North 40 developer shrinks commercial plan, delays 100% affordable building

When Noa Sklar, a Los Gatos resident of 28 years, stepped up to the microphone to give public comment during a special meeting about the 450-unit North 40 Phase 2 development, her comments represented the evolution of thought about the project over the years in this famously housing-reticent community.

“I actually do not like this project at all,” she said, taking issue with the previous speaker who’d argued the buildings to rise from the old orchard (including a 99-foot tower) shouldn’t be considered high-rise structures. “We’re losing this town for greed and such.”

But this perspective—emblematic of a popular slow-growth mindset here, and consistent with comments she’s been making for more than a decade about residential development—was tempered by what came next.

“Since I’m just a little person who cannot face the big events that’s happening, my daughter…she’s a neurodivergent. She grew up in Los Gatos…excellent schools,” she said, noting her daughter represented her school in wrestling. “She graduated college…and she’s applying for a Master’s…She wants to be independent. Where is she gonna live? We want her nearby. She grew up here. Everything that she’s familiar with is here. Why should she move to Mountain View or East San Jose, when she can be here near us—close to her family?”

Sklar urged Planning Commission to support Grosvenor’s second phase of its North 40 development, with about 20% of homes reserved at affordable price points for qualifying residents; it includes designs for a building by Eden Housing, with 16 units set aside for people with intellectual disabilities.

“There’s tons of kids like her: neurodivergent, on the spectrum…living here,” she said. “You’re not as exposed to them as much, because we tend to be low key—except me. So, please move on with this project for the sake of my daughter and people like her. As quickly as you can.”

Her daughter, Romi Sklar, 23, stepped up to the plate next, brandishing her infectious smile like a weapon.

“I lived in Los Gatos my whole life,” said Romi, an autistic woman who graduated from Cal State East Bay after studying Human Development. “I love living in Los Gatos. My heart’s in Los Gatos. I have a lot of friends in Los Gatos. Good memories in Los Gatos. My gym, my extra-curricular activities. My family. And I am neurodivergent. I faced some obstacles in school like academics, slow-processing.”

But she said she never let that stop her.

“I always persevere; I want to continue persevering,” she said. “I have a lot of friends on the spectrum—and other neurodiverse conditions who live in Los Gatos, too. They want to be independent. They still want to live in Los Gatos, like me.”

Commissioner Jeffrey Barnett was curious if she shared her mom’s disdain for the architectural approach of Grosvenor.

She got a good laugh at this pointed question, as she looked over to her mom.

“Personally, I am a firm believer that whoever benefits and really needs housing allocated—whether it’s people with low income or people with…neurodiverse conditions—deserve to have housing. Because they want to be independent,” she said, indicating she’s much less concerned with the size of the prospective building than having a place where she can live on her own.

Throughout the hearing, the developer’s representatives—while promising to maintain the previously-expected number of affordable units overall, despite a reduction in State requirements for this sort of project—argued for two main concessions.

Number one, Grosvenor requested to be able to hold-off on building the 100% lower-income building (including the units for intellectually-disabled residents) while it generates funding by selling 127 townhouses first (it’s supposed to proceed with both at the same time). Eden Housing said, if all goes well, it’s still about three years away from groundbreaking—including about a year of design work.

One of Grosvenor’s reps said they’re highly incentivized to continue to the 100% affordable part of the development, because, after selling all the townhomes, they’ll still be in the red.

The second thing that Grosvenor asked for was to not have to put in some of the ground-floor commercial that is currently in the renderings.

Barnett made the motion to support the applicant’s concessions—and to explicitly require the developer to build 16 units for people with learning disabilities, as one of the conditions of approval. And (based on a request from Chair Emily Thomas) to make the developer work with staff to swap out non-native vegetation in the current documents with native species.

It passed 5-2, with commissioners Rob Stump and Susan Burnett opposed.

It now moves on to Council for consideration.