You win some, you lose some—that's just a fact of life for any developer pitching a plan to a political board. And local developer Joe McCarthy found that to be true when he took his plea for exemption from the town's hillside development guidelines to the Los Gatos Town Council this week.
Any idea that the council is suddenly soft on developers was quickly dispelled when the members voted 5-0 to apply the recently adopted Hillside Development Standards to any projects without architecture and site approval from the town.
The council's recent approval of the Sobrato Development Company's request for a revised plan for its mixed use project that combines a research and development facility with residential apartment units had many of our readers and some town officials concerned.
Some continue to feel that the development is not aligned with the best interests of the town, others are concerned that the council decision was in direct opposition to the Los Gatos Planning Commission's denial of the project.
So when McCarthy went before the town last week to request that his 58-acre property on Foster Road be exempt from the town's new hillside guidelines, many residents—and this newspaper—were watching the council closely.
Our concerns, however, turned out to be unfounded. The council members voted unanimously to apply the recently adopted standards to any hillside projects without previous town approval.
McCarthy had hoped to build some very large homes on the property that is the former site of Guadalupe College.
He bought the property and tore down the college in 1998, eliminating what many said was a blight on the hillside for many years. The college had been abandoned since the 1960s.
The town's regulations limit home sizes to 6,000-square feet and home visibility to 25 percent in the hillside areas. While those are very large homes, McCarthy had hoped to get approval to build even larger homes.
But he does not have architecture and site approval on his plans from the town, and the council voted to deny his request for exemption.
The local developer still has approval for his plan to divide the property into six lots for home development.
He has also agreed to set aside nearly half of the area for an open space preserve. He'll just have to keep the homes he builds there to 6,000-square feet.
That certainly does not seem unreasonable.
The hillsides are important to Los Gatos, and the town council is charged with the responsibility of protecting them.
To its credit, the council did just that by refusing to bend on the adopted guidelines to allow McCarthy to build "monster" homes in the area of the hillsides.
