ITEM NO. 1.
From: Janice Roberts
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2025 8:09 PM
To: Planning <[email protected]>
Subject: 2025 Public Comment Item #1 Ref North40 Development -From an Owner [EXTERNAL SENDER]
Dear Planning Commissioners
I am writing. to express my very strong support for the North 40 Phase 2 development and for the inclusion of affordable housing and designated units for adults with intellectual and. developmental disabilities (IDD). This is an ideal development to build an inclusive community and one that Los Gatos should be proud of.
My son and many of his friends are adults with IDD and are very active in this community.
With access to affordable housing they can continue to grow and thrive in the community they were raised in. They love Los Gatos and it's restaurants, shops, cinema, gyms, parks and many traditions. They participate in all of them! Most of all they love it's people. I can honestly. say that the people of Los Gatos have been wonderful to my son and his friends; and they enjoy and have fun together.
This project plays a critical role in ensuring that Los Gatos meets its legal obligations under state housing law, including. compliance with its certified Housing Element and Senate. Bill 330 (SB330). Moving forward with this project strengthens the town's position in maintaining local land use authority, while aligning with state priorities for fair, inclusive and accessible housing.
In summary my belief is that this initiative will be good for the town and its overall. community and of course adults with IDD. North 40 is a perfect community to enable our. friends with IDD to live full happy, healthy and independent lives. They will make great neighbors!
Thank you for your consideration
Yours sincerely
Janice M Roberts
ITEM NO. 1.
From: Gia Pham
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2025 8:28 PM
To: Planning <[email protected]>
Subject: April 30, 2025 Public Comment Item #1
[EXTERNAL SENDER]
Dear Los Gatos Planning Commission,
My name is Gia Pham, and I work as the Communications Coordinator at Housing Choices, a nonprofit and direct service provider that advocates for inclusive housing solutions for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). I’m writing to express our strong support for the North 40 Phase 2 project and to emphasize its critical role in addressing both the town’s affordable housing needs and its legal obligations.
North 40 Phase 2 is a meaningful step toward fulfilling Los Gatos’ commitment to affordable housing. With a 100% affordable building with 67 low-income units—this project aligns with Los Gatos' Housing Element and complies with SB 330. It also avoids the risk of the builder’s remedy while supporting a balanced, community-centered approach to housing development— showing HCD good faith.
Housing for Adults with Developmental Disabilities
Over the past few months, I’ve had the opportunity to speak with six Los Gatos families with kids with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Many shared their concern that Los Gatos is not financially accessible for their children to grow up and eventually live independently nearby, close to family and essential support. Some expressed frustration that the town continues to promise affordable housing, yet delivers mostly market-rate developments. But despite the challenges, every one of them expressed hope—hope that this project could be different. They’re willing to invest their limited time and energy to support something that could create lasting change for their own families and so many others navigating the same struggle.
At least 16 low-income units will be set aside for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. These are not newcomers—they are long-time residents who grew up in Los Gatos, attended local schools, and are deeply connected to this community. They deserve the same opportunity as others to live independently, near their families, friends, and the services they rely on.
Currently, the average area median income (AMI) in Los Gatos is approximately $127,000, while many people with IDD live on Supplemental Security Income (SSI), averaging just $12,000 per year. This stark income disparity makes it nearly impossible for individuals with IDD to secure stable, independent housing in their own hometown without dedicated affordable units.
According to 2022 San Andreas Regional Center data, there were 86 adults with developmental disabilities in Los Gatos, and approximately 75% of them still live with their parents. As their families age, the need for permanent housing solutions becomes more urgent. Without affordable, inclusive housing, these individuals face a high risk of displacement, institutionalization, or homelessness once caregivers are no longer able to provide support.
Local Demand Is Real and Growing
At Housing Choices, we serve about 100 clients who either currently live in Los Gatos or are seeking to return due to family ties or previous displacement. The majority of these clients are
ITEM NO. 1.
ITEM NO. 1.
From: Hilarie DeCesare
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2025 10:54 AM
To: Planning <[email protected]>
Cc: Michelle Capriotti
Subject: April 30, 2025 Public Comment Item #1
[EXTERNAL SENDER]
Dear Planning Commissioners,
I am writing to express my strong support for the North 40 Phase 2 Development, particularly the inclusion of affordable housing and designated units for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). As a resident and advocate who cares deeply about housing equity and community inclusion, I believe this project is an essential step forward for Los Gatos.
The proposal delivers on Los Gatos’ commitment to affordable housing. After years of market-rate development, it is refreshing to see meaningful progress toward housing for all income levels. This project directly responds to the town’s long-standing necessity of creating more inclusive and accessible housing opportunities.
Adults with IDD often face some of the steepest barriers to housing access, despite their strong ties to our community. This project offers them the chance to live independently with dignity, near their families and the services they rely on. These are residents who grew up here, attended our schools, and now deserve the opportunity to thrive in their hometown.
This project plays a critical role in ensuring the Town of Los Gatos meets its legal obligations under state housing law, including compliance with its certified Housing Element and Senate Bill 330 (SB 330). Advancing this project reduces the risk of state intervention, such as the imposition of the builder’s remedy, and strengthens the Town’s position in maintaining local land use authority while aligning with state priorities for fair, inclusive, and accessible housing.
The need is urgent. Many other local families are aging and worry about what will happen to their loved ones with disabilities in the future.
I urge the Planning Commission to approve this development and ensure that the IDD-designated units and affordable housing components are preserved and prioritized as the project moves forward.
Thank you for your thoughtful consideration and your service to the community.
Sincerely,
Hilarie DeCesare
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ITEM NO. 1.
Grosvenor – Property Americas
T +1 (415) 434-0175
www.grosvenor.com
One California Street
Suite 3000
San Francisco, California 94111
USA
April 30, 2024
Los Gatos Planning Commission
Town of Los Gatos
110 E. Main St.
Los Gatos, California 95031
RE: 14859 Los Gatos Boulevard and 16270 Burton Road (APN 424-07-009, -053, -081, -094, -095, -115, - 116, and -052)
Architecture and Site Application S-23-031
Subdivision Application M-23-005
Members of the Planning Commission:
We are very happy to be presenting our application to the Planning Commission for the development of 14859 Los Gatos Blvd and 16270 Burton Road in the Town of Los Gatos. Our application includes the development of 450 homes, including 77 homes that will be dedicated as affordable to lower income households, over 16,000 square feet of retail and civic space, over 283,000 square feet of publicly accessible open space, and associated on- and off-site improvements.
Grosvenor has completed an extensive design process culminating in a complete development application, consistent with all applicable development standards. A complete preliminary SB 330 application for the project was submitted on April 18, 2023, followed by the formal development application on September 18, 2023. The Town found the application complete over one year ago, on April 17, 2024. Since then, we’ve been working collaboratively with the Town to refine the development application and address any comments the Town has had regarding the project. As noted in the staff report for the April 30, 2025 Planning Commission meeting, Town staff have confirmed that the latest version of our application is consistent with all applicable development standards.
EXHIBIT 20 Page 922
ITEM NO. 1.
Community input has shaped the ultimate application under review by the Town. The genesis of our proposal dates back over three years. Before the preliminary application was submitted to the Town, Grosvenor spent years meeting with community stakeholders, Town Staff and elected officials to understand their desires and vision for the site. The application is a reflection of the input we received and the desire from the Town to utilize the North 40 site for denser residential development versus high trafficgenerating, large format retail and/or commercial office. During our outreach, the Town determined that the commercial/retail land use that had previously been envisioned on the property during the North 40 Specific Plan process was no longer desired, and the Town began exploring the property as a Housing Element site that could satisfy a large portion of the Town’s RHNA requirement.
The project is consistent with the Housing Element and complies with CEQA. Today, the project site is part of the Town of Los Gatos’ Housing Element Site Inventory and requires a minimum density of 30 dwelling units per acre (30 du/acre). As such, we have designed our proposal to be consistent with the land use designation and density planned for in the Housing Element. The project site also falls within the Town’s Housing Element Overlay Zone, and our proposal is consistent with this zoning designation. Additionally, the Los Gatos 2040 General Plan EIR studied the environmental impact of all of the development planned for in the Housing Element – including our proposed project. When the Town adopted its Housing Element and the Housing Element Overlay Zone, it found that the EIR analyzed the environmental effects of developing Housing Element sites and the cumulative effects of all of the Town’s planned development.
Because our project is consistent with the land use and development intensity included in the Housing Element and analyzed in the EIR, the EIR also addresses our project’s individual and cumulative effects.
This conclusion is further supported by the myriad peer-reviewed technical studies that have been prepared in support of our application. Further, due to the shift from commercial uses shown in the Specific Plan to the residential uses now planned for and proposed, many impacts are in fact significantly decreased, such as trip generation.
Grosvenor is proud to deliver a project that meets the Town’s minimum density requirement. When we were first approached by the Housing Element Advisory Committee to discuss increasing density on the North 40 site, we stated on public record that we could only commit to providing 200 residential units.
Nevertheless, the Town increased the minimum density on the site to 30 dwelling units per acre. After extensive creative design work, Grosvenor was able to achieve the increased density required by the Town.
As such, our original commitment to 200 units more than doubled to match the density the Town planned for in its Housing Element.
The project will provide much-needed affordable housing options onsite. As part of the overall housing program, the project will provide 77 affordable homes available to low-income households, which represents over 20% of the market rate homes in the project application. This number exceeds the Town’s BMP ordinance of a required 75 units. With 77 affordable homes, the project also exceedsthe affordability requirements for a mixed-income housing development project under the Housing Accountability Act. All affordable homes will be at levels of 60% Area Median Income (AMI) or below. We are proud to partner with Eden Housing to deliver 67 of the 77 affordable units in a standalone building. Eden has a long, successful track record of completing affordable housing projects throughout the State, including the Walnut Grove property immediately next door to Phase II on the North 40 Phase I project site. The
ITEM NO. 1.
following video links from the grand opening of Walnut Grove are a testament to the positive impact of delivering much needed affordable housing in Los Gatos. • https://youtu.be/nyxLaMo4Ih8?feature=shared
• https://youtu.be/Npq9UgHBpho?feature=shared
Grosvenor has been working in the Town of Los Gatos and on the North 40 project for almost twenty years.
We have valued the input from community stakeholders and have redirected our application from the original vision multiple times. We are excited to play a significant role in supporting the Town’s Housing Element, while also satisfying the desires of the community for a larger, accessible open space area. The central “Meadow”, a cornerstone of the phase II application, provides publicly accessible, passive recreation areas to all Town residents.
We look forward to Planning Commission and Town Council support on our Housing Element-consistent application. We ask the Commission to provide staff with any necessary direction to complete the project’s Conditions of Approval and CEQA review and set the next hearing date to act on the project application as soon as practical. In the meantime, we welcome any questions you may have, and we look forward to the opportunity to present our project to you and Town residents.
Sincerely,
Steve Buster
Senior Vice President, Development
Grosvenor – Property Americas
cc: Edward Morimoto, Yuki Family Farms
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ITEM NO. 1.
PREPARED BY: Jocelyn Shoopman
Senior Planner
Reviewed by: Planning Manager and Community Development Director 110 E. Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 ● (408) 354-6872 www.losgatosca.gov
TOWN OF LOS GATOS
PLANNING COMMISSION
REPORT
MEETING DATE: 04/30/2025
ITEM NO: 1
DESK ITEM 2
DATE: April 30, 2025
TO: Planning Commission
FROM: Joel Paulson, Community Development Director
SUBJECT: Consider a Request to Construct a Mixed-Use Residential Development (450 Units), a Vesting Tentative Map, Site Improvements Requiring a Grading Permit, and Removal of Large Protected Trees Under Senate Bill 330 (SB 330) on Property Zoned North Forty Specific Plan: Housing Element Overlay Zone.
Located at 14859, 14917, 14925, and 16392 Los Gatos Boulevard; 16250, 16260, and 16270 Burton Road; and Assessor Parcel Number 424-07-116.
APNs 424-07-009, -052, -053, -081, -094, -095, -115, and -116. Architecture and Site Application S-23-031 and Subdivision Application M-23-005. Property Owner: Yuki Farms LLC. Applicant: Grosvenor Property Americas c/o Steve Buster. Project Planner: Jocelyn Shoopman.
REMARKS:
Exhibit 21 includes additional public comments that were received between 11:01 a.m., Tuesday, April 29, 2025, and 11:00 a.m., Wednesday, April 30, 2025, and were erroneously excluded from the previous Desk Item.
EXHIBITS:
Exhibits previously received with the April 25, 2025, Staff Report:
1. Location Map
2. Letter of Justification with Proposed Density Bonus Concessions, Waivers, and Parking Reductions
3. Consulting Architect’s Report
4. Applicant’s Response to Consulting Architect’s Report
5. Final Arborist Report
6. Neighbor Outreach Summary
ITEM NO. 1.
PAGE 2 OF 2
SUBJECT: 14859, 14917, 14925, and 16392 Los Gatos Boulevard; 16250, 16260, and 16270 Burton Road; and Assessor Parcel Number 424-07-116/S-23-031 and M-23-005 DATE: April 30, 2025
7. Visual Renderings
8. Objective Design Standards Checklist
9. Public Comments Received by 11:00 a.m., Friday, April 25, 2025
10. Transportation Analysis Report
11. Development Plans, Part 1
12. Development Plans, Part 2
13. Development Plans, Part 3
14. Development Plans, Parts 4 through 6
15. Development Plans, Parts 7 through 9
16. Development Plans, Parts 10 through 11
Exhibits previously received with the April 29, 2025, Addendum Report:
17. Public Comments Received Between 11:01 a.m., Friday, April 25, 2025, and 11:00 a.m., Tuesday, April 29, 2025
18. Full Transportation Analysis Report
Exhibits previously received with the April 30, 2025, Desk Item Report:
19. Public Comments Received Between 11:01 a.m., Tuesday, April 29, 2025, and 11:00 a.m., Wednesday, April 30, 2025
20. Additional Correspondence from the Applicant
Exhibit received with this Desk Item 2 Report:
21. Additional Public Comments Received Between 11:01 a.m., Tuesday, April 29, 2025, and 11:00 a.m., Wednesday, April 30, 2025
ITEM NO. 1.
From:
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2025 10:07 AM
To: Clerk <[email protected]>
Cc:
Subject: For tonights Planning Commission meeting. 4.30.25. Clarification Request Regarding N40 Phase II Vesting and SB 330 Applicability. Re Los Gatos, Ca.
[EXTERNAL SENDER]
Dear Ms. Wood, Please include the following for tonight's Planning as a desk item.
Dear Members of the Planning Commission,
We are writing to clarify that the Grosvenor N40 Phase II project cannot claim vested rights under the Town’s Housing Element adopted on January 30, 2023, because the element was not certified by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) at the relevant time.
On April 14, 2023, HCD issued a letter finding the Town’s Housing Element out of compliance with state law. Despite this, the Town deemed the N40 Phase II application complete and vested as of April 18, 2023—four days after HCD’s formal finding of non-compliance.
Under Government Code §§ 65580–65589.11 and SB 330, housing developments may only vest in objective zoning and general plan standards in effect at the time the application is deemed complete—and only when those standards stem from a certified housing element. Because the Town’s Housing Element lacked certification on April 18, 2023, the Grosvenor project cannot vest under it.
Instead, the application vested under the zoning laws actually in effect on April 18, 2023, which were those established by the Town’s 2020 General Plan Land Use Element. That framework imposed a maximum residential density of 20 dwelling units per acre for the N40 site. The N40 Phase II project proposes 30 dwelling units per acre, which exceeds the allowable limit.
As such, the project did not conform to the applicable zoning at the time of vesting, and is therefore not entitled to the five-hearing limit under SB 330.
EXHIBIT 21
ITEM NO. 1.
Given the significance of these legal issues and the potential consequences for land use decision-making in Los Gatos, we strongly urge the Planning Commission and Town staff to seek formal clarification from HCD on two critical points:
1. Whether SB 330 protections apply to projects that claim vesting under a non-certified housing element; and
2. Which zoning standards—specifically—the N40 Phase II project vested under as of April 18, 2023, based on the status of the Town’s housing element at that time.
Sincerely,
Los Gatos Community Alliance
ITEM NO. 1.
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 4/30/2025, Item #1,
North Forty Phase 2, Los Gatos Blvd. and Burton Road
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A P P E A R A N C E S:
Los Gatos Planning
Commissioners:
Emily Thomas, Chair
Kendra Burch, Vice Chair
Jeffrey Barnett
Rob Stump
Town Manager: Chris Constantin
Community Development
Director:
Joel Paulson
Town Attorney: Gabrielle Whelan
Transcribed by: Vicki L. Blandin
(619) 541-3405
ATTACHMENT 7
ITEM NO. 1.
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 4/30/2025, Item #1,
North Forty Phase 2, Los Gatos Blvd. and Burton Road
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P R O C E E D I N G S:
CHAIR THOMAS: We will now move on to our public
hearing starting with Item 1, and I just want to remind everyone tonight that there will not be any decisions or recommendations made tonight or forwarded to Town Council, because we are still pending some environmental review.
There will be another Planning Commission meeting on this agenda item at a future time after the environmental review has been cleared up and presented to us.
The first item is to consider a request to
construct a Mixed-Use residential development, 450 units, a Vesting Tentative Map, site improvements requiring a
Grading Permit, and removal of large, protected trees under Senate Bill 330, SB 330, on property zoned North Forty
Specific Plan: Housing Element Overlay Zone. Located at 14859, 14917, 14925, and 16392 Los Gatos Boulevard; 16250, 16260, and 16270 Burton Road; and Assessor Parcel Number 424-07-116. APNs 424-07-009, -052, -053, -081, -094, -095, -115, and -116. The Architecture and Site Application is S23-031, and the Subdivision Application is M-23-005. The property owner is Yuki Farms LLC, the Applicant is
Grosvenor Property Americas c/o Steve Buster, and the
project planner is Ms. Shoopman.
ITEM NO. 1.
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 4/30/2025, Item #1,
North Forty Phase 2, Los Gatos Blvd. and Burton Road
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Before the Staff Report, may I have a show of
hands from Commissioners who have visited the properties? Are there any disclosures?
Ms. Shoopman, thank you.
JOCELYN SHOOPMAN: Thank you, and good evening.
The Applicant is requesting approval to construct a MixedUse development with a total of 450 units, 77 of which would be designated as affordable. The application is being processed under Senate Bill 330, and the project qualifies for two concessions and unlimited waivers under State Bonus Density Law.
The 15.565-acre site is proposed to be developed
with a Mixed-Use Residential building with approximately 7,874 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor, along with 255 apartments, ten of which would be designated for lower income households. A 100% affordable housing
building consisting of 67 rental apartments for lower
income households, along with one unit for an onsite
manager, 127 townhomes distributed amongst 17 buildings, two commercial buildings totaling approximately 7,200
square feet, and approximately 3.5 acres of publicly
accessible open space that is spread throughout the project site. The majority of the accessible open space is located with the Meadow, a centralized space that contains an
ITEM NO. 1.
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 4/30/2025, Item #1,
North Forty Phase 2, Los Gatos Blvd. and Burton Road
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outdoor pavilion; a pedestrian path; and active recreation uses, including a garden, amphitheater, and play space.
As described in greater detail in the Staff
Report, the townhome buildings are proposed at three
stories, ranging in height from 44’-3” to 48’-9”. The 100% affordable housing building is proposed at five stories with a maximum height of 62’-5”, and the Mixed-Use building proposed at seven stories with a maximum height of 99’-8”.
The two commercial buildings are proposed to be one-story ranging in height from 25’-27’.
The Applicant has implemented the parking
requirements provided by the State Density Bonus Law for the Mixed-Use building and the townhomes, which require a total 605 spaces to be provided. The project includes 768 spaces within the Mixed-Use building parking garage, street parking, a surface parking lot, and private garages.
The Applicant has requested two concessions
through State Density Bonus Law. The first concession is to allow for residential uses on the ground floor of
buildings, as currently the North Forty Specific Plan
prohibits residential uses on the ground floor in the
Northern District. The second concession is to allow the Applicant the ability to remove the proposed private roof decks for the townhome buildings at the time of Building
ITEM NO. 1.
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 4/30/2025, Item #1,
North Forty Phase 2, Los Gatos Blvd. and Burton Road
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Permit submittal, if necessary, to reduce construction
costs, which would cause the project to fall short of the Objective Design Standard requirement for private
recreation space.
A number of waivers are also requested, as
detailed in Exhibit 2 for building height and several
Objective Design Standards.
An Addendum and Desk Item have been distributed
with additional public comments, correspondence from the Applicant, and updated parking information regarding State Density Bonus Law.
Staff recommends that the Planning Commission
consider the request, take public comment, discuss the
project, and continue the matter to a date uncertain. A future Planning Commission meeting will be scheduled to discuss the environmental analysis for the project and to make a recommendation to the Town Council.
This concludes my presentation; however, Staff is
available to support your discussion tonight.
CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you. Are there any questions
for Staff at this time? Commissioner Stump.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: Earlier this afternoon we
received an email from the Los Gatos Community Alliance,
ITEM NO. 1.
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 4/30/2025, Item #1,
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and we received that as a Desk Item, and so I’m just
wondering, has Staff has a chance to review this email? DIRECTOR PAULSON: Thank you, Commissioner. We
have read the letter and the statements in there. We will, as they suggest, look for advice first actually from legal counsel, so since Ms. Whelan is out, we will be seeking that clarification. We have had conversations on that in the past. I want to take this time to introduce Nazanin Salehi; she’s from Goldfarb & Lipman, and she’s sitting in in Ms. Whelan’s absence.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: I guess there is no point in
asking any further questions on this?
DIRECTOR PAULSON: You can ask the question, but
we’ll defer the answer.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: I guess one of my key
questions was do we consider this to be an accurate
statement, that the Town’s Housing Element lacks
certification on April 18th, so I will hold until we have Ms. Whelan back. Thank you.
CHAIR THOMAS: Any other questions from
Commissioners? Commissioner Stump.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: I wanted to talk just a
little bit about the affordable housing.
ITEM NO. 1.
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 4/30/2025, Item #1,
North Forty Phase 2, Los Gatos Blvd. and Burton Road
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CHAIR THOMAS: I’m sorry, this is just the
questions for Staff.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: It’s for Staff, yes.
CHAIR THOMAS: Oh, question for Staff, okay.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: In the affordable housing
portion of the report, I guess I’d like to ask you to state again how many units of affordable housing are being
developed by the Applicant in North Forty Phase 2?
JOCELYN SHOOPMAN: There are 77 units that are
being proposed.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: If we look back at our sites
inventory in our Housing Element, do you know how many
affordable housing units that we had planned for that
property?
JOCELYN SHOOPMAN: I don’t have that number off
the top of my head. I can certainly look it up and report back to the Commission.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: I’ve been doing some
research on this, because I think it’s really important to look at this. That number was actually 364 for Phase 2 of the North Forty project, and what is actually happening is that 77 are being developed. What we’ve seen over the past several years is that numbers have been provided to us, like in September of 2022 the thought was up to…or maybe
ITEM NO. 1.
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 4/30/2025, Item #1,
North Forty Phase 2, Los Gatos Blvd. and Burton Road
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even more than 130 units could be provided. Then in
September of 2023 that was reduced to 91 affordable units, and now as of March 2025 it’s being reduced further to 77 affordable units. I know we do not have RHNA or no net loss analysis tonight, but as we look at that trajectory of
fewer and fewer affordable housing units being built, what kind of predicament does this potentially put the Town in? DIRECTOR PAULSON: Thank you, Commissioner Stump.
I’ll make just an overarching statement that the reality of the sites in the Sites Inventory being developed to the level of affordability is if not zero, as close as you can possibly be.
As you’re aware, if the Town gets into a
situation where we no long have capacity to meet our
Regional Housing Needs Allocation, we will fall under No Net Loss Law, which will require the Town to rezone an
additional site to make up that capacity site or sites, depending on the extent of that, to refill that bucket so that we’re still compliant with Housing Element Law.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: I guess just a comeback
question, and that would be since we had 364 affordable housing units in our plan, did we consider that number to be realistic?
ITEM NO. 1.
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 4/30/2025, Item #1,
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DIRECTOR PAULSON: Realistic? From a planning
Housing Element exercise? Yes.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: The way you’d have to answer
it, sure.
DIRECTOR PAULSON: Yes. I mean, technically once
you hit the minimum density for the specific jurisdictions— in our case it’s a minimum of 30 dwelling units per acre— the State actually allows you to presume that all of those units will be affordable in the Housing Element process, but the State doesn’t provide any opportunities for
jurisdictions to compel projects to come forward in that exact or even remotely similar fashion.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: I guess just to help people
understand, if we were to carry this out to where Los Gatos is, it’s clear that we’re not able to meet these numbers, what do we face in the way of penalties from the State? DIRECTOR PAULSON: I don’t want to get into the
penalties. Again, I think that has a wide range. I’m not sure Ms. Salehi is interested in providing any injection, but we’ll definitely make sure that we come back with more specifics as it moves forward.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: Thank you.
CHAIR THOMAS: Are there any other questions?
Commissioner Barnett.
ITEM NO. 1.
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 4/30/2025, Item #1,
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COMMISSIONER BARNETT: I think I know the answer
to this, but we have letters submitted by five nonprofits indicating that 16 units will be dedicated to
intellectually or developmentally disables persons, and I did not see that in the application. Do you have any
information on that?
JOCELYN SHOOPMAN: It has been brought to Staff’s
attention that those units are likely to be within the 100 affordable housing building, but I believe Eden Housing is available, or townhome applicant is available, and can
speak to that further tonight.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: Thank you.
CHAIR THOMAS: Any other questions for Staff at
this time? We will now open the public portion of the
public hearing on Item 1, and give the Applicant an
opportunity to address the Commission for up to five
minutes. I believe Mr. Buster, you will be speaking on
behalf of the Applicant tonight. Thank you. You will have five minutes to start. Thank you.
STEVE BUSTER: Good evening, members of the
Planning Commission. I’m Steve Buster. I’m Senior Vice
President of Development for Grosvenor. We’re excited to be here tonight to present the neighborhood Phase 2 project.
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I’d like to start with a brief project history,
touch on the Town’s Housing Element and how it shaped the project design, I’ll briefly touch on some of the key
components of the program, introduce the project team
members, and then we’ll be available for any questions.
The North Forty is located at the very north end
of town at the intersection of Highway 17 and 85. Planning for the site began in the 1990s. Grosvenor started their involvement in 2008. By 2015 the North Forty Specific Plan EIR and General Plan Update were approved and the
application for Phase 1 was ultimately approved in 2017.
SummerHill started construction after the Phase 1 approval.
In 2021 we turned our attention to Phase 2 and
immediately began an extensive community engagement
process. By January 2023 the Town’s Housing Element and CEQA analysis were adopted, redesignating the site to 30 dwelling units an acre. We submitted an application in
April 2023, and it was deemed complete one year later in April 2024. Finally, in July 2024 the HCD certified the Town’s Housing Element.
As a reminder, the Town’s RHNA requirement is
1,993 units, and the Town looks to our site to accommodate a significant portion of those units by redesignating the site to 30 dwelling units an acre. Grosvenor did say at the
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time that we could only commit to 200 units, but ultimately the Housing Element was approved at the 30 units per acre.
So, we went to work to design a project that met
your needs, consistent with your Housing Element, and we’ve done that, and we’re proud of it. Two important points I’d like to mention.
One, the project’s impacts are within the scope
of the 2040 General Plan EIR, which the Town relied upon when adopting the Housing Element; and two, Grosvenor is not invoking Builder's Remedy. This application meets the Town’s land use and density approved in the Housing
Element.
I’ll just briefly touch on the development
program. We spent a considerable amount of time master
planning the site to provide over eight acres of open
space, a retail promenade, pedestrian and bike connections, and 450 homes, which I’ll touch on in a bit.
This slide shows the very important integration
between Phase 1 and the future Phase 2.
Here we illustrate the project’s connectivity,
including bicycle and pedestrian connections,
implementation of the multi-use path, and it’s important to note we voluntarily agreed to provide easements and a land dedication for a future extension of Burton Road if the
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Town wanted to do that in the future. You can also see on this slide the center open space, which we call the Meadow.
The central Meadow is the cornerstone of this
plan. It provides an open space, gathering place for the community, and was a very, very important point of emphasis during our community outreach meetings.
Lastly, this is a rendering of the public
promenade, which provides a connection from Los Gatos
Boulevard to the retail, to the Meadow, and Phase 1 retail.
So, again, the project provides 77 units of
affordable housing, 67 of which will be built by our
partner, Eden Housing. Grosvenor is making a significant land donation to Eden to make that project possible. The Eden building will provide a mix of unit types available for lower-income households.
We’ve master planned 127 townhomes, again, with a
mix of sizes and bedroom counts to provide a wide variety of housing.
Lastly, 255 units, including 10 affordable, will
be delivered in the multi-family rental building, also
designed with a wide variety of sizes and unit types to attract a range of renters.
That building was designed and placed along Los
Gatos Boulevard to preserve hillside views from Highway 17.
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CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you. You’ll have an
additional three minutes in a little bit, and we will have questions for you, and you can pull up any of your slides to answer any questions, so thank you.
STEVE BUSTER: Thank you.
CHAIR THOMAS: At this time, do any Commissioners
have questions for the Applicant? Commissioner Stump.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: I wanted to come back to
affordable housing and this partnership you have with Eden Housing. Can you explain that a little bit more, how
development would proceed, and would that development be concurrent with the Grosvenor part of the project?
STEVE BUSTER: Eden Housing is a wonderful
partner. If you remember, they developed the affordable housing project, Walnut Grove, next door in Phase 1, which was very well received. I can invite them up here to speak about the project, but Grosvenor’s obligation would be to donate the land and complete all of the infrastructure
around the site, enabling them to go get their own
financing and build that project.
DIXIE BAUS: Good evening, thank you. My name is
Dixie Baus; I’m the Director of Real Estate Development for Eden Housing. It’s a pleasure to be here, and I’m happy to take your questions on that.
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We are, in fact, very grateful for the
opportunity to build another phase of affordable housing for families who want to live in Los Gatos, and offering a range of one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments for those families that want to call Los Gatos home.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: A follow-up question. I
don’t need to know the business details, but I’m trying to understand what the commitment is. We have 77 affordable housing units that are identified in this project. We need to make sure that all 77 are developed and something
doesn’t happen where it ends up kind of too bad, so sad, there was a problem and we couldn’t build those units. I guess I’m looking for an assurance at this point in time that those units will be built, and that they would likely be built concurrently with the overall project.
DIXIE BAUS: Because of the unique way that 100%
affordable housing is financed, that’s really too difficult to predict at this time, but Eden does definitely have a very long history of working with many, many market rate apartment and for-sale developers, and just in the last five years we’ve completed seven such projects under the same similar scenario where land was dedicated, the land was prepped, infrastructure was built by the master
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developer, and that all counted to help us raise dollars for the affordable housing.
You see, our affordable housing will provide
rents that are much lower than what is required in the
Town’s affordable housing plan, and so we can reach
families with deeper affordability, but in doing that, we do go and we leverage our financing capabilities and get tax credits, which is mostly how all of the affordable
housing at such low levels are being built in Santa Clara County and in Los Gatos.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: I understand, and we’re
fully in support of getting those units developed. It’s in everybody’s best interest to get those units developed.
Chair, could I ask one more question about the waiver?
A waiver is being requested that allows you to
develop the proposed BMP housing that we’ll need to provide affordable units proportionally, the same unit type mix as the market rate units, nor have the units be dispersed
throughout the property. I don’t know that this is a
question for you, but why is the affordable housing in your project being clustered this way?
DIXIE BAUS: I’ll take one portion of that,
because I do know that this particular building for Eden’s affordable housing was always projected as a standalone
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building, and that’s to reach the lower area median income targets and the rent targets in which we set.
Now, the rest of the development has the
remainder of the affordable housing units, which will be built at the same time as the other units. Ours is a
special, unique financing situation in which the standalone has one 100% building consisting of all units that are 60% and below AMI. Does that answer the question?
COMMISSIONER STUMP: Yes, like you said, the part
that you could answer. Let me go ahead, and this is
probably directed back towards Grosvenor. In the March 6, 2025 letter that was signed by Eric Phillips, it states, “Compliance with the BMP program requirements would
physically preclude development of the project.” What is it about the lot that precludes you from developing in
compliance with the BMP program? I understand the
partnership, but what keeps you from building across the property?
ERIC PHILLIPS: Good evening, my name is Eric
Phillips; I wrote the letter you just quoted from. Nice to meet you, Planning Commissioners.
The issue with the waiver is that if the project
were required to physically distribute units throughout the project, we would not be able to develop the project that
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we’ve proposed. In order to meet the needs of the Eden
Housing project, to have that project function as proposed as part of the unified whole of the development plan, it’s necessary to have those physically designed in a single building with the bedroom count, with the unit sizes that the project is proposing, so the project that’s proposed could not physically go forward if the Town’s distribution and proportionality requirements were imposed on the
project.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: I think I’ll probably have
more questions, but that answer is fine for now. Thank you.
CHAIR THOMAS: Commissioner Barnett.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: I understand the waiver
request with respect to the BMP units being integrated and not dispersed throughout the project. Maybe this is an
unfair question, but you’ve seen the issues regarding the (inaudible) Civil Rights Act of the California Fair Housing Act or the Federal Fair Housing Act that are involved in that?
ERIC PHILLIPS: No, so the housing would
certainly be developed to comply with all fair housing
laws, and it would be offered on a Fair Housing Law
compliant basis. It would be universally accessible and marketed to reach a broad swath of the population. I’ve
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done quite a bit of fair housing work and analysis on other projects, and we’ve never had any issue with having an
affordable housing project be a component of a market rate project and leading that to exclude any protected classes under fair housing laws. In fact, because of the depth of affordability, we’re actually able to serve many protected populations that wouldn’t otherwise have housing
opportunities in Los Gatos, so I think that the unit sizes and affordability that can be met by this project will help the Town achieve its obligation to affirmatively further fair housing.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: Thank you. I’m not sure
who will respond to this, but can you enlighten me some more regarding the 16 units for developmentally or
intellectually challenged people?
ERIC PHILLIPS: That we will ask Dixie to come
back and talk about Eden’s partnership with them. Thank you.
DIXIE BAUS: Thank you so much again for the
question. Great question. In Eden’s 57 years we have had the luxury, if you will, of partnering with a number of organizations that provide housing opportunities for many people.
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One of those communities is the intellectually
disabled community. The IDD community has been a friend to Eden for many years. We have set aside units to help meet their demand in communities, and there is a huge demand in this community for people who live with their parents
currently, but cannot simply afford to have their own
rental units, and so we’re providing that opportunity for those individuals to apply for a home with us and making that opportunity available to them.
There is no special needs population, if you
will. There is no different way that those units have to be built. They’re built inclusively along with the other
apartments in the building, so it is creating a very
cohesive, very inclusive community for rent opportunities for everyone who wants to live in Los Gatos.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: May I follow-up? I still
don’t understand how there is going to be implementation of the 16 units set aside for these people.
DIXIE BAUS: More often times than not, and for
instance, in many affordable housing plans there are what is called, not special set-asides, but preferences that are given for a number of units, and so in some of our units we have preferences for senior, which is built in on Phase 1.
Phase 1 was 100% preference for 55 and older, and then
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there were sub-preferences for people who may have lived previously in the Town of Los Gatos or maybe even worked, so it really is dependent upon what is in the negotiated development agreement. In this particular instance, while we don’t have a specific agreement with Housing Solutions, we do have a very long history of working together and
definitely do want to provide that opportunity.
The exact number of units we’ll have to work out
as we go along, but right now it seemed like they needed about 25% out of the total, and so that’s the starting
number that we come up with. It could be more; it could certainly we less. I’m betting they think it’s more; I know they’ll want more. They certainly have the need in this community to provide affordable housing for the IDD
community.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: Thank you for that.
CHAIR THOMAS: I have one follow-up question for
you about that. When actually building the units, is that when you take into account the population that you’re
targeting for the use, like in the design and the living space itself, or is it more about after they’re built, the outreach and the programs that you coordinate with to get highest-need individuals into them?
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DIXIE BAUS: Typically, we do it very early in
the game, because when we look at a specific piece of
property, we want to say would this population work well with the master population?
For example, you have some challenges when you
mix the population of family and senior; there are some fair housing challenges that you have to work out there, but not when you mix populations with, say, veterans and families, or IDD community and families, or even formerly homeless, because we do that as well. So, there are many subsets of populations that mixes well in a community and in a development. In this particular development, the IDD subpopulation really, really blends quite well with large family.
CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you. Vice Chair Burch.
VICE CHAIR BURCH: A bit on a different topic, so
this more directed toward Mr. Buster, please.
During your presentation you made a note that you
obviously had spent a lot of time on developing the site, and so I’d like to understand the thought process behind putting the tallest building right on the Boulevard where, if you recall during Phase 1, there was a lot of talk about being very deliberate and placing the tallest building
closer to the highway to keep the view corridor along the
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Boulevard and some things like that. Phase 2 seems to have kind of done a swap, so I’d like you to walk me through what that the planning and logic was.
STEVE BUSTER: Sure. Can you go back to my slide
deck? There are several reasons why we placed the building where it is.
First, it does preserve the hillside views from
Highway 17, which is also a big point of emphasis during Phase 1.
Number two, there is a drop in grade that’s
significant from Los Gatos Boulevard down onto the site, and so it takes advantage of that drop in grade. It
essentially makes the feel of the height from Los Gatos Boulevard lower.
The third reason was there is retail provided
along the promenade that’s at the ground floor of the
multifamily building, and that is the area in Los Gatos Boulevard where the retail will be most successful and
activated.
So, those are three reasons why we placed it
where it is.
VICE CHAIR BURCH: So I don’t have to dig through
the civil drawings, what’s the grade drop from the
Boulevard down?
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STEVE BUSTER: I’m going to look at my civil
engineer here and see if she knows. It’s 6’.
VICE CHAIR BURCH: Okay, thank you.
CHAIR THOMAS: Commissioner Stump.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: Question about density.
These lots that make up the North Forty Phase 2, we’re
scheduled to produce a minimum of 464 housing units
according to our Housing Element, the plan, and you’re
producing 450 housing units. My question would be why
aren’t you producing housing units that meet the minimum allowable density?
ERIC PHILLIPS: The minimum density that applies
to the site is 30 dwelling units per acre, and that is the density that the project is being developed at. The density calculations exclude some of the streets and areas that are being dedicated to the Town, and looking at the developable area and the Town’s definition of density, the project is being developed slightly higher than 30 dwelling units per acre.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: I guess this would be an
area of one of my concerns. Numbers have meaning, and
calculations have meaning as well. Their Housing Element plan, the definition for density is on page C-75. I may be wrong; it might be D-75. It says, “Residential developments
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are regulated by an allowed density range, minimum and
maximum, measured in dwelling units per acre. Residential density is calculated by dividing the number of housing units on the site, excluding accessory units, by the gross lot area.”
The only point I would make is perhaps if this is
a difference of opinion, and I’m just all about getting things right, maybe we should look to HCD for some
technical advice on the density calculation, because they obviously have approved this. They’re expecting us to do apples-to-apples comparisons, and this may not be a true apples-to-apples comparison with other projects that might come before us.
ERIC PHILLIPS: Yes, I think that the
calculations are entirely consistent with the Town’s
definitions, both in its General Plan and its Municipal Code, and in the way that it applied density to the first phase of the project, so it has both a pattern and practice of calculating density in this way, and we are developing 30 dwelling units per acre of the developable site. The only exclusions are for things that will function as public roadways. The internal network of streets is all included, so it is the equivalent of a gross (inaudible).
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COMMISSIONER STUMP: I understand, and I guess
where I’m coming from is how HCD interprets that. I
realize, and I’ve talked to our Staff about this as well and gotten a similar explanation, so there’s nothing out of line here, but it’s just details matter, and this is a
detail, so like I say, that’s just a concern that I have; I have no further question on that though. Thank you.
ERIC PHILLIPS: Thank you, and I’m not in a
position to speak for HCD, I won’t put words in their
mouth, but we definitely think that the project meets the Town’s standards and is consistent with their approach to calculating the numbers.
CHAIR THOMAS: Commissioner Barnett.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: For the appropriate
person, it might be you, it was mentioned that there would be an easement dedicated to Burton Road, but public access needs to be assured for the Meadow—I understand that’s a public use—so I assume there will be a dedication.
ERIC PHILLIPS: The one part that was featured in
the presentation was a dedication that goes above and
beyond the impacts that the project have been identified, so in some ways it’s an additional dedication that’s being made to help facilitate the Town’s long-term transportation goals, but even though that was featured in the
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presentation, that certainly is not the only dedication that’s going to be made as part of the project. The streets will have permanent easements over them so the public can access them, and there will certainly be accessible routes to use the project amenities.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: Thank you.
CHAIR THOMAS: Okay, thank you very much. Thank
you all for answering all those questions. We will now have comments from members of the public, so if you have not already turned in a speaker card to Staff, please do so at this time, or use the Raised Hand feature if you are on Zoom and would like to speak.
When you are called to speak, please state your
name and address for the record, and you will have three minutes to make your public comments. The first speaker card I have is for Gia Pham. Thank you, and just to let everyone know, the microphone, you can take it off or you can move it and adjust as needed, so thank you.
GIA PHAM: Hi there, my name is Gia, and I am the
Communications Coordinator at Housing Choices. We are a non-profit that helps people with intellectual and
developmental disabilities, or IDD, find and retain
housing.
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I’m here to express support for the North Forty
Phase 2 project, and more importantly, speak on behalf of the families and individuals with IDD who are part of this community and want to stay part of this community.
In the past few months, I had the privilege to
speak with several families in Los Gatos who have children with developmental disabilities. They shared how
heartbreaking it is to know that when their kids grow up, they most likely won’t be able to afford to live in the town that they grew up in. One parent told me, “We love it here, but I don’t see how my daughter could ever live here on her own.”
At the Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School
District I spoke with the superintendent for special needs and he said that the post-secondary program currently
serves 30 students with IDD. Each year three to five of these students age out of their program at 22 years old.
Most continue living with their parents and would qualify for the affordable housing units proposed in this project.
Additionally, the high school program currently
supports 20 families with students who in just a few years will be adults ready to take their next step. These
families live right here in Los Gatos, and yet, when their children reach adulthood there are no independent living
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options available for them. These families, like all
others, want their kids to have stable, independent futures close to the people, families, and services that support them.
This project includes about 16 homes set aside
for people with IDD, and it provides more than just
housing, it integrates these residents into the broader community with walkability, green spaces, gathering spaces, and just places to connect. Yes, it is all part of that one affordable housing building, but that’s better than no
housing at all, and it’s also still integrated in the
entire plan.
Without affordable options like this, many face
homelessness, and also many face being displaced out of Los Gatos as their caregivers age. At Housing Choices, we serve over 100 clients with ties to Los Gatos, many who are
living here on just $12,000 a year from SSI, while the area median income, as most of us know, is above $120,000 a
year, so this is a massive gap, and without projects like North Forty Phase 2, the housing crisis will keep leaving those with disabilities behind.
Fair housing laws outline that individuals with
disabilities have the right to choose their own housing and not be forced into institutions, but without actual housing
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opportunities to support this right, the law fails in
practice. North Forty Phase 2 brings us closer to honoring fair housing commitments, and I believe in the good faith of the Los Gatos Planning Commission to hopefully help move this project forward. Thank you.
CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you. Real quickly before you
leave, I think Commissioner Barnett has a question for you.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: If you would, please.
CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: This may be a little off
topic, but can you bring out some of the services that are available for disabled people who may need assistance?
GIA PHAM: We provide housing coordination
services for anybody associated with the San Andreas
Regional Center, which is the hub that supports those with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and we also provide onsite resident support services for the folks who end up in those set-aside units.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: Very much appreciate that.
CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you. Any other questions for
the speaker? Thank you. The next speaker card I have is for Blake Thomas.
BLAKE THOMAS: Hello, good evening. My name is Blake;
I’m at 16210 Escobar Avenue, and I’ve been a proud Los
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Gatos resident my entire life. In fact, I remember hearing about this project when I was just 13 years old, and I’m surprised that we’re still talking about it almost a decade later.
Tonight, I’m speaking in strong support of this
development for three key reasons. First, it provides
hundreds of desperately needed homes. Second, it creates no unique issues of traffic or safety. Third, it strengthens, not diminishes, the unique character of our town.
First point, it provides seriously needed homes. It
cannot be stated enough that we are in a housing crisis.
Housing costs are eating up peoples’ income, forcing people to commute long distances, and even putting thousands on the street. Our inability to build new homes is the chief cause of these issues as years of reports and studies have shown.
Denser, multi-family developments like these not only
ease affordability, but also play a vital role in funding Town services. It’s well established that denser
developments produce the most tax revenue for the lowest burden on public services, and this development will thus carry more than its otherwise weight in terms of funding our schools, roads, and parks.
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My second point is that this project creates no unique
issues of traffic or safety. Traffic and road safety have been problems in this town as long as I’ve been alive, and they will likely will still be regardless of if this
development is built, but this development will, however, provide key tax revenue for funding pedestrian
infrastructure, bike infrastructure, and transit
infrastructure that are the true solutions to traffic and road safety.
My third, final, and most important point is that this
development actually strengthens our Town’s unique
character. When I think, “What makes Los Gatos so great?” I think about our thriving downtown businesses and the
excellent events that we have every year at which I’ve made so many fond memories. These are what makes Los Gatos stand out from other sleepy, drab suburbs that are so common in this country, and this development provides the fuel for continuing our thriving and vibrant town. This project will provide our town with more patrons of local businesses, more volunteers to run town events, and more engaged
community members who are invested in our town’s success.
Opposing new housing will choke our town of new
resources, ideas, and community members, and I want to
remind everybody that our town’s greatness isn’t measured
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by the height of its buildings, but the vitality of its community. That’s why I urge support of this development.
Thank you.
CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you. Are there any questions for
the speaker? No. Thank you so much for your comments. Next up I have Katherine Mancuso.
KATHERINE MANCUSO: Hello, good evening. I’m Katherine
Mancuso. My address is 14287 Mulberry Drive, Los Gatos. My parents moved to Los Gatos in the early 1950s, so I was really lucky to be able to grow up here, go to school here, and thankfully have a career that allowed me to buy a house in Los Gatos.
I have a son who is 28 years old, and he has
intellectual disabilities. He’s been very fortunate in that through Housing Choices he’s actually been able to move out and lives currently independently, and I can tell you
firsthand, like any of us with kids, I think there’s some mystery around developmental disabilities or anyone with some special needs, but it sounds obvious, but to state it, they want the same thing everybody else does, and as
parents we want the same thing that all of us want for our kids, to be able to be productive individuals, to be
independent, and to have a place of their own. The pride and the growth that he’s had and experienced being able to
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move out, which honestly, we quite frankly never knew if that was going to actually happen, it’s been just fabulous.
The downside is it’s in Santa Clara; that’s the
closest place that we could find that fit the affordability piece, because he qualified through everything that they’ve been talking about, so being able to be in Los Gatos, I hate that number 16, it should be way larger than that, because I can’t tell you… I know some friends of mine who live in the area sent letters in. My son personally has many friends in the Los Gatos area that also have
intellectual disabilities, and so there are a lot of them out there and they’re wonderful, they contribute, and
they’re stable.
Just to comment briefly on having them all in one
place, I think I would think that way too, but in actuality where my son is, I don't know how many units there are, it’s on San Tomas Expressway and Monroe Street, right on the corner there, it’s a new development. He got to move in as the first new group of residents that went in there, and through Housing Choices, as Gia mentioned, they have onsite services, they give classes, and there ends up being some comradery.
Not always, but a lot of these individuals, my son
included, don’t drive, so they can share opportunities for
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transportation, so there is some goodness that comes out of that kind of community being developed there, so I’m in strong support.
Having him be able to live where his doctors are, his
dentist is, his friends are, his grandmother is, he could walk to our house from there, would just be fantastic, and so hopefully, the more, the better. Thank you.
CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you. Are there any questions?
Thank you so much for sharing tonight. The next speaker will be Jan Olson.
JAN OLSON: Good evening, I’m Jan Olson; I live at
15189 Lester Lane, directly behind the Office Depot. We’ve lived in our home for over 30 years.
In 1994 I was part of a charrette the Town had to find
out how the community envisioned Los Gatos Boulevard could be, and the look. There were so many great ideas, and they included the North Forty. Most of those were for the
benefit of the Town’s population to enjoy. Maximum heights for buildings were set at 35’, which came to be, and
walkability was a major factor.
I was very involved in most of the public discussions
of North Forty Phase 1. Sadly, North Forty Phase 1 did not become the things that were promised, and in most peoples’ opinions is uglier than “F,” certainly not fitting with the
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look and feel of Los Gatos. I was involved in Phase 2 at the beginning and quickly realized I needed to separate from it, as they were going to do whatever they were going to do.
The reason why I am here today is due to Housing
Choices and the need to have at least 16 units, if not
more, designated for adults with intellectual and
development disabilities, IDD.
My daughter, who is closing in on 36 and lives with
me, went through the whole Los Gatos School District system as a special ed student. She was finally diagnosed with autism when she was 17. Back then there was not such a
thing, and whatever it was, girls did not have it. She was one of the first high functioning students to join the high school’s post-secondary program. There were maybe ten
students then; I understand there are over 30 now, which I think is fabulous.
She started receiving services from the regional
center after she aged out. She was working at Walgreens with help at first, and ended up being there for 13 years.
Due to the services she receives from the San Andreas
Regional Center, which include independent living skills and special tutoring, she earned her associate’s degree in
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early childhood education from West Valley and is now
working fulltime as a preschool teacher at Shir Hadash.
She loves her job and the kids. This is fabulous. She
loves that she can ride her bike to work and stop at the stores on the way home, and she’s in her community. She has lived most of her life in Los Gatos; this is home.
Designating 16 units for adults with IDD will provide
local housing for our kids. Believe me, there has not been anything nearby for them. They live here in their parent’s homes, have gone through the school systems here, and work here. Having dedicated housing in Phase 2 will allow these adults to live independently near family, jobs, and
services. It will support stability and community
inclusion. By designating these units, it will help Los Gatos meet its Housing Element goals, avoiding things like Builder's Remedy.
I worry that as I age and eventually need to leave our
home, where is she going to live? How will she live? Living across the street on Los Gatos Boulevard in her own space, the support will bring both of us great peace of mind.
Thank you.
CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you very much. Are there any
questions for the speaker? No. Thank you for sharing. The next speaker card I have is for Michelle Capriotti.
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MICHELLE CAPRIOTTI: Thank you for the parents that
just recently shared, as I am the mother of a 20-year-old son, so I’m just a little further behind in the journey and I appreciate you creating the pathway for my child.
I stand here before you today as a mother of four, and
a special education teacher of 23 years. Returning to Los Gatos was always a dream. I grew up here, I had my first job here when I was 16 years old just across the street at the Los Gatos Athletic Club, now commonly known as the Club LG, and even today I still teach fitness down at Orange Theory in addition to my job as a special education
teacher. I am here tonight to speak to you about the need to include all students in our community.
I have not lived in Los Gatos for the past 20 years.
My husband and I were so incredibly excited we were able to purchase our first home this past year. We were priced out of the market as the parents of four children when we
graduated from college. It took us years to get back here, and we are grateful that now we will be able to call Los Gatos our forever home. We are back here with my parents and siblings. Our reason for moving here can be summarized in own word: opportunity. That is what we want for our son.
We have four children, but I’m here today because of
our youngest. Christopher is a 20-year-old man with both
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autism and an intellectual disability. Today is the last day of Autism Awareness Month, and I hope I can share with you the value that children like mine bring to our
community.
I come to you to speak on behalf of the North Forty
Phase 2 development, a place my son could one day call
home. There is such an incredible need for our young adults to be included in our communities. My son is one of the 30 students who does attend the post-secondary program at West Valley as an extension of the Los Gatos High School. He is working on job skills, and just yesterday attended a job fair and hopes to this summer volunteer at the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad where he can share his love of trains. I hope that you can all join him and visit him this summer.
He is capable of this goal, but he does need help.
He’s not able to afford the high rental rates in this area.
He wants to be close to his family and friends, and have access to transportation so he can continue to be a
contributing member of this community.
Housing is not just a want; it is a need. Most adults
with disabilities are never able to have a place to call their own home. It is a worry that parents like me are
burdened with every day. What will happen upon my death? I want to set him up for success, success I know he is
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capable of given the opportunity. This housing program
would provide that opportunity for families like ours, and I want our adult children to live an independent life in Los Gatos.
I ask you today to vote yes on this project so that
this community can provide more for our inclusive and
diverse town. The Vision Statement of Los Gatos states
residents are united in the desire to maintain a highquality of life and preserve the character of the Town.
This includes all members of the community, and housing opportunities that will extend an opportunity to enrich the lives not just of those with disabilities, but those that they will serve. Come and visit us this summer. Thank you.
CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you very much. Are there any
questions for the speaker? No. Thank you. Then I also have a card for Chris Capriotti.
CHRIS CAPRIOTTI: Good evening members of the Los
Gatos Town Council and members of the community. My name is Chris Capriotti and I am currently in a post-secondary
program with the Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School
District, and through my program I am also eligible to take classes at West Valley College. I’m doing two years at West Vally and I plan to do the University of California Davis
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to study acting and film through the Redwood SEED Scholars Program.
This housing project is important to me because it has
good apartments that I could maybe move into after I finish college. I’d be close to family and friends while living independently and working. Being able to do this would make a huge positive impact on my life, both personally as well as the lives of many others like me. Think about it, when you were my age, did you imagine living on your own, or living with your parents forever. What I had in mind was not living with my mom and dad, even though I really don’t mind, but thank you for your time and I hope you do build these apartments for our community.
CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you. Are there any questions?
Thank you, Chris. Appreciate it. Next up I do have John, so thank you.
JOHN CAPRIOTTI: Hi, I’m John Capriotti. I’m not going
to be as eloquent as my son, or as prepared as my wife. But I’m also in strong support of this.
As a realtor, I understand the need for affordable
housing, especially a need for housing for individuals with developmental disabilities. Like my wife said, one of the reasons we moved here was for the opportunity. Found out about this project; it’s something that’s very exciting.
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Sixteen is a good number to start with. Obviously, the
whole area, we need a lot more of that. As parents, we just want to give our kids a chance to become everything they can be, depending on all the opportunities given to them.
I’m very proud of that young man, and he was very
nervous coming up here today, but he’s a kid that just
tackles things head on, and having an opportunity to live on his own in a community with retail onsite, possibly have a job there, walk to work, it’s one of the things that
makes Los Gatos special.
Like my wife said, we haven’t lived here long as we’ve
come back, but we’re very excited about this and I hope you guys support this.
CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you. Any questions? Thank you
very much. The next speaker card I have is for Noa Sklar.
NOA SKLAR: Hi, I’m not so prepared, so I’ll talk from
the heart. The moms before me were amazing.
I’m Noa Sklar; I’ve lived on Mojonera Courts for
almost 30 years. My younger daughter is autistic, and it’s been a lifelong struggle. It’s very difficult. People who don’t have kids with disabilities cannot comprehend, but that’s okay.
So, Romi grew up here. The services from the school,
especially Los Gatos High School, were amazing, and now
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what’s happening, we invested a lot in her to become a
productive member of society. Tens of thousands of dollars later she is now graduating with honors, on the Dean’s
List, which is a huge accomplishment for a kid like her.
It’s been a lifelong of being excluded in social issues, and I think now it’s time to have a reparation, like a
repayment.
Mr. Barnett, just to let you know, there are tons of
kids on the special needs. Some parents don’t want to come forward and talk about it. A lot of kids live with their parents, and they need to be independent. That’s part of No Kids Left Behind, (inaudible) inclusion, and the pathway for independence. So definitely we need units for special needs.
Sixteen, to me, is a joke. I think there should be
more. I remember when we started to talk about the North Forty, all you could hear was “affordable housing.” Where is the affordable housing? All I see are $2.2 million, $1.9 million, and $3 million apartments there at the North
Forty. I’m still waiting for the affordable housing, so where is it?
I need my daughter to live nearby me. There is no
reason for her to go to Santa Clara, or Mountain View, or Cupertino when she can be near me and be a productive
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member of society, and work in two jobs, because she will never be able, maybe, but I don’t think she’ll be able to make enough to live here with a regular salary. She’s
planning to study social work, masters. We hope this will happen, but she’s not going to be able to afford anything unless she gets affordable housing, and she deserves it.
Let’s include these kids. Enough with the fancyshmansy, expensive units. Now it’s time for payback. Now it’s time to give for our people, for our kids to feel
included and live nearby, not ostracized somewhere far, and that’s it.
CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you. Before you leave, are there
any questions for the speaker? No. Thank you so much for sharing tonight. The next speaker card I have is Sara
Grignon.
SARA GRIGNON: Good evening. My name is Sara Grignon
and I’m a director at Hope Services. We are a service
provider for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. I want to express my support of the North Forty development, particularly for the inclusion of
affordable housing and designated units for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Hope Services is a leading provider of services for
people with disabilities in Silicon Valley. We service
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approximately 3,700 people and their families in nine Bay Area counties and provide a broad spectrum of services.
Some of the services that we do provide are some of
the services that you were asking about. In addition to the wonderful services that my colleague at Housing Choices talked about, we also layer independent living skills
training and supported living support for people that are living independently in their own apartments; and this
could be anywhere from drop-ins to a couple hours a week to 24-hour support, depending on what the individual needs.
Many individuals and families that we support do
reside in Los Gatos. These families are looking for places in the community where their adult sons or daughters can call home, and natural supports are very imperative for the success of the people that we support. Living in the
communities where they are raised helps keep those natural supports in place. These are residents who grew up here, attended schools here, and now deserve the opportunity to thrive in our hometown.
We are very grateful for Los Gatos’ commitment to
services and housing for people with IDD. We do not take this commitment for granted. After years of market rate development, it’s refreshing to see this meaningful
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progress towards housing for all income levels, especially individuals with disabilities.
In addition, this project will so beautifully respond
to our society’s commitment for creating a more inclusive and accessible community. The need is urgent. There are so many local families, the ones that you heard here and so many others that we support, who are aging and they do
worry about what will happen to their sons or daughters with disabilities in the future, so I urge the Planning Commission to approve this development and insure that the IDD designated units and affordable components are
preserved and prioritized as the project moves forward.
Thank you for your commitment to addressing this
urgent need for affordable housing and inclusive housing in our community for people with IDD. Thank you.
CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you. Are there any questions for
the speaker? No. Thank you very much for your comments
tonight. The next speaker I have is Lee Quintana.
LEE QUINTANA: I have to ask a question, because I was
a little bit late in getting here. Speaking tonight does not eliminate the ability to speak again at future
meetings?
CHAIR THOMAS: No, because there will be new
information. All of the environmental review hasn’t been
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included. There will be enough new information that anyone can make another public comment.
LEE QUINTANA: I actually expected to hear a lot of
people talk against the project because of the height of the buildings. Have to back up.
I’m a current member of the Historic Preservation
Committee, but I’m speaking as a citizen, not as a member of that committee. I had just a few comments to make.
Basically, I’m in support of the whole project. I know
there is a lot of opposition out there to the height of the buildings, but consider the basic facts that this an SB 330 application; that it’s not a Builder's Remedy; that it’s located on a Housing Element site, which requires a minimum of 30 units per acre, and this currently barely meets that requirement.
There are only two ways that I can think of to
decrease the height of that building. One is getting rid of the podium parking and putting it elsewhere onsite, or
reducing the number of units and putting them elsewhere onsite; both need to stay onsite. Currently the only way to do that that I can think of is to occupy some of the open space that has been provided, which is one of the really strong points of this project proposal. Neither of those
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solutions will, I think, work or be supported by the
community.
In addition, I would just like to say that… No, I’m
not going to talk about that. I’ll reserve my specific
design comments to a later meeting.
But I’ve been involved in the North Forty since the
first North Forty plan, and I hope that we do not take
another 10-15 years to get this project through and
operable. I think that I would like to compliment the
developers on the fact that, as far as I know, they are the only developers in Los Gatos that has dedicated land for affordable housing. They’re the only developers in Los
Gatos that has dedicated as much open space that is
available to the whole community. They have provided bike trails that no other developer has voluntarily done, and I think they should be credited for that.
I support approving this project in as expeditious a
way as possible. Thank you.
CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you. Are there any questions for
the speaker? No. Okay, thank you. Next, I have Dennise
Jauregui.
DENNISE JAUREGUI: Good evening. I’m Dennise Jauregui,
Executive Director of Housing Choices, and I am here to
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express my strong support for the North Forty project,
particularly the inclusion of IDD units.
As my colleague, Gia, mentioned, our mission at
Housing Choices is to open doors for people with
developmental disabilities by creating quality affordable housing, ensuring that they’re living rewarding lives in the homes of their choosing, and as my other colleague, Sarah, mentioned, with supportive services of their
choosing as well. Because the clients that we serve have multiple or various disabilities, there isn’t one fits all.
The lack of access to affordable housing is the number
one reason adults with developmental disabilities are
unable to move out of the family home and live
independently, and are at greater risk of becoming homeless and not having a place to live. Housing Choices has worked with Eden Housing at numerous properties all throughout Santa Clara County, and we have been fortunate enough to provide stable housing to people with developmental
disabilities by providing different services onsite in
various cities to help keep the clients and the people that we serve within their communities that they’ve grown up in and are comfortable living in.
By forming these long-term partnerships with housing
developers who have set aside a percentage of the units to
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people with developmental disabilities, they are able to continue living in the cities that they grew up in. It is because of these projects that reflect the community where people of all abilities can live. I really hope that you consider moving this project forward.
CHAIR THOMAS: Questions? Thank you. Next, I have
Shiva Risi (phonetic).
SHIVA RISI: Hello, everyone. First, I would like to
thank all the families who kindly shared their journeys and stories with us. I’m a relatively new resident of the Los Gatos community and I’m attending todays Town Hall to
listen and hear the facts and arguments before forming an opinion, so what I’m about to say is just my personal
opinion so far, not encouragement for approval or rejection of the project.
One of the arguments that has stood out as the
developers were speaking was the promise of commercial
prosperity with the North Forty Phase 2. Well, if Phase 1 is any indication, that ground level commercial area has been sitting vacant for over two years. In fact, the
parking lot area was even unfinished for a very long time, so I’m genuinely curious to see if there are any
safeguards? If there safeguard that these promises would actually materialize?
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Of course I’m all for affordable housing. They are all
valid comments that people made, however, with Phase 1 it ended up having like a 49 senior affordable multi-family apartment complex with 250+ multi-million, no-so-affordable units adjacent to that.
Now, if like 16, as people made, that number I do not
think is going to cut it for the support that the community with disabilities is going to need. I’m just curious to know if there are any safeguards. Like what is there so that we know, okay, the development is made. What is there? Is there a guarantee so that it doesn’t end up being just a multi-million-dollar project with very minimal…so that it just qualifies for supplying affordable housing?
CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you, and if this is your first
meeting, we don’t answer questions during this, but Staff does take note of them and we will be discussing more with the developer and everything, so thank you for your
comments tonight. Next, I have Pamela Emanuel.
PAMELA EMANUEL: Good evening, everyone, and thank you
for allowing me to speak. My name is Pamela Emanual. I am a retired person. I’ve been at the Phase 1 since the
beginning, since it first opened.
I’ve been in the Santa Clara County area for 20 years
now. I raised my kids here. I had an option to come here or
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live in the area where I was living and continue my job there. I chose to come here because I wanted to make this town my city, make it my home, and bring my children here, to raise my children here.
Now that I’ve retired, my children were worried about
me, wondering if I would be able to care for myself because it’s so expensive. If it weren’t for the Phase 1 project, I would not be able to live in this community. Family unity is very important, so for me to be here and continue to be around my children, my grandchildren, my greatgrandchildren, I feel like it’s a blessing and an honor to be able to live in the community that I’m living in in
below market housing. Without this, I would not be able to do this.
It is a good option for other people. I worked in San
Francisco and still do. I retired and I had to go take
another job because I couldn’t afford it, but San Francisco has a massive housing crisis out there. They have a lot of people that are homeless on the streets. This is a
beautiful city. I don’t want to see that happen here. I would like to see more affordable housing for people so that people can be able to live here, and not be on the street, not live in their cars, not live without dignity because they can’t afford to live in proper places just to
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be around their family, or move to another state because they can’t afford to stay here around their family, so I think affordable housing is amazing.
I know since I’ve been here, this program has helped
me tremendously. I feel safe. My grandchildren come here and they feel safe with me being here. My children feel that way, and I think that if we had more of this to offer the community, it would be better.
I listened to some of the mothers here that spoke
about their children with disabilities. I also have one with a disability, and I worry about him too. With
affordable housing, we don’t have to worry about that. To be able to lay down and go to sleep and feel great and not have to worry is amazing. For my children to be able to call me on the phone and say, “You know what? I don’t have to worry about you. I know you’re safe. I know that you’re okay and you can take care of yourself.” To be a senior citizen and not be able to care for yourself is
frightening, it's really frightening. But to be able to have more affordable housing in this community is great. I don’t want to move to another state, I don’t want to move to another city, I want to stay here. Thank you.
CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you. Are there any questions? It
looks like Vice Chair Burch does have a question for you.
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VICE CHAIR BURCH: Just a quick one. So, to confirm,
you live in the Phase 1 Eden Housing, correct?
PAMELA EMANUEL: Yes, I do.
VICE CHAIR BURCH: And you feel like that has been a
very successful program?
PAMELA EMANUEL: One hundred percent, yes.
VICE CHAIR BURCH: Great, thank you.
PAMELA EMANUEL: You’re welcome.
CHAIR THOMAS: The last speaker card I have is for
Karen Yamamoto.
KAREN YAMAMOTO: Hi, my name is Karen Yamamoto; I’ve
lived here for 25 years. I’m a retired special ed teacher.
I have a little bit of a problem with this development for several reasons.
I love the fact that it’s an IDD, has that element. I
love the fact that it has affordable housing. Love the fact that it’s got a lot of things going good for it. The issues that I have is that it is part of the SB 330 build. It will create infrastructure issues. It should be included with the EIR as a cumulative effect with the rest of the SB
330s, like the Los Gatos Green. This should not be looked at individually; it needs to be looked at as a whole.
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There are 14 SB 330s that are going to play havoc with
the infrastructure and be very, very, extremely costly for our Town.
With that said, I’m also wondering how the developers
will guarantee that they will fix the sewer and the water issues and not just tap into them, like in Phase 1 of the North Forty, which caused sewage to back up into our houses off of Benedict Lane, which is right down the street. I also have low water pressure at my house because of Phase
1. These are issues that have to be addressed with our old infrastructure, and I don't know who pays for it. I’m
hoping it is not our town.
I’m also concerned that we’re putting a facility for
the IDD community on a flood zone and an earthquake zone.
How does that pass CEQA? Thank you. Any questions?
CHAIR THOMAS: Are there any questions for Ms.
Yamamoto? Okay, thank you.
I do not have any more speaker cards, so we’re good in
the audience. Are there any speakers on Zoom?
DIRECTOR PAULSON: Yes, thank you, Chair. First
speaker will be Ali.
ALI SAPIRMAN: Good evening, Commissioners. My name is
Ali Sapirman, and I’m on here on behalf of the Housing
Action Coalition, a nonprofit that supports housing at all
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income levels, to express our strong support for the North Forty Phase 2 project.
This proposal brings a rare opportunity to transform
15 underutilized acres into a vibrant, mixed community with 450 new homes, including a significant 17% affordable
housing component. It also goes further than the Town’s requirements by dedicating land to Eden Housing for a 100% affordable building, ensuring that families earning 60% of AMI and below has access to safe, high-quality housing in Los Gatos.
This is also a Housing Element site in which the Town
has already designated the site as a way to meet its RHNA goals of 1,900 homes.
The project is thoughtfully designed around the
Meadow, a 3.5-acre public gathering space that connects homes, retail, and open space. Despite not being a transitrich area, the development team has prioritized bike and pedestrian connections, a balanced parking plan, and
transportation demand strategies to reduce car dependency responsibly.
We are also encouraged by the project’s environmental
leadership with all-electric units, solar energy, and a target of GreenPoint Rated Silver certification, and
importantly, this proposal reflects years of community
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engagement with real input shaping the design as well as redesign to meet the Housing Element targets. From retail spaces that support local businesses, to infrastructure upgrades, the project offers broad public benefit.
We urge you to support North Forty Phase 2 as a
thoughtful, balanced approach to meeting Los Gatos’ housing needs and building a more inclusive, connected community.
Please move this project forward without any delay. Thank you.
CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you. Are there any questions for
Ali? No. Okay, thank you very much for your comments. Are there any other additional speakers on Zoom?
DIRECTOR PAULSON: Yes, Chair. Next speaker will be
Jennifer.
JENNIFER LUCAS: Good evening, Commissioners. My name
is Jennifer Lucas and I am the Manager of the Central Coast Office of the California State Council on Developmental Disabilities. The State Council is an independent State agency established in both State and Federal law and is responsible for driving systemic change that advances selfdetermination, inclusion, and independence for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
I just want to express our strong support for the
North Forty Phase 2 development, in particular the
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inclusion of affordable housing and the designated units for adults with intellectual and developmental
disabilities.
Access of affordable housing in the community is
critical for people with developmental disabilities
because it does remove barriers that often prevent them from living safely, independently, and with dignity in
their own communities. Individuals with developmental
disabilities have the legal right to live in communitybased settings rather than in institutions. Ensuring access to affordable housing helps to uphold these civil rights protections guaranteed under California’s Lanterman Act— which by the way, is an amazing and unique civil rights law for our State. No other state has the Lanterman Act or
anything like that—as well as the Americans with
Disabilities Act.
People with developmental disabilities are especially
impacted by the shortage of affordable housing that meets their needs, because the vast majority of people with
disabilities live with their parents and aging caregivers.
As you already heard from the parents who shared their
stories earlier, many families are grappling with the
difficult decision of what will happen to their adult
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children with disabilities when they are no longer able to provide care.
And those adult children, like Chris who spoke
earlier, want to have the opportunity, as we all do, to live in own place, and having low-income units also
provides the direct care staff who support people with
developmental disabilities and often have a great deal of difficulty affording to live in the area due to low wages, the opportunity to remain here as well.
The development not only provides many low-income
units, but also 16 units specifically for people with
intellectual and developmental disabilities, and by doing so, it signals a meaningful shift toward a future where everyone, regardless of ability or income, has a place in Los Gatos, including those who provide support to folks with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
With onsite support from Housing Choices, which is a
vendor at San Andreas Regional Center, as you already
heard… And by the way, if you’re not familiar with the
Regional Center system, they cannot purchase housing, so affordability is really critical, because they do help to support the people in their own homes and provide the
staffing.
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CHAIR THOMAS: I’m sorry, Jennifer, your three minutes
is up, but does anyone have a question? I do have a
question for you, and that would be do you feel that the application and the partnership with Eden meets what you believe to be like the needs of the community in an
effective way, or is there anything else that you feel like needs to…
JENNIFER LUCAS: No, I think their partnership is
fantastic. It’s been successful in other towns as well, and so I absolutely support that.
CHAIR THOMAS: Okay, thank you. I do have one more
speaker card. Are there any more speakers on Zoom?
DIRECTOR PAULSON: There are no hands raised on Zoom.
CHAIR THOMAS: I have one more speaker card, and it is
for Lee Fagot.
LEE FAGOT: Lee Fagot, a 30-year resident of Los Gatos
on Lilac Way, and I’m speaking here as an individual in the community; I’m not representing any group.
I am encouraged to hear the proposals that are before
you for this development, and this is in Phase 2, with the more affordable housing units and the assisted living type of facilities that I think will be very, very important, and I’m encouraged by that.
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The concern I do have though is the fact that we don’t
have the Environmental Impact Report for this development yet, and we also need to be looking at it under the CEQA guidance, which is the California Environmental Quality Act, which summarizes the impact of not just this
development, but those along and near this same
development.
We do have quite a few, more than 1,000 housing units,
that are going to be along the Boulevard if they all get built, and they’re proposing to do so, many under SB 330, and that has to considered by the Town, and the impact that that’s going to have on this development and the housing that is going to have water issues, sewage issues, and
other utility service requirements that have to be
remedied, and this should be done in advance of the
building or as part of the development.
The other thing is the impact not just on these new
housing units, but also on the existing residents in that neighborhood. As you heard from an earlier speaker, she at her house has been impacted already by some of the
developments that have occurred in the Phase 1 of the North Forty, so let’s put all of this together and not just look at an isolated development, but what the impact of this additional development is in series with the other
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developments in the surrounding area, so that we have a safe environment, a healthy environment, and one that is appealing to the current residents and new residents to move into town, and we are open for new residents to move in, but let’s do it in a way that is reasonably priced, safe, and will encourage more people to reside in our
community, so thank you.
CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you. Are there any questions for
the speaker. No, and as has been mentioned a few times, the environmental analysis is still pending, and so when that is done, that’s when we’ll have a future meeting on this agenda item.
I have no more speaker cards. Is there someone on Zoom
now?
DIRECTOR PAULSON: Yes, there’s a hand. Rich Stephens.
RICH STEPHENS: My name is Rich Stephens; I live in
Los Gatos. Actually, I was born here 60 years ago. I live on Benedict Lane.
I love to hear that this is not using Builder's
Remedy; that’s great. Thank you so much for pursuing it in that manner. I support the project, but would like to add that I don’t like the 5-7 story buildings at all. Worse, I’m terrified of the safety, infrastructure, and height of them. That said, at least they are similar to the other
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North Forty characteristics and to buildings in that area, like the hospital, cancer center, Stanford, and the senior center home, so I’m thankful that they are farther north and they fit a little bit into that area, much more than they would if they were farther south.
I do strongly share Karen’s and Lee’s concerns. I do
believe, and I think it was just mentioned, that we need to do a full, complete EIR and considering CEQA before any of these projects are approved. Again, I do support this
project, I think it’s a great idea, I think it’s a good location, but I am concerned.
Traffic already on Los Gatos Boulevard towards Good
Samaritan is absolutely horrible, so I would look at what that’s going to do in that area. How are ambulances going to get to Good Samaritan? What’s going to happen with the water, the flooding? I believe there is an area of that project, North Forty area, that floods already with rain, so what’s going to be done about those types of things? Anyway, that’s all I have to say. I’d just consider
the full safety and full EIR of all the units in Los Gatos.
Thank you.
CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you. Are there any questions for
the speaker? No. Any other hands raised on Zoom?
DIRECTOR PAULSON: No other hands, Chair.
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CHAIR THOMAS: I think that we need to take a bathroom
break perhaps, if that’s okay. I know it’s a little bit awkward timing, but what we will be doing is we will take a three-minute break, and then after that three minutes the Applicant will come back up and have three minutes to
address the Commission. We will follow-up with questions, and then discussion. So, we will be back in three minutes.
Thank you.
(INTERMISSION)
CHAIR THOMAS: We are back from our break. Thank you
very much, everyone, for your patience in person and on Zoom.
The next part we will have the Applicant come up to
make a closing statement. You will have three minutes to speak, and then Commissioners will, I’m sure, have
additional questions for you.
STEVE BUSTER: I’m going to be really short. I just
want to thank you for the hard work on the Housing Element previously; it has paved the way for this project and
Eden’s building, which has been discussed so positively tonight, so thank you.
All of our consultants are here to answer any
questions you have. I just wanted to reassure everyone—and I said this during the presentation—this project’s
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individual and cumulative impacts are within the scope of the 2040 General Plan EIR, which the Town relied upon when they passed the Housing Element, so I just wanted to remind everybody. Thank you very much.
CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you. Vice Chair Burch, you can
start off with the questions.
VICE CHAIR BURCH: There are probably going to be some
follow-up questions, so I’m kind of queueing this up for fellow commissioners, but obviously the way that the
affordable housing of this is being structured is a little unique. I would like for you to tell me actually a little bit about your partnership with Eden, and have you done something similar? Aside from previously the North Forty, have you done other partnerships with them? Is this a
longstanding type of relationship that you have, so that we sort of understand that the potential risk of the
affordable housing units happening on their part is a low risk. I would like to understand that a little better.
STEVE BUSTER: Sure. With regard to Grosvenor, our
relationship with Eden is limited to the North Forty, so Phase 1 and Phase 2. We’ve had an incredible relationship with Eden. Phase 1 was extremely successful, as you’ve
heard. I would certainly say, and I think this addresses some of your question, that there is no one that will work
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harder to deliver that building than Eden, and they just need to secure their State and Federal funding to do so. We will deliver the site to them, donate the site to them, and we can work with Staff to ensure that there are safeguards in place to make sure that the affordable housing is built within a reasonable timeframe.
VICE CHAIR BURCH: Thank you.
CHAIR THOMAS: Commissioner Stump.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: Let me build on that, because
Vice Chair Burch, while you used low risk, I would like to replace that with no risk. We cannot afford—no pun
intended—to not have these 67 affordable housing units, so that’s why we’re trying to understand the relationship, because if there is no guarantee then…
By the way, I would view this as we basically have two
different projects. We have North Forty, Part A, and we have North Forty Part B that’s going to develop 67
affordable housing units, because we cannot take this risk that something does happen, so again, that’s why I’ve
replaced low risk with no risk.
You may not have an answer right off the top, and I
realize I think you’re willing to make assurances, but we have got… You heard it tonight, awesome; I love the
community that came out and demonstrated their support and
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their need, and what was also, I think, very important for the Town to hear and the Commissioners to hear.
We have significant needs in Los Gatos, so this isn’t
that we’re building low-income housing for people that are going to just all come from outside the community, it’s needed here in the community, and so we have literally got to ensure, because we want those folks that presented
tonight to see this come to fruition, not just the hope of it.
Again, I don’t mean to be condescending at all when I
make that statement, because I realize your best intentions are for this to happen, but from my perspective—I have to state for myself—it’s got to be no risk. Thank you.
Well, my question is… Sorry, I got reminded, don’t you
have a question? I do. My question would be so what can be put in place to make this no risk?
STEVE BUSTER: The fastest way to get these homes
built is to get this project approved, first of all.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: I get that.
STEVE BUSTER: Second of all, as I said before, this
project is incredibly important, as you heard. We agree. We will work with Staff to make sure that building is
completed within a reasonable timeframe.
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COMMISSIONER STUMP: You use the term “reasonable
timeframe,” and I realize that’s difficult, because
developing the North Forty over how many years, has that been a reasonable timeframe? What would your definition of a reasonable timeframe be?
STEVE BUSTER: It’s probably a better answer from
Eden, and they can come up here and answer that. I would just say they are the experts in getting the Federal and State funding to build these buildings, so it’s really
probably best for them to answer.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: That would be great, and while
you’re making your way up to answer that question, let me just pop one more on you. When it relates to getting
Federal funding, when does your process begin? I guess
there’s got to be a project approval, but you will tell me the answer. At what point in time do you seek Federal
funding, or funding, for a project like this?
DIXIE BAUS: I’ve already started. I’ve already
started with the funding applications, and of the total project development cost, let me pull that number up so I don’t misquote here.
Part of the thing that should be spoken to, and we
certainly speak to this in all of our applications for
funding, is that that land has a value, it has a
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significant value, and that land, even though it’s coming from not a governmental agency, it counts as funding
support for the project, because it was donated at less than what the market value is. So, 1.34 acres, that’s
expensive here. Let’s just for argument’s sake say the
first $12 million is raised with their donation.
The next piece that is extremely expensive is the
streets and the roads and the land improvement, the
horizontal improvement, not the vertical. The horizontal improvement has virtually limited sources of funds that I can go out and ask Federal, State, local dollars, even
County dollars; very, very limited funds.
So, with the master developer prepping that land for
us, giving us what’s called a blue top ready pad, it takes out millions of dollars of cost in our affordable housing community. If I were to do that—and we did—we build another building in San Jose about the same density, close to $1 million a door, close to $1 million per unit. We paid our own land cost, we paid our own infrastructure improvements, our own demolition, and if it had not been for the County of Santa Clara or the City of San Jose, that project would still be likely waiting to go, because it was a $120
million project.
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This project doesn’t have those two huge tranches. So,
we’re left now with the gap to fund, if you will, so out of I believe we have… Well, let me look at the numbers,
because I can make some stuff up really good. The total development cost without land or without infrastructure right now in its current day at the interest rates where we have is about $45.5 million. So, the savings of we’ll just round it up to $15 million, maybe $16 million, is $16
million we don’t have to go out and raise from local,
County, State, or Federal sources.
So, how quickly can we get the rest of it? The tax
credits will equate to about $23-$24 million in equity in today’s prices. That wasn’t close to what we received in equity on Phase 1. A lot of stuff happened at the Federal level, at the banking level, that significantly impacted the amount of money that we can sell a tax credit for. But Eden Housing, in its 57 years, garners the highest amount on a per tax credit basis than any of the other for-profit and non-profit developers in the same space, and so our projects now in different areas of the State are getting about ten cents on the dollar more than our colleagues in the business, and that’s phenomenal.
And so, our track record of coming up and doing these
projects in partnership with companies like Grosvenor, in
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partnership with companies like Aga Development, or Sunset Development, or even SCS Homes in Santa Clara where land was donated to us, infrastructure was put in for us, since 2016 we have seven of those complete. I’m not even counting Phase 1, because the money was also donated at part of that development.
So, we have many, many different types of partnerships
and vast experience in getting the money, and I think they picked a great partner in us; we have a good track record.
Sorry I was very winded.
CHAIR THOMAS: Commissioner Stump has a follow-up.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: With Phase 1 maybe you can give
us an idea, because to me it kind of looks like the
structure got built under you, right? Because there was a structure that was going up and you occupy a floor. So, were you given a rough frame, weathertight shell to develop inside of, or what did that development project look like, and what was the time lag for the completion of that
development versus other things that were going on around you? I realize that can be a tough question, because the project was phased.
DIXIE BAUS: That building could not be built
independently of all of the components that were in it. I mean, there is a retail space, there’s a public parking
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garage, and there is residential above, and so we
eloquently with the help of attorneys way smarter than me—f and I’m not that attorney kind of person, thank you, Eric— figured out how to do an execution that allowed for
SummerHill to start construction on a very complicated
transaction that we’re not proposing here. We don’t have the current finance environment that would do what we call a step-into-the-shoes execution. Where they went, as soon as they got their approvals from Town Council, they started the horizontal improvements and went vertical, and then at some point we said whoa, stop, we’re going to go get the tax credits now, you’re going to still pay for the stuff that we can’t raise the dollars for, and that was the
agreement we made at the time. That’s not an agreement that works in this environment by any means.
So, our timing to deliver that building was actually
quite elegant, and we came out of ground and started that construction and came into the execution a couple of years ahead of schedule, because we just got lucky. We’re scrappy at the State level, and so that is part of the beauty of finding the right lender, the right investor, and that is exactly what we’ll bring to this development as well.
CHAIR THOMAS: Commissioner Barnett.
ITEM NO. 1.
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COMMISSIONER BARNETT: Thank you very much. One
question I have is having listened to the dire need for housing for the disabled, where does the 16 come from
again? It’s a projected?
DIXIE BAUS: It is projected. We wanted to make sure
that we could have the most flexible funding mechanisms for the project that we could. In other words, we know we have to split the needle at the State, at the local, at the
Federal level, so the way you do that when you’re planning for financing affordable housing is that you really provide the most opportunity for the most little buckets of money that you know you can chase after.
So, one of the thoughts here, I believe that our gap,
and certainly I’ll take a donation check from the Town, but I’m not going to do that ask right here.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: I thought you were asking me.
DIXIE BAUS: I know. I couldn’t with a straight face.
Where was I going with this?
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: The question is in light of the
crying need for the form of housing, is there a way that you could increase your projection?
DIXIE BAUS: It wouldn’t be advantageous to the
project, because at the most competitive level, to deliver what’s called a large family project, which is two- and
ITEM NO. 1.
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three-bedroom units, to get the tax credits that I need and the tax exempt bonds from the State, I need that building set aside, if you will, to fall into the large family
category, and so if we, Eden, were to put more units, it would get out of that category which allows me to take
advantage of the fact that Los Gatos sits in what’s called a highest resource area, and from the State’s standpoint, it gets you the most points, bang for your buck, when
you’re doing the competition for the tax credits and the bonds at the State level. That’s about the easiest way I can explain a little bit of crazy, crazy mathematical fun that we have.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: I understand. Thanks, I think I
got that.
CHAIR THOMAS: Commissioner Stump.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: Can I assume that Eden Housing is
basically a soup-to-nuts provider? What I mean by that is you get funding, and then basically the project is entirely on you, so you’ve got a construction management team. How full are your services for development?
DIXIE BAUS: We’re pretty full indeed. We’ve got a
bench of 35 developers in our department, so we’ve got the development team. We do not build our own projects, so we do hire a general contractor. We work with all of the
ITEM NO. 1.
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bigger general contractors in the area. We’re kind of
repeat offenders to them. You build that relationship and you keep going back to someone who delivers on time, on budget, and delivers you a quality project, that’s what we’ll look for.
And in terms of property management, we do have our
own property management arm as well as resident services, which don’t take the place of services that, say, an IDD service provider would do, but we also augment services to our residents who may or may not need it.
For example, in some of our projects, what our
residents need most is technology centers, and so we staff those technology centers with college students who come and volunteer their time, and then we build the space for it and we provide the equipment; or maybe someone is just
trying to find a little extra food, so we work with great organizations who are already in the community to provide them the space to get those services directly to the
residents who need them.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: Thank you.
DIXIE BAUS: We also asset manage too, so we won’t
sell either.
CHAIR THOMAS: Additional questions for the Applicant?
Commissioner Stump.
ITEM NO. 1.
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COMMISSIONER STUMP: I’ve got a question I think that
would probably go to Eric, since I’m going to refer to your March 6th letter once again, and I’m sorry, I’ve got a
quote, so you’ve got the context from it, and it’s not a long passage, but stick with me here.
“The California Department of Housing and Community
Development found that the Town’s January 30, 2023 Housing Element did not substantially comply with the requirements of the State Housing Element law. The Town made numerous revisions to its Housing Element in response to HCD’s
findings before adopting a substantially compliant Housing Element that HCD certified on July 10, 2024. However,
because the project has a vested right,” and that project speaking of yours, correct, “has a vested right to proceed under the ordinances, policies, and standards in place at the time the Applicant submitted the preliminary
application on January 30, 2023 that Housing Element
applies.”
So, I guess my question—sorry for that lengthy reading
of your letter—why do you believe this HCD project, or this project vests with January 30th? I’m sorry, I said HCD in there, I did not mean it. Why do you believe your project vests with the January 30th Housing Element that was
submitted to HCD?
ITEM NO. 1.
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ERIC PHILLIPS: Yes, thanks, I follow the question.
The Town adopted a Housing Element on January 30th and
submitted it to HCD, so that Housing Element was in effect at the time it was adopted. The Town made findings to
comply with CEQA, it adopted a resolution, it took effect.
HCD required the Town to continue working on the
Housing Element. It made other changes that weren’t related to this project site in the rest of the Housing Element, so the Housing Element continued to evolve and was readopted multiple times before the final HCD certification was
required, but HCD certification isn’t a prerequisite for the Housing Element taking effect. The Town took all the legal steps it needed to for the Housing Element to take effect.
The meaning of HCD not certifying the Housing Element
right away means that in the time period between the Town’s first adoption of the Housing Element and the ultimate
Housing Element that was adopted and later certified that the Town could have been subject to Builder's Remedy
applications, which other applicants have invoked, but
during the window where the Town had adopted its first
Housing Element and were even waiting to see what HCD was going to do in response to that Housing Element, we
submitted a preliminary application. As of the date of that
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preliminary application the rules and standards that were in effect as of that date are then what control for the rest of the project, and as of the date that we submitted, it was the Town’s original January 30, 2023 Housing Element that was in effect.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: That raises another question, and
that would be on April 14th of that same year HCD sent the Town a letter that said the Town neither complies nor
obviously is that Housing Element certified.
ERIC PHILLIPS: That’s correct.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: And of course that’s what you
state in your letter. I mean, you state it very clearly.
And by the way, I’m not an attorney, so I won’t try to keep up with you here, so at some point I have to say thank you very much, but it just does not seem to be logical that you can tag to a Housing Element that we’re being told by the State does not comply nor is certified, and so that’s why I’m asking the question. I’m trying to understand what
you’re linking to here.
ERIC PHILLIPS: No, I understand, and I’ll see if I
can add a little bit more context to it. When HCD certifies a Housing Element, they review the Housing Element and
compare how that Housing Element satisfies the various
statutory requirements, and they will then certify whether
ITEM NO. 1.
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or not in their opinion it has checked all the boxes that are necessary to fulfill the statutory duty to adopt that Housing Element, and that creates a presumption that the Housing Element is adequate.
At the time when the Housing Element was first
adopted, the inverse wasn’t true, there was no presumption of inadequacy, so although HCD certifying the Housing
Element would tell everyone that yes, unless HCD made a terrible mistake, we’re presumed that you’ve complied. The fact that they didn’t find it compliant didn’t
automatically create a presumption at that time that the Housing Element wasn’t compliant, and regardless of whether the Housing Element satisfied all of this statutory
criteria which are necessary to apply for certain grants, to be designated as a pro-housing jurisdiction, to be
necessary to make sure that you’re not subject to the
Builder's Remedy, it doesn’t actually affect whether or not the Housing Element was adopted and in effect.
So, you can adopt the Housing Element that maybe I
think one of the issues in the Town’s Housing Element that was originally adopted was that HCD felt that the Town
hadn’t analyzed its obligations to affirmatively further fair housing deeply enough, and so there were lots of
changes in that section of the Housing Element.
ITEM NO. 1.
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But while that work was going on, the Town had an
adopted Housing Element in effect. It is true that the
State didn’t agree that the analysis in that element met all of the statutory criteria, but that doesn’t change the fact that the Housing Element was still adopted and in
effect and controlling the land use designations on the sites that have been included in that Housing Element.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: Thank you.
ERIC PHILLIPS: I guess one other thought. I can see
that you’re still wrestling with some of that or not fully satisfied. To the extent you were to look at it and say that if there were no Housing Element in at that place, then the project is in fact covered by the Builder's
Remedy, but we haven’t felt that we need to invoke the
Builder's Remedy because of the consistency with Townadopted land-use designations and densities, but if it were true that the Housing Element were not properly adopted or in effect at that time, that the end result would be the same, because the project is either consistent with the Housing Element and able to proceed as a Housing Element project, or if there were not Housing Element, there still is not a legal basis to deny that project.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: Thank you for your patient
answer.
ITEM NO. 1.
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CHAIR THOMAS: Commissioner Barnett.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: This is more generally for the
Applicant. A couple members of the community have expressed concern about the adequacy of the infrastructure outside of the boundaries of the new project. I was wondering if you could address those concerns.
STEVE BUSTER: I will turn it over to our civil
engineer.
JACQUELYN BAYS: Hi, everyone. My name is Jacquelyn
Bays, MacKay & Somps. I was a civil engineer on Phase 1 as well, and now on Phase 2.
The site, I’ll start with sewer, is served by a sewer
main that is under Highway 17; that’s an existing main. It serves Phase 2 and only Phase 1, so that sewer system is just collecting the flows from Phase 1 and Phase 2.
Water will connect on Los Gatos Boulevard and to the
Phase 1 water connections at three different locations. San Jose Water Company does that design.
Then storm drain. The site itself will collect
stormwater, its own stormwater, and stormwater from Los Gatos Boulevard. That stormwater will go to a
hydromodification vault that’s under Fifth Street in the back of the site, and then to a storm drain line that’s under Highway 17 as well.
ITEM NO. 1.
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COMMISSIONER BARNETT: I may have a follow-up. I think
the concern that was expressed is the age of the public infrastructure right now. I think the sewer was mentioned, and I guess the question is have you evaluated the ability of the existing infrastructure to handle the demands of the new project?
JACQUELYN BAYS: Yes, so the infrastructure was
studied during the EIR process and the Specific Plan
process, so it accounted for that flow going into the
existing sewer line in the back. I’m not familiar with that street that the person who commented was speaking of, but again, the sewer line just collects from our site, so that sewer main, that infrastructure that’s under Highway 17, is only collecting our site, so that wouldn’t impact any other part of the Town.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: Okay, thanks so much.
CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you. Any other questions? I have
a question just about planning to fill the retail space.
Obviously, we know that the retail landscape has been
changing a lot over the past probably like 30 years. As a developer, how did you approach really planning for the retail space, and what are the plans for trying to get
those spaces leased out? Any information about the approach
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to it, just so we can better understand would be helpful.
Thank you.
STEVE BUSTER: It’s a great question. Retail is a
tricky product type. I think one of the main things we
focused on is putting all the retail together on the
promenade. If you spread out retail or you don’t have easy access, you put it in the back of the site, it will fail, so I think putting it along the public promenade, making sure they’re neighborhood-serving with food uses, and
flexible spaces where you can get a variety of different size tenants, so you can move walls around, all those
things make retail successful. I think keeping it close to the Phase 1 retail, which will eventually be built, will also help make it successful.
CHAIR THOMAS: Okay, thank you. Then, in what part of
the Phase 2 would the retail be built and possibly leased out?
STEVE BUSTER: A large portion of that retail is on
the ground floor of the multi-family building, so that
would be built at the same time and marketed to retail
users. There is a freestanding retail building directly across, and that would likely be built at the same time as the multi-family building.
CHAIR THOMAS: Thank you. Commissioner Barnett.
ITEM NO. 1.
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COMMISSIONER BARNETT: I know this would ultimately be
an issue that would be addressed in the Conditions of
Approval, but could you speak briefly about how you will address noise and traffic during construction, site safety, etc.? I’m getting way ahead of ourselves, but some comment would be appreciated.
ERIC PHILLIPS: No, we’d love to answer a forwardlooking question like that. That would be a great problem to have. A couple of components to it.
One, the project application materials were
supplemented with a noise study, an air quality study, and transportation study; all of those looked at both
operations and construction period to analyze potential impacts, compare it to what previous EIRs had looked at, and make sure that there wouldn’t be any air quality
impacts, noise impacts, two sensitive receptors around the site; so all of those studies were prepared, they’ve been peer reviewed, and show that construction can occur without triggering impacts at those sensitive receptors.
Then to help make sure that some of the assumptions
that were baked into those reports happen, the project, as you pointed out, will be conditioned to comply with the Town Noise Ordinance around hours of construction and
around construction routes and how trucks come and go to
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the site. There will be conditions around the way that the site maintains dust control and make sure that there aren’t impacts from that, so there will be all of the standard construction controls that are baked in, and then, as I mentioned, the specifics about how this project would be constructed were analyzed separately.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: Reference to the prior studies
is well appreciated, and I think the answer is fully
responsive.
ERIC PHILLIPS: Great.
CHAIR THOMAS: Commissioner Stump.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: Sorry to torture you with one
more question. I come back to January 30th and substantially comply with the Housing Element law. If indeed you were in agreement that we were substantially compliant with Housing Element law, then why would Builder's Remedy have ever been invoked on the Town of Los Gatos. I realize this might seem like a funny question, an awkward question, to be directing that to you, so if I’m putting you in an awkward position, don’t feel like you have to answer my question.
ERIC PHILLIPS: I will probably not directly answer
your question, as you suspected, but our view was that the Town, regardless of all of the other details that are
included with the Housing Element, that the Town expressed
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a very clear policy direction for creating housing at this site at a particular density level, so the use and the
density was a very clear expression from the Town in that Housing Element, and we wanted to work with the Town to basically respect that policy direction that the Town had created through our application, and in so doing, it let us maybe dodge the harder question about whether or not HCD’s determination was correct, whether we had to try to make other, more novel legal arguments about how to process the project. We can let other projects that you weren’t
thinking about handle that, and we can come in and deliver a project that is consistent with the planning framework that the Town adopted; we thought that was a better
approach.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: Thank you.
CHAIR THOMAS: I have another question for the
developer. I just have a question about landscaping, which I know is very specific but within my wheelhouse, and so is anyone available to answer any of those questions? Great, I’m seeing some nods.
I just first want to say that I really do appreciate a
lot of the choices for landscaping. There are a lot of
native plants and a lot of appropriate non-natives that are also drought tolerant, but I did notice some magnolia trees
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and know that some of those have had some issues with roots when they get pretty established in an area and just not as drought tolerant, so I was wondering regarding
justification for that and/or if you would be willing to maybe swap them out for some of the other trees that are native?
HELEN SCHNEIDER: I’m Helen Schneider. I’m an
architect and Associate Principal at Perkins & Will. We have been in charge of the masterplan as well as the
landscape design. I’m not a landscape architect, so I will not be able to propose an alternate, however, I think
they’re up for other proposed solutions if that particular tree has had issues in Los Gatos.
CHAIR THOMAS: Okay, thank you. Can I just get a nod
if that’s maybe something that when we have our next
meeting we can perhaps see if that’s a possibility? Okay, thank you.
HELEN SCHNEIDER: Thank you very much.
CHAIR THOMAS: Are there any other questions for the
Applicant right now? Okay. I think people do have some
questions for Staff, so last call for Applicant questions.
We’re good? We’ll now close the public portion of the
public hearing on Item 1, and I invite Commissioners to ask questions of Staff, provide comments, and eventually we
ITEM NO. 1.
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will need to propose a motion to move this to a date
uncertain.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: For Mr. Paulson. We’ve dealt
with this issue recently, but I wonder if you could respond to the speakers from the public who mentioned concerns
about the cumulative impacts of the developments which are accelerating through the Town?
DIRECTOR PAULSON: Yes, thank you. Through the Chair,
as many or all of you may recall, well, actually two of you weren’t participating last week, the Genuine Automotive site, this question came up. It’s come up at previous
hearings. Ms. Whelan explained that we’ve been having
conversations with environmental consultants about some potential cumulative impact analysis. At that time, she envisioned maybe in about a month, four weeks I think she said, hopefully honing in closer on a potential path, so that was made part of the direction to Council for that item.
So again, we continue to look at it. I know the
environmental consultant, when we spoke, I think it’s
important for the public for sure and Planning Commission as well, I think a lot of the discussions that revolve
around traffic frankly are not going to be addressed in the cumulative impact from a CEQA perspective, because as our
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environmental consultant mentioned last week, CEQA now
currently uses VMT.
The congestion, intersection impacts, the typical what
you experience when you’re frustrated sitting on Los Gatos Boulevard or Main Street or any other portion of town is addressed through a traffic impact analysis and a level-ofservice analysis. The Town still does those analyses, but they will not be a component of impacting a determination of significance from a CEQA-specific perspective.
CHAIR THOMAS: Vice Chair Burch.
VICE CHAIR BURCH: As a follow-up to that, Mr.
Paulson, is there an intent for the Town to do a cumulative traffic impact study that might partner with the cumulative environmental report?
DIRECTOR PAULSON: That probably would be part of that
discussion as we continue to refine what Ms. Whelan lands on as far as what study she wants to do, so it could be two different components, it could be specifically the CEQA analysis from a cumulative perspective, but also a
transportation impact analysis from a cumulative
perspective as well.
VICE CHAIR BURCH: Okay, great. I would appreciate
having that too. I think that’s going to be a big topic of conversations as we move forward with these applications.
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CHAIR THOMAS: I have a follow-up question for that
too. That type of analysis, obviously it would not be
something that developers would be required to mitigate, because it’s not part of CEQA?
DIRECTOR PAULSON: At this time, I can’t provide
information on that.
CHAIR THOMAS: Perfect. But either way, whether
developers or certain projects would be responsible or not, it would still help the Town with future planning for
infrastructure for trying to extend VTA access, or it would provide us with data about where we have the most
congestion and how to eventually mitigate that with regard to our planning over time perhaps? You don’t know?
DIRECTOR PAULSON: Generally, yes, I would say we’re
talking again about two separate but parallel potential paths from a CEQA perspective. We’ll have to look at that analysis. From a traffic impact analysis, we’d be working closely with our consultants as well as our Parks and
Public Works team to figure out what that scope looks like, and then what that analysis looks like, but again, that won’t necessarily feed directly into the CEQA analysis, because it will strictly be looking at VMT.
CHAIR THOMAS: Okay, thank you. Commissioner Stump.
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COMMISSIONER STUMP: Another quick follow-up.
Obviously, we’ve not seen any of the CEQA work that’s been done, because it’s not completed yet for this project. My question would be does it really take cumulative impact into account, or is it just really project-specific CEQA? DIRECTOR PAULSON: I don’t recall the language that we
have seen thus far. They generally have at least some
discussions of cumulative impacts. I think you’ve heard testimony this evening as far as what other environmental documents have been relied on with this being specifically a Housing Element site, but since that hasn’t been locked up and released publicly, or a determination quite yet made about which direction we’re going, I’m not comfortable
answering that.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: And again, I’m the guy that keeps
coming back and saying that this type of study is needed, and that as we take a look at the 2020-2040 General Plan EIRs, they just do not study reasonably foreseeable
development, and we’re going through unprecedented times with all of these Builder's Remedy projects.
I’m not trying to pick on any single project, but I
think we owe it to our community to make sure we fully
understand the impacts to the community, the people that are here, and ultimately the people that we’re going to
ITEM NO. 1.
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welcome into this community, because they don’t want to walk into a community that is gridlock, traffic congestion, whatever the issue might be, because we didn’t study it. I just really feel we’ve got a strong obligation to do that, so thanks for letting me make that very long comment, Mr.
Paulson.
CHAIR THOMAS: Are there any other questions for
Staff? Is there any discussion or comments that we want to make about anything?
VICE CHAIR BURCH: I assume since this is kind of Part
1, we’re going to have to be armed with more information and probably have a significantly more robust or in-depth conversation based on the information we’ll be given.
CHAIR THOMAS: Yes. Commissioner Stump.
COMMISSIONER STUMP: I’m going to do it. I did ask the
Applicant about this minimum density issue and the fact that our Housing Element called for 464 housing units at this site, and what we’re ending up with is 450. I’m
certainly encouraged by what’s going on with this project, but why not go to that 464 if that truly is the 30 dwelling units per acre, if that’s truly the density?
We need affordable housing. This project is yielding
77 units. Wouldn’t it be great if it would yield a few
more? We hear the need, and yet what was supposed to be
ITEM NO. 1.
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 4/30/2025, Item #1,
North Forty Phase 2, Los Gatos Blvd. and Burton Road
93 1
2 3
4 5
6 7
8 9
10 11
12 13
14 15
16 17
18 19
20 21
22 23
24 25
coming from this property was 364 based on our Housing
Element, and we’re going to get 77. I would just say that there’s got to be somewhere in the middle that we would say that’s reasonable, that’s rational. So, anyway, I’m going to keep pushing that issue, because I think it’s critical.
I think the State of California has got an agenda. We’re in a housing crisis, we need more housing, and we need more affordable housing, and are we getting more affordable
housing? That’s my big concern, so thank you for that.
CHAIR THOMAS: Commissioner Barnett.
COMMISSIONER BARNETT: I would like to make a motion
with respect to Item 1 on the agenda tonight concerning the addresses which were previously read by the Chair that we continue this hearing to a date uncertain, expecting that the CEQA analysis will be available in advance, and with the request of course that the Applicant take into
consideration the various comments that have been made
tonight by the Planning Commissioners and the public. Thank you.
CHAIR THOMAS: Is there a second? Vice Chair Burch.
VICE CHAIR BURCH: I’ll second the motion.
CHAIR THOMAS: Any discussion? Okay, great. I now call
the question and ask for a show of hands in favor of the motion, and it passes unanimously 4-0, and there aren’t any
ITEM NO. 1.
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 4/30/2025, Item #1,
North Forty Phase 2, Los Gatos Blvd. and Burton Road
94 1
2 3
4 5
6 7
8 9
10 11
12 13
14 15
16 17
18 19
20 21
22 23
24 25
appeal rights, I’m assuming, because this is a
recommendation or a continuance.
DIRECTOR PAULSON: That’s correct.
CHAIR THOMAS: Okay, thank you. I just want to thank
Staff, my fellow Commissioners, all of the public that
came, and the Applicant and your entire team for coming and being willing to answer all of our questions tonight. I look forward to our next meeting when we have some more details about environmental review.
(END)
ITEM NO. 1.
PREPARED BY: Jocelyn Shoopman
Senior Planner
Reviewed by: Planning Manager, Community Development Director, and Town Attorney 110 E. Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 ● (408) 354-6872 www.losgatosca.gov
TOWN OF LOS GATOS
PLANNING COMMISSION
REPORT
MEETING DATE: 10/29/2025
ITEM NO: 1
DATE: October 24, 2025
TO: Planning Commission
FROM: Joel Paulson, Community Development Director
SUBJECT: Consider a Request to Construct a Mixed-Use Residential Development (450 Units), a Vesting Tentative Map, Site Improvements Requiring a Grading Permit, and Removal of Large Protected Trees Under Senate Bill 330 (SB 330) on Property Zoned North Forty Specific Plan: Housing Element Overlay Zone.
Located at 14859, 14917, 14925, and 16392 Los Gatos Boulevard; 16250, 16260, and 16270 Burton Road; and Assessor Parcel Number 424-07-116.
APNs 424-07-009, -052, -053, -081, -094, -095, -115, and -116. Architecture and Site Application S-23-031 and Subdivision Application M-23-005.
Additional Environmental Review is Necessary Pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15183: Projects Consistent with a Community Plan, General Plan, or Zoning Since the Proposed Project’s Environmental Impacts were Adequately Addressed in the 2040 General Plan EIR, as Applicable. Property Owner: Yuki Farms LLC. Applicant: Grosvenor Property Americas c/o Steve Buster. Project Planner: Jocelyn Shoopman.
RECOMMENDATION:
Consider a request to construct a mixed-use residential development (450 units), a vesting tentative map, site improvements requiring a grading permit, and removal of large protected trees under Senate Bill 330 (SB 330) on property zoned North Forty Specific Plan: Housing Element Overlay Zone (HEOZ), located at 14859, 14917, 14925, and 16392 Los Gatos Boulevard; 16250, 16260, and 16270 Burton Road; and Assessor Parcel Number 424-07-116.
PROJECT DATA:
General Plan Designation: North Forty Specific Plan (NF-SP) Zoning Designation: NF-SP:HEOZ, Housing Element Overlay Zone Applicable Plans & Standards: General Plan; Objective Design Standards for Qualifying ATTACHMENT 8 Page 1024
ITEM NO. 1.
PAGE 2 OF 17
SUBJECT: 14859, 14917, 14925, and 16392 Los Gatos Boulevard; 16250, 16260, and 16270 Burton Road; and Assessor Parcel Number 424-07-116/S-23-031 and M-23-005 DATE: October 24, 2025
Multi-Family and Mixed-Use Residential Development; and NF-SP
Parcel Size: 682,017 square feet (15.65 acres)
Surrounding Area:
CEQA:
An Initial Study (Exhibit 21) was prepared for the project concluding that additional environmental review is not necessary pursuant to California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines Section 15183: Projects Consistent with a Community Plan, General Plan, or Zoning since the proposed project’s environmental impacts were adequately addressed in the 2040 General Plan EIR.
FINDINGS:
▪ As required, additional environmental review is not necessary pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Sections 15183: Projects Consistent with a Community Plan, General Plan, or Zoning since the proposed project’s environmental impacts were adequately addressed in the 2040 General Plan EIR;
▪ As required that the project is consistent with the General Plan with the incentives, concessions, waivers, and parking reductions requested pursuant to State Density Bonus Law;
▪ As required by Section 66474 of the Subdivision Map Act; ▪ The project meets the objective standards of Chapter 29 of the Town Code (Zoning Regulations) with the concessions, waivers, and parking reductions requested pursuant to State Density Bonus Law;
▪ The project meets the objective standards of the North Forty Specific Plan with the incentives, concessions, waivers, and parking reductions requested pursuant to State Density Bonus Law;
▪ The project meets the Town of Los Gatos Objective Design Standards for Qualifying MultiFamily and Mixed-Use Residential Development with the waivers requested pursuant to State Density Bonus Law;
▪ As required by State Density Bonus Law for granting concessions pursuant to California Government Code Section 65915 (d) and for granting waivers pursuant to California Government Code Section 65915 (a)(2); and
Existing Land Use General Plan Zoning
North Residential and Commercial NF-SP NF-SP:HEOZ
South Residential NF-SP NF-SP:HEOZ
East Residential and Commercial Mixed Use
Commercial
R-1:10, C-1, CH:PD, and NF-SP
West Highway 17 N/A N/A and NF-SP
ITEM NO. 1.
PAGE 3 OF 17
SUBJECT: 14859, 14917, 14925, and 16392 Los Gatos Boulevard; 16250, 16260, and 16270 Burton Road; and Assessor Parcel Number 424-07-116/S-23-031 and M-23-005 DATE: October 24, 2025
▪ As required by California Government Code Section 65863 regarding state RHNA requirements, the Town’s Housing Element Sites Inventory, and No Net Loss Law.
CONSIDERATIONS:
▪ As required by Section 29.20.150 of the Town Code for granting approval of an Architecture and Site application.
ACTION:
The Planning Commission will provide a recommendation to the Town Council who will render the final decision on the proposal.
BACKGROUND:
On April 30, 2025, the Planning Commission held a special meeting to consider the request, take public comment, and discuss the project. The Planning Commission continued the item to a date uncertain pending completion of the environmental analysis.
As discussed in the April 30, 2025, staff report, the Housing Crisis Act of 2019, or SB 330 statute, requires that a final decision on a project be made in no more than five public hearings, including appeals. The SB 330 preliminary application for this project achieved a vesting date of April 18, 2023. The Planning Commission meeting of October 29, 2025, is the second public hearing for this application.
A. Housing Accountability Act
The Housing Accountability Act (“HAA”) is codified at Government Code Section 65589.5.
Per the HAA, a local agency may not deny, reduce the density of, or make infeasible housing development projects that are affordable to low- or moderate-income households and are consistent with local objective development standards.
In order for a development to qualify for the protections under the HAA it must meet the definition of a “housing development project.” Furthermore, for a project to qualify for the affordable housing protections, it must also meet the definition of “Housing for very low-, low-, or moderate-income households.”
1) What is an eligible housing development project?
Pursuant to Government Code Section 65589.5(h)(2), a “housing development project” is a use consisting of residential units only, mixed use developments consisting of residential and non-residential uses with at least two-thirds of the square footage
ITEM NO. 1.
PAGE 4 OF 17
SUBJECT: 14859, 14917, 14925, and 16392 Los Gatos Boulevard; 16250, 16260, and 16270 Burton Road; and Assessor Parcel Number 424-07-116/S-23-031 and M-23-005 DATE: October 24, 2025
designated for residential use, or transitional or supportive housing. Because the term “units” is plural, a development must consist of more than one unit to qualify under the HAA. The development can consist of attached or detached units and may occupy more than one parcel, so long as the development is included in the same development application.
Pursuant to Government Code Section 65589.5(h)(3), “a housing development affordable to lower- or moderate- income households” means a project that provides either of the following:
• At least 20 percent of the total units shall be sold or rented to lower income households. Lower-income households are those persons and families whose income does not exceed that specified by Health and Safety Code, § 50079.5, which is 80 percent of area median income.
• 100 percent of the units shall be sold or rented to persons and families of moderate income, or persons and families of middle income. Moderate-income households are those persons and families whose incomes are 80 percent to 120 percent of area median income (Health and Safety Code, § 50093.) Middle-income households are those persons and families whose income does not exceed 150 percent of area median income (Gov. Code, § 65008 subd. (c).)
In addition, the rent or sales prices of the affordable housing that is provided cannot exceed the following:
• For lower-income units, the monthly housing cost does not exceed 30 percent of 60 percent of area median income with adjustments for household size made in accordance with the adjustment factors on which the lower income eligibility limits are based.
• For moderate-income units, the monthly housing cost does not exceed 30 percent of 100 percent of area median income with adjustments for household size made in accordance with the adjustment factors on which the moderate-income eligibility limits are based.
2) What are Objective Development Standards?
Pursuant to Government Code Section 65589.5(f), local agencies are not prohibited from requiring a housing development project to comply with objective, quantifiable, written development standards, conditions, and policies that were in effect at the time of project vesting. Those standards, conditions, and policies must meet the following criteria:
- Be appropriate to, and consistent with, meeting the local agency’s share of its Regional Housing Needs Allocation;
ITEM NO. 1.
PAGE 5 OF 17
SUBJECT: 14859, 14917, 14925, and 16392 Los Gatos Boulevard; 16250, 16260, and 16270 Burton Road; and Assessor Parcel Number 424-07-116/S-23-031 and M-23-005 DATE: October 24, 2025
- Be applied to facilitate and accommodate development at the density permitted on the site and proposed by the development; and
- Meet the definition of “objective.” Objective standards are those that involve no personal or subjective judgment by a public official and are uniformly verifiable by reference to an external and uniform benchmark or criterion available and knowable by both the development applicant and the public official. 3) HAA Provisions Addressing Disapproval of Housing Development Projects Pursuant to Government Code Section 65589.5, the HAA limits, but does not prohibit a local agency from disapproving a housing development project. The HAA defines “disapproval” to include the following:
- A vote to disapprove a housing development project application. - Failure to comply with statutory deadlines for a decision, including, but not limited to:
o 90 days after certification of an environmental impact report pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”);
o 60 days from the date of adoption of a negative declaration pursuant to CEQA;
o 60 days from a determination by the local agency that the project is exempt from CEQA.
The foregoing is a non-exhaustive list of the local agency actions that constitute “disapproval” of a housing development project under the HAA. 4) Ability to Impose Development Conditions
The HAA does not prohibit a local agency from imposing conditions of approval on housing development projects. However, the HAA limits the application of conditions that lower the residential density of the project and, for housing affordable to low- and moderate-income households, would render the project economically infeasible or would have a substantial adverse effect on the viability of the proposed housing -- unless specific findings are made and supported by a preponderance of evidence in the record. The “preponderance of the evidence” standard requires that local agencies weigh the evidence and conclude that the evidence on one side outweighs the evidence on the other side (i.e. 51 percent to 49 percent).
5) Determination of Consistency with Applicable Standards is Based on “Reasonable Person” Standard
In most cases, courts will uphold an agency’s determination if there is “substantial evidence” to support that determination. “Substantial evidence” means that there is
ITEM NO. 1.
PAGE 6 OF 17
SUBJECT: 14859, 14917, 14925, and 16392 Los Gatos Boulevard; 16250, 16260, and 16270 Burton Road; and Assessor Parcel Number 424-07-116/S-23-031 and M-23-005 DATE: October 24, 2025
reasonable, adequate evidence in in the administrative record to support of the agency’s findings. However, when a project is subject to the HAA, a housing development project will be deemed consistent with local standards if there is substantial evidence that could allow a “reasonable person” to conclude that it is consistent.
6) Application of State Density Bonus Law
The use of a density bonus pursuant to state density bonus law does not constitute a valid basis on which to find a proposed housing development project is inconsistent with local standards. Here, with the use of incentives, concessions, and waivers that are available pursuant to state density bonus law, the project is consistent with Town standards. However, in order to be eligible for these incentives, concessions, and waivers, the applicant must “seek and agree” to build affordable housing. 7) Denial of a Housing Project that is Consistent with Local Standards When a proposed housing development complies with applicable local standards, but the local agency proposes to disapprove the project or to impose a condition that the project be developed at a lower density, the local agency shall adopt written findings supported by a preponderance of the evidence that both of the following conditions exist:
- The housing development project would have a specific, adverse impact upon the public health or safety unless the project is disapproved or approved upon the condition that the project be developed at a lower density. - There is no feasible method to satisfactorily mitigate or avoid the adverse impact, other than the disapproval of the housing project or the approval of the project upon the condition that it be developed at a lower density. “Feasible” means capable of being accomplished in a successful manner within a reasonable period of time, taking into account economic, environmental, social, and technological factors. 8) Denial or Conditioning of Affordable Housing Affordable to Low- and Moderate-Income Households
The HAA specifies findings that local agencies must make if they wish to deny a housing development project that provides housing affordable to low-or moderate-income households, or condition such a project so as to render it infeasible or have a substantial adverse effect on the viability or affordability of the project. These findings are in addition to the findings described above. Under the version of the HAA that was in effect at the time that the preliminary application for this project was submitted, the local agency must make one of the following specific findings based upon a preponderance of the evidence:
ITEM NO. 1.
PAGE 7 OF 17
SUBJECT: 14859, 14917, 14925, and 16392 Los Gatos Boulevard; 16250, 16260, and 16270 Burton Road; and Assessor Parcel Number 424-07-116/S-23-031 and M-23-005 DATE: October 24, 2025
- The local government has an adopted Housing Element and has met its share of the RHNA in all income categories proposed in the housing development project. - The housing development project would have a specific, adverse impact upon public health or safety and there is no feasible method to mitigate or avoid the impact without rendering the project unaffordable or financially infeasible. - Denial of the housing project or the imposition of conditions is required to comply with specific state or federal law, and there is no feasible method to comply without rendering the project unaffordable to low- and moderate-income households. - The housing development project is proposed on land zoned for agriculture or resource preservation that is either 1) surrounded on two sides by land being used for agriculture or resource preservation; or 2) does not have adequate water or wastewater facilities to serve the housing development project. - The housing development project meets both of the following conditions:
o Is inconsistent with both the zoning ordinance and general plan land use designation as specified in any element of the general plan as it existed on the date the application was deemed complete. This finding cannot be used when the project is inconsistent with one but is consistent with the other. o The local government has an adopted Housing Element in substantial compliance with state housing element law.
o This finding cannot be used when:
▪ The project is proposed for a site identified as suitable or available for very low, low, or moderate-income households within the Housing Element and the project is consistent with the specified density identified in the Housing Element.
▪ The local agency has failed to identify sufficient adequate sites in its inventory to accommodate its RHNA, and the project is proposed on a site identified in any Element of its General Plan for residential use or in a commercial zone where residential uses are permitted or conditionally permitted.
In September 2024, the California State Legislature passed, and the Governor signed into law, Assembly Bill 1893, which went into effect on January 1, 2025. AB 1893 made revisions to the findings in subsection (d) of Government Code Section 65589.5.
However, the applicant for this project has not chosen to invoke the provisions of AB 1893. Therefore, the findings enumerated above are the ones that remain relevant to this project.
9) Violations of the HAA
If a plaintiff alleges an HAA violation and prevails, the court must issue an order compelling compliance with the HAA in 60 days. The court may also issue an order directing the local agency to approve the project. If the plaintiff prevails, the court
ITEM NO. 1.
PAGE 8 OF 17
SUBJECT: 14859, 14917, 14925, and 16392 Los Gatos Boulevard; 16250, 16260, and 16270 Burton Road; and Assessor Parcel Number 424-07-116/S-23-031 and M-23-005 DATE: October 24, 2025
awards attorney fees and costs to the plaintiff. If the local agency fails to comply with the order, the court must impose a minimum fine of $10,000 per housing unit.
B. Explanation of Concessions/Incentives and Waivers
The applicant is seeking to use state density bonus law, which is codified at Government Code Sections 65915 through 65918.
The intent of state density bonus law is to encourage builders and local governments to include low- and moderate-income housing units in proposed developments. Under the statutes, the local authority must grant a density bonus or other specified incentives or concessions to a developer who “seeks and agrees” to build affordable housing.
Concessions and Incentives
So long as the required percentage of affordable housing is provided, a developer may opt to request “concessions and incentives” without seeking the density bonus. A local agency may decline to grant the concessions or incentives only under certain limited circumstances set forth in Government Code Section 65915(d). Those circumstances are:
1) The concession or incentive does not result in identifiable and actual cost reductions to provide for affordable housing;
2) The concession or incentive would result in a “specific adverse impact . . . upon public health and safety or the physical environment or on any real property that is listed in the California Register of Historical Resources,” which cannot be feasibly mitigated without rendering the development unaffordable to low-income and moderate-income households; or
3) The concession or incentive would be contrary to state or federal law. (Gov. Code Section 65915(d)(1)(A)-(C).)
Concessions and incentives include the following:
1) Reduction in site development standards;
2) Modifications of zoning or architectural design requirements that exceed state standards;
3) Approval of mixed-use zoning in conjunction with the project if commercial, office, industrial, or other land uses will reduce the cost of, and are compatible with, the development; and
4) Any other regulatory incentive or concession proposed by either party that results in “identifiable and actual cost reductions to provide for affordable housing costs” or to provide for affordable rents. (Gov. Code Section 65915(k).)
ITEM NO. 1.
PAGE 9 OF 17
SUBJECT: 14859, 14917, 14925, and 16392 Los Gatos Boulevard; 16250, 16260, and 16270 Burton Road; and Assessor Parcel Number 424-07-116/S-23-031 and M-23-005 DATE: October 24, 2025
Under the statute, two incentives or concessions are granted for projects that include at least 17 percent of the total units for lower income households. This applicant is proposing a project with 17 percent of the residential units affordable for lower income households and is therefore entitled to two incentives or concessions.
This applicant is seeking two incentives or concessions.
The first request is to eliminate the requirement for commercial uses on the ground floor of the townhomes and affordable multi-family apartment building (Exhibit 24). The applicant states that this will result in a cost reduction in that although portions of the Project incorporate commercial elements, it is not financially feasible to develop commercial spaces on the ground floor of all the buildings on the Project site. Therefore, eliminating this development standard will result in cost savings to help provide the level of affordability proposed.
The second request is to deviate from the Town’s Below Market Rate Program Guidelines.
The Town’s Below Market Rate Program Guidelines provide that affordable units are to be provided concurrently with market rate units:
“Phasing of the Construction of On- and Off-Site BMP Units: On- and off-site BMP units shall be constructed and Certificates of Occupancies secured concurrently with or prior to the construction of the market-rate units. The BMP requirement will be calculated on the basis of the whole development. The Town Council may grant an exception to these phasing requirements during the Planned Development approval process.” The applicant is asking to build 127 market-rate townhomes before constructing any affordable units. The applicant states that this will provide for a “cost reduction” in that the applicant will receive cash for the sale of the townhome parcels, which can be used to fund the project infrastructure and will reduce the need for financing and the associated interest payments. In staff’s view, this explanation satisfies the legal standard for establishing a cost reduction. If the Town disagrees, the burden is on the Town to produce evidence that there is no cost reduction associated with the requested incentive or concession.
However, state density bonus law only applies if an applicant is “seeking and agreeing” to build affordable housing. In this application, the applicant is proposing to build affordable housing, but is not committing to do so.
For that reason, staff recommends imposing the Town’s standard Below Market Program condition of approval, which requires that the same ratio (here, 17%) of affordable units to market rate units be provided throughout construction.
The applicant has proposed an alternative condition of approval, which would provide that 127 market rate townhomes could be built first and that, if the 255-unit multi-family
ITEM NO. 1.
PAGE 10 OF 17
SUBJECT: 14859, 14917, 14925, and 16392 Los Gatos Boulevard; 16250, 16260, and 16270 Burton Road; and Assessor Parcel Number 424-07-116/S-23-031 and M-23-005 DATE: October 24, 2025
apartment building is built before the 100% affordable housing project, the 67 affordable units will need to be included in the 255-unit multi-family building in addition to the ten proposed to be included already. The applicant’s proposed condition of approval is included for the Planning Commission’s consideration in Exhibit 24.
In discussions with the applicant, the following additional proposed conditions of approval were proposed, but the applicant declined to agree to them:
1) Include a deadline for development of either the 100% affordable housing building or the multi-family apartment building.
2) Limit the number of building permits issued for the townhomes until building permits are pulled for the affordable units.
3) Make a deposit to be used toward the development of affordable housing if the affordable housing units are not constructed within a specified period of time. 4) Pay a penalty for each affordable unit that has not been constructed within three years of pulling the first townhome building permit.
In Phase 1 of the project, the BMP condition of approval read as follows:
“BMP Units. BMP applicants shall be qualified by the Santa Clara Housing Authority. The affordable units shall be required to be maintained for the term required under state density bonus law or for the life of the buildings, whichever is longer. The developer shall enter into an Affordable Housing Agreement with the Town prior to issuance of building permits. The proposed BMP units must be available and/or occupied prior to final occupancy issuance for the 187th market rate unit.”
Waivers of Development Standards
Applicants are eligible for unlimited waivers of development standards when they “seek and agree” to provide affordable housing. This applicant is also requesting waivers from the Town’s development standards. A local agency may not apply any development standard that will have the effect of physically precluding the construction of a development meeting the criteria for density bonuses set forth in Government Code Section 65915(b) or with the concessions or incentives permitted by Government Code Section 65915.
One waiver that this applicant is seeking is a waiver of the Town’s setback requirement in the North 40 Specific Plan. Section 2.5.7 of the North 40 Specific Plan, “Perimeter Overlay Zone,” requires that “buildings or portions of buildings located within 50 feet of Los Gatos Boulevard shall be restricted to a maximum building height of 25 feet.” The applicant is proposing a 100-foot building to be located 20 feet from Los Gatos Boulevard.
ITEM NO. 1.
PAGE 11 OF 17
SUBJECT: 14859, 14917, 14925, and 16392 Los Gatos Boulevard; 16250, 16260, and 16270 Burton Road; and Assessor Parcel Number 424-07-116/S-23-031 and M-23-005 DATE: October 24, 2025
C. BMP Unit Phasing
The applicant has proposed that the 127 market rate townhomes be constructed first. The applicant’s stated rationale is that the profits from the sale of the townhome parcel are needed in order to fund the required project infrastructure, which will reduce the cost of project financing.
The applicant anticipates that the 100% affordable housing project will be built by Eden Housing after construction of the townhomes. In the event that the 100% affordable housing project has not begun construction when the townhomes have been finished, the applicant will include all of the required affordable units in the multi-family apartment building with the ability to transfer the affordability restrictions to the 100% affordable housing project in the future. The applicant’s proposal does not include a timeline by which the affordable housing units will be built.
Over many months, Town staff and the applicant have discussed a wide variety of options to guarantee that construction of the affordable units will start by a specified date. The options discussed included:
1) Requiring that affordable units be constructed along with market-rate units, such that 17% of the constructed units are affordable at all times during construction. 2) Requiring that construction on the affordable units begin after a specified number of townhomes, but not all 127 townhomes, have been built.1 3) Imposing a monetary penalty if the affordable units have not been built by a specified date.
4) Requiring a deposit that will be forfeited if the affordable units have not been built by a specified date.
To date, the applicant has not been able to guarantee that construction of the affordable units will start by a specified date. Staff is recommending that the Planning Commission recommend option #1 above to the Town Council for consideration. Staff and the applicant will be prepared to discuss the other options at the public hearing.
D. No Net Loss Law
Pursuant to Government Code Section 65863 (No Net Loss Law), the Town must maintain adequate capacity in the Housing Element to accommodate its remaining unmet Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) by each income category at all times throughout the entire planning period. To comply with the No Net Loss Law, as the Town makes decisions 1 Staff is currently gathering information regarding whether such a condition of approval would render the project “economically infeasible,” which is prohibited by the state Housing Accountability Act.
ITEM NO. 1.
PAGE 12 OF 17
SUBJECT: 14859, 14917, 14925, and 16392 Los Gatos Boulevard; 16250, 16260, and 16270 Burton Road; and Assessor Parcel Number 424-07-116/S-23-031 and M-23-005 DATE: October 24, 2025
regarding zoning and land use, or as development is approved, the Town must assess whether it has adequate site capacity in the Housing Element to accommodate its RHNA at all income levels. If the Town approves a development of a parcel identified in the Housing Element with fewer units than anticipated, or at different income levels than projected, the Town must either find that the remaining capacity of the sites identified in the Housing Element is sufficient to accommodate the remaining unmet RHNA by each income level or identify and make available sufficient sites to accommodate the remaining unmet RHNA for each income category.
If a developer proposes fewer units than shown in the Housing Element, then the developer may be required to identify additional sites if the Town does not have adequate capacity for its total RHNA. However, If the approval of a housing development results in the remaining sites capacity becoming inadequate to accommodate the RHNA by income category, the Town may not disapprove the development but has up to 180 days from the approval to identify and rezone, “sufficient additional, adequate, and available sites” to accommodate the remaining RHNA for each income category. Sites identified and rezoned must meet the following criteria:
• Must be considered an adequate site pursuant to the requirements of Government Code section 65583.2; and
• If the capacity to be replaced was on a site that was zoned by-right pursuant to Government Code section 65863.2 (h) and (i), then the replacement site must also satisfy those requirements.
As described in the table below, the project provides fewer Very Low-, Low-, and ModerateIncome units than anticipated in the Sites Inventory of the Housing Element, but more Above Moderate-Income units.
No Net Loss Evaluation
Proposed Project’s Impact on the Anticipated Development in the Housing Element Sites Inventory Units by Income Category
Very Low Low Moderate Above
Moderate Net Total
Anticipated Development Included
in the Housing Element Sites
Inventory
184 89 92 87 464
Proposed Project 67 10 0 373 450
Net Site-Level Impact from the
Proposed Project to the Housing
Element Sites Inventory
-117 -79 -92 +286 -14
Table A, Table B, and Table C on the following pages show that after project approval, the remaining capacity of the Sites Inventory will become inadequate to accommodate the very
ITEM NO. 1.
PAGE 13 OF 17
SUBJECT: 14859, 14917, 14925, and 16392 Los Gatos Boulevard; 16250, 16260, and 16270 Burton Road; and Assessor Parcel Number 424-07-116/S-23-031 and M-23-005 DATE: October 24, 2025
low and moderate-income RHNA categories. The evaluation procedure for the creation of the tables below were created using the HCD Technical Memorandum on No Net Loss.
Pursuant to No Net Loss law, 180 days from approval of a project, the Town must identify and rezone available sites to accommodate the remaining RHNA for each income category.
The following table shows that the cumulative impact of the project on the capacity of the Housing Element creates a negative surplus in the Very Low and Moderate income categories. Therefore, the remaining capacity of the Housing Element is not adequate to meet the Town’s remaining RHNA requirements. The No Net Loss findings cannot be made, and the Town is required to identify additional site(s) to accommodate the remaining RHNA should this project be approved.
No Net Loss Evaluation
Evaluation of the Proposed Project’s Impact on the Cumulative Housing Element Sites Inventory Surplus Units by Income Category
Very Low Low Moderate Above
Moderate
Net Total
Housing Element Sites
Inventory Surplus 101 78 138 558 601
Net Site-Level Impact from the
Proposed Project to Housing
Element Assumed
Development Potential -117 -79 -92 286 -14
Remaining Housing Element
Sites Inventory Surplus with
Project Approval -16 33 -6 122 898
E. CEQA Determination
The Town Council adopted the 2040 General Plan and certified the 2040 General Plan EIR on June 30, 2022. On April 2, 2024, the Town Council voted to rescind the Land Use Element and Community Design Element of the 2040 General Plan. Therefore, the Town’s current General Plan consists of the Land Use Element and Community Design Element of the 2020 General Plan, and the remaining elements of the 2040 General Plan.
CEQA Guidelines Section 15183 provides that a programmatic EIR, in this case the 2040 General Plan EIR, may serve as the EIR for subsequent activities or implementing actions, provided that it contemplates and adequately analyzes the potential environmental impacts of those subsequent activities. If the Town, as the CEQA Lead Agency, determines, pursuant to Section 15183 of the CEQA Guidelines, no Subsequent EIR would be required, the agency can approve the activity as being within the scope of
ITEM NO. 1.
PAGE 14 OF 17
SUBJECT: 14859, 14917, 14925, and 16392 Los Gatos Boulevard; 16250, 16260, and 16270 Burton Road; and Assessor Parcel Number 424-07-116/S-23-031 and M-23-005 DATE: October 24, 2025
the project covered by the programmatic EIR, and new environmental documentation would not be required.
In accordance with Section 15183 of the CEQA Guidelines, an Initial Study Checklist (Exhibit 21) was prepared to provide project-level consideration of potential new or more severe significant impacts associated with the proposed project to determine whether the project: 1) is within the scope of activities evaluated in the 2040 General Plan EIR; and 2) would trigger any of the criteria in CEQA Guidelines Section 15183.
The Initial Study includes a number of project-level technical studies, including: an Air Quality, Health Risk, and Greenhouse Gas Assessment; Noise Assessment; Arborist Report; and Transportation Analysis (Exhibit 21). All technical reports were peer reviewed by the Town or the Town’s consultants. The Initial Study determined that the project’s environmental impacts have been considered in the 2040 General Plan EIR that was certified by the Town, which remains relevant, and the conditions set forth in Section 15183 are not triggered by the proposed project. In addition, the analysis determined that the proposed project is within the scope of activities evaluated in the 2040 General Plan EIR and the Environmental Analysis for the 6th Cycle Housing Element. As such, this Initial Study is the appropriate environmental document for the proposed project, pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15183 and no additional environmental review is necessary.
PUBLIC COMMENTS:
Written notice was sent to property owners and tenants within 1,000 feet of the subject property and notice of public hearing signage was installed on the street frontages in anticipation of the October 29, 2025, Planning Commission meeting.
Staff conducted outreach through the following media and social media resources, for the notice of the public hearing:
• The Town’s website home page, What’s New;
• The Town’s Facebook page;
• The Town’s Twitter account;
• The Town’s Instagram account; and
• The Town’s NextDoor page.
Public comments received by 11:00 a.m., Friday, October 24, 2025, are included as Exhibit X.
ITEM NO. 1.
PAGE 15 OF 17
SUBJECT: 14859, 14917, 14925, and 16392 Los Gatos Boulevard; 16250, 16260, and 16270 Burton Road; and Assessor Parcel Number 424-07-116/S-23-031 and M-23-005 DATE: October 24, 2025
CONCLUSION:
A. Summary
The applicant is requesting approval of Architecture and Site and Subdivision applications to construct a mixed-use residential development (450 units), a vesting tentative map, site improvements requiring a grading permit, and removal of large protected trees under SB 330 on property zoned NF-SP:HEOZ, located at 14859, 14917, 14925, and 16392 Los Gatos Boulevard; 16250, 16260, and 16270 Burton Road; and Assessor Parcel Number 424-07-116.
As detailed above, a preliminary application was submitted under SB 330. The project qualifies for two concessions and unlimited waivers under SDBL. The application meets the definition of a builder’s remedy project, but the applicant has requested that the project be reviewed under the January 2023 Housing Element and the NF-SP zoning and has not cited provisions of the HAA regarding the builder’s remedy that became effective January 1, 2025. The deviations from the Town’s standards included in the project are requested exclusively through SDBL for which the applicant has provided justification (Exhibit 24).
B. Recommendation
Staff recommends that the Planning Commission consider the request and, if merit is found with the proposed project, forward a recommendation that the Town Council approve the Architecture and Site and Subdivision applications by taking the following actions:
1. Make the finding that additional environmental review is not necessary pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Sections 15183: Projects Consistent with a Community Plan, General Plan, or Zoning since the proposed project’s environmental impacts were adequately addressed in the 2040 General Plan EIR (Exhibit 22);
2. Make the finding that the project is consistent with the General Plan with the incentives, concessions, waivers, and parking reductions requested pursuant to State Density Bonus Law (Exhibit 22);
3. Make the finding that the proposed project complies with Section 66474 of the State Subdivision Map Act and make affirmative findings to approve the subdivision (Exhibit 22);
4. Make the finding that the project meets the objective standards of Chapter 29 of the Town Code (Zoning Regulations) with the concessions, waivers, and parking reductions requested pursuant to State Density Bonus Law (Exhibit 22);
5. The project meets the objective standards of the North Forty Specific Plan with the incentives, concessions, waivers, and parking reductions requested pursuant to State Density Bonus Law (Exhibit 22);
6. The project meets the Town of Los Gatos Objective Design Standards for Qualifying Multi-Family and Mixed-Use Residential Development with the waivers requested pursuant to State Density Bonus Law (Exhibit 22);
ITEM NO. 1.
PAGE 16 OF 17
SUBJECT: 14859, 14917, 14925, and 16392 Los Gatos Boulevard; 16250, 16260, and 16270 Burton Road; and Assessor Parcel Number 424-07-116/S-23-031 and M-23-005 DATE: October 24, 2025
7. Make the affirmative findings as required by State Density Bonus Law for granting concessions pursuant to California Government Code Section 65915 (d) and for granting waivers pursuant to California Government Code Section 65915 (a)(2) (Exhibit 22);
8. Make the findings that the proposed project complies with California Government Code Section 65863 regarding state RHNA requirements, the Town’s Housing Element Sites Inventory, and No Net Loss Law (Exhibit 22); and
9. Make the considerations as required by Section 29.20.150 of the Town Code for granting approval of an Architecture and Site application (Exhibit 22);
10. Approve Architecture and Site Application S-23-031 and Subdivision Application M-23- 005 with the recommended conditions contained in Exhibit 23 and the development plans in Exhibits 11 through 16.
C. Alternatives
Alternatively, the Planning Commission can:
1. Continue the matter to a date certain with specific direction; or
2. Recommend approval of the applications with additional and/or modified conditions; or
3. Recommend denial of the applications.
EXHIBITS:
Previously Received with the April 30, 2025, Staff Report:
1. Location Map
2. Letter of Justification with Proposed Density Bonus Concessions, Waivers, and Parking Reductions
3. Consulting Architect’s Report
4. Applicant’s Response to Consulting Architect’s Report
5. Final Arborist Report
6. Neighbor Outreach Summary
7. Visual Renderings
8. Objective Design Standards Checklist
9. Public Comments Received by 11:00 a.m., Friday, April 25, 2025
10. Transportation Analysis Report
11. Development Plans, Part 1
12. Development Plans, Part 2
13. Development Plans, Part 3
14. Development Plans, Parts 4 through 6
15. Development Plans, Parts 7 through 9
16. Development Plans, Parts 10 through 11
ITEM NO. 1.
PAGE 17 OF 17
SUBJECT: 14859, 14917, 14925, and 16392 Los Gatos Boulevard; 16250, 16260, and 16270 Burton Road; and Assessor Parcel Number 424-07-116/S-23-031 and M-23-005 DATE: October 24, 2025
Previously Received with the April 30, 2025, Addendum Report:
17. Public Comments Received Between 11:01 a.m., Friday, April 25, 2025, and 11:00 a.m., Tuesday, April 29, 2025
18. Full Transportation Analysis Report
Previously Received with the April 30, 2025, Desk Item Report:
19. Public Comments Received Between 11:01 a.m., Tuesday, April 29, 2025, and 11:00 a.m., Wednesday, April 30, 2025
20. Additional Correspondence from the Applicant
Received with this Staff Report:
21. Final Initial Study – September 2025
(available online at https://www.losgatosca.gov/N40II_FinalInitialStudy)
22. Required Findings and Considerations
23. Recommended Conditions of Approval
24. Revised Letter of Justification with Proposed Density Bonus Concessions, Waivers, and Parking Reductions
25. Revised Objective Design Standards Checklist
26. Public Comments Received Between 11:01 a.m., Wednesday, April 30, 2025, and 11:00 a.m., Friday, October 24, 2025
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S:\PLANNING COMMISSION REPORTS\2025\10-29-2025 SPECIAL\Item 1 - N40 Phase II\Exhibit 22 - Required Findings and Considerations.docx PLANNING COMMISSION – October 29, 2025
REQUIRED FINDINGS AND CONSIDERATIONS FOR:
14859, 14917, 14925, and 16392 Los Gatos Boulevard; 16250, 16260, and 16270 Burton Road; and Assessor Parcel Number 424-07-116
Architecture and Site Application S-23-031
and Subdivision Application M-23-005
Consider a Request for Approval to Construct a Mixed-Use Residential Development (450 Units), a Vesting Tentative Map, Site Improvements Requiring a Grading Permit, and Removal of Large Protected Trees Under Senate Bill 330 (SB 330) on Property Zoned North Forty Specific Plan: Housing Element Overlay Zone. Located at 14859, 14917, 14925, and 16392 Los Gatos Boulevard; 16250, 16260, and 16270 Burton Road; and Assessor Parcel Number 424-07-116. APNs 424-07-009, -052, -053, -081, - 094, -095, -115, and -116. Additional Environmental Review is Necessary Pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15183: Projects Consistent with a Community Plan, General Plan, or Zoning Since the Proposed Project’s Environmental Impacts were Adequately Addressed in the 2040 General Plan EIR.
Property Owner: Yuki Farms LLC
Applicant: Grosvenor Property Americas c/o Steve Buster Project Planner: Jocelyn Shoopman
FINDINGS
Required finding for CEQA:
■ An Initial Study was prepared for the project concluding that additional environmental review is not necessary pursuant to California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines Section 15183: Projects Consistent with a Community Plan, General Plan, or Zoning since the proposed project’s environmental impacts were adequately addressed in the 2040 General Plan EIR.
Required finding for consistency with the Town’s General Plan:
■ That the project is consistent with the General Plan with the incentives, concessions, waivers, and parking reductions requested pursuant to State Density Bonus Law.
Required findings to deny a Subdivision application:
■ As required by Section 66474 of the State Subdivision Map Act, the map shall be denied if any of the following findings are made: None of the findings could be made to deny the application.
EXHIBIT 22
ITEM NO. 1.
S:\PLANNING COMMISSION REPORTS\2025\10-29-2025 SPECIAL\Item 1 - N40 Phase II\Exhibit 22 - Required Findings and Considerations.docx Instead, the Town Council makes the following affirmative findings:
a. That the proposed map is consistent with all elements of the General Plan. b. That the design and improvement of the proposed subdivision is consistent with all elements of the General Plan.
c. That the site is physically suitable for the type of development. d. That the site is physically suitable for the proposed density of development e. That the design of the subdivision and the proposed improvements are not likely to cause substantial environmental damage nor substantially and avoidably injure fish or wildlife or their habitat
f. That the design of the subdivision and type of improvements is not likely to cause serious public health problems.
g. That the design of the subdivision and the type of improvements will not conflict with easements, acquired by the public at large, for access through or use of property within the proposed subdivision.
Required compliance with the Zoning Regulations:
■ The project meets the objective standards of Chapter 29 of the Town Code (Zoning Regulations) with the concessions, waivers, and parking reductions requested pursuant to State Density Bonus Law.
Required compliance with the North Forty Specific Plan:
■ The project meets the objective standards of the North 40 Specific Plan with the concessions, waivers, and parking reductions requested pursuant to State Density Bonus Law.
Required compliance with the Town of Los Gatos Objective Design Standards for Qualifying Multi-Family and Mixed-Use Residential Development:
■ The project meets the Town of Los Gatos Objective Design Standards for Qualifying MultiFamily and Mixed-Use Residential Development with the waivers requested pursuant to State Density Bonus Law.
Required for granting concession and waivers pursuant through State Density Bonus Law:
Concession(s) or incentive(s)
■ CA Government Code Section 65915:
(d) The Town shall grant concession(s) or incentive(s) requested by the applicant unless the Town makes a written finding, based upon substantial evidence, of any of the following:
(A) The concession or incentive does not result in identifiable and actual cost reductions, consistent with subdivision (k), to provide for affordable housing costs,
ITEM NO. 1.
S:\PLANNING COMMISSION REPORTS\2025\10-29-2025 SPECIAL\Item 1 - N40 Phase II\Exhibit 22 - Required Findings and Considerations.docx as defined in Section 50052.5 of the Health and Safety Code, or for rents for the targeted units to be set as specified in subdivision (c). (B) The concession or incentive would have a specific, adverse impact, as defined in paragraph (2) of subdivision (d) of Section 65589.5, upon public health and safety or on any real property that is listed in the California Register of Historical Resources and for which there is no feasible method to satisfactorily mitigate or avoid the specific, adverse impact without rendering the development unaffordable to low-income and moderate-income households. (C) The concession or incentive would be contrary to state or federal law.
Waivers
■ CA Government Code Section 65915 (a)(2):
The Town shall grant waivers to the Town’s development standards requested by the applicant unless the Town makes a written finding, based upon substantial evidence, that the development standard for which the waiver is requested would not physically preclude the construction of the development at the densities and with the concession permitted through State Density Bonus Law.
Required finding pursuant to state density bonus law and the state Housing Accountability Act for imposition of the condition regarding construction of the affordable housing units:
1. In accordance with Government Code Section 65915(d)(1)(C), the Town finds that the applicant’s requested incentive/concession to phase or delay development of the below market price units until after all of the market rate townhomes have been developed, with no schedule for developing the affordable units or evidence that financing can be obtained for the affordable units, is contrary to state law, as follows:
a. The Housing Crisis Act of 2019 (Government Code Sections 66300.5 and 66300.6) provides that the Town shall not approve a housing development project that proposes to demolish one or more protected units (as that term is defined in state law) unless the housing development project will replace each demolished protected unit with a comparable new unit in the new development and provide each lower-income household that is displaced with a right to return to a comparable unit in the new development at a rent and housing cost that is affordable to their household. There are currently eight residential dwelling units on the project site, which will be demolished in order to develop the project. Four of these units qualify as a “protected unit” because they have or have been occupied by a lower-income household in the past five years. As proposed with the requested incentive/concession, the project is contrary to state law because the protected units will be demolished with no assurance that they will ever be
ITEM NO. 1.
S:\PLANNING COMMISSION REPORTS\2025\10-29-2025 SPECIAL\Item 1 - N40 Phase II\Exhibit 22 - Required Findings and Considerations.docx replaced with comparable and affordable units in the new development and that the lower-income households residing in those protected units will be provided with a right to return.
b. State density bonus law requires that the applicant agree to construct housing development containing specified percentages of affordable units to be eligible for incentives, concessions, and waivers. As proposed, the requested incentive/concession is contrary to state law, because the applicant has not agreed to construct the required affordable units needed to entitle the project to two concessions and numerous waivers of development standards.
2. Because the requested concession is contrary to state law, the Town denies the concession.
3. To ensure that the project complies with state law and to maintain the project’s eligibility for the requested concessions and waivers, the Town is adopting a condition of approval to require that the affordable units be constructed concurrently with the rest of the project.
4. In accordance with Government Code Section 65589.5, the Town finds that the condition of approval related to the provision of affordable units is necessary for the project to comply with state law and the Town’s standards and policies, which are consistent with meeting the Town’s share of the regional housing need pursuant to Section 65584, because:
a. Government Code Section 65915 (b)(1) and (d)(2) required that the applicant provide 17% of the total units in the project as affordable to lower-income households in order to be eligible for a density bonus, two incentives/concessions, and waivers; and
b. The Town’s Below Market Price housing regulations require that 20% of the market-rate housing units be affordable to low-income households.
Required finding for consistency with California Government Code Section 65863 regarding state RHNA requirements, the Town’s Housing Element Sites Inventory, and No Net Loss Law:
As required by Government Code Section 65863 to approve this housing development project, the Town makes the following No-Net-Loss findings:
▪ The applicant proposes a housing development project on one or more parcels identified in the Sites Inventory of the Town’s Housing Element; ▪ The applicant proposes to provide fewer units by income category than was identified for those parcels in the sites inventory. Specifically, the project will provide fewer Very Low- and Moderate-Income units than identified in the Housing Element Sites Inventory, but will provide more Low- and Above Moderate-Income units; ▪ The remaining sites identified in the Sites Inventory of the Town’s Housing Element are not adequate to meet the requirements of Section 65583.2 and to accommodate
ITEM NO. 1.
S:\PLANNING COMMISSION REPORTS\2025\10-29-2025 SPECIAL\Item 1 - N40 Phase II\Exhibit 22 - Required Findings and Considerations.docx the Town’s regional housing needs allocation (RHNA) for the planning period by income category, specifically its RHNA for the Very Low- and Moderate-Income categories pursuant to Section 65584;
▪ The remaining unmet need for the Town’s RHNA at each income level and the remaining capacity of the sites in the Town’s Housing Element are quantified in the table below, which is incorporated in the Town’s findings; and ▪ Within 180 days of approval of the project, the Town will identify and rezone additional site(s) to accommodate its remaining RHNA for the Very Low- and Moderate-Income categories.
No Net Loss Evaluation
Evaluation of the Proposed Project’s Impact on the Cumulative Housing Element Sites Inventory Surplus Units by Income Category
Very Low Low Moderate Above
Moderate
Net Total
Housing Element Sites
Inventory Surplus 101 78 138 558 601
Net Site-Level Impact from
the Proposed Project to
Housing Element Assumed
Development Potential -117 -79 -92 286 -14
Remaining Housing Element
Sites Inventory Surplus with
Project Approval -16 33 -6 122 898
CONSIDERATIONS
Required considerations in review of Architecture and Site applications:
■ As required by Section 29.20.150 of the Town Code, the applicable considerations in review of an Architecture and Site application were all made in reviewing this project.
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PLANNING COMMISSION – October 29, 2025
CONDITIONS OF APPROVAL
14859, 14917, and 14925 Los Gatos Boulevard; 16250, 16260, 16270, and 16392 Burton Road; and Assessor Parcel Number 424-07-116 Architecture and Site Application S-23-031
Subdivision Application M-23-005
Consider a Request for Approval to Construct a Mixed-Use Residential Development (450 Units), a Vesting Tentative Map, Site Improvements Requiring a Grading Permit, and Removal of Large Protected Trees Under Senate Bill 330 (SB 330) on Property Zoned North Forty Specific Plan: Housing Element Overlay Zone. Located at 14859, 14917, 14925, and 16392 Los Gatos Boulevard; 16250, 16260, and 16270 Burton Road; and Assessor Parcel Number 424-07-116. APNs 424-07-009, -052, -053, -081, -094, -095, -115, and -116. Additional Environmental Review is Necessary Pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15183: Projects Consistent with a Community Plan, General Plan, or Zoning Since the Proposed Project’s Environmental Impacts were Adequately Addressed in the 2040 General Plan EIR.
Property Owner: Yuki Farms LLC
Applicant: Grosvenor Property Americas c/o Steve Buster Project Planner: Jocelyn Shoopman
TO THE SATISFACTION OF THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR:
Planning Division
1. APPROVAL: This project is vested to the ordinances, policies, and standards in effect on April 17, 2023, and these conditions of approval conform to those ordinances, policies, and standards. This application shall be completed in accordance with all of the conditions of approval and in substantial compliance with the approved plans.
Any changes or modifications to the approved plans and/or business operation shall be approved by the Community Development Director, DRC, or the Planning Commission depending on the scope of the changes.
2. EXPIRATION: The approval will expire upon the later to occur of expiration of the vesting tentative map or two- and one-half years from the final approval date, pursuant to subparagraph (D) of paragraph (2) of subdivision (o) of Section 65589.5 of the Government Code, unless the project has commenced construction. If the final subdivision map is recorded in phases, the life of the approval will be extended pursuant to Section 66452.6.
3. BELOW MARKET PRICE (BMP) UNITS, MIXED-USE BUILDING: The developer shall provide 10 BMP units (low-income) as part of the mixed-use building (Building E1). “BMP Units” are dwelling units to be rented at affordable rent to lower income households for a 55-year period, as defined by the Town’s applicable BMP Program Guidelines and the applicable BMP Resolution, state density EXHIBIT 23
ITEM NO. 1.
bonus law (Government Code Section 65915 et seq.), and the Housing Accountability Act (Government Code Section 65589.5). A deed restriction shall be recorded prior to the issuance of any building permits for residential units in the mixed-use building providing for 10 BMP Units in Building E1.
4. BELOW MARKET PRICE (BMP) UNITS, AFFORDABLE BUILDING: The developer shall provide 67 BMP Units as part of the affordable housing building (Building G1). A deed restriction shall be recorded prior to the issuance of any building permits for residential units in the affordable housing building providing for 67 BMP units in Building G1.
5. AFFORDABLE HOUSING AGREEMENT: Prior to approval of any final or parcel map or issuance of any building permit for a residential unit, whichever occurs first, the developer shall execute and record an Affordable Housing Agreement with the Town in a form subject to the Town Attorney’s approval. The Affordable Housing Agreement shall provide for construction of the required BMP Units and facilitate their rental pursuant to applicable provisions of the BMP Program Guidelines and BMP Resolution in place as of April 17, 2023, state density bonus law, and the Housing Accountability Act. The applicant may satisfy this condition through the recordation of the Affordable Housing Agreement described in Condition 6.
6. PHASING OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF BMP UNITS: Sufficient units to qualify the project for two incentives or concessions under the State Density Bonus Law under subdivision (e) of Section 65915 of the Government Code (i.e., 77 BMP Units of the project’s 450 units) shall be restricted for occupancy by lower income households, as defined by Section 50079.5 of the Health and Safety Code, at rents affordable to the assumed household size for each restricted unit. Such units shall constitute the project’s BMP Units.
Prior to the approval of any final or parcel map or issuance of any building permits for residential units, whichever occurs first, the applicant shall execute and record an Affordable Housing Agreement in a form subject to the Town Attorney’s reasonable approval. The Affordable Housing Agreement shall require Lot 19 as shown on the vesting tentative map to be developed for 68 units, consisting of 67 BMP Units to be rented to lower income households and one unrestricted manager’s unit to remain affordable for a minimum of 55 years.
The Affordable Housing Agreement shall also require the applicant to provide at least 10 BMP Units affordable to lower income households in Building E1 on Lot 18 as shown on the vesting tentative map.
The BMP Units shall be constructed, and building permits and Certificates of Occupancy secured, so that at all times at least 17 percent of the residential units with building permits and Certificates of Occupancy are lower income BMP Units. If BMP units are provided in the project in addition to those planned to be
ITEM NO. 1.
included in Buildings E1 and G1, the number of BMP Units required in Buildings E1 and G1 may be reduced, so long as at least 17 percent of the residential units with building permits and Certificates of Occupancy are BMP Units.
The Affordable Housing Agreement shall require the BMP Units to be rented to lower income households at affordable rent for a term of 55 years from the date of the initial occupancy of the BMP Units, and it shall include terms regarding provisions for marketing, income certification, and screening of potential renters of BMP Units including the financing of ongoing administrative and monitoring costs.
7. REPLACEMENT HOUSING OBLIGATIONS: The project will demolish seven single-family homes, six of which were occupied when the project application was made and one of which was vacant. The following conditions are required to comply with Government Code Sections 66300.5 and 66300.6:
a. Required Replacement Units. Information submitted by the applicant shows that three homes of three bedrooms each are occupied by very low-income households, and one home of two bedrooms is occupied by a low-income household. Based on the most recently available data from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy database, the vacant unit is assumed to have been occupied by a very low-income household. The affordable housing agreement shall provide that five replacement units shall be made available to low and very low-income households for a term of 55 years from the issuance of a certificate of occupancy or final inspection, as applicable. Three of the units shall contain three bedrooms each and shall be made available to very low-income households, as defined in Health & Safety Code Section 50105, at affordable housing cost or affordable rent.
One unit shall contain two bedrooms and shall be made available to low-income households, as defined in Health & Safety Code Section 50079.5, at affordable housing cost or affordable rent. The vacant unit shall be replaced by one or more units of “equivalent size,” as defined in Government Code Section 66300.5(d), which shall be made available to very low-income households, as defined in Health & Safety Code Section 50105, at affordable housing cost or affordable rent. “Affordable housing cost” is as defined in Health & Safety Code Section 50052.5. “Affordable rent” is as defined in Health & Safety Code Section 50053. b. Relocation Benefits. Upon project approval, the Town shall retain a relocation consultant at the applicant’s expense to determine the relocation benefits that the very low and low-income tenants are entitled to that are equivalent to the relocation benefits required to be paid by public entities pursuant to Chapter 16 (commencing with Section 7260) of Division 7 of Title 1 of the Government Code and any implementing regulations. Those benefits shall be paid by the applicant to those lower income tenants at the time required by the statute and implementing regulations referenced in the previous sentence. Prior to the
ITEM NO. 1.
approval of a final map, or issuance of any construction permit, whichever is earliest, the Town shall verify that all lower income tenants have received the required relocation benefits.
c. Right to Return. The applicant shall offer all very low and low-income tenants the right to return to a comparable unit at affordable housing cost or affordable rent.
A “comparable unit” for the very low-income tenants must contain three bedrooms, and a “comparable unit” for the low-income tenant must contain two bedrooms.
d. Notice to All Tenants. All tenants must be allowed to remain until at least six months prior to the start of construction activities. If the applicant decides not to proceed with the project and returns the homes to the rental market, all existing tenants are entitled to return to the units at their current rent. The applicant shall provide written notice to all tenants of these rights at least six months prior to the date the tenants will be required to vacate the existing units. Prior to issuance of any construction permit, the applicant shall provide contact information to the Town for all existing tenants so that they may be informed of their rights should the project not succeed.
8. OUTDOOR LIGHTING: For the life of the project, exterior lighting shall be kept to a minimum and shall be down directed fixtures that will not reflect or encroach onto adjacent properties. No flood lights shall be used unless it can be demonstrated that they are needed for safety or security.
9. TREE REMOVAL PERMIT: A Tree Removal Permit shall be obtained for any trees to be removed, prior to the issuance of Building and/or Grading Permits. Per Town Code Section 26.20.010 and Chapter 29, Article 1, Division 2, the developer shall obtain a tree removal permit prior to the removal of protected trees on private or Town property. The project developer shall abide by any tree replacement ratios and/or in-lieu payments, tree protection measures, and best management practices required by the tree removal permit and/or within an updated arborist report.
10. EXISTING TREES: All existing protected trees with the potential to be preserved shown on the plan and trees required to remain or to be planted are specific subjects of approval of this plan and must remain on the site to the extent feasible during final design.
11. ARBORIST REQUIREMENTS: Prior to issuance of Building and/or Grading Permits, the developer shall implement, at their cost, all recommendations identified in the Arborist’s report for the project, on file in the Community Development Department. These recommendations must be incorporated in the Building Permit plans and completed prior to issuance of a building permit where applicable and shall remain through all phases of construction.
12. TREE FENCING: Prior to issuance of Building and/or Grading Permits, protective tree fencing and other protection measures consistent with Section 29.10.1005 of the Town Code shall be placed as shown on the Tree Protection Plan (Sheet TPage 1051 ITEM NO. 1.
5) of the approved plans prior to issuance of demolition and building permits and shall remain through all phases of construction. Include a tree protection plan with the construction plans.
13. TREE STAKING: Prior to final inspection, all newly planted trees shall be double staked using rubber tree ties.
14. LANDSCAPING: Prior to issuance of the Certificate of Occupancy for the final unit within a phase of the final subdivision map, all landscaping within the phased area must be completed. The meadow must be completed prior to the Certificate of Occupancy for the final townhome in the project.
15. WATER EFFICIENCY LANDSCAPE ORDINANCE: The final landscape plan shall meet the Town of Los Gatos Water Conservation Ordinance or the State Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance (WELO), whichever is more restrictive. Submittal of a Landscape Documentation Package pursuant to WELO is required prior to issuance of Building and/or Grading Permits. This is a separate submittal from your Building Permit. A review deposit based on the current fee schedule adopted by the Town Council is required when working landscape and irrigation plans are submitted for review. A completed WELO Certificate of Completion Appendix C) is required prior to final inspection/certificate of occupancy.
16. PROJECT IDENTIFICATION SIGNAGE: Project identification signage on the project site shall be removed within 30 days of final action on the applications.
17. ROOFTOP EQUIPMENT: Prior to final inspection, any new or modified roof mounted equipment shall be fully screened.
18. SIGN PERMIT: A sign permit must be obtained prior to installation of any permanent new signs, other than those excepted by Section 29.10.110 of the Town Code.
19. REUSABLE MATERIALS: All reusable materials from residential, commercial, and construction/renovation activities shall be recycled.
20. NOISE 1: The Town shall include the following measures as standard conditions of approval for applicable projects involving construction to minimize exposure to construction vibration:
a. Avoid the use of pile drivers and vibratory rollers (i.e., compactors) within 50 feet of buildings that are susceptible to damage from vibration. b. Schedule construction activities with the highest potential to produce vibration to hours with the least potential to affect nearby office uses that the Federal Transit Administration identifies as sensitive to daytime vibration.
c. Notify neighbors of scheduled construction activities that would generate vibration.
21. NOISE 2: For projects involving construction equipment that are located within 25 feet of noise-sensitive receptors the following mitigation would be required:
a. Equipment Staging Areas – Equipment staging shall be located in areas that will create the greatest distance feasible between construction-related noise sources and noise-sensitive receptors.
ITEM NO. 1.
b. Electrically-Powered Tools and Facilities – Electrical power shall be used to run air compressors and similar power tools and to power any temporary structures, such as construction trailers or caretaker facilities. c. Smart Back-up Alarms – Mobile construction equipment shall have smart back-up alarms that automatically adjust the sound level of the alarm in response to ambient noise levels. Alternatively, back-up alarms shall be disabled and replaced with human spotters to ensure safety when mobile construction equipment is moving in the reverse direction. d. Additional Noise Attenuation Techniques – During the clearing, earth moving, grading, and foundation/conditioning phases of construction, temporary sound barriers shall be installed and maintained between the construction site and the sensitive receptors. To the extent feasible, temporary sound barriers shall consist of sound blankets affixed to construction fencing or temporary solid walls along all sides of the construction site boundary facing potentially sensitive receptors.
22. ENERGY CONSERVATION AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY:
a. Passive Solar Heating and Cooling. Require new subdivisions to examine the feasibility of incorporating site layouts that allow for passive solar and heating and cooling;
b. Solar Orientation. Require new development to incorporate measures that reduce energy use through solar orientation by taking advantage of shade, prevailing winds, landscaping and sun screens;
c. Sustainable Practices in Design and Construction. Require new construction and remodels to use energy- and resource-efficient and ecologically sound designs, technologies, and building materials, as well as recycled materials to promote sustainability; and
d. Energy Efficiency Requirement. Require higher levels of energy efficiency as house size increase.
23. CULTURAL RESOURCES 1: If human remains are found during construction activities, no further excavation or disturbance of the site or any nearby area reasonably suspected to overlie adjacent human remains until the archeological monitor and the coroner of Santa Clara County are contacted. If it is determined that the remains are Native American, the coroner shall contact the Native American Heritage Commission within 24 hours. The Native American Heritage Commission shall identify the person or persons it believes to be the most likely descendent (MLD) from the deceased Native American. The MLD may then make recommendations to the landowner or the person responsible for the excavation work, for means of treating or disposing of, with appropriate dignity, the human remains and associated grave goods as provided in Public Resources Code section 5097.98. The landowner or his authorized representative shall rebury the Native American human remains and associated grave goods with appropriate dignity on the property in a location not subject to further disturbance if: a) the Native American Heritage Commission is unable to identify a MLD or the MLD failed to make a recommendation within 24 hours after being notified by the
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commission; b) the descendent identified fails to make a recommendation; or c) the landowner or his authorized representative rejects the recommendation of the descendent, and the mediation by the Native American Heritage Commission fails to provide measures acceptable to the landowner.
The Planning Division of the Community Development Department shall be responsible for ensuring the implementation of this Condition. Costs will be the responsibility of the developer(s).
24. CULTURAL RESOURCES 2: For grading or excavations deeper than four feet below the existing surface, a qualified archaeologist shall be retained to monitor the excavations. The archaeologist shall be present on-site to observe a representative sample of deep grading or excavations in at least three areas within the Plan Area until satisfied that there is no longer a significant potential for finding buried resources. In the event that any potentially significant archaeological resources (i.e., potential historical resources or unique archaeological resources) are discovered, the project archaeologist shall designate a zone in which additional archaeological resources could be found and in which work shall be stopped. A plan for the evaluation of the resource shall be submitted to the Community Development Director for approval.
Evaluation normally takes the form of limited hand excavation and analysis of materials and information removed to determine if the resource is eligible for inclusion on the California Register of Historic Resources.
In the event that significant paleontological, historic, and/or archaeological remains are uncovered during excavation and/or grading in the absence of an archaeological monitor, all work shall stop in the area of the subject property until a qualified archaeologist can assess the find and, if necessary, develop an appropriate data recovery program.
The Planning Division of the Community Development Department shall be responsible for ensuring the implementation of this Condition. Costs will be the responsibility of the developer(s).
25. CULTURAL RESOURCES 3: Prior to demolition of buildings within the Plan Area identified as potentially historic resources, the developer(s) shall prepare photographic documentation of the buildings meeting the documentation standards of the Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record (HABS/HAER), as presented in the North 40 Specific Plan Historic Resources Technical Report. The historic documentation shall be prepared at Level IV (sketch plan, digital photographs of exterior and interior views, and HABS/HAER inventory cards) for the potentially historic buildings. No historic documentation shall be required for the orchard, except as may be incidentally included in the documentation of the structures.
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The developer(s) shall prepare, or retain a qualified professional who meets the standards for architectural historian and/or historical architect set forth by the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary of the Interior’s Professional Qualification Standards, 36 CFR 61) to prepare documentation of historic resources prior to any construction work associated with demolition or removal.
The Town of Los Gatos shall identify appropriate repositories for housing the historical documentation at the time of the project-level analysis. An interpretive display shall be incorporated into the design within the Plan Area.
26. NESTING BIRDS: If noise generation, ground disturbance, vegetation removal, or other construction activities begin during the nesting bird season (February 1 to August 31), or if construction activities are suspended for at least two weeks and recommence during the nesting bird season, then the project developer shall retain a qualified biologist to conduct a pre-construction survey for nesting birds.
The survey shall be performed within suitable nesting habitat areas on the project site, and as feasible within 250 feet of the site boundary, to ensure that no active nests would be disturbed during project implementation. This survey shall be conducted no more than two weeks prior to the initiation of disturbance and/or construction activities. A report documenting the survey results and plan for active bird nest avoidance (if needed) shall be completed by the qualified biologist and submitted to the Town of Los Gatos for review and approval prior to disturbance and/or construction activities.
If no active bird nests are detected during the survey, then project activities can proceed as scheduled. However, if an active bird nest of a native species is detected during the survey, then a plan for active bird nest avoidance shall determine and clearly delineate an appropriately sized, temporary protective buffer area around each active nest, depending on the nesting bird species, existing site conditions, and type of proposed disturbance and/or construction activities. The protective buffer area around an active bird nest is typically 75- 250 feet, determined at the discretion of the qualified biologist and in compliance with applicable project permits.
To ensure that no inadvertent impacts to an active bird nest will occur, no disturbance and/or construction activities shall occur within the protective buffer area(s) until the juvenile birds have fledged (left the nest), and there is no evidence of a second attempt at nesting, as determined by the qualified biologist.
The developer(s) shall be responsible for the implementation of this Condition, subject to monitoring by the Town of Los Gatos.
27. BAT ROOSTS: To avoid impacting active bat roosts, if present, any vacant buildings on the site proposed for removal that are boarded up prior to construction (dark in the daytime) shall be opened in the winter months (prior to
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mid-March) to allow in light, making these areas non-suitable for use as bat roosts.
Mature trees removed due to project implementation shall be removed in two stages (with the limbs removed one day, and the main trunk removed on a subsequent day) to allow any potentially present day-roosting bats the opportunity to relocate. If bat roosts are encountered during tree removal, a bat specialist shall be hired to assist in any relocation efforts.
The developer(s) shall be responsible for the implementation of this Condition, subject to monitoring by the Town of Los Gatos.
28. BURROWING OWLS: To avoid impacts to burrowing owls, a qualified biologist will conduct a two-visit (i.e. morning and evening) pre-construction presence/absence survey at all areas of suitable habitat on and within 300 feet of the construction site within 30 days prior to the start of construction. Surveys will be conducted according to methods described in the Revised Staff Report on Burrowing Owl Mitigation (California Department of Fish and Wildlife 2012).
If pre-construction surveys are undertaken during the breeding season (February through August) and locate active nest burrows near construction zones, then these nests and a 200-meter (600-foot) exclusion zone will be delineated which must remain off-limits to ground-disturbing activities until the breeding season is over. The exclusion zone shall be clearly delineated/fenced, and work could proceed within the exclusion zone after the biologist has determined that fledglings were capable of independent flight and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has approved the recommencement of work inside the exclusion zone, or has authorized physical relocation of the owls. Nesting owl pairs physically relocated (after consultation and approval from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife) as a consequence of construction activities are typically provided a habitat replacement mitigation ratio of 6.5 acres per owl pair/territory relocated.
The project developer(s) shall be responsible for the implementation of this Condition, subject to monitoring by the Town of Los Gatos.
29. TOWN INDEMNITY: Pursuant to Town Code Section 1.10.115, and the police power of the Town to impose appropriate Conditions of Approval, the Applicant and its successors in interest (collectively, “Applicants”) securing the application approvals for Architecture and Site Application S-23-031 and Subdivision Application M-23-005 (the “Approval”) shall indemnify and hold harmless the Town for any third-party challenge to the Approval (administrative appeal, judicial review, or otherwise – collectively, “Challenge”), including without limitation and subject to the following:
(a) Generally: Regarding any such Challenge to any aspect of the Approval, Applicant shall defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the Town (any reference to “Town” shall mean and include without limitation Town’s elected officials, appointed
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officials, legal counsel, agents, officers, employees, contractors, and special legal counsel)(with legal counsel approved by Town), from and against any third-party Challenge against the Town related to the Approval.
(b) Applicant shall bear any and all losses, damages, injuries, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including, without limitation, any award of attorney fees or damages, attorney fees for outside legal counsel, expert witness fees, court costs, and other litigation expenses) arising out of or related to any third-party Challenge (“Costs”), whether incurred by the Applicant, Town, or awarded to any third party, and shall pay to the Town upon demand made with reasonable written documentation substantiating the Costs incurred by the Town.
(c) The total of all obligations owing by the Applicant under this Condition of Approval is collectively referred to as the “Challenge Indemnity.” No modification of the Approval, nor any application, permit certification, condition, environmental determination, other approval, change in applicable laws and regulations, or change in processing methods shall alter the Applicant’s obligations pursuant to this Condition of Approval. The Town shall promptly notify the Applicant of any such Challenge, and the Town shall cooperate with the Applicant as Applicant fulfills its obligations pursuant to this Condition of Approval.
30. COMPLIANCE MEMORANDUM: A memorandum shall be prepared and submitted with the building plans for the development within a phase of the final subdivision map detailing how the applicable Conditions of Approval will be addressed for that phase.
31. IMPACT FEE TIMING AND CALCULATION: The applicant shall pay all impact fees prior to the date for final inspection or issuance of a certificate of occupancy for a building, whichever occurs first, on a pro rata basis by dwelling unit. The impact fees shall be calculated based on the rates in effect as of April 17, 2023, the time the applicant submitted its complete SB 330 preliminary application, subject to any modifications consistent with subdivision (o) of Section 65589.5 of the Government Code.
32. PUBLIC ART: The applicant shall comply with the requirements of Article VII of Chapter 25 of the Town Code.
Building Division
33. PERMITS REQUIRED: A Demolition Permit is required for the demolition of each existing structure. A separate Building Permit is required for each new structure/building proposed on the site.
34. APPLICABLE CODES: The current codes, as amended and adopted by the Town of Los Gatos as of January 1, 2023, are the 2022 California Building Standards Code, California Code of Regulations Title 24, Parts 1-12, including locally adopted Energy Reach Codes.
35. CONDITIONS OF APPROVAL: The Conditions of Approval must be blue lined in full within the construction plans. A Compliance Memorandum shall be prepared and
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submitted with the building permit application for the development within a phase of the final subdivision map detailing how the applicable Conditions of Approval will be addressed for that phase.
36. BUILDING & SUITE NUMBERS: Submit requests for new building addresses to the Building Division prior to submitting for the building permit application process.
37. SIZE OF PLANS: Minimum size 24” x 36”, maximum size 30” x 42”.
38. REQUIREMENTS FOR COMPLETE DEMOLITION OF STRUCTURE: Obtain a Building Department Demolition Application and a Bay Area Air Quality Management District Application for the removal of each existing structure. Once the demolition form has been completed, all signatures obtained, and written verification from PG&E that all utilities have been disconnected, submit the completed form to the Building Department with the Air District’s J# Certificate, PG&E verification, and site plans showing all existing structures, existing utility service lines such as water, sewer, and PG&E. No demolition work shall be done without first obtaining a permit from the Town.
39. SOILS REPORT: A Soils Report, prepared to the satisfaction of the Building Official, containing foundation, and retaining wall design recommendations, shall be submitted with the Building Permit Application. This report shall be prepared by a licensed Civil Engineer specializing in soils mechanics.
40. SHORING: Shoring plans and calculations will be required for all excavations which exceed five (5) feet in depth, or which remove lateral support from any existing building, adjacent property, or the public right-of-way. Shoring plans and calculations shall be prepared by a California licensed engineer and shall conform to the Cal/OSHA regulations.
41. FOUNDATION INSPECTIONS: A pad certificate prepared by a licensed civil engineer or land surveyor shall be submitted to the project Building Inspector at foundation inspection. This certificate shall certify compliance with the recommendations as specified in the Soils Report, and that the building pad elevations and on-site retaining wall locations and elevations have been prepared according to the approved plans. Horizontal and vertical controls shall be set and certified by a licensed surveyor or registered Civil Engineer for the following items:
a. Building pad elevation;
b. Finish floor elevation;
c. Foundation corner locations; and
d. Retaining wall(s) locations and elevations.
42. TITLE 24 ENERGY COMPLIANCE: All required California Title 24 Energy Compliance Forms must be blue-lined (sticky-backed), i.e., directly printed onto a plan sheet.
43. SITE ACCESSIBILITY: At least one accessible route within the boundary of the site shall be provided from public transportation stops, accessible parking and accessible passenger loading zones and public streets or sidewalks to the accessible building entrance that they serve. The accessible route shall, to the maximum extent feasible, coincide with the route for the general public. At least
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one accessible route shall connect all accessible buildings, facilities, elements, and spaces that are on the same site.
44. ACCESSIBLE PARKING: The parking lots, as well as the parking structure, where parking is provided for the public as clients, guests, or employees, shall provide accessible parking. Accessible parking spaces serving a particular building shall be located on the shortest accessible route of travel from adjacent parking to an accessible entrance. In buildings with multiple accessible entrances with adjacent parking, accessible parking spaces shall be dispersed and located closest to the accessible entrances.
45. BACKWATER VALVE: As required by Town Ordinance 6.40.020, provide details for any required sanitary sewer backwater valve on the plans and provide its location. The Town of Los Gatos Ordinance and West Valley Sanitation District (WVSD) requires backwater valves on drainage piping serving fixtures that have flood level rims less than 12 inches above the elevation of the next upstream manhole.
46. HAZARDOUS FIRE ZONE: All projects in the Town of Los Gatos require Class A roof assemblies.
47. SPECIAL INSPECTIONS: When a special inspection is required by CBC Section 1704, the Architect or Engineer of Record shall prepare an inspection program that shall be submitted to the Building Official for approval prior to issuance of the Building Permit. The Town Special Inspection form must be completely filled out and signed by all requested parties prior to permit issuance. Special Inspection forms are available online at www.losgatosca.gov/building.
48. AIR QUALITY 1: High efficiency filtration (MERV rating of 13 or greater) on ventilation systems shall be required in residential, hotel, and office units located in areas along State Route 17 identified in the EIR as having cancer risk in excess of 10 cases per million.
49. AIR QUALITY 2: Ground-level outdoor residential yards that are not oriented to the Los Gatos Boulevard side of the Plan Area, shall be located no closer than 100 feet from the State Route 17 right-of-way prior to 2015, and, subject to air hazards modeling to confirm, no closer than 50 feet from the State Route 17 right-of-way thereafter (when diesel fuel and engine changes will reduce diesel emissions levels).
50. AIR QUALITY 3: The following shall be implemented during construction activities to reduce emissions:
a. All exposed surfaces (e.g., parking areas, staging areas, soil piles, graded areas, and unpaved access roads) shall be watered two times per day; b. All haul trucks transporting soil, sand, or other loose material off-site shall be covered;
c. All visible mud or dirt trackout onto adjacent public roads shall be removed using wet power vacuum street sweepers at least once per day. The use of dry power sweeping is prohibited;
d. All vehicle speeds on unpaved roads shall be limited to 15 mph;
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e. All roadways, driveways, and sidewalks to be paved shall be completed as soon as possible. Building pads shall be laid as soon as possible after grading unless seeding or soil binders are used;
f. All excavation, grading, and/or demolition activities shall be suspended when average wind speeds exceed 20 mph;
g. All trucks and equipment, including their tires, shall be washed off prior to leaving the site;
h. Unpaved roads providing access to sites located 100 feet or further from a paved road shall be treated with a 6- to 12-inch layer of compacted layer of wood chips, mulch, or gravel; and
i. Publicly visible signs shall be posted with the telephone number and name of the person to contact at the lead agency regarding dust complaints. This person shall respond and take corrective action within 48 hours. The Air District’s General Air Pollution Complaints number shall also be visible to ensure compliance with applicable regulations.
51. CONSTRUCTION BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES (BMPs): The Town standard West Valley Clean Water Authority Nonpoint Source Pollution Control Program Sheet (page size same as submitted drawings) shall be part of the plan submittal.
The specification sheet is available online at www.losgatosca.gov/building.
52. APPROVALS REQUIRED: The project requires the following departments and agencies approval before issuing a building permit:
a. Community Development – Planning Division: (408) 354-6874 b. Engineering/Parks & Public Works Department: (408) 399-5771 c. Santa Clara County Fire Department: (408) 378-4010
d. West Valley Sanitation District: (408) 378-2407
e. Santa Clara County Environmental Health Department: (408) 918-3479 f. Local School District: The Town will forward the paperwork to the appropriate school district(s) for processing. A copy of the paid receipt is required prior to permit issuance.
TO THE SATISFACTION OF THE DIRECTOR OF PARKS & PUBLIC WORKS:
Engineering Division
THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS SHALL BE ADDRESSED OR NOTED ON THE
CONSTRUCTION PLANS SUBMITTED FOR ANY BUILDING OR GRADING PERMIT, OR IF ANOTHER DEADLINE IS SPECIFIED IN A CONDITION, AT THAT TIME.
53. THIRD-PARTY PLAN CHECK FEE AND INSPECTION FEE (Special projects only): The Town will procure a third-party engineering firm to perform Plan Review and Inspection Services. Applicant shall provide an initial deposit of $100,000 plus a 20 percent fee to the Town for plan review and inspection services. This deposit and fee are required at the time of the project building permit submittal. Once this deposit is received, the Town will select the consultant and initiate the plan review process. The Applicant’s deposit will be charged on a time and materials basis. A supplemental deposit will be required if the remaining deposit is
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expected to be exhausted prior to completion of the work. Permitted work will not be allowed to continue without available funds to complete the required inspection services. Third-party engineering services will be required for the duration of the construction and project closeout phases.
54. STORM DRAINAGE FEE: The Applicant shall pay Storm Drainage fees in accordance with the Town’s FY22-23 Adopted Fee Schedule that was in effect at the date the pre-application was deemed complete for the future construction of drainage facilities serving new buildings, improvements, or structures to be constructed which substantially impair the perviousness of the surface of land.
The Storm Drainage fee based on the site area of 15.67 acres is $72,426.74. The Applicant shall pay this fee to PPW at the time specified in Condition 31.
55. TRAFFIC IMPACT MITIGATION FEES: The project is subject to the Town’s Traffic Impact Mitigation fee for the generation of an estimated 2,968 net new average daily trips based on the traffic study submitted by Hexagon Transportation Consultants dated February 18, 2025. The fee is based on the FY22-23. Fee Schedule that was in effect at the time the pre-application was deemed complete indicates a fee of $1,015.00 per additional average daily trip. This results in an estimated total amount due of $3,012,520. This fee is due at the time specified in Condition 31.
56. CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITIES MITIGATION FEE (ORDINANCE 2189): Per the Town’s Comprehensive Fee Schedule, the project is subject to the Town’s Construction Activities Mitigation Fee based on the square footage of new buildings. The fee is based on the FY22-23 Fee Schedule that was in effect at the time the preapplication was deemed complete, and is $1.26 per square foot of new residential and non-residential building area. The fee shall be calculated based on the square footage total for all units shown on the construction plans to the approval of the Town Engineer. The entitlement plans indicate 718,470 square feet of new building footage resulting in a fee of $905,272.20, with the final fee to be calculated based on the actual building area as shown on the building permit application. This fee is due at the time specified in Condition 31.
57. CONSTRUCTION PLAN SUBMITTAL REQUIREMENTS: The Grading Permit Plans and Public Improvement Plans for the first phase of construction (together referred to as “Improvement Plans”) shall be submitted as a set to Parks and Public Works Department along with a title report dated no older than 60 days from the date the Improvement Plans are submitted. Improvement Plans for subsequent phases shall be submitted as a set to Parks and Public Works Department along with a title report dated no older than 60 days from the date such Improvement Plans are submitted. The Improvement Plans shall be submitted at the same time as the Building Plans are submitted to the Building Department. All improvements shall be designed and constructed in accordance with Federal law, State law, Los Gatos Town Code, and the Los Gatos Standard Specifications and Details.
Construction drawings shall comply with Section 1 (Construction Plan Requirements) of the Town’s Engineering Design Standards, which are available for download from the Town’s website. The Improvement Plans shall include:
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a. A cover sheet with at least the proposed development vicinity map showing nearby and adjacent major streets and landmarks, property address, APN, scope of work, project manager and property owner, a “Table of Responsibilities” summarizing ownership, access rights, and maintenance responsibilities for each facility (streets, utilities, parks, landscaping, etc.), a sheet index including a sequential numeric page number for each sheet (i.e. “Sheet 1 of 54”), the lot size, required and proposed lot setbacks by type, proposed floor areas by type for each building, average slope, proposed maximum height, and required and proposed parking count and type. b. The Approved Conditions of Approval printed within the plan set starting on the second sheet of the plan set.
c. An Existing Site Plan showing existing topography, bearing and distance information for all rights-of-way, easements, and boundaries, any existing easements proposed to be quit-claimed, existing hardscape, existing above ground utility features, and existing structures. The Improvement Plans shall identify the vertical elevation datum, date of survey, and surveyor responsible for the data presented.
d. A Proposed Site Plan showing proposed topography, boundaries, proposed and existing to remain easements, hardscape, above ground utility features (hydrants, transformers, control cabinets, communication nodes, etc.), and structures. Include top and bottom elevations of every inflection point of each wall. Show proposed public right-of-way improvements. Distinguish proposed linework from existing linework using heavier line type for proposed.
e. A Grading and Drainage Plan clearly showing existing onsite and adjacent topography using labeled contour lines, drainage direction arrows with slope value, and break lines. Proposed and existing to remain hardscape elevations must be provided in detail including slope arrows.
f. A Utility Plan showing appropriate line types and labels to identify the different types of utilities and pipe sizes. Utility boxes, hydrants, backflow preventers, water meters, sanitary sewer cleanouts, etc. shall be located on private property unless otherwise approved by the Town Engineer. g. A Photometric Lighting Plan analyzing the full-width of the adjacent right-ofway. The plan shall show the average maintained horizontal illumination in foot-candles and the average to minimum uniformity ratio. Lighting shall be in compliance with the Town’s Standard Specification section 2.38. h. A Landscaping Plan for the project site and the full width of the public rightsof-way adjacent to the project. The plans shall clearly identify public and private utilities and points of demarcation between the two. i. A Composite Plan showing civil, landscape, electrical, and joint trench locations combined on one drawing to identify potential conflicts between disciplines. The Composite Plan shall include the size, location, and details of all trenches, locations of building utility service stubs and meters, and placements or arrangements of junction structures as a part of the
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Improvement Plan submittals for the project. Show preferred and alternative locations for all utility vaults and boxes if project has not obtained PG&E approval. A licensed Civil or Electrical Engineer shall sign the Composite Plan. (All dry utilities shall be placed underground). A note shall be placed on the joint trench composite plans which states that the plan agrees with Town Codes and Standards and that no underground utility conflict exists. j. General Notes found in the Town of Los Gatos General Guidelines. k. A statement in the general notes indicating the need to obtain a Caltrans Oversized/Overweight Vehicles Transportation Permit if oversized or overweight vehicles are expected to be used.
l. A statement that all utility boxes in vehicular pathways shall be trafficrated.
58. STANDARD PLAN COMPLIANCE: The project shall comply with the Town’s Standard Plans to the extent applicable and subject to the reasonable approval of the Town Engineer. Street improvements, all street sections, the design of all off-site storm drainage facilities shall be in accordance with Town Standard Specifications and Standard Plans in effect as of April 17, 2023 or North 40 Specific Plan street standards for private roads, as applicable and approved by the Town Engineer. Improvements deemed necessary by the Town Engineer shall be shown on the Improvement Plans.
59. GRADING PERMIT: A grading permit is required for all site grading and drainage work that is outside the perimeter of a building, retaining wall footing, or other structure authorized by a valid building permit. The Applicant must submit a grading permit application after the appeal period of the entitlement approval process has passed. Submittals are accepted through Accela only. The grading permit application shall include detailed grading plans and associated required materials. Plan check fees are based on the scope of onsite work. Prior to approval of the grading permit, the Applicant shall pay all fees due and provide faithful performance and payment securities for the performance of the work described and delineated on the approved grading plan, final erosion and sedimentation control plan, and interim erosion and sedimentation control plan (if required), in an amount to be set by the Town Engineer (but not to exceed one hundred (100) percent) of the approved estimated cost of the grading and erosion and sedimentation control measures. The form of security shall be one or a combination of the following to be determined by the Town Engineer and subject to the approval of the Town Attorney: (1) Bond or bonds issued by one or more duly authorized corporate sureties on a form approved by the Town; (2) Deposit with the Town, money, or negotiable bonds of the kind approved for securing deposits of public monies; or (3) other instrument of credit from one or more financial institutions subject to regulation by the State or Federal Government wherein such financial institution pledges funds are on deposit and guaranteed for payment. The grading permit shall be issued prior to the issuance of the building permit unless otherwise allowed by the Town Engineer. The permit shall be limited to work shown on the grading plans approved by the
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Town Engineer. In granting a permit, the Town Engineer may impose any condition deemed necessary to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public, to prevent the creation of a nuisance or hazard to public or private property, and to assure proper completion of the grading including but not limited to: (1) Mitigation of adverse environmental impacts; (2) Improvement of any existing grading or correction of any existing grading violation to comply with Town Code; (3) Requirements for fencing or other protection of grading which would otherwise be hazardous; (4) Requirements for dust, erosion, sediment, and noise control, hours of operation and season of work, weather conditions, sequence of work, access roads, and haul routes; (5) Requirements for safeguarding watercourses from excessive deposition of sediment or debris in quantities exceeding natural levels; (6) Assurance that the land area in which grading is proposed and for which habitable structures are proposed is not subject to hazards of land slippage or significant settlement or erosion and that the hazards of seismic activity or flooding can be eliminated or adequately reduced; (7) Temporary and permanent landscape plans.
60. PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS: Prior to the issuance of any building permit within a phase of the final subdivision map and prior to any work being done in the Town's right of way, the Applicant must submit Public Improvement Plans for improvements related to that phase for review and approval. All public improvements shall be made according to the Town’s adopted Standard Plans, Standard Specifications, and Engineering Design Standards in effect as of April 17, 2023. The Applicant is required to confirm the location of existing utility lines along the project frontage by potholing. Prior to any potholing, Applicant shall submit an Encroachment Permit application with a pothole plan for Town review and approval. The Applicant shall provide the pothole results to the Town Engineer prior to final design. All existing public utilities shall be protected in place and, if necessary, relocated as approved by the Town Engineer. No private facilities are permitted within the Town right of way or within any easement unless otherwise approved by the Town Engineer. The Applicant shall have Public Improvement Plans prepared, stamped, and signed by a California licensed civil engineer.
a. Once the Public Improvement Plans have been approved, the Applicant shall submit an application for an Encroachment Permit. The Encroachment Permit requires the Applicant to post the required bonds and insurance and provide a one (1) year warranty for all work to be done in the Town's right of way or Town easement. New concrete shall be free of stamps, logos, names, graffiti, etc. Any new concrete installed that is damaged shall be removed and replaced at the Contractor’s sole expense. Prior to issuance of the encroachment permit, the Applicant shall submit a temporary traffic control plan (“TTCP”) inclusive of all modes of travel for any lane or sidewalk closures. Special provisions such as limitations on works hours, protective enclosures, or other means to facilitate public access in a safe manner may be required. The TTCP shall comply with the State of California Manual of
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Uniform Traffic Control Devices (“MUTCD”) and standard construction practices.
b. The project engineer shall notify the Town Engineer in writing of any proposed changes. Any proposed changes to the approved plans shall be subject to the approval of the Town. The Applicant shall not commence any work deviating from the approved plans until such deviations are approved.
Any approved and constructed changes shall be incorporated into the final “as-built” plans.
c. The following right-of-way improvements shall be completed prior to the issuance of the first occupancy permit, unless otherwise noted or approved by the Town Engineer:
i. BURTON ROAD IMPROVEMENTS: The Applicant shallmake a contribution to the Town in the amount of $155,000 towards the construction of the required half street section pursuant to Los Gatos Town Code Section
24.50.080. Submittal of this in-lieu payment shall be paid prior to the issuance of the occupancy permit for the 200th site unit, or later as may otherwise approved by the Town Engineer.
ii. LOS GATOS BOULEVARD IMPROVEMENTS:
a. The Applicant shall improve the western side of Los Gatos Boulevard’s frontage along the project site with a 10-feet wide multi-use path and 6-feet wide planter strip from the northern boundary of North 40 Phase I to the northern boundary of APN 424-070-064 as shown on the approved plans and as approved by the Town Engineer.
b. The Applicant shall construct a continuation of the center median north to the intersection of Los Gatos Boulevard and Samaritan Drive with mountable sections for northbound emergency vehicle access to the site at the two proposed connections along Los Gatos Boulevard as shown on the approved plans.
c. STREET TREES: The Applicant shall plant a minimum of 10 trees along the Los Gatos Boulevard frontage, to match the spacing along the Phase I frontage. The street tree plans shall be per Town Standard Drawings and will include Town Standard tree grates.
d. TREE GRATES: The Applicant shall install Town Standard Tree Grates around each street tree. Tree grates shall be 4-feet by 6- feet, model OT-T24 by Urban Accessories, and shall be black power coated. The tree grates shall be shown on the
Improvement Plans to be located at the back of curb to the approval of the Town Engineer and shall be installed with the street trees prior to the first occupancy.
iii. STREET MARKINGS: The Applicant shall install necessary street markings of a material and design approved by the Town Engineer and replace any that are damaged during construction. These include but are not limited
ITEM NO. 1.
to all pavement markings, painted curbs, and handicap markings. All permanent pavement markings shall be thermoplastic and comply with Caltrans Standards. Color and location of painted curbs shall be shown on the plans and are subject to approval by the Town Engineer. Any existing painted curb or pavement markings no longer required shall be removed by grinding if thermoplastic, or sand blasting if in paint. iv. CURB RAMP(S): The Applicant shall construct curb ramps in accordance with the latest Caltrans State Standard Drawings and in the location shown on the approve plans. The actual ramp "Case" shall be identified on the plans and shall be to the approval of the Town Engineer. v. CURB AND GUTTER: The Applicant shall replace to existing Town standards all curb and gutter along the western side of Los Gatos Boulevard’s frontage along the project site from the northern boundary of North 40 Phase I to the southern boundary of APN 424-070-064. New curb and gutter shall be constructed per the Town Standard Drawing ST210 (Vertical) adopted and in effect as of April 17, 2023. vi. DRIVEWAY REMOVAL: The Applicant shall remove all existing driveway approaches and replace them with sidewalk, curb, and gutter per the Town Standard Drawingsin effect as of April 17, 2023.
vii. SEWER CLEAN-OUT: The Applicant shall install the sewer lateral clean-out on private property just behind the property line in accordance with the West Valley Sanitation District standards in effect as of April 17, 2023.
Sewer clean-out(s) shall be constructed prior to occupancy of the first building.
viii. WATER METER: The Applicant shall install the water meter(s) on private property just behind the property line in accordance with the San Jose Water Company standards.
ix. PARKING LOTS: The Applicant shall submit plans for all required off street parking lots showing proper grading, drainage, ramps profile, and parking dimensions in conformance with applicable Town parking standards adopted and in effect as of April 17, 2023. The plans shall be approved by the Town Engineer prior to the issuance of the first building permit within a phase of the final subdivision map. Construction shall be completed prior to the occupancy permit of any adjacent building. x. BICYCLE PARKING: The Applicant shall provide both long-term bicycle lockers and short-term bicycle racks on-site, as shown on the approved site plan, to the approval of the Town Engineer. Construction of bicycle parking shall be completed prior to the occupancy permit of any adjacent building.
xi. STORM WATER CATCH BASIN(S): The Applicant shall install standard storm water catch basins per approved plans and in accordance with the Town Standard Drawing adopted and in effect as of April 17, 2023.
Construction shall be completed at the same time the associated improvements are completed.
ITEM NO. 1.
xii. STREETLIGHT(S): The Applicant shall provide and install seven (7) standard galvanized steel octaflute electrolier streetlight poles with a pole height of 30-feet on the project site’s frontage along Los Gatos Boulevard. The Applicant is responsible for all PG&E service fees and hook up charges. Any new service point connection required to power the new lights shall be shown on the construction drawings along with the conduit, pull boxes and other items necessary to install the streetlights. An Isometric lighting level needs to be provided by the designer/contractor. The Applicant shall provide a separate light study of the impact of the proposed streetlights. The new streetlights shall each have a 31-feet 9-inches mounting height with mounting arm length of 8-feet. the Fixtures shall be CREE, Type III Cut-Off Model XSP2, 4000K, 240 volts, 165W or approved equal. The streetlights shall be installed at the locations as shown on the approved offsite plans.
1) A letter shall be provided by PG&E stating that public street light billing will be per Rule LS2A. Private lights shall be metered with billing addressed to the homeowners’ association. Pole numbers, assigned by PG&E, shall be clearly delineated on the plans.
2) Public street lighting will not be required/allowed per General Plan update and Hillside designation. On-lot lighting shall be incorporated and promoted.
xiii. BICYCLE FACILITIES: The Applicant shall install bike facilities as shown on the approved plans and as directed by the Town Engineer.
61. TREE REMOVAL PERMIT: The Applicant shall apply and obtain a Tree Removal Permit fromthe Parks and Public Works Department for the removal of existing trees on-site or in the public right-of-way prior to the issuance of a building permit or demolition building permit, whichever is issued first. Tree removals shall be consistent with the arborist report and approved entitlement plans.
62. PHASED PERMITS: The Applicant may, with the approval of the Town Engineer, phase the permits to expedite the construction process. If this is done, each phase of the work will require a separate and complete set of plans to be submitted, reviewed, and approved prior to the issuance of the said permit.
Overlapping of permits may occur, if approved by the Town Engineer. No work on the next phase of construction, in advance of the permitted work, may occur. No “at risk” work will be permitted. Only the below phased permitted work will be allowed:
a. Clearing-Grubbing/Rough Grading;
b. Fine Grading;
c. Underground Utilities;
d. Site Improvements;
e. Off-Site Improvements; and
f. Plans shall be submitted, reviewed, and approved by the Town Engineer prior to the commencement of work.
63. EXISTING FACILITY PROTECTION AND REPAIR: All existing public utilities shall be either protected in place, relocated, or repaired. The Applicant shall repair or
ITEM NO. 1.
replace all existing improvements not designated for removal, and all new improvements that are damaged during construction or removed because of the Applicant’s operations. This includes sidewalk, curb and gutter, streetlights, valley gutters, curb ramps, and any other existing improvements in the area that are not intended to be removed and replaced. The Applicant shall request a walk-through with the PPW construction Inspector before the start of construction to verify existing conditions. Said repairs shall be completed prior to issuance of the first certificate of occupancy of the project.
64. UNDERGROUND UTILITIES: This project abuts one of the Town’s Underground Utility Districts. All new services to the development shall be placed underground in accordance with the various utility regulations. Transformers and switch gear cabinets within designated Underground Districts shall be placed underground unless otherwise approved by the Town Engineer or if the applicable utility company or district with jurisdiction otherwise requires.
Underground utility plans must be submitted to the Town and approved by the Town Engineer prior to installation.
65. UTILITY RESPONSIBILITIES: The Applicant is responsible for the maintenance of existing stormwater drainage facilities, including piped and open channel stormwater conveyances in private areas. The Applicant is responsible for all expenses necessary to connect to the various utility providers. Currently, the public storm sewer system is owned and maintained by the Town of Los Gatos, the water system in Los Gatos is owned and maintained by San José Water Company, and the sanitary sewer system in Los Gatos is owned and maintained by West Valley Sanitation District. Any alterations of the approved utilities listed must be approved by the Town prior to any construction.
66. UTILITY COMPANY COORDINATION: The Applicant shall negotiate any necessary right-of-way or easements with the various utility companies in the area, subject to the review and approval by the Town Engineer and the utility companies. Prior to the approval of the site plan for construction, the Applicant shall submit “Will Serve” letters from PG&E, San José Water, West Valley Sanitation District, West Valley Collections and Recycling, and AT&T (or the current “Carrier of Last Resort”) with a statement indicating either a list of improvements necessary to serve the project or a statement that the existing network is sufficient to accommodate the project. Coordination of the stormwater conveyance system will be addressed during the Grading Permit review.
67. PREPARATION OF ELECTRICAL PLANS: All street lighting electrical plans shall be prepared by a California registered professional engineer experienced in preparing these types of plans.
68. EXTERIOR SITE LIGHTING STANDARDS: The Applicant shall submit a photometric plan for on-site lighting showing lighting levels in compliance with the Town Standard Specifications section 2.38. The plan shall show the minimum maintained horizontal illumination in foot-candles and the uniformity ratio for all areas. This lighting standard is applicable to all parking lots,
ITEM NO. 1.
driveways, circulation areas, aisles, passageways, recesses, and accessible grounds contiguous to all buildings. Private, interior courtyards not accessible to the public are not required to meet this standard. The lighting system shall be so designed as to limit light spill beyond property lines and to shield the light source from view from off site. The photometric plan for each phase shall be approved by the Town Engineer and shall be addressed on the construction plans submitted for the first building permit within the applicable phase. Any subsequent building permits that include any site lighting shall also meet these requirements.
69. STORM DRAINAGE STUDY: The Applicant shall submit a Master Storm Drainage Study for the entire proposed development stormwater conveyance system evaluating pre- and post-development peak discharge rates for the theoretical 2-year, 10-year, and 100-year (50-percent, 10-percent, and 1-percent annual chance) storm events including supporting hydraulic calculations for proposed pipe network. The study must address sizing and design details for the stormwater treatment systems proposed with the development. The study shall include an evaluation of the project site drainage including topography, natural drainage patterns, and existing man-made diversions (structures, raised pads, fences, etc.). If the study indicates that the theoretical water surface elevation or hydraulic grade line of the proposed development during a 10 percent annual chance storm event is above ground level at any point, the Applicant shall construct and dedicate to the Town new downstream storm drainage facilities necessary to achieve a connection point water depth no more than 80 percent full during the projected 10 percent annual chance storm event. The study must evaluate the 1 percent annual chance storm event base flood elevation. The finish floor elevations of all structures shall be constructed to be reasonable safe from flooding per Town Code Section 29.90.080(1) (c.) which is typically done by constructing finished floors at 1-foot above base flood elevation. The Applicant shall submit the master study for review and approval by the Town Engineer. The applicant shall submit an amended Master Storm Drainage Study for any phase of construction which modifies the storm drainage system evaluated in the Master Storm Drainage Study. The amended Master Storm Drainage Study shall be approved by the Town Engineer prior to the issuance of the first building permit for the applicable phase.
70. STORMWATER MANAGEMENT PLAN: The Applicant shall develop a Storm Water Management Plan (“SWMP”) that complies with the California Water Board regulations and delineates site design measures, source control measures, lowimpact-development (LID) treatment measures, hydromodification management measures, and construction site controls as appropriate. The Plan must indicate erosion protection measures for the inlet structures (e,g., pipe outlets, pump dissipator pipes, and/or bubblers). For the Bay Area Hydrologic Modification (“BAHM”) analysis, the Applicant must provide pump operations and intended routing during various runoff conditions (i.e., treatment runoff vs.
Hydrologic Modification controls) and the rationale for the pump size selected
ITEM NO. 1.
relative to the treatment flow rate. The Applicant shall update the BAHM analysis to conform to project conditions to the satisfaction of the Town Engineer and include a summary of the changes made to the BAHM analysis since the entitlement plan review for review by the C3 consultant. The Applicant must select and indicate bioretention area plants capable of withstanding and surviving the higher design ponding conditions if bioretention is proposed. If pumps are proposed, the Applicant must:
a. Provide pump discharge rates that receiving bioretention areas are capable of treating, to avoid consistently overwhelming the bioretention areas. b. The Applicant must include an alarm system that will notify the owner or operator of a pump failure.
c. If off-site improvements modify the quantities of regulated and unregulated off-site impervious area, the Applicant must update Section 2, item “d” and Section 8 of the C.3 Data Form to reflect those changes.
71. DEVELOPER STORM WATER QUALITY RESPONSIBILITY: The Applicant is responsible for ensuring that all contractors including subcontractors are aware of all stormwater quality measures and implement such measures. The Applicant shall perform all construction activities in accordance with approved Improvement Plans, Los Gatos Town Code Chapter 12 – Grading, Erosion and Sediment Control, and the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) General Permit. Failure to comply with these rules and regulations will result in the issuance of correction notices, citations, or a project stop order.
72. SITE DRAINAGE: Rainwater leaders shall be discharged to splash blocks. No through curb drains will be allowed in public curbs. Any storm drains (public or private) directly connected to public storm system shall be stenciled/signed with appropriate “NO DUMPING - Flows to Bay” NPDES required language using methods approved by the Town Engineer on all storm inlets surrounding and within the project parcel. Furthermore, storm drains shall be designed to serve exclusively stormwater. Dual-purpose storm drains that switch to sanitary sewer are not permitted in the Town of Los Gatos. No improvements shall obstruct or divert runoff to the detriment of an adjacent, downstream or down slope property.
73. OFF-SITE DRAINAGE – The Applicant shall not alter any existing drainage patterns without an approved Grading Permit.
74. CLEAN, INSPECT, AND REPAIR STORM LINE: If the project will connect to the public storm drainage system, the Applicant is required to evaluate the conditions of the existing storm lines along the project frontage by videotaping and providing the result to the Town Engineer. The Applicant shall clean and inspect (via remote TV camera) the storm line from the manhole upstream to the manhole downstream of the project area. The video inspection shall be done by a professional video inspection company and be completed prior to building permit issuance. The video of the inspection shall be reviewed with PPW and any cracked, broken, or otherwise compromised integrity is found, the areas of the line along the project frontage shall be repaired by the Applicant at the
ITEM NO. 1.
applicant’s expense. The Applicant shall include the required repairs on the Improvement Plans submitted. All necessary repairs to the storm line shall be completed and approved prior to the project connecting to the storm drainage system.
75. GRADING & DRAINAGE WINTER MORATORIUM: All grading activity shall comply with the Municipal Regional Stormwater Permit and Chapter 12 of the Town Code. There shall be no earthwork disturbance or grading activities between October 15th and April 15th of each year unless approved by the Town Engineer. In order to be considered for approval, the Applicant must submit a Winterization Erosion Control Plan certified by a California certified QSD to the Town Engineer for review and approval. If grading is allowed during the rainy season, a maximum of two (2) weeks is allowed between clearing of an area and stabilizing/building on the exposed area. The submission of a certified plan does not guarantee approval. Any approved and executed plan must be kept on-site while the project is in construction.
76. SWPPP AND EROSION CONTROL: The Applicant shall prepare and submit a comprehensive stormwater pollution prevention plan (SWPPP) inclusive of interim and final erosion control plans to the Town Engineer for review and approval. The interim erosion control plan(s) shall include measures carried out during construction before final landscaping is installed. Multiple phases of interim erosion control plans may be necessary depending on the complexity of the project. Interim erosion control best management practices may include silt fences, fiber rolls, erosion control blankets, Town approved seeding mixtures, filter berms, check dams, retention basins, etc. The Applicant shall ensure a Qualified SWPPP Developer (QSD) or Qualified SWPPP Practitioner (QSP) monitors erosion and sediment control as required by the Construction General Permit. The Applicant must take measures to ensure continuous compliance with the Construction General Permit, and shall install, maintain, and modify the erosion control measures as needed to continuously protect downstream water quality. In the event an emergency modification is deemed necessary, the Applicant is to implement necessary measures to protect downstream waterways immediately and then submit the changes made within 24-hours to the Town Engineer for review and approval. The Applicant shall provide the Town Engineer the assigned Notice of Intent (NOI) permit number received after filing a Notice of Intent under the Construction Stormwater General Permit. The erosion control plans and SWPPP shall comply with applicable measures contained in the most current Santa Clara County National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Municipal Regional Permit (MRP). All test submitted to the regional board must also be submitted to the Town Engineer. Any fees or penalties assessed against the Town in response to the Applicant’s failure to comply with the Permit must be paid by the Applicant.
The Applicant must permit Town staff onsite to conduct periodic NPDES inspections throughout the recognized storm season to verify compliance with the Construction General Permit and Stormwater ordinances and regulations.
ITEM NO. 1.
77. SITE TRIANGLE AND TRAFFIC VIEW AREA: Fencing, landscaping, and permanent structures shall not visually obstruct line of sight between three-feet and 7.5- feet in height if located within the driveway view area, traffic view area, or corner sight triangle. The driveway and intersection site triangles are represented on Town Standard Drawing ST-231. The traffic view area and corner sight triangle are shown on Town Standard Drawing ST-232. This includes all above ground obstructions including utility structures, for example electric transformers. The various clearance lines shall be shown on the site plan to demonstrate compliance.
78. GEOTECHNICAL REVIEW: New development shall be sited away from high risk geologic and seismic hazard zones or, if located in a high-risk zone, shall incorporate construction techniques or specialized technologies to reduce risk.
Prior to any building permit issuance, the Applicant’s California State licensed engineering geologist and/or geotechnical engineer shall submit a design level geotechnical report for new developments proposed with significant grading, potential erosion, and sedimentation hazards or in hazard zones mapped by the State or identified by the Town, as shown in Figures 9-2 through 9-5 of the Town’s 2040 General Plan Chapter 9 Hazards and Safety Element. The report shall identify all site geologic, seismic, and geotechnical engineering conditions and potential hazards and include appropriate design measures to mitigate potential fault ground rupture/deformation impacts to acceptable levels. The report shall also specify construction methods to protect existing and future residences from identified hazards. The report will require a peer review by the Town’s geological and geotechnical consultant. A deposit and fee for the peer review will be required per the Town’s current fee schedule, unless there are any remaining deposit funds from the entitlement phase. The Town will route the design level geotechnical report to the Town’s peer review consultant once the report is submitted and deposit and fee are available. Once the design level report is approved, the Applicant’s geotechnical engineer shall review the grading and drainage plan and proposed pavement and foundation designs to verify that the designs are in accordance with their recommendations. The Applicant’s geotechnical engineer’s approval shall be conveyed to the Town either by letter or by signing and stamping the plans. All grading operations and soil compaction activities shall be per the approved project’s design level geotechnical report. The Applicant shall add this condition to the general notes on the grading plan.
79. GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEER OBSERVATION: All grading activities shall be conducted under the observation of, and tested by, a licensed geotechnical engineer. A report shall be filed with the Town of Los Gatos for each phase of construction stating that all grading activities were performed in conformance with the requirements of the project’s design level geotechnical report. The Applicant shall submit a Final Geotechnical Construction Observation and Testing Summary in an “as-built” letter/report prepared and submitted to the