Reviewed by: Town Manager, Assistant Town Manager, Town Attorney, and Finance Director 110 E. Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 ● (408) 354-6832 www.losgatosca.gov
TOWN OF LOS GATOS
COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT
MEETING DATE: 10/07/2025
ITEM NO: 10
ADDENDUM
DATE: October 6, 2025
TO: Mayor and Town Council
FROM: Chris Constantin, Town Manager
SUBJECT: Adopt a Resolution Repealing the General Plan Committee Enabling Resolution and Designating the Planning Commission to Hear Requests for General Plan and Specific Plan Amendments
RECOMMENDATION: Adopt a resolution repealing the enabling resolution that established the General Plan Committee and designate the Planning Commission to assume the duties of reviewing and making recommendations regarding General Plan and Specific Plan amendment requests.
REMARKS:
Attachment 2 contains public comments received before 11:00 a.m., Monday, October 6, 2025.
Attachment Received with the Staff Report:
1. Draft Resolution
Attachment Received with this Addendum:
2. Public comments received before 11:00 a.m., Monday, October 6, 2025.
ATTACHMENT 2
From: Ryan Rosenberg
Sent: Monday, October 6, 2025 12:45 AM
To: Council <[email protected]>
Subject: Comment on Resolution to Repeal the General Plan Committee (Oct 7, 2025 Los Gatos Town Council Meeting)
[EXTERNAL SENDER]
Dear Los Gatos Town Council,
I’m the current Chairperson of the General Plan Committee (GPC) and I encourage you to repeal the General Plan Committee Enabling Resolution, and to designate the Planning Commission to hear requests for General Plan and Specific Plan Amendments.
There were several reasons I first suggested this course of action to the GPC.
During the 4 1/3 years prior to May 14, 2025 there were 73 committee meetings scheduled but only eight were ever held; the other 65 meetings were cancelled due to a lack of agenda items.
This has not changed since: all GPC meetings after May 14, 2025 have also been canceled due to lack of items.
Of the eight meetings that were held many were quite short - one ran for only 21 minutes - yet staff had to do the work of posting the agenda and running the meeting. All topics were then referred to planning commission and finally to town council. So staff had to manage and explain the topics three times, and planning commissioners and town council members on the GPC had to review the topics two, or even three, times.
A lot of overhead and extra work for all concerned.
I believe Planning Commission can handle the initial review of these topics. They see them anyway so it won’t be much extra time for them.
Eliminating the GPC will also save the time town staff spends recruiting people, and town counsel spends doing the interviews. Better that we direct interested people towards the more active committees.
At-large GPC commissioners were added to HEAB and the GPAC which might have helped (a little) in staffing there, but those committees still had to recruit even more at-large members. When building an ad-hoc commission I suggest recruiting directly for it rather than keeping a few people “in reserve” on a (mostly) inactive committee.
A final point: when asked, our staff told us they know of no other town in our area that maintains a committee like the GPC.
ATTACHMENT 2
In closing I’d like to thank my fellow commissioners for their service on the GPC. I found them to be dedicated, civic-minded folks with a real enthusiasm for our town. They have much to offer, and I encourage the at-large members to consider other town commissions, or to volunteer for the one of the many other activities that help make Los Gatos even better.
Sincerely,
Ryan Rosenberg
Current Chairperson (and hopefully soon to be former) Los Gatos General Plan Committee