Group wants the North Forty plan placed on hold for residential
General Plan Committee must decide its next step
Housing on Aug. 25 agenda
By Jeff Kearns
A group of Los Gatos residents concerned with the direction of land use planning for the North Forty area is starting to get the attention of officials at Town Hall.
Calling themselves the Neighborhood Alliance, the group held a meeting on Aug. 8 that was attended by nearly 100 people, including town officials.
Led by downtown business owner Larry Arzie and long-time community volunteer Joanne Rodgers, and others, including Joanne Talesfore and Lois Hanson, the group is mainly concerned that the area, located near the interchange of highways 17 and 85, has been zoned for mixed-use commercial under the existing general plan, and that the town isn't considering other uses that don't fit into that category, such as residential and recreational areas.
They're also concerned about the process itself. Because the North Forty Specific Plan is being created under the existing general plan, it is limited to commercial uses; they argue that such a big piece of land shouldn't be developed according to the long-term goals that the town adopted in 1994.
The town is now almost two years into the general plan revision process, which will update the town's blueprint for growth, land use, development, circulation and other aspects of community planning.
The North Forty Specific Plan is a section of the general plan that deals only with the so-called North Forty, which consists of about 40 acres of primarily orchard land (and some homes) bounded by Los Gatos Boulevard, Lark Avenue, Highway 17 and Highway 85. The town already has specific plans for the downtown and hillside areas.
The General Plan Committee is set to act on a recommendation on these issues at its Aug. 25 meeting. On the agenda is a recommendation to the Planning Commission on the specific plan and a recommendation to take a look at residential use in the area as part of the general plan update.
Faced with criticism from the group, the committee now must figure out what it's going to do next.
Committee members can either forward what they have so far or recommend that the Planning Commission not adopt the plan. Ultimately, however, only the Town Council has the authority to adopt the plan.
At its Aug. 25 meeting, the committee will be ready to make a recommendation to the Planning Commission on what committee members think should happen with the North Forty Specific Plan as far as the process is concerned.
That, according to Assistant Planning Director Bud Lortz, means the committee can either recommend adoption of the specific plan or recommend that the Planning Commission postpone consideration of it until after the general plan revision process is complete.
However, with no set of guidelines in place, Lortz says, there will be no specific rules to regulate any development applications that might be submitted for parcels on the North Forty--which could make it hard for the town to come up with a comprehensively coordinated plan for the area.
If, for instance, a developer puts a building on a parcel of land that town planners had envisioned as the main access point for other developments in the future, long-range planning headaches would almost certainly crop up.
"The last thing anyone wants is development in the wrong spot," Lortz says.
The draft form of the North Forty Specific Plan doesn't include residential uses because the existing general plan zoning is for commercial uses.
The issue puts the General Plan Committee in an awkward position. A group of residents wants the specific plan to be reconsidered, but Town Council members want the committee to hurry up with the specific plan.
Whatever happens, the town could go back and revise the specific plan once it's been adopted--although that process could take quite some time.
And if the General Plan Committee decides to wait, it pushes back the Planning Commission's public hearing on the draft plan, and, ultimately, the plan's adoption by the council.
Residential uses were originally proposed for the North Forth in 1993 when the town was discussing the Route 85/Vasona Light Rail element of the general plan, but the council eliminated residential after an outcry from school officials and teachers fearful that bringing in more residents would overcrowd area schools.
The General Plan Committee meets on Aug. 25 at 6 p.m. in the Town Council Chambers. The Neighborhood Alliance meets Sept. 8 at 7 p.m. in the Neighborhood Center, 208 E. Main St. The public is invited.
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
