Council adopts General Plan with minor changes

By Nathan R. Huff

With little debate, discussion or fanfare, the Los Gatos Town Council unanimously passed the town's premier planning document on July 17, approving the General Plan and certifying the environmental impact report.

The council accepted the vast majority of the General Plan Task Force II's recommendations, as well as those of the planning commission. Most of the significant alterations made by the council related to loosening "overly restrictive" language in the plan.

The council had hoped to pass the plan on July 10, but with Councilman Jan Hutchins absent for a second straight meeting, the council could not take action on issues within the General Plan that were deadlocked with 2-2 votes.

Only a handful of people spoke on July 17, at a meeting that was dominated by discussion over a proposed parking-management plan. Hutchins returned to his seat, commenting only briefly on the issues before breaking the 2-2 ties. With Hutchins' vote, the council majority approved a six-lane concept for Los Gatos Boulevard, left the downtown building height limit at 45-feet, declined to create a separate downtown element in the plan, and maintained language resisting the idea of widening Highway 17.

Several council members indicated that they might be able to support an expansion of Highway 17 at some point, but they were not ready to endorse it. "If we were to remove this language [against expanding Highway 17]," Councilman Joe Pirzynski said, "we would eliminate any leverage we might have in negotiations for the form this might take."

The council also voted to leave the zoning on mobile home parks as Medium Density Residential, despite the fact that the General Plan specifies the land use designation as "mobile home park." The General Plan draft rezoned the parks as mobile home parks, which would require a General Plan amendment if and when Los Gatos Mobile Home Park owner Doug McNelly presents a conversion plan for his family's park.

Representatives for Sobrato Development Co., which recently bought the Maxxim property on Winchester Boulevard that housed A to Z nursery, were less successful lobbying the council. The developers fear General Plan language designating the area as High Density Residential with the arrival of the Vasona Light Rail Station would make their proposal nonconforming.

Sobrato asked the council to change that section of the plan, but council members pointed out that his proposal for a $65 million research and development facility on the property is consistent with current zoning. If light rail ever reaches the area and the zoning changes, Sobrato could apply for a conditional use permit, council members said.

With the council's approval, the General Plan process draws to a close after almost three years of work by two task forces, the General Plan committee, the planning commission, town staff and a number of other subcommittees that helped craft the plan. The hiring of the town's present community development director Paul Curtis was also a byproduct of the process. Curtis originally came to the town as a consultant to develop a General Plan process that allowed maximum community input.

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