subject: Desk Item 3.1 - Priority Session –
Referral from Planning Commission regarding Public Noticing The memorandum below is for consideration at the March 5, 2026 City Council Priority Setting special meeting and contains feedback from Planning Commission regarding the public noticing process.
On August 26, 2025, the Planning Commission voted to forward a referral to the City Council and staff regarding three recommendations for enhancements to the City’s public noticing and outreach procedures related to land use applications and development projects.
The recommendations were presented to the Commission from an Ad-hoc Subcommittee (Commissioners Zisser, Krey) that was created to study public noticing and public outreach. As the recommendations would require additional staff effort for implementation and are not currently on the Community Development Department’s workplan, they are included here for Council consideration as part of its Priority session. The three recommendations are summarized below, with corresponding staff feedback in italics. As noted, staff believes that two of the three recommendations have already been addressed through website enhancements.
I. “Campbell should consider extending its notification mailing to at least 1,000’ for ‘large’ projects codified by xx sq. ft. for businesses and XX units for residential) and any projects known to have wide interest.” The Commission requested staff support in defining the threshold for large projects.
Currently, public noticing associated with land development projects is sent to all property owners within 300 feet of the proposed project, per State Law.
Implementation of the recommendation to expand the notification radius would require a modification to the City’s municipal code. Staff would need to do additional research to identify a recommended threshold for large projects and additional research on the costs associated with printing and mailing additional public notices. Due to competing MEMORANDUM City of Campbell
Community Development Department
workload priorities and limited staff resources, staff does not recommend pursuing this update at this time.
II. “As Campbell makes improvements to its website, the City should strive to make it easier for anyone to find information on new and recent development projects. This includes not just projects slated for public hearing but also ministerially-approved projects.”
The City has produced an online “Permit Center Map” on its website that allows members of the public to find and obtain information about current and recent development permits in the city, including building permits, planning approvals, and public works projects. The Permit Center map can be found here
III. Campbell should look at making its email notifications sign-up system easier to find and use. The City should consider consolidating and simplifying the choices offered and include new projects among the choices.
The City currently has a notification sign up system where members of the public can sign up to receive agenda notices from the City’s different Boards and Commissions, bid notices, and news flashes, found here
In addition, Planning staff also sends out a weekly email to interested parties with information on new development applications that have been submitted to the city. Any member of the public can subscribe to receive this weekly email on the Planning Division webpage here.
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The August 26, 2025 Planning Commission Meeting Minutes, including discussion of three additional recommendations from the Ad-hoc Subcommittee that did not receive a majority favorable Commission recommendation, available here