Housing Projects in Los Gatos
This three minute speech was given by Jeff Loughridge at the 1/20/15 Town Council Meeting. His message is very important and should be read and understood. The town could be forced to accept high density housing at the Los Gatos Lodge, the old Higgins-Root property along Blossom Hill Road and others. Jeff is a member of the Los Gatos Housing Elements Advisory Board. These high density projects would bring more traffic and more students to the schools. There may be a better solution if the Council, and you (the residents) take action.– Jak Van Nada
I am speaking tonight as resident, not as a Housing Element Advisory board member. I’d like to talk about the North 40. But in order to have a complete picture of the issues I need to back up a little bit. We are at a pivotal point in Los Gatos history. Land use issues and housing have never been more important or as complicated. Important, because traffic and school impacts have never been as bad as they are now. And, with the new projects about to come on line, it will probably get worse.
As you already may know, Los Gatos is REQUIRED by the state to plan for 619 affordable housing units in our town housing element. We’ve had similar issues over the last two housing elements, but this time it’s different. The state wants ALL constraints that might stand in the way of getting the affordable housing built to be eliminated, making the development of the affordable housing an almost sure thing. The affordable housing developments will have to pay either nothing or just a small percentage of the traffic mitigation fee, since it would be considered a constraint. Affordable housing, by definition is zoned at a density of 20 units per acre minimum. The state is also directing us to provide a density bonus of up to 40 percent on top of this density. So, for example, the Los Gatos Lodge site, at 20 units per acre comes out to 170 affordable units. Add in the density bonus and you’re at around 240 units. Do the same math with the other existing affordable housing sites and we’re looking at around 90 units at Higgins business park on Blossom Hill. Oak Rim, around 65 units and the Southbay site, off of Knowles around 207.
If developers choose to develop these sites, they will be generally be fast-tracked in as little time as one year, with little or no ability by residents to review or to weigh-in. They will most likely be DESIGNED to attract families with children. Each of these developments would add MORE to the traffic and school impact problems, three of which are located in already traffic-heavy areas of Los Gatos.
Right now the North 40 is planned to have 364 housing units, 60 of which are affordable housing. We have the opportunity to take credit for every housing unit built on the North 40 as long as it is developed at 20 units per acre minimum. Even the market rate units. If we choose. Plus, the traffic mitigation fees are approximately 12 million dollars.
Taking credit for these units will allow us to eliminate up to three of the affordable housing sites. We will be able to mitigate the traffic around the North 40 to better handle the increased traffic. We will be able to include public input at every step of the way so there are fewer surprises.
I urge residents to try to get up to speed on this complex problem and I respectfully request Council and staff to look into this further.
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