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Pictures describe the town's style best
By Mark Brodsky
Is Los Gatos under attack from developers? It seemed that way after listening to former planning director Lee Bowman discuss how citizens affect development in Los Gatos. I attended a recent meeting of the newly formed Neighborhood Alliance in which Bowman was invited to explain the various steps developers use to push projects though Los Gatos. Under prompting from Larry Arzi, Bowman detailed the steps that could stop or block projects. He named the meetings to attend and the requirements to be followed and then added, "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
Thomas Jefferson's warning was Bowman's best advice to describe the responsibilities of citizens wanting to stop the "malling" of Los Gatos. If this is so, one must ask--Are we under attack by developers? Are we at the mercy of outside forces that control the shape of this town? Given the way developers work our system, perhaps the answer is, Yes.
This is because our broad-brush, "Magic Marker" zoning puts the developers on the offense and the quality of the town on defense. State laws require zoning definitions to provide a level playing field for developers and citizens alike. Planners mark up the maps in multicolored zones according to the latest theory of balancing services and revenue. In this way, for example, anyone who wants to build single-family houses knows to look for a section on a map labeled R-1 residential.
Developers are just folks with money looking to buy up land and build something to make a good profit. As they are mostly outsiders, the shape or character of the town is not their concern. They look at a zone map and then throw up the minimum design to get past the Conceptual Development Advisory Committee and the Development Review Committee, the Planning Commission and, finally, the Town Council, where mostly all the citizens can do is make noise.
The town's committee members have mostly subjective and fragmented tools to defend themselves. They can consider traffic, roof lines, articulation, view, affect on neighborhood ... to mitigate the developer's design, but no one in this town can point to a picture or a drawing and say, "Hey, developer, for this location, this is what we want!"
Compare this to what happens in Santa Barbara, where every detail of windows, doorways and roof lines has been carefully laid out to create the Spanish Mediterranean style for all new developments. The style remains consistent and the value to the residents increases. We can define the Los Gatos Style.
I drive on Lark Avenue every day. I often wondered what would be built in the lot next to the creek. Homes, of course; we need the housing. And when I think of homes in Los Gatos I pictured 1890s Victorians, or 1920s-style cottages. Somehow, in my wildest dreams, I never pictured the 1990s boxes that were built!
Without detailed designs and pictures of Los Gatos, our turn-of-the-century-style Old Town became a copy of a nice outlet mall off a freeway outside Fresno. Instead of distinct 1890s-style Victorians lining our streets, we got cutesy boxes designed for any suburb anywhere.
Why? Because we citizens have not drawn out what we want so we have nothing to show developers how to build what we need.
Bowman and other planners at the meeting listened to the Neighborhood Alliance. Luckily, we live in a town where our planners respond to public concerns. They want public input showing what Los Gatos is supposed to look like. I have offered to provide a tableau which is accessible to all. Starting today there is a new page on www.northlosgatos.com which will display all the letters, drawings, and pictures that our community believes defines Los Gatos. It will show every input sent and the planners will see it.
Without such detailed design, developers will force on us all sorts of projects for the North 40--some that can destroy all that is good about Los Gatos. Just changing the General Plan to allow "mixed-use commercial" is not enough. It will bring on a host of developers before the ink on the map is dry. We know this town needs affordable housing, a regional live theater, more elder care, a magnet hotel and a transportation hub. We need more Los Gatos, more walkable area, more Victorian styles, more character, more charm and more value added. It must be our design, not some developer's.
Great towns cannot be drawn up with a Magic Marker on a zoning map or by an accountant with a calculator. There is a place for your ideas. The town wants them, and all your neighbors can now view them. Start taking photos and write down your ideas. Send them to www.northlosgatos.com, and the sum of Los Gatos will remain more than its individual parts.
Mark Brodsky, a Monte Sereno resident, has been active for several years in citizen planning for Los Gatos Boulevard.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
