Los Gatos Town Staff Doubles the State’s Mandated Housing Requirements

What’s Wrong with the Los Gatos 2040 General Plan?
  • Housing Projected by ABAG for the Next 20 years – 619
  • Housing Required by ABAG for the 6th Cycle (8 Years) – 1993
  • Housing Proposed by the Town’s General Plan Advisory Committee (GPAC) – 3904
  • Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) Forecasted Population of Los Gatos by 2040 – 32,645
  • Los Gatos 2040 General Plan Forecasted Population  – 45,820

The attached pages are from the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR). Table 5-4 compares the Town’s population and employment projections in the 2040 GP vs. the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) Plan Bay Area 2040 projections. What the Town staff has done is to conflate the increase in household population as forecasted by the State with the household population growth that will result from the “project”, namely the 2040 GP. By 2040 the difference in population projection is massive – 32,645 residents in ABAG vs 45,820 residents as projected by the town – that’s 40% more!

Population growth is the fundamental driver in the growth in Green House Gas (GHG) as determined in the Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) analysis. The net result is VMT per service population material exceeds the State mandated thresholds due to the excessive planned population growth induced by the 2040 GP which results in environmental impacts that would be potentially significant. Furthermore, the “project” population projections are inconsistent with the local growth forecasts in the region’s Regional Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy. Why are we doing this to ourselves? It simply makes no sense.

What the Town Staff has not clearly stated to the public is the “planned” growth induced by the “project” is materially greater than any legitimate population growth forecast. The DEIR states that the Town has purposely assumed a population projection which the Town believes will “meet regional housing needs allocation over the long term” (page 4.13-7). But how do they know what the future RHNA allocations will be, how long is the “long-term”, and is that an appropriate planning assumption given the known adverse environmental impacts and other down-stream impacts? This planning assumption was determined solely by the Staff with no public input or discussion. It is a key building block for the land use element. It needs to be fully inspected.

 

 

 

 

  1. S. Allen

    This is a travesty. It shows no thought for the future. If we build that many new units in the next few years, where do we go from there? Over populating an area like Los Gatos brings its own problems from traffic, air & water pollution which bring on numerous health problems for us and our children. All of these people that pay large amounts of money for property here will be moving on to more desirable areas. What are they serving at the General plan meetings? There needs to be a Committee to oversee the Los Gatos Staff’s decisions.

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