Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Don't think of it as a dress rehearsal

By Dale Bryant

Anyone who's analyzed the planning process in Los Gatos recently may have come to the conclusion that going to the Planning Commission is a mere formality; the real show is the appeal in front of the Town Council. Planning commissioners were certainly aware of a growing trend in that direction. And, clearly, applicants had begun strategizing their approach with an emphasis on the appeal.

That strategy, however, isn't likely to get an applicant to first base in the future.

Planning commissioners came to a Feb. 24 study session in the Town Council chambers ready to do battle with the council over the large number of planning decisions which have been successfully appealed recently--including Office Depot, the Calvary Church expansion and construction of bocce-ball courts in an area zoned for light commercial. Councilmembers weren't in a mood to fight, however.

In fact, they agreed that applicants increasingly bypass the process, using their hearing before the Planning Commission as a mere dress rehearsal for their appeal to the council. It's a problem the council is anxious to remedy.

Councilmember Patrick O'Laughlin said, "The council increasingly finds itself redesigning buildings at the 11th hour." He cited the successful appeal of the Calvary Church expansion as a classic case of the situation, which he called "the council's worst nightmare."

Councilmembers and commissioners alike agreed with O'Laughlin's assessment that there should be some sort of mechanism to send an applicant back to the Planning Commission or the Design Review Committee if the appeal is dependent on changes in design.

Actually, that's the way the process is supposed to work.

According to Planning Director Lee Bowman, at one time, a four-fifths vote of the council was required to overturn a Planning Commission decision. What's more, the council had to show that the commission had erred.

Some 10 years ago, the council, thinking the four-fifths vote was not very democratic, amended the ordinance so that a three-fifths vote could overturn a commission decision.

"To compensate," Bowman told the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, "the council decided to emphasize the importance of showing the Planning Commission had erred as a condition of a successful appeal."

Eventually, though, the council decided it was not comfortable with so much emphasis on error. The council's role is different than the commission's, after all; it has more breadth of authority. So, the council began listening to appeals when the applicant brought in new information that was not or could not be made available earlier or when the applicant changed the plans.

While the council technically was supposed to send the applicant back to the Planning Commission in such cases, Bowman said, "the council got into the habit of not doing that."

Councilmember Joanne Benjamin noted: "We're getting more people appealing by giving a whole new presentation. We probably need to tell those people to go back to the Planning Commission."

According to councilmembers, that is exactly what will happen in the future. What's more, applicants can once again expect to be asked in what way the Planning Commission erred in making its decision.