About a month after the town council approved its plan for housing development over the next eight years, Los Gatos is still contending with 15 builder’s remedy projects.
Until the town’s housing element was approved in June, Los Gatos had been vulnerable to builder’s remedy projects. Developers can propose these housing developments in cities or towns without an approved housing element; the developments can be of any size and height as long as they contain 20% affordable housing units.
As of July 12, the town had received 18 applications for housing developments that invoke builder’s remedy, 15 of which have yet to reach the 180-day expiration mark. Developers have submitted formal applications for six of the 15 valid preliminary applications.
The projects range in size from the controversial nine-story, 182-unit project proposed for the site of an Ace Hardware store in town to a three-story and 12-unit project at 647 N. Santa Cruz Ave., near the Los Gatos DMV.
The topic of the town’s housing element has been a controversial matter at recent town council meetings, and the council’s final vote to approve the document was a split one, with Mayor Mary Badame and Vice Mayor Matthew Hudes dissenting.
The two argued that the housing element, which outlines 2,371 housing units to be built in Los Gatos over the next eight years, goes too far beyond the 1,993 units that the state required the town to plan for.