Meeting Date: 07/18/2019 Item: 2 Town of Los Gatos General
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TOWN OF LOS GATOS MEETING DATE: 07/18/2019 ITEM: 2 GENERAL PLAN UPDATE ADVISORY COMMITTEE REPORT DATE: July 12, 2019 TO: General Plan Update Advisory Committee FROM: Joel Paulson, Community Development Director SUBJECT: Continue discussion of Draft Land Use Alternatives. BACKGROUND: On June 20, 2019, General Plan Update Advisory Committee (GPAC) met to discuss and provide direction for draft land use alternatives. At that meeting the GPAC discussed the materials provided in the staff report and requested additional information prior to providing direction on the alternatives report. The information requested is provided below, either as an attachment, link to a location online, or content within this report: A. Existing or Proposed Wildfire Legislation and Plans • Pending Wildfire Legislation summary (Exhibit 4) • Santa Clara County (SCC) Community Wildfire Protection Plan (https://sccfiresafe.org/images/attachments/community-wildfire-protection- plans/Countywide_CWPP/countywide-cwpp-final-draft/Final-Santa-Clara-County- CWPP_08-29-16.pdf) • SCC Community Wildfire Protection Plan Annex 9: Town of Los Gatos (http://www.sccfd.org/images/documents/fire_prevention/CWPP/Annex_9_Town_of_L os_Gatos_2017.pdf) • American Planning Association (APA) Zoning Practice – Wildfire Adaptation (Exhibit 5) B. Form-Based Zoning At the June 20, 2019 GPAC meeting a committee member requested additional information about Form Based Zoning. The APA produced a Zoning Practice booklet on this topic, which is provided for your information (Attachment 6). Please note that consideration of Form- Based Zoning could be included at the Action Item level of the General Plan, and would not be part of an Alternatives Report. PREPARED BY: JENNIFER ARMER, AICP Senior Planner 110 E. Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 ● 408-354-6832 www.losgatosca.gov PAGE 2 OF 4 SUBJECT: Continue discussion of Draft Land Use Alternatives July 12, 2019 BACKGROUND (continued): C. Growth Statistics and Projections Attachment 3 provided for the June 20, 2019 GPAC meeting (attached to the Desk Item report), was information about Regional Housing Need Allocation (RHNA) Objectives and Factors. The Town’s last RHNA allocation was 619 units. As of the end of 2018 the Town has approved building permits for 96 new units. Once the 320 units in phase one of the North 40 are issued the remaining allocation will be 203 units. In 2018, the Town approved building permits for 18 new accessory dwelling units, which is a significant increase over previous years, and is a trend we expect to continue and will result in additional units during this housing element cycle. Two tables from the Background Report Table 2.1-1: Los Gatos Population and Housing Trend, 2010 to 2018, on Page 2-4 (Attachment 7), and Table 3.8-3: Development Capacity Summary, on Page 3-34 (Attachment 8), are provided, but additional discussion of demographic trends (Section 2.1), employment trends (Section 2.3) and development capacity (Section 3.8) can be found in the Background Report, available online here: http://losgatos2040.com/documents.html D. Existing Land Use Designations The description of existing Land Use designations, beginning on page LU-11 of the 2020 General Plan, are included as Attachment 9. These include regulations for density, floor area ratio, height, and lot coverage, depending on land use. In addition, Section 3.3 of the Background Report is provided as Attachment 10, summarizing the existing General Plan land use designations, and including a map of where those designations are throughout Town. The full General Plan Land Use map is available online at the following link: https://www.losgatosca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/13106/GeneralPlanLandUseMap. E. Example Alternatives Reports The Alternatives Reports listed below are from other jurisdictions and are provided for a better understanding of what an Alternatives Report contains. Please note that these are the result of this phase of the General Plan update process, and the result of work by the consultant after this evening’s high level land use discussion. • Town of Windsor: bit.ly/windsoralts • Union City: bit.ly/unioncityalts • City of Gilroy: bit.ly/gilroyalts • City of Campbell: bit.ly/campbellalts N:\DEV\GPAC\GPAC Staff Reports\2019\2019 - Scanned Reports & Attachments\7-18-19\Staff Report.docx PAGE 3 OF 4 SUBJECT: Continue discussion of Draft Land Use Alternatives July 12, 2019 DISCUSSION: From the information above, we can see that the population growth has been very slow, and projections would likely show only minimal growth in the future. However, from previous GPAC discussions there is a general understanding that construction of new housing is something that new state regulations will likely require in coming years. In order to allow for that growth in a purposeful way, the alternatives in the Alternatives Report should include where that growth would be best situated. At the June 20, 2019, a consensus was reached that additional density in the hillsides was not desirable, both for the protection of the natural character of the hillsides and as a part of wildfire preparedness. The next step in this discussion is where additional housing density might be incorporated into our General Plan land use diagram. At its core, the question that we are asking is: Is there a desire to change the General Plan Land Use Map? If there is a consensus that one of the alternatives should plan for additional housing this could be done in many ways, including but not limited to: • Expanding the area covered by higher density housing designations; • Specifying the density of housing allowed in commercial land use designations; or • Increasing the density, height, or floor area currently allowed in specific land use designations. If there is consensus that there is an interest in particular changes in commercial land use designations, then direction could be given in regards to what types of uses, and where they might be located, could be done in many ways, including but not limited to: • More neighborhood serving commercial along Los Gatos Boulevard, or within existing commercial centers in Town; • Development of an innovation center around the potential Vasona Light Rail Station location or off of Oka Road; or • Construction of new hotels on the remaining North 40 properties. These discussions can focus primarily on the map, looking at general areas (for example, Los Gatos Boulevard), or look at very specific areas (for example, the Union Avenue shopping center). Or the discussion could also include how we might change the current limitations, for example height, that is included in the description of the zones. N:\DEV\GPAC\GPAC Staff Reports\2019\2019 - Scanned Reports & Attachments\7-18-19\Staff Report.docx PAGE 4 OF 4 SUBJECT: Continue discussion of Draft Land Use Alternatives July 12, 2019 NEXT STEPS: The next steps in the General Plan update process include: • Discuss policy choices; • Perform alternatives analysis and prepare the Alternatives Report; and • Provide the Alternatives Report to the GPAC for review prior to next community workshop. ATTACHMENTS: Attachments previously received with June 20, 2019 Staff Report: 1. Issues and Opportunities Report (38 pages) 2. Maps of Potential General Plan Focus Areas (11 pages) Attachment previously received with June 20, 2019 Desk Item Report: 3. RHNA Objectives and Factors (one page) Attachment received with this Staff Report: 4. Pending Wildfire Legislation Summary (five pages) 5. APA Zoning Practice – Wildfire Adaptation (eight pages) 6. APA Zoning Practice – Form-Based Zoning (eight pages) 7. Background Report Table 2.1-1: Los Gatos Population and Housing Trend (one page) 8. Background Report Table 3.8-3: Development Capacity Summary (one page) 9. 2020 General Plan Land Use Designations (seven pages) 10. Background Report Section 3.3: Existing General Plan Land Use Designations (five pages) N:\DEV\GPAC\GPAC Staff Reports\2019\2019 - Scanned Reports & Attachments\7-18-19\Staff Report.docx SENATE COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES AND WATER Senator Henry Stern, Chair 2019 - 2020 Regular Bill No: AB 1516 Hearing Date: June 25, 2019 Author: Friedman Version: June 11, 2019 Urgency: No Fiscal: Yes Consultant: William Craven Subject: Fire prevention: wildfire risk: defensible space and fuels reduction management BACKGROUND AND EXISTING LAW 1) Requires the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection (Board) to classify all lands within the state for the purpose of determining areas in which the financial responsibility of preventing and suppressing fires is primarily the responsibility of the state [known as the State Responsibility Area (SRA)]. 2) Requires the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) to identify certain areas outside the SRA as very high fire hazard severity zones (VHFHSZ) based on consistent statewide criteria and based on the severity of fire hazard that is expected to prevail in those areas. 3) Requires a person who owns, leases, controls, operates, or maintains a building or structure on land that is covered with flammable material in the SRA or VHFHSZ to maintain defensible space of 100 feet around the structure. Requires the most intense fuels management to be within 30 feet of the structure. 4) Requires CalFire to develop and update a guidance document on fuels management that includes regionally appropriate vegetation management suggestions that preserve and restore native species that are fire resistant, or drought tolerant, or both, minimize erosion, minimize water consumption, and permit trees near homes for shade, aesthetics, and habitat. Requires the guidelines to include suggestions to minimize or eliminate the risk of flammability of non-vegetative sources of combustion, such as woodpiles, propane tanks, decks, and outdoor lawn furniture. 5) Authorizes a local agency enforcing defensible space requirements within a VHFHSZ to conduct defensible space work on a property owner’s land if the owner fails to, and place a lien on the property for the expense of the work. 6) Authorizes CalFire to remove vegetation that is inconsistent with defensible space requirements and place a lien on the property for the expense of the work.