Mobile home park developers plan to garner support from community
Detached single-family and town houses are proposed
A zone change is required
By Nathan R. Huff
Los Gatos Mobile Home Park owner Doug McNelly had planned to sit down with the conceptual development advisory committee on April 12, to talk about plans for a residential development at the site of the park. McNelly's development partner, Mark Hansen of Barry Swenson Builder, however, decided to start the process in a less formal way.
Hansen and McNelly will hold a series of meetings with neighbors of the park, the Neighborhood Alliance, the Town Chamber of Commerce and other concerned parties before going to the town. While a proposal to build 49 detached single family homes and 23 attached town homes on the 12-acre mobile home site is on file at the planning department, the 72-unit plan will likely be modified.
"Rather than going about it in a traditional manner, we've decided to take a less presumptuous approach," Hansen said. "We're looking for a project that embodies the community of Los Gatos."
Hansen said he and McNelly hope that by incorporating community ideas from the beginning, they will enter the planning process with a project the community will support.
"I've done this before, and it's a process that leaves the developer vulnerable. The old style of development is to present what you want to do and fight tooth and nail to keep it," Hansen said, explaining that such approaches were not successful in towns like Los Gatos.
The meeting will come just weeks after the Town Council decided McNelly must compensate the displaced mobile home owners at full, in-place market value. McNelly had hoped the council would decide on compensation between the market value and the unadjusted value--the amount the actual mobile home would fetch. However, he later said the council's decision would not necessarily break the project.
Hansen's current plan includes a 2,000-square-foot "clubhouse," a pool and spa, a 20,000-square-foot play area and a trail along neighboring Los Gatos Creek.
The freestanding homes would be modest by Los Gatos standards, ranging from 1,400 to 1,600 square feet. The town homes would be approximately 1,200 square feet each.
"It could be something very different, though," Hansen said.
The plan features 15 below-market-price (BMP) units. In his letter of justification for the project, McNelly stated that while the town's affordable housing matrix only mandates 14 BMP units based on the 72-unit total, he would be willing to dedicate 15 BMP units.
The 15 BMP number represents the 15 mobile homes in the park that are still independently owned. Those are the only affordable units, according to McNelly, because they are governed by the town's rent control ordinance.
However, the town may require McNelly to dedicate a significantly larger number of units as affordable housing. McNelly wanted the town to provide him with a specific number to work with, but town officials have repeatedly stated that they will only begin that discussion after a project is submitted.
Assistant planning director Bud Lortz said the General Plan states that any replacement project must provide an "equivalent number of affordable housing units." The plan does not define which units meet the affordability criteria and remains to be determined.
"The council has said that we're going to let the applicants make their presentation and justification for the number of affordable units and then evaluate it according to that," Lortz said.
Even if McNelly eventually gains site and architectural approval from the Planning Commission, he still must return to the Town Council and convince them that converting the park is in the town's long-term interest. Several council members, particularly Linda Lubeck, made it clear that McNelly's plan, no matter how well crafted, may not be enough to persuade the council to rezone the park.
Hansen said the company is in the process of deciding on a list of individuals and groups to invite to the meetings. Preliminary engineering and traffic and site studies have been completed, but a formal environmental review won't occur until a plan is submitted. Swenson's company has a contract with McNelly, and will complete its purchase of the property when and if a development is approved.
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
