Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Monte Sereno approves its revised general plan

By Clarence Cromwell

A three-year rewriting of the Monte Sereno general plan culminated Oct. 7 with City Council approval of the plan.

The city staff brought the plan in for 57 percent of what the city originally budgeted. The only substantial change is an expanded analysis of how the community meets its residents' needs, planner Brian Loventhal said.

After examining distances from most homes to grocery stores, shopping centers, parks and entertainment venues, Loventhal concluded that Monte Serenans have sufficient access to all the necessities of life. Although residents have to leave the city to purchase many of the bare necessities, those things are still relatively close to home.

City officials thought they'd have to pay $54,638 for a rewritten general plan, but Loventhal completed the document for $31,147.

"We saved a lot of money by doing it in-house," City Manager Gay Strand said.

Most cities hire a consultant for revision of the general plan, which state law requires every city to record.

Significantly absent from the rewritten version of the general plan is a revision of the housing element, unchanged since 1990. City Council members saw a partially rewritten housing element when they reviewed a draft of the general plan in April, but in the end, they decided to put off submittal of the housing element until 1999, the state-imposed deadline to do so.

Submission of a new housing element to the state Department of Housing and Community Development will mean a costly environmental impact report. Plus, the current draft of the housing element needs more work, according to Loventhal.

The city ought to be able to meet its state-mandated housing goals before 1999, Loventhal said.

In comparison to other cities, the numbers may appear small: Monte Sereno needs 10 very-low-income units, seven low-income units, 11 moderate-income units and 32 above-moderate-income units.

Los Gatos, on the other hand, needs more than 500 housing units altogether.

"Realistically it's just a reflection of how small the city is," Loventhal explained. "It's actually harder for us [to meet housing goals] because we're built out. We don't have new areas in which we can do large-scale development."

The city's next project is an update of the city code. City Attorney Bob Logan has been cleaning up outdated and archaic language in the voluminous code for months.

The council will review several chapters of the code at a time, starting at the Oct. 21 meeting.

After the update, the entire city code will be available on a Web page.

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