A 30-home project could be built across the street from Los Gatos High School, bringing student safety to the forefront.
The Los Gatos Planning Commission voted 4-2 on March 26 to recommend the Town Council approve a 4-story, mixed-use housing development at 143-151 E. Main St. across the street from Los Gatos High School. Commissioners Susan Burnett and Rob Stump voted no. The development would back onto Church Street, a main drop-off zone for the roughly 1,900 students who attend the high school.
Dave Poetzinger, Los Gatos High School principal, said that’s a concern because students and parents only have three entry points into school. He said the intersection of Church Street and High School Court is already congested, adding he sees near misses between students and cars constantly.
“I feel like it’s pushed to the breaking point on a daily basis when you see the number of cars and the interactions between the movement of bikes, pedestrians (and) e-bikes as they come through there,” he told San José Spotlight.
Poetzinger said he’s grateful the planning commission recommended amending the development plans, including a ban on construction vehicles entering and exiting the property during weekdays from 7-9 a.m. and 2-4 p.m. But he’s still worried about student safety.
Plans submitted by CSPN LLC include 30 condos on close to a half-acre, with six affordable homes and 2,416 square feet of ground floor retail space. The proposal includes an underground 47-space parking garage. Developers would demolish the existing building where Cafe Dio and A & G Construction are, but the businesses could move back after construction.
The development is the first builder’s remedy project the commission has reviewed, meaning the town has less control over it. The state law allows developers to bypass local zoning requirements when a municipality submits its mandated housing plan late. Los Gatos has 12 active builder’s remedy applications which require town council approval before moving forward. The council will review this project in May.
Commissioner Steve Raspe voted yes because builder’s remedy doesn’t give the town much discretion over the project.
“While I have issues with this project — I wish it wasn’t next to the high school, I wish it was smaller — I don’t see grounds that allow us to decline the project,” he said at the meeting.
Stump said he voted no not because he’s anti-development, but because he’d like to see more detailed environmental impact studies on major issues, such as the effect of traffic near the high school. The traffic study showed the project would not negatively affect Los Gatos with 17 new car trips daily.
“We need to slow down, and we need to make sure that we are fully taking into account the cumulative impact of these projects that are significantly above mass scale, height and density for Los Gatos,” Stump told San José Spotlight.
CSPN LLC did not respond to requests for comment.
Los Gatos must accommodate building at least 1,993 new homes by 2031 to comply with state housing mandates. The development spike across town has stirred controversy among residents, including plans for more than 100 homes where Ace Hardware is located.
Resident LeeAnn Wade, whose child attends the high school, said she wants the town to stand up to the state’s requirements and builder’s remedy projects because of how they could affect the high-fire risk town.
“A one-size-fits-all does not work in California, and I do believe that with enough political pressure from towns and cities across the state, that we can reduce the impact of this builder’s remedy on our communities,” she told San José Spotlight. “I feel that Los Gatos has not pushed back one bit while there are plenty of other towns and cities that have.”
Contact Annalise Freimarck at [email protected] or follow @annalise_ellen on X.
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