In the longest public hearing of the year—lasting four hours—coaches, parents and kids who are enrolled in soccer programs packed the council chamber at last week's Los Gatos Planning Commission meeting to plea for a developer to make space for a soccer field. The room was so crowded that some had to stand in the back.

After winning the town's approval for the largest development project in Los Gatos last year, Sobrato Development Companies wants to modify its plans. It now proposes to build 120,000 square feet of office space and 295 apartment units on 12.3 acres of land on Winchester Boulevard near Highway 85. These proposed changes would reduce the office space by more than half and add more than 150 housing units, plus increase the number of affordable units for low-income tenants from 34 to 49.

Sobrato wants the town to approve the revised plans, but said it will proceed with the previously approved plans if the changes aren't permissible.

No decision was made last week. Instead, planning commissioners gave Sobrato directions on what they thought would improve the plan, such as reducing the building mass, increasing the number of affordable housing units, adding retail space and looking at providing a soccer field for the community. The commission will return to this application during a special meeting Nov. 18.

A number of soccer fans took the opportunity of revisiting this project to ask that Sobrato set aside some of its land to create a quality soccer field in town. The athletes now travel as far away as Morgan Hill to practice and play, since there are inadequate fields in Los Gatos, many said.

"There is a field crisis here, and it is a continual problem," said coach Michael Karr, who sees more than 1,500 athletes each year come through his Kids Love Soccer program. "We can't serve the kids of Los Gatos the way we should."

Edward San Juan, president of the Los Gatos United Soccer League, asked commissioners to imagine they each had a team to train and only one field to practice on. "How would you do that? Well, we do that—we do that every day," San Juan said.

Besides the parents and coaches, some of the athletic youths also spoke before the commission.

"I want to continue the soccer here in Los Gatos," said 6-year-old Ryan Werner.

"It's actually an embarrassment to play at the fields that we do because they're not adequate and when we have to go and play at various different fields and we can't say we have our own home field," said Caitlin Janoff, a member of the Los Gatos United team for girls under 14 years old.

Other speakers that night commented on the Sobrato project other than its potential impact on the future of soccer programs in Los Gatos.

Among the supporters of the project were representatives from the Housing Action Coalition, League of Women Voters and the Community Hospital of Los Gatos, all of whom spoke of the need for more housing units in town, particularly ones near public transit lines.

The town anticipates that the Valley Transportation Authority will in the future extend its light rail system from Campbell to town and that VTA will build a bus depot to operate smaller buses in Los Gatos near the project site. In the meantime, Sobrato has agreed to provide an express shuttle between the Campbell light rail station and the project site.

Opponents of the plan, including former Los Gatos planning commissioner Leonard Pacheco, said the size of the project was not in character with the rest of town and worried about the traffic impacts to Winchester Boulevard—a street already known for speeding drivers. Monte Sereno Councilman Mark Brodsky appeared and asked the town to share any traffic studies conducted with his city.

Resident Youwanda Dreger said she resented the town for allowing Sobrato to use balloons in lieu of story poles to demonstrate the height of the buildings. "They don't depict at all the height and mass of the project," she said.

Balloons were used because they pose less of a safety hazard than story poles, and there is foot traffic going through the property currently, according to the town staff report.

The highest point of the proposed project stands 49 1/2 feet tall—the same as in the original plans. However, Sobrato has proposed to decrease the size of the office buildings by nearly 60 percent, so there will be less building area at this height, said the staff report. The apartments will stand no higher than 41 feet.

The hearing was continued to Nov. 18. John Shenk, Sobrato's senior vice president, had indicated the developer's desire to proceed with previously approved plans if a modified plan is not OK'd in a reasonable time due to the cost of prolonging the process.