Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Assistant Planning Director Bud Lortz takes the inconvenience of the remodel at Town Hall in his stride as he uses the fax machine.

Planning gets new digs at Civic Center

By Jeff Kearns

The planning department, located on the lower level of the Civic Center complex, wasn't in good shape. During the rainy season, water leaked through light fixtures in the roof, the walls needed paint, the furniture was old, the ventilation system was ineffective and people had to trudge upstairs to pay their bills.

"People would walk in, and you could watch their eyes--they would look up at the water on the ceiling and then the peeling paint on the walls," said assistant planning director Bud Lortz, who is overseeing a $200,000 remodel and refurbishing that is the first major overhaul of the offices since the Civic Center opened in the mid-1960s.

Now, the planning offices have been gutted as workers replace the ceiling, tear up carpets, replace the ventilation system and knock out walls to create a whole new work area for employees. The whole project should be wrapped up by mid-November, Lortz says.

The indoor construction follows an extensive repair of the plaza above the Council Chambers, which was partially responsible for the rainwater leaking into the downstairs offices. Once the leaky roof was fixed, work could proceed on the offices below. The upstairs offices of the town clerk and town manager have already been updated.

But although employees look forward to their new offices, the remodel is also meant to refine how the town serves walk-in customers such as residents or contractors taking care of paperwork for building permits or other business.

"If you want to do business with the town, you have to go upstairs to pay, then bring your receipt back down," Town Manager Dave Knapp says. "You ought to have one-stop shopping; you shouldn't have to walk up and down a flight of stairs."

Now the cashier will move from the clerk's office downstairs into the planning office. The remodel will also create a new sit-down counter area downstairs, where customers will be able to meet with planners. Some space has opened up since some building department employees have been moved to the town service center on Miles Avenue.

Lortz said the town took recommendations from employees and residents on how to make the department more user-friendly. Residents frequently complained about having to go upstairs to pay bills.

Many of the walls in the office have been torn out and won't be replaced, Lortz said. Instead, partitions will be used around the office to make the floor plan more flexible for future expansions. Planning staff will be able to look forward to a new conference room in Planning Director Lee Bowman's former office, which he occupied for 25 years. Bowman is moving into another office down the hall.

Planning employees are also getting new, ergonomically correct furniture to replace some of the department's older furniture, some of which is decades old.

Because the ceiling is being torn out, the heating and air-conditioning ducts must also be replaced. The carpet, which dated back to the 1960s and was being held together with duct tape, is being torn out and replaced.

Funding for the project was approved by the Town Council this spring, as part of the town's Capital Improvements Program.

Planning staff has done a good job accommodating the hassle of working in a construction zone, Lortz said shortly after the lights went off in his office.

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