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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/03/2022 1 Joint City Council/Planning Commission Special Meeting Minutes October 3, 2022 1. CALL TO ORDER, ROLL CALL This meeting was conducted virtually pursuant to the provisions of Assembly Bill 361 and Government Code Section 54953(e) related to conducting public meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mayor Tyson called the Special City Council/Planning Commission Meeting to order at 6:03 p.m. Present: Mayor George Tyson, Vice Mayor Linda Swan, Councilmember Stanley Q. Mok, Councilmember Lisa H. Schmidt, Councilmember Kavita Tankha, Planning Commission Chair Jim Waschura, Planning Commissioner Vice Chair Alisa Bredo, Commissioner Couperus, Commissioner Indaco, Commissioner Patel Absent: None Staff: City Manager Peter Pirnejad, City Attorney Steve Mattas, Planning Director Sofia Mangalam, Management Analyst II Cody Einfalt, City Clerk Deborah Padovan 2. NEW BUSINESS Discussion of the Public Review Draft of the 6th Cycle Housing Plan 2023 – 2031 Housing Element for the Town of Los Altos Hills and obtain City Council direction to submit the Draft Housing Element Update to the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) following the completion of the 30-day public comment period and consider and incorporate public comments (Staff: S. Mangalam) Planning Director Sofia Mangalam introduced Consultant Aaron Barrall, Michael Baker International to present the public review draft housing element. She said that the draft was released on August 9th for a 30-day review period as required by the state. Mr. Barrall provided an update on the progress of the housing element. The City Council and Planning Commission asked questions of the consultant and received comments and responses. Public Comment Giovanni Ottolini, Nor Cal Carpenters, said that building needs to begin immediately, and the blight of the blue collar workers must be addressed immediately. Los Altos Hills is one of the most expensive zip codes in America, developers and contractors must pay wages and comprehensive health care. Nate Blair, Los Altos Hills, said supports the spirit of the conversation to foster Town of Los Altos Hills Joint City Council/Planning Commission Special Meeting Minutes Monday, October 3, 2022 – 6:00 p.m. Council Chambers, 26379 Fremont Road, Los Altos Hills, California 2 Joint City Council/Planning Commission Special Meeting Minutes October 3, 2022 increased ADU development and avoid up zoning. He suggested that there are opportunities to allow for lower income housing in the form of ADU's. Anne Paulson, Los Altos, commented on ADU's. Woodside has already heard from HCD and they said they were not going to accept the claims of ADU's that Woodside has offered. She expressed confusion confused about the talks with Foothill College and the fact the owner of Twin Oaks is not interested in building. She asked, “why put these sites on that are going to be rejected?” Michael Grady, Los Altos Hills, said the Twin Oaks sites will have a traffic nightmare, doesn't have the sewer infrastructure. Martha Bowden, Los Altos Hills, asked about having Poor Clares or the Daughters of Charity to put in senior housing. What about vacant houses? We need to get those houses back into circulation. As to the Twin Oaks site , what assumptions are you making? Transit, sewers, roads all need to be addressed. Vijay Chawla, Los Altos Hills, said there seems to be a dependency on Foothill College. She expressed concerned about adding more units to Foothill College. She spoke about safety in the area. She asked if JADU's are counted. Carol Gottlieb, Los Altos Hills, said that she would be very opposed to losing the story poles. On the JADU's we have had quite a few JADU's and a number of people are using them to attached more area to their homes. The ADU's should be counted if it has all the facilities. Public Comment concluded. Further Council and Commission discussion ensued. MOTION MADE: Councilmember Schmidt moved to direct staff to change the up zone proposed for the twin oaks subdivision to an overlay and work to find units to take the place of the up-zone units and that we accept the other two sites, Foothill College and St. Nicholas. City Attorney Steve Mattas clarified that the motion would be to not have a rezone of the twin oaks property and work through the other ideas identified tonight to come up with a requisite number of replacement units to be able to meet the RHNA obligation plus the surplus. Director Mangalam further clarified that other ideas would include facilitating more ADU production and including SB 9 units into calculations. Councilmember Tankha added including JADUs into calculations. Councilmember Schmidt agreed with the clarification as follows: MOTION MADE AND SECONDED: Councilmember Schmidt moved to direct staff to not rezone the twin oaks property, keep the overlay zone and work through the other 3 Joint City Council/Planning Commission Special Meeting Minutes October 3, 2022 ideas identified tonight to come up with a requisite number of replacement units to be able to meet the RHNA obligation plus the surplus and accept the Foothill College and St. Nicholas sites. The motion was seconded by Councilmember Tankha. MOTION PASSED 5-0: AYES: Tankha, Tyson, Mok, Schmidt, Swan NOES: None ABSTAIN: None RECUSE: None ABSENT: None Councilmember Schmidt encouraged the staff to keep the overlay on Twin Oaks and review ADU and JADU projections, and include SB 9 units into our calculations. The Council accepted that staff continue to move forward on the following: 1. Improve Existing Permit Tracking System (reporting, response times, speed up development) 2. Amend Grading Requirements (Standards for Rainy Season) 3. Permit Fee Reductions (New Fee Nexus Study) 4. Keep the Story Poles Regulations Council also directed staff to return one final time before the October 30th submittal deadline. A special joint City Council/Planning Commission meeting was called for Wednesday, October 26, 2022. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 8:09 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Deborah L. Padovan Deborah Padovan City Clerk The minutes of the October 3, 2022, special joint City Council/Planning Commission meeting were approved as presented at the October 20, 2022, regular City Council meeting.