The Los Gatos Town Council this week began the task of moving the future Netflix expansion project forward by
In April, a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge sided with the plaintiffs—Los Gatos Citizens for Responsible Development—and ordered the preparation of the document.
To resurrect the project, the Council Tuesday evening voided the botched approvals, which i
Under the California Environmental Quality Act, the town had to determine whether the project had a significant adverse effect on the environment. The town issued a mitigated negative declaration in August of 2011.
The Citizens, , and their attorney, Rachel Masfield-Howlett, said the project was large enough and had so many potential impacts that a more in-depth review of environmental impacts was required. "The negative declaration is only appropriate when the town can say absolutely no impacts would result. It's the lowest level of review. Any time there's substantial evidence that there may be an impact ... then the town must require that an EIR to be prepared," Mansfield-Howlett said last year about the reasons for suing the town.
The Council also voided Tuesday evening the architecture and site approval for the project which in September of 2011 granted permission to demolish five existing commercial buildings on the land and permission to begin construction of two new office buildings.
The voidance of the controversial documents were on the Council's consent agenda, which could have been approved without discussion from the public or Council members, however Vice Mayor Barbara Spector pulled the item to change the language of one of the resolution's paragraphs.
Quintana said she was disappointed in reading the resolution voiding the documents because it failed to explain what the judge's orders were.
She then read from the judgement which stated the town had violated CEQA and had failed to prepare the EIR.
The order stated there was substantial evidence in support of the fair argument that the project would have a significant impact on a minimum of two areas, traffic and aesthetics, she added.
Quintana also asked that all of the court's proceedings be added to the project's file.
