Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Task Force II under way, will address 'North 40'

General plan revision set for summer 2000

By Jeff Kearns

It won't be showing in theaters, but this summer's big sequel is coming soon. General Plan Task Force II got under way last week, after councilmembers chose a consultant to facilitate the process.

The second task force will pick up where the first left off, coming up with a recommendation to the General Plan committee for an update to the general plan. Some members of the first task force will be on the second, along with Paul Bruno, who presented the results of the first task force to the town and now sits on the Planning Commission. Six new members will also be recruited to serve on the task force, bringing the total to about 30.

The new task force will hold its first meeting on June 18 and should wrap up the process about nine months later. The task force will spend about three months collecting data on traffic and infrastructure.

Every city and county has a general plan that must be updated periodically and submitted to the state. The Los Gatos plan got its last update in the mid-1980s.

The council voted unanimously last week to kill three birds with one stone by hiring San Jose-based consultants Robert Bein, William Frost and Associates to facilitate the task force meetings, collect the technical data and prepare the general plan update. RBF will also prepare an environmental impact report for the update.

Mayor Linda Lubeck and Councilmember Randy Attaway, acting as a council subcommittee, interviewed several bidders and recommended hiring RBF for both facilitation and preparation.

The council also directed the task force and consultants to come up with a recommendation for what's called the "North 40"--about 40 acres of land bounded by Lark Avenue, Los Gatos Boulevard and highways 85 and 17, which is the largest remaining undeveloped area in town.

Currently the land, owned by the Yuki family, is mostly orchard, with some businesses along Los Gatos Boulevard. All of the property, however, is zoned mixed-use commercial, as is almost all of the Boulevard from Highway 85 to near Van Meter school.

"Yuki may not build on that property for 10 to 15 years," Attaway said. "If we keep allowing these single parcels to be developed, we're just going to have a mess on our hands."

According to Planning Director Lee Bowman, development applications are starting to come in for the area, which may be difficult to deal with if the town doesn't have a coherent vision for how it wants the land to be used. One application is already on the agenda for a June Planning Commission meeting, and another will probably come in next month, Bowman said.

Two acres of Yuki orchard, which are across Highway 17 and not part of the North 40, have already been approved for development. Cupertino Development Corporation plans to put a 17-unit townhouse complex on the Lark Avenue site.

Several parcels of Yuki property were identified as possible alternate sites for the PG&E Vasona Substation, but it appears unlikely that any of those sites will ever be considered feasible.

The entire general plan process is expected to last about two years, with the council adopting an amendment sometime in the summer of 2000.

The council approved spending as much as $462,539 for costs associated with the update. The town has been collecting money for the update for several years from development applications and will continue to put money in the fund, but no money from that account has been spent until now.

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