Los Gatos residents have the chance to give their input on where housing should be built in town before plans are once again sent to the state in hopes of approval.
The Los Gatos Town Council voted Tuesday to open up the proposed Housing Element for a seven-day public review, the last step before submitting the document to state officials. While it was unclear when the review period would start, councilmembers anticipated it would be within a few days of Tuesday night’s meeting.
Debate over the document, which outlines all housing developments across all income levels to be built in the town for the next eight years, stalled in recent council meetings as councilmembers disagreed over the extent to which the Housing Element should dictate where small multi-unit housing could be built. Ultimately, the council voted in a 3-2 split, with Vice Mayor Matthew Hudes and Mayor Mary Badame dissenting, to allow small multi-unit housing to be built “in a variety of neighborhoods” except for Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones, hillside residential areas and historic districts.
The revised language eliminates previous restrictions that also limited construction of small multi-unit housing near evacuation areas and more than half a mile from a public transit stop.
Most residents who addressed the council on the issue expressed their support for eliminating restrictions on where small multi-unit housing could be built.
The debate comes down to a disagreement over whether these restrictions should be set before or after the Housing Element is approved. Town staff said that while the Housing Element is not setting zoning for the town, any future efforts to update zoning must be in alignment with the document, and if not, the Housing Element would need to be updated.
“I don’t want to be in a position where we have to go back to HCD in order to allow multi-family housing to be built in some of the best places for multi-family housing to be built,” Councilmember Rob Moore said.
This week’s council vote comes over a year after the town council voted to approve the Housing Element at a special meeting in February 2023 to avoid the possibility of developers proposing housing projects that are beyond the town’s control, while still maintaining the ability to revise the document to align with the state’s requests.
After the seven-day review period, the state Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) has up to two months to respond to the town with its evaluation.