SWENSON BUILDERS WINS EXCEPTION TO OUTLINE-DEMONSTRATION RULES

Monte Sereno mayor, previewing potential project pitfalls, speaks in opposition

Drew Penner, Reporter

A split Los Gatos Town Council on April 4 approved a San Jose developer’s request for an exception to the community’s rules for marking the proposed outline of future construction for a stalled project.

Green Valley Corp.—better known as Swenson Builders—was arguing to be able to simply post a link to a digital model of what could spring up at 15860-15894 Winchester Blvd. and 17484 Shelburne Way.

“To me it looks like an abandoned project,” said Monte Sereno Mayor Bryan Mekechuk, who lives nearby the subject properties, adding current renderings don’t show the Class IV bike lanes they’re supposed to include. “They haven’t done any outreach to the community.”

But Jessie Bristow, a development project manager with Swenson, said they’ve been held up from moving forward because their contractor installed the wrong story poles the first time and, after that, inclement weather has prevented them from being able to re-do the install. The company was allowed to forgo netting but was supposed to put up two rows of flags.

Swenson aims to turn a 1.31-acre swath of the community—where three single-family residences, a commercial construction business and some accessory buildings sit—into an assisted living and memory care facility.

As of August, “Winchester Assisted Living” was envisioned as 135 residential units—18 memory care units and 117 assisted living units, with two separate dining rooms, a commercial kitchen, theater and library.

Los Gatos’ height-demonstrating pole and netting policy is meant to help residents and officials visualize what projects working their way through Town procedures could end up looking like in reality. They also serve as a way to provide community members with a unique form of notice that their opportunity to have a say on a development is upcoming.

Bristow said the latest renderings were completed just for the Class IV bike lane aspect added to the street.

“It would behoove the town to have a project like this,” Bristow said, referring to the large number of units the development would contribute toward the thousands Los Gatos is promising the State it’s trying to pave the way for. “We did the best we could.”

Neighbor Eric Hulser pushed for Los Gatos to reject the exception request.

“I think it’s really important for the community to be able to see just the size,” he said, opining that the digital version doesn’t allow you to visualize as well how the end product will look.

Councilmember Rob Rennie asked Bristow when Swenson expected it could bring the project to Planning Commission.

“November,” Bristow replied.

“You’re still not at Planning Commission for months later,” Rennie remarked rhetorically.

Nevertheless, he managed to see the applicant’s point that redoing the story poles wouldn’t significantly change the public understanding of the potential addition to Los Gatos’ built environment, since there are trees on the site that would still be obscuring the poles.

“We’ve hidden the project from the public because it’s been sitting there derelict for so long,” he said.

Councilmember Rob Moore was inclined to grant an exception, noting streamlining the permitting process was one of Los Gatos’ stated strategic priorities. But he wondered about requiring a new sign to be posted every 50 feet.

Councilmember Matthew Hudes said he wasn’t too sure denying a story pole exception would say anything whatsoever about the Town’s permitting regime.

“I think we already have a compromise solution, which is what’s supposed to be there now,” he said, arguing that de facto trying to rewrite story pole rules by Council votes would be unwise.

Mayor Maria Ristow said she was on the fence about what to do.

“The concern I have is our residents have an expectation that when a project comes forward they will see the outline of the building,” she said. “I feel like we owe our residents a form of notification they’re accustomed to.”

Although she said Bristow’s presentation, which included slides showing renderings of a blocky, upscale structure, did communicate the project in a way story poles alone can’t.

“I have to say, when I viewed it, it’s pretty remarkable,” she said. “I did get a feeling for the massing.”

Vice Mayor Mary Badame said Swenson should have to stick to the current rules—since severe weather is likely in the rear-view mirror.

“We’re in spring. I see baseball has resumed on surrounding fields,” she said. “Flags draw attention and that’s the purpose (of story poles). I think we owe it to our residents.”

Council voted 3-2 to approve a story pole exception (Badame and Hudes in opposition), with the requirement that Swenson put a bright new 6-by-8-foot sign with a link to the project rendering on each parcel.