Attachment 03
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A P P E A R A N C E S:
Los Gatos Planning
Commissioners:
D. Michael Kane, Chair
Matthew Hudes, Vice Chair
Mary Badame
Kendra Burch
Melanie Hanssen
Kathryn Janoff
Tom O'Donnell
Town Manager: Laurel Prevetti
Community Development
Director:
Joel Paulson
Town Attorney: Robert Schultz
Transcribed by: Vicki L. Blandin
(619) 541-3405
ATTACHMENT 3
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P R O C E E D I N G S:
CHAIR KANE: We’re resuming the Los Gatos
Planning Commission meeting of Wednesday July 25th and we
will go to Item 4 on our agenda, which is 15921 Rochin
Terrace, Architecture and Site Application S-18-002
requesting approval of the demolition of an existing
single-family residence and construction of a new single-
family residence on property zoned R-1:8. This is APN 523-
25-009. The property owners are Patrick Hancir and Monica
Zaucha, and the Applicant is Davide Giannella of Acadia
Architecture, and the project planner is Sean Mullin.
May I have the hands of the Commissioners who
have visited the subject property? Are there any
disclosures by Commissioners for this item?
I have one. I visited the location and spoke with
Mrs. Stacy Bulsart (phonetic), whose house was under
extensive renovation. We did not discuss the pros and cons
of the property, but she did point it out to me.
Mr. Mullin, would you give us a Staff Report?
SEAN MULLIN: Thank you, Chair Kane.
Before you tonight is a request to demolish an
existing single-family residence and construct a new
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single-family residence at 15921 Rochin Terrace. The
subject property is located on the southwest corner of
Rochin Terrace and Rochin Court and is developed with an
existing one-story, single-family residence.
The parcels immediately adjacent to the subject
property are within the Town’s boundaries, however, some
county properties are located in the surrounding
neighborhood subdivisions along Linda Avenue and Rochin
Terrace.
The project is being forwarded to the Planning
Commission to determine whether the proposed contemporary
modern architectural is compatible with the surrounding
neighborhood subdivisions as it relates to the Residential
Design Guidelines, as detailed and discussed in the Staff
Report.
Additionally, the Staff Report provides a summary
of the reviews and recommendations of the Town’s consulting
architect and the Applicant’s response to these
recommendations.
A Desk Item has been distributed to the
Commission, which includes a letter from the Applicants to
their neighbors, signatures gathered during the Applicants’
neighborhood outreach efforts, and additional public
comments received after publishing the Staff Report.
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Based on the analysis detailed in the Staff
Report Staff recommends approval of the Architecture and
Site application, subject to the recommended conditions of
approval included in Exhibit 3.
This concludes Staff’s presentation. We are
available to answer any questions.
CHAIR KANE: Thank you, Mr. Mullin. Are there
questions? Commissioner Burch.
COMMISSIONER BIRCH: Thank you. On page 4 of 9 of
the Staff Report that we received there is a table
outlining adjacent properties. Are any of these properties
listed as… The more immediate neighborhood, are any of
those county properties?
SEAN MULLIN: The property at 15902, which is
listed with the zoning designation of R-1:8 pre-zone would
be county.
COMMISSIONER BIRCH: Okay, thank you.
CHAIR KANE: Other questions of Staff?
Commissioner Hudes.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Related to 15902, which is
county, are we aware of any requirements on the part of the
county for neighborhood compatibility, and since Los Gatos
is part of the county as well, was there any input into the
contemporary design of 15902?
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SEAN MULLIN: I’m not aware of any requirements
for compatibility analysis, and regarding the architecture
that’s being applied to that residence, the Town would not
have any input unless the work was extensive enough to
trigger a petition for annexation into the Town.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Just as a follow up, would
residents have been informed of that construction and that
design that they could participate in a county process?
SEAN MULLIN: I’m not aware of a process for the
county for that.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Okay, thank you.
CHAIR KANE: Other questions? Seeing none, I’ll
open the public portion of the public hearing and give the
Applicant an opportunity to address the Commission for up
to ten minutes. Whoever is speaking for the Applicant, give
me your name and address, please.
PATRICK HANCIR: Hello, my name is Patrick
Hancir. The address is 15921 Rochin Terrace. Before I begin
I just wanted to state that I’m going to start out the
presentation and then hand it over to Davide the architect,
and then I’ll conclude.
JEFF TAKEUCHI: I apologize. Today is my
anniversary of all things, and I have a wife over at Nick’s
waiting for me. I know it’s not standard in the schedule,
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but I wanted to speak on behalf of the Applicant; I’m just
a neighbor. Any chance I could just give a quick two-minute
speech? I know it’s not standard or anything, but
(inaudible).
PATRICK HANCIR: If I could add, he wrote us a
letter of support, but it came…
CHAIR KANE: No, you can’t add. No. Wait.
JEFF TAKEUCHI: I know it’s not standard
(inaudible).
CHAIR KANE: You’re going to get a 30-second
matrimonial exception. Go ahead.
JEFF TAKEUCHI: Thank you very much. My name is
Jeff Takeuchi; I live two houses down from the proposed
remodel at 15941 Rochin Terrace. I’ve lived in Los Gatos
for 26 years in this residence, and to my knowledge the
house in the proposed project has not been remodeled at
all.
My wife and myself have looked at the plans with
Mr. Hancir when he came around the neighborhood showing
them to us, and we do support the look, design, and feel of
it. I know it’s not traditional fitting the neighborhood,
but we do like it. I think it would update and complement
some of the houses around.
CHAIR KANE: Happy Anniversary.
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JEFF TAKEUCHI: Thank you very much; I appreciate
it. I can kind of go on, but you got the idea. We do fully
support the design of the house.
CHAIR KANE: And that time will not be taken from
yours, sir.
JEFF TAKEUCHI: Thank you very much.
PATRICK HANCIR: Hello, my name is Patric Hancir;
I’m a software engineer at a healthcare company. My wife
Monica is a doctor at the Veteran’s Administration; she
would love to be here tonight, but she has to work,
unfortunately. We have two wonderful kids, as you can see,
ages two and five. It’s always been our dream to build our
own home, and after a long search we have finally found the
perfect neighborhood in which to raise our children.
Here is a picture of the extended neighborhood.
As you can see, there is only one entry, which is north
onto Linda Avenue from Blossom Hill Road. Every time that
someone walks or drives into the neighborhood they first
see the houses on Linda Avenue. A couple of the houses on
Costances Court are also very prominent. There is a great
deal of architectural diversity in these houses and it is
this experience that forms one’s impression of the
neighborhood.
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The styles of the extended neighborhood include
Spanish, Mediterranean, Tudor, bungalow, cottage,
Craftsman, ranch, mid-century modern, and contemporary. If
we lived in an open area people in the immediate
neighborhood may take several different ways in and out, so
they would have a different visual experience. The only
shared visual experience would be that of the immediate
neighborhood itself. However, in a closed area like this
everyone must travel along Linda Avenue every single time,
and so they have the same shared experience, and that’s of
the extended neighborhood as a whole.
We also did a tremendous amount of community
outreach. Early in the design process we distributed this
written invitation to an open house where we introduced our
design plans, began a dialogue with our neighbors, and
included our contact information. We had very good
attendance with eight people stopping by to talk.
Several times during the design process we went
door-to-door around the neighborhood to discuss the house
and to show the updated plan. From these conversations we
learned that the most important issue was the views, so we
reduced the overall building height. We received very
positive feedback and many people signed our letter of
support for the design.
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Our most extensive conversations were with the
owners of 15931 Rochin Terrace, our next-door neighbors,
and they are here tonight as well. They had some privacy
concerns as well as questions about how their view would
change. We exchanged many emails back and forth and we also
talked in person. We worked together to find a resolution
and they are now in support of the project and have written
us a letter of support to the Commission.
For the home design we opted for a combination of
functionality and appearance in design, with a strong
emphasis on being green. Very early in the design process
we worked with an arborist to determine the safe distance
from a very, very tall redwood tree in the back yard, and
this really informed our design to maintain the safety of
both the large protected tree as well as the foundation of
the home.
We also chose materials such as natural
transparent stained wood in order to soften the appearance
of the home, tie in with the surroundings, and reflect the
common architectural elements of the neighborhood.
The low profile of the house preserves the
beautiful views of the scenery and minimizes shadows that
might be on the neighbors. This is of particular importance
to our next-door neighbors as well some others.
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A vast majority of the area of the roof will be
covered with solar panels, and we chose a roof material
such that they can integrate seamlessly and look very nice.
The shed roof slopes away from the street in
order to minimize visual impact, and also to face the
southwest for better efficiency.
We took water conservation and energy efficiency
very, very seriously in our choices of heating and cooling
and the plants and so forth.
Now I’m going to pass it over to Davide.
DAVIDE GIANNELLA: Hi, I am Davide Giannella, the
architect.
In approaching the design of this house,
obviously being aware of the zoning guidelines, I think the
desire of any architect should be to design something that
fits and marries the character of a certain area. The
approach that we took was not to flatly mimic a certain
feature of the existing surroundings. We thought that a
more sensible approach was to really interpret the
proportion, the size, and the masses of the existing
buildings around it rather than copying features that were
maybe designed and built 50 years ago.
To make a building that responds to the
surroundings and yet is also alive, meaning coming from
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nowadays with this technology and lifestyle, we really
analyze both the geometrical patterns of the surrounding
homes. For example, you can see many of the two-story homes
around there have a two-story volume, kind of boxy over the
garage, and a single story attached to it. We kind of
inverted this approach by having the garage being the
single story, which allowed us also to double its use as a
terrace, and the two-story portion being pushed back on the
side that way to create a mass that is more homogeneous as
opposed to the L-shape that many of those other homes might
have.
Part of the initial approach was, even though we
have an allowable maximum height of 30’, was to be as low
as possible considering that it is a two-story home and yet
on a corner lot, and so what we did is we have sloped
roofs. We don’t have any flat roof except for a terrace,
but with a shallow slope and sloping backward, that saved
about 5’ of maximum height; we are at 25’. This is what we
are proposing, and this is what it will look like if we
were to have an additional (inaudible) gable roof or hipped
roof; we would be almost at 30’.
Also, this is the side view of that. Again, we
are stepping down, trying to use a low profile, not to
compete with the adjacent homes and also with the big tree
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behind us. Again, you can see the difference if we were to
maximize the house size and height.
Square footage-wise also, we are not at the
limit; we are a little bit less than that.
So really, the elements that we used were
layering. We are stepping the house in both vertical and
horizontal planes, so the reason I have two-story
continuous walls is we have a strong first floor roof that
breaks the house into two parts so that it aligns with the
adjacent homes that are single stories. The top of plate
really aligns pretty much with the other homes. Window
proportions are very similar to those, kind of square-ish,
not exactly square (inaudible) elongated, no corner
windows, and no excessive glazed surfaces.
Wall materials, (inaudible) materials like the
other homes have, so stucco, wood siding, some small accent
tones, everything earthy tones so that it would blend with
the surrounding. We even made sure the fencing around the
house is (inaudible) as the finishes, so to integrate it
with the side and to break the mass.
We also respected the privacy. We have very few
windows facing on the front, except for the large ones that
you see, which are just the stairwell, so there are no
rooms behind those large windows.
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But again, I would like to emphasize that the
actual approach should be one where the spirit of the site
is respected, the atmosphere, so if this neighborhood is
seen as cozy, charming, warm, I think those are the
characteristics that any passer-by will see of this house,
being playful, warm, and not imposing, not monumental.
As you can see, the entry is kind of recessed and
of a regular size. We’re not trying to give too much
importance to the double height volume by breaking it with
a clerestory, which works to bring cold air inside in the
summer, so it’s operable, so it really works as a green
feature, and stepping back the other volumes behind it so
you can have a big, flat surface facing any direction.
Just a quick note, a few months ago for Career
Day I was at the (Inaudible) Middle School in Los Gatos,
and among other projects I showed this one, this rendering,
or a (inaudible) version, and the kids acted very happy
about it, and one kid said, “It looks like a playful
project, a playful house,” and I think that’s the
character. It’s nothing cold, overly modern, or stark; it
has some warmth and coziness, even though it has shapes
that are a little more contemporary. Thank you.
PATRICK HANCIR: Thank you, Davide. We received a
lot of positive feedback. We did get a couple of complaints
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about the roof in particular, and so in the interest of
time I will address many of those during the question and
answer session, but there is one that I would like to talk
about right now.
The married couple at 15911 Rochin Court have
written letters of opposition stating that, “The
contemporary design of 15902 Rochin Terrace in the
immediate neighborhood should not factor into the
neighborhood context at all, because it is on county land.”
They have also said that, “None of the houses in the
neighborhood on Los Gatos land have flat roofs.” And I’m
going to skip ahead to here.
The contemporary house at 15902 Rochin Terrace,
as has been stated, did not have to go through the Town
process, but let’s just imagine for a moment that it did.
Its immediate neighborhood is different than ours. The
styles in its immediate neighborhood include styles such as
Mediterranean, Tudor, Craftsman, ranch, and mid-century
modern. The mid-century modern also has flat roofs. These
different styles are all right next to each other all in a
row. Their contemporary style fits in with the eclectic
nature of their immediate neighborhood and is not an
aberration. The Residential Design Guidelines define an
aberration as a house that “…was constructed with little
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consideration to its neighborhood architecture and style.”
I think that their design clearly fits in with their
immediate neighborhood and is therefore not an aberration.
Section 3.2.1 also states that roof pitches in
the nearby neighborhood should be considered. I couldn’t
find what the definition of “nearby” was, but I just wanted
to mention that the mid-century modern house is only 300’
away from our property, and so I don't know if that fits in
with the nearby definition or not, but they also have flat
roofs. And again, as Davide mentioned, our roofs are not
actually flat. The first floor roofs are 5:12 and the
second story roofs are 2:12 and 1:12.
Here you can see the picture of the mid-century
modern house with flat roofs, and also the contemporary
house that’s under construction. I’ll skip ahead here and
go to the conclusion.
In conclusion, we feel that the extended
neighborhood should be given more weight than it normally
would be. The extended neighborhood is eclectic with many
different styles, including mid-century modern and
contemporary houses with flat roofs. The contemporary style
in the immediate neighborhood is not an aberration.
CHAIR KANE: Sir, you need to wrap it up.
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PATRICK HANCIR: Oh, I’m sorry. We took great
care to make sure that we featured the common architectural
elements and that the trend in Los Gatos and our own
neighborhood has been towards more and more architectural
diversity.
CHAIR KANE: Thank you very much. We have
questions for the speaker. Commissioner Badame.
COMMISSIONER BADAME: I’m going to be looking for
a very focused response to my question. Can you elaborate
on how your design is compatible with the immediate
neighborhood? When we look at immediate neighborhood it’s
actually defined in our Residential Design Guidelines, and
being that you have a corner lot there are 11 other homes
that are part of your immediate neighborhood, so if you
could focus on how your home is compatible with the
immediate and not the extended neighborhood.
PATRICK HANCIR: Sure. Well, first off we have a
precedent—and I’ve made the case—that the home on 15902,
although it’s on county land, is in our immediate
neighborhood; and I also tried to make the case that they
didn’t just ignore and do whatever they want. If they had
been on Town, then they would have fit in with their
immediate neighborhood and it kind of daisy-chains along,
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so we’re following along on their precedent, which is a
contemporary house as well.
COMMISSIONER BADAME: So I hear you to say the
one house, but the ten others…
PATRICK HANCIR: No. Also, maybe Davide would
like to answer this as well. I think he did a very good job
and it’s a very good question that it’s not just a matter
of mimicking a particular style, but of looking at the
different architectural elements that are shared there, and
just because we don’t have the same roof as them does not
mean that we’re not… We took a lot of care in looking at
the shared common architectural elements and trying to play
to those as well.
DAVIDE GIANNELLA: Yes, for us it was a matter of
aligning—I don't know if you have the diagram here—some of
the top-of-plates here. Considering we are on the lowest
spot we didn’t take advantage of that to have a taller
house, we still kept as low a profile as possible. We set
back the building as much as possible out of respect to the
tree, we broke the mass into many layers so it wouldn’t be
massive in any way, and we kept all the main features like
doors and windows to standard heights and proportions.
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We employed earthy tones and window materials
that are compatible as far as color and finishes, like wood
siding and frames that really work with the neighborhood.
Perhaps the only differentiating feature is the
shape of the roof, which is a sloping roof. We just decided
it was much more efficient, with photovoltaics and with not
increasing the height of the building, to just slope it
toward the back.
We actually are also collecting rainwater for the
landscaping, so it’s actually a very technologically
functioning house and it has a purpose.
CHAIR KANE: Okay, sir, you answered my question.
I’m looking for compatibility. Thank you very much.
CHAIR KANE: Other questions? And we need to keep
in mind we need to hear speakers from the audience, so
let’s have questions for the Applicant right now.
Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: The consulting architect
for the Town looked at this twice, and after the first time
it appeared that you made a number of the changes he
recommended and THAT was documented in your letter.
In the second letter that he sent on May 15, 2018
and that was in our packet he had a list of recommendations
on page 6, and you sent a response about a month later and
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addressed some but not all of those, and normally we would
hear why you wouldn’t address all of them.
For example, you had talked about why you wanted
to keep all the wood siding even though he said take it off
the top upper parts and just leave it at the bottom, and
you talked a lot about why you use standing seam metal
roofing instead of the other roofing materials. But the
other recommendations that he had in terms of aligning the
slope of the different roof pieces and stuff, you just gave
a whole discussion about shed roofing.
So my question is what is your response on those
other items, because normally you would say we could do
this or we couldn’t do it and why, and I didn’t see that in
there on Items 1-4, unless I didn’t read it right.
PATRICK HANCIR: I apologize if I didn’t answer
that in a sufficient way. The first time that we submitted
the TCA said that our house was compatible…was very well
designed for its particular style, and he gave a couple of
recommendations. He said of all the recommendations he had
that the shed roofs were one of the things he could see
leaving them as is, and so he was basically approving of
that. Then the second time came through and he kind of had
different thoughts on the matter, so it was a bit
confusing.
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COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: That didn’t really answer
my question. I read all your description about the shed
roof in there, but he had very specific direction to
reverse the main shed roof slope, to lower the second floor
eave on the front elevation, and simplify the roof forms
and slope directions. He had drawings of how you could do
that, and it wasn’t going to be to eliminate the shed roof,
it was just to make some changes to make it more compatible
with the neighborhood, so that’s the answer I was looking
for.
PATRICK HANCIR: Well, I’d be happy to answer;
that’s a good question.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Okay.
PATRICK HANCIR: In terms of reversing the shape
of the shed roofs, our shed roofs are facing southwest and
we’re very much into having solar panels, and by reversing
them they would then face northeast and we basically
couldn’t have solar panels; they would be extremely
inefficient and wouldn’t really work. That was the main
reason why we decided not to do that. I think those were
the main reasons not to do that.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Okay.
CHAIR KANE: Commissioner Hudes.
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VICE CHAIR HUDES: I’ll hold off till we hear
from the public.
CHAIR KANE: All right, Commissioner Badame.
COMMISSIONER BADAME: Per Exhibit 14, we received
correspondence that your preliminary plans that were signed
off by the neighbors did not include the roof, and the roof
happens to be one of the most controversial issues, so can
you elaborate on the omission, or the perceived omission,
and did you attempt to follow up with the neighbors?
PATRICK HANCIR: Absolutely, and that’s a very
good question, something I was going to get to in the
question and answer session.
In the very beginning we wanted to be as
proactive as possible and talk to the neighbors as soon as
we had even just a rough design. What Davide provided to us
was the front cross-section of what you see here, and from
this in retrospect I can now understand why somebody might
think that that’s flat even though it went back. My wife
did a very good job of trying to point out to people that
this is actually sloped back and tried to explain it to
her, and as we went around the neighborhood several times
in the later months we then had updated plans and showed
them to anybody who was interested and wanted to see them,
and then we explained them more and more, so we had very
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good community outreach. I think some of the confusion
might have come from the very first, which was just a front
cross-section.
COMMISSIONER BADAME: Thank you.
CHAIR KANE: Other questions for the speaker?
Seeing none, thank you. I now invite comments from members
of the public. If you have not already done so, please turn
in a speaker card, and when you are called to speak
remember to state your name and address for the record, and
adjust the microphone. You will each have three minutes.
Joan Kjemtrup.
JOAN KJEMTRUP: My name is Joan Kjemtrup and I
live at 15950 Rochin Terrace, and this is at the end of the
cul de sac, and I support this application to build a new
home on Rochin Terrace.
I like the architectural design and I think it
makes the neighborhood more interesting. I’ve lived in my
house—it was built in 1963—since the homes on Rochin Court
were built in the 1970s and there is a variation in the
design. Now, the housing on Rochin Terrace is mixed. Some
add another story. A few, including mine, which is on the
end of the cul de sac and not shown on the plans, are the
original.
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The original house owned by the Rochins for whom
the street was named on Rochin Terrace and Linda Avenue is
in the process of being remodeled and has a flat roof, and
as far as the neighborhood, as we mentioned, it doesn’t
matter whether it’s in county of Los Gatos, nobody knows
that; I didn’t even know it was still in the county.
So I just want to say I hope you approve this
application and I’m looking forward to this new addition to
the neighborhood, which I think will add a nice touch to
the neighborhood.
CHAIR KANE: Thank you very much. Questions for
the speaker? Thank you. Vita Parsi.
VITA PARSI: Hello, my name is Vita Parsi. My
husband and I have lived in Los Gatos for the past seven
years. We’re at 15908 Rochin Court. Our property is pretty
much like one house across from the proposed new
construction. I’m here today to represent myself and three
other neighbors who couldn’t make it today; two of them
actually signed originally not knowing this was a flat or
shed roof or whatever they are calling it, and then later
on when they found out they have sent letters of opposition
afterwards.
Our main opposition to this construction is the
roof. We don’t think that it comes and blends with the rest
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of the neighborhood. Some people may call it modernization,
but I love Los Gatos and our neighborhood the way it is;
I’m not looking to modernize it in this way.
They talked about the roof being this way because
the height is not going to be as much, so it doesn’t
obstruct the view of the mountains. It still does. I took a
picture today with the story poles and it is blocking the
mountain views, the views of the mountain, but that’s not
what I’m here for.
My main objection to the project is the roof. The
property at 15902 is in the county line. As neighbors we
had no say in it. It is being expanded in different phases,
so nobody even… Like I thought they were just fixing their
landscaping, and then the next thing I realized was that it
is being expanded, and they did some flat roof addition to
the back and there’s now some flat roof addition to the
front, but we have no say in it.
I am here to plead to you as members of the
Planning Commission to save our neighborhood. We love the
neighborhood the way it is. We love the old style of this
neighborhood. One thing that I do want to bring to your
attention is by approving this modern flat shed roof style
you are opening the door for all the other new construction
in the Town of Los Gatos that is going to happen in the
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future, and they’re going to all refer to this construction
as being the house that was permitted, so again, I’m here
to ask for your help to save our neighborhood, and that’s
it.
CHAIR KANE: You have 30 seconds. You’re not up
yet.
VIDA PARSI: So again, just wanted to bring to
your attention the two other people on the form that they
had signed, Lauren Swanson and Lloyd and Nancy Thompson,
but later on when they realized that this was about the
height and a new building and it was the structure they did
want to bring their opposition; they have sent a letter.
And the other thing, this is a corner lot; it’s a
little bit elevated from the level of the street. It’s
going to stick out like a sore thumb.
CHAIR KANE: Thank you. Any questions for the
speaker? Thank you very much. I don’t think I have any
other cards, so the Applicant will have five minutes to add
and/or rebut.
PATRICK HANCIR: Sure. Thank you very much. I
would like to take this time to rebut some of the questions
about the complaints that we have had.
I’ll start with what Vida was saying. Vida came
to our open house where Monica showed her the front cross-
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section, and Monica said that she was very nice and they
got along very well. Monica also mentioned that the roofs
slope back, even though as I mentioned before, that was the
case.
Vida talked about the story poles and her views,
she mentioned that many times, and at no time did she
mention the style or the design at all. Later I went to
their house and spoke with her husband Sharom (phonetic)
for about 20 minutes; he was very nice and we really
enjoyed talking. I showed him the views from the house
height compared to the one that you see on the bottom left
corner there, something to show that we wouldn’t be
obstructing the views much at all. I had updated designs in
my hand and offered to show them to him, but he said he
wasn’t even interested in seeing them and gave the
impression that the design was not even important. He
reiterated once again that he was waiting for the story
poles to go up.
Based on their response and from other people we
actually proactively lowered the overall height, and their
letter was talking about the flat roof architecture
representing the quaintness of the neighborhood and the
land shouldn’t count.
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In terms of responding to their argument about
the quaintness, once again I’ve tried to make the case that
unlike normal situations where the immediate neighborhood
is the overwhelming factor, that we should put more
emphasis into the extended neighborhood, and in this case
there are many, many different styles, close to ten
different styles, and the Residential Design Guidelines are
seeking to encourage architectural diversity.
Then at the very last second, probably within the
last 24 hours, two more people that she was referring to,
Lauren Swanson and Lloyd Thompson, I’ll address them now.
Lauren came to the open house, once again saw the
front cross-section, Monica clarified with them about this,
and we said that we were trying to preserve the views.
Later we baked cookies and went over to talk to him with
our children and showed him the updated design and the
street-level profiles, and he never once mentioned anything
about the designs being not to his liking. However, now
he’s saying that he doesn’t like the roofline.
As far as Lloyd, he did not come to the open
house, but I talked to him and his wife for a very long
time and he taught me about the history of the
neighborhood. We showed him the updated design and the
street-level profile of the houses. He was very much in
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favor and he signed our letter at the time, having seen it.
However, now his letter is saying that the two-story design
will stand out a lot more than the one-story house, and we
feel that that’s contradictory to all the other things that
we have heard from many of the people saying that they want
to have a traditional gabled roof, which would be even 5’
higher, so that’s kind of a contradiction.
Then the other thing I would mention is that both
Lauren and Lloyd’s emails to Sean originated from the same
email address and they both cc’d Sharom as well. Not that
there’s necessarily anything wrong with that, but it just
leads me to believe that there was some coordination that
was going on here as well.
Other things that I’d like to say is that we
understand that not everyone likes this particular style,
but as the Commissioner said before, we have to adjudicate
based on the rules, and we have followed every rule and
regulation as well.
Even though the neighbors didn’t necessarily get
a say in the county proposal I’ve tried to make the case
that it would have a strong chance of passing on its own,
because its immediate neighborhood has a mid-century modern
house with flat roofs and it has a greater architectural
style than we do. I’ll yield at this time.
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CHAIR KANE: Yes, sir.
DAVIDE GIANNELLA: Just one element to emphasize
about mass and height. Really it’s almost contradictory
considering this house. If you look at the second floor
over the garage it’s pushed back so much that half of the
house is almost a one-story house. The other half, the real
two-story portion, only the stairwell glass is two-story,
everything else looks down, so we are more than 5’ less
than what we could. The mass is very little.
CHAIR KANE: Thank you. Questions for either of
the speakers?
VICE CHAIR HUDES: I have some questions in
different categories, but I’m going to start with a
question about neighborhood compatibility.
You quoted Mr. Cannon that, “The house is well
designed within its chosen architectural style,” and then
you went on to talk about the improvements. You didn’t
mention that in that same section he said, “It would
however be a strong departure from the character of the
surrounding neighborhood.”
Then in his previous letter he said, “The
proposed design creates a substantial dilemma, is well
designed and would be a good addition to some
neighborhoods, however, in this context it would seem to
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not be consistent with the Residential Design Guidelines
and Town’s strong emphasis through those guidelines on
neighborhood compatibility.
I’d like you to address in a little more detail
why this is compatible with the neighborhood, and with the
emphasis primary on the immediate neighborhood as in the
design guidelines, and in particular you did cite certain
elements about proportion size and mass. I listened
carefully to your presentation, I understand those, I don’t
need to hear that again, I understand that; those relates
more to building code. You also described “cozy, warm and
charming,” and while those are interesting attributes, they
are difficult to evaluate in an objective way, so I’d
really like to understand from objective standards of
architecture how this is compatible with the neighborhood.
PATRICK HANCIR: Sure. One thing I’d like to add
before passing the time to Davide is that we worked very
closely with Staff on this, and one thing that the TCA did
not account for is the contemporary house, he was making
the case that it should not count, but we’ve talked with
Staff and they kind of said that that he was incorrect on
that, and we can talk to Staff about that as well, that it
should count and it does set the precedent, even if it’s on
county line.
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Another thing that we did is we have a
conventional roof in between the first and second stories
as well, which is a 5:12, and from street level as you’re
walking along you don’t even see the top story house. What
you would experience as you’re walking around is this
conventional type roof on this coming around the bend and
stuff like that.
DAVIDE GIANNELLA: Like Patrick was saying, the
first floor roof is actually a traditional hip roof. It
turns the corner and stays like all the other homes sloping
in that direction. The only shed roof is at the very top,
which you will not even see from street point; you will see
the gutter lines at the edge of it.
Responding to your question of how we correspond
to the neighbors in a more practical way, we have a two-
story house just behind us, and that’s where we put the
two-story volume of our house, even though we are much
lower than that one. To our left we have a single-story
home, and that’s where we have the majority of it being a
single-story with a garage and the lower addition on top of
it. So we responded by really balancing, as you can see
from the street profiles, to the height and the mass of the
adjacent buildings.
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The only missing element perhaps is a traditional
hip roof, which everybody seems to be seeking. Adding that
will really make this a big, two-story box so visible in
the corner, and there are other homes like that across the
street. We have a two-story one with a very high pitched
roof just over the garage that looks like an addition over
a garage, so we tried to break the mass both horizontally
and vertically so it wouldn’t be imposing.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: I’m not sure you’ve really
answered my question. I think you’ve somewhat defended the
basis for the design, which I concur with the architect
about the quality of the design, but I’m trying evaluate
neighborhood compatibility…
DAVIDE GIANNELLA: Yes, I’m getting to that.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: …and so if you could please
get to that point quickly.
DAVIDE GIANNELLA: We reduced considerably the
size of the windows that are very close to the adjacent
home’s windows. The larger ones that you see are the ones
in the front, the two over the stair, and those are exactly
the same size as a lot of those sliding glass doors that
the neighbors have, like 7’ tall, 8’ wide, 7x8, something
like that, that’s exactly a copy of those sizes. The other
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windows that you see on the front are very small, like 2x2,
like other residential homes around us have.
Garage door initially was glass. We listened to
the TCA and now it’s a wood siding. We reduced the parapet
of the garage so that we lowered its mass by using cables.
We introduced warmer materials with wood siding,
which at the beginning the TCA did not oppose, and those
are present in a lot of adjacent homes; there is a mixture
of stucco and wood siding. The difference is that this is a
more contemporary type of wood siding, but other homes also
around there have this mix.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Okay, I’ve picked up a bit of
that. In terms of the windows, specifically you spoke about
the size of the windows, but there are other things: the
style of the windows, the number of lights in the windows,
the materials used for the windows, the casings around the
windows, are you representing that they are very similar to
what’s in the neighborhood?
DAVIDE GIANNELLA: We analyzed the neighbors and
there is really a variety. There are aluminum windows,
vinyl windows, some wood windows, and these are
contemporary wood-aluminum clad windows, so they have the
beauty and warmth of wood inside and the durability of
aluminum outside. We thought of adding some casing around,
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but it was more like putting a lipstick to mimic some of
the adjacent homes when we didn’t feel it was needed, and
to us it was really a matter of proportion and size of the
opening to solid ratio.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Okay, thank you. I have other
questions about the roof, but I’ll let other people go.
CHAIR KANE: Commissioner Badame.
COMMISSIONER BADAME: I’ll ask one more question
about the roof. So you want a metal roof as well. Is there
a metal roof anywhere in the immediate neighborhood, or
even in the extended neighborhood?
PATRICK HANCIR: I believe that the house at
15902 will also have a metal roof; I’m not 100% sure about
that. We made that choice based on all of the benefits and
the technology that go into that, and I could list many,
many reasons why it is technologically better, but again,
in terms of seeing seen, with the current design the top
story roof is hardly visible whatsoever. If you’re looking
from the street level you wouldn’t even be able to see it,
and it’s going to be completely covered with solar panels
that integrate completely flush, so it’s not even really a
concern what it’s made out of.
COMMISSIONER BADAME: Thank you.
CHAIR KANE: Other questions? Commissioner Hudes.
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VICE CHAIR HUDES: Back on the roof, you said the
roof is not a flat roof, correct?
PATRICK HANCIR: Correct.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Would you describe it as a
low-angle shed roof…
PATRICK HANCIR: Yes, that’s exactly…
VICE CHAIR HUDES: …a standing seam metal
construction?
PATRICK HANCIR: Correct.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: And so with that
characterization, in the 39 homes is the one that’s on
county property the only one that has that construction?
PATRICK HANCIR: Well, as I said, also there’s a
mid-century modern house that’s…
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Does it have a standing seam
metal roof?
PATRICK HANCIR: No, it was built in 1953, and
part of the reason here is that one of the things that the
Residential Design Guidelines states is that change should
happen over time. I don’t remember the exact section, but
as technology gets better and better we should embrace that
while still making it look nice, and we shouldn’t stay with
old technology from the 1950s and 1960s when there’s
something that’s functionally much better. This is a design
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that’s both functional and beautiful, so we tried to
combine the two.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: Not arguing that. Standing
seam metal roofs go back to the 1800s. With regard to the
letter and the comments from Mr. Cannon on the roof, again
you state that, “The TCA also said that the shed roof forms
are busy and chaotic.” What he actually said was multiple
shed roof forms are busy and chaotic. How many different
roof planes are there on this house, and how does that
relate to the surrounding neighborhood in terms of the
number of roof planes?
DAVIDE GIANNELLA: We really have three different
roofs: the lower one that separates the two stories; first
and second floor; and the hip roof that wraps around, and
that relates really closely to any other house around the
area.
The upper roof is one single, big plane that
slopes all back toward the back, the shed roof. It has a
sort of jogging profile, because it follows the house
footprint, but it’s all one single plane, and then we have
one-third roof sloping toward the side of Rochin Court. So
those are the three planes.
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We have two different slopes, a shallower one at
the top, 2:12, and 5:12 the other ones that are at the
lower level. So it’s really two shapes, two slopes.
The TCA in his first review didn’t mention
anything about the roof that we didn’t change when we did
the second submittal. We adopted all his recommendations
from the first review.
CHAIR KANE: Other questions for the speaker?
Commissioner Janoff.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Two questions. Would you be
amenable to simplifying the shed roof planes in accordance
with what the TCA is recommending? If he’s looking for a
single roof plane front to back, I’m looking at it kind of
cants a little bit differently on the two-story versus the
backside of the house. Would you be willing to create a
simpler single plane?
PATRICK HANCIR: Sure. That’s a very good
question. The point that I would like to make is we would
be not amenable to putting in a conventional, traditional
roof, because you want the design to be cohesive. For
example, if you had a Tudor house and you wanted to put a
flat roof on that it wouldn’t be cohesive or make any
sense.
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COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Excuse me; I’m not
suggesting that you create a gabled roof or anything else.
It’s still a shed roof; it still has a low angle. The only
question is would you…
PATRICK HANCIR: I understand; I was getting to
that. I’m saying as long as it’s a roof shape that’s in the
contemporary style we would be amenable to making small
changes for sure; we’re not married to this particular
thing.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Thank you. One additional
question. You mentioned the solar panels. Are you saying—
and this is with regard to, say, an asphalt shingle versus
the standing seam—that 100% of the low angle roof is
covered or intended to be covered with panels, such that
once the panels are in you can’t tell what the underlying
surface is?
PATRICK HANCIR: I did attach a picture to one of
my first proposals, and in those pictures you literally
cannot see anything below that. We have not gotten to the
point to know how much area that needs to be covered, but
we want to have an electric car and we want to have a lot
of coverage as well, and so we would take great care into
the… If it wasn’t 100%, it was only 80-90%, it would be the
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ones… We would definitely cover anything that would be
visible to people on the street.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Thank you.
DAVIDE GIANNELLA: I’ll add one thing. Regarding
the conversation about sloping the shed towards the street,
the opposite direction that the TCA had recommended in the
second review, considering the photovoltaics, they would
then become really apparent and visible from the street as
opposed to now, besides the bad orientation sun-wise, but
by sloping backward you won’t then see the photovoltaics
which are on the upper roof at all.
CHAIR KANE: Commissioner Hanssen, you had your
had up?
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Yes. Commissioner Janoff’s
questioning was going where I was trying to earlier. Now, I
understood your point about the southwest perspective. We
have solar panels on our house and the front of our house
faces north, and so you want to put them facing backwards.
But I’m looking at this and I can see that of the different
three roofs you’re talking about at least two of them are
going different ways, so it seemed to me if you’re willing
to simplify it, maybe you can’t turn the upper one this way
because the sun’s over here, but maybe you could take the
lower one and turn it this way so that they’re going in the
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same direction. I think if you’re willing to make a few
adjustments like that it would go a long way towards
addressing the consulting architect’s concerns.
PATRICK HANCIR: That’s a great recommendation
and we would be amenable to that. One of the reasons why we
weren’t concerned about that is we have a lot of area on
that main roof and we thought that would be enough for our
solar panels, but that’s a very good suggestion; we would
be absolutely amenable to that.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Okay.
CHAIR KANE: Other questions or comments? I have
one. We’ve been focusing on the houses in the neighborhood
with flat roofs, and I was wondering if you are aware of,
in the Residential Design Guidelines, “Some houses were
constructed with little consideration to the neighborhood
style and characteristics. Others were remodeled with
little sensitivity to existing architectural style. These
aberrations will not be considered when analyzing a
neighborhood.” I’m wondering, and it’s a slightly
rhetorical question, but how familiar are you with these
Residential Design Guidelines? Because I feel like we’re
planets apart.
PATRICK HANCIR: I’ve literally read the
Residential Design Guidelines, all 86 pages of it, about
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three or four times, and I did call that out in my
presentation.
What I was trying to say was the contemporary
house did not have to go through this design process, but
let’s pretend for a moment that it did, and I still feel
that it would have a good chance of passing if it had to go
through its own residential, so it’s not an aberration,
because within its own immediate neighborhood it had a
house with flat roofs, which is the mid-century modern
house, so I think it itself would pass, and therefore sets
the precedent (inaudible).
CHAIR KANE: I do not want to argue with you, but
not only did I read it, I wrote it, along with Commissioner
O'Donnell and the Mayor. We took a tour of the
neighborhoods, the Town Council and Planning Commission,
and what Larry Cannon was saying is the word you’ve used
before on confrontation. He said, “The immediate
neighborhood is important, because these neighbors will be
confronted.” No observed, but confronted, by an aberration,
and they have to live with it, and so that’s why the 2-2-5
was used for the house on the street and the corner lot was
designed according to the diagram we both referred to, and
that’s why they’re important, because the confrontation of
the people who live around the aberration, and I’m
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wondering if you are familiar with that, or how could I
mitigate my concerns with that?
PATRICK HANCIR: That’s a very good point and
thank you for bringing it up. We’re trying to make the
argument that we do not believe that it is an aberration,
and we are also trying to make the case that because of the
nature of the enclosed environment that all of the
neighbors are confronted not just with the houses in the
immediate neighborhood, but the entire extended
neighborhood as a whole, so it’s kind of a cohesive… And
there are many, many different styles within the whole
neighborhood, so we don’t feel that it would be right to
single one particular one out.
CHAIR KANE: I have one final question. Mr.
Giannella, your office is in Los Gatos.
DAVIDE GIANNELLA: Yes.
CHAIR KANE: But you and I have not had business
before. Have you been before the Planning Commission
before?
DAVIDE GIANNELLA: Yes, for historical
renovation, yes.
CHAIR KANE: And did I work with you on…
DAVIDE GIANNELLA: No, that was maybe three years
ago; I don’t remember meeting.
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CHAIR KANE: But you are familiar with these
Residential Design Guidelines?
DAVIDE GIANNELLA: Yes, when I was hired for this
project Monica and Patrick came to me exactly explaining
what the limitation would be, and we discussed and studied
the guidelines, and truly, honestly, I came for informal
reviews with the planners of the Town many times, and
Monica and Patrick showed the drawings to the neighbors,
and I felt (inaudible) on my sensibility, maybe wrongly,
that you can respond to a certain surrounding with
creativity, being able to adopt certain elements without
really copying exactly what’s there; otherwise nothing can
ever be different, we can just make photocopies almost.
CHAIR KANE: I appreciate the philosophy, but in
going through the guidelines did you see any one house that
faintly resembled the project you are presenting to us
tonight?
DAVIDE GIANNELLA: Yes, the one that is being…
CHAIR KANE: No, sir, in the guidelines.
DAVIDE GIANNELLA: No, but I believe, to be
honest, that when the guidelines were written there were
less of these more transitional, contemporary, more modern
homes at that time, and so there wasn’t a typical style
that was represented at all.
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CHAIR KANE: It was written in 2008. Frank Lloyd
Wright had been around for a long time.
DAVIDE GIANNELLA: That is true. (Inaudible).
CHAIR KANE: I’m just saying in these guidelines
can I find a house that looks like yours?
DAVIDE GIANNELLA: I think the house responds to
a site (inaudible) respond to a certain zoning
requirements, and so I believe every design organically,
like Frank Lloyd Wright will do, comes out of the situation
that is unique because of that.
CHAIR KANE: Thank you, sir.
DAVIDE GIANNELLA: Thank you.
CHAIR KANE: Do we have any other questions for
either of the speakers? Then I thank you.
PATRICK HANCIR: Can I add one more thing to
that? There is the mid-century modern house that is there
as well, and that has flat roofs as well.
CHAIR KANE: I don’t want to debate. I’m just
saying is there anything like that in these guidelines?
PATRICK HANCIR: There is not one in those
guidelines.
CHAIR KANE: Thank you, sir. I turn to the
Commission for questions of Staff, comments, or a motion.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: (Inaudible).
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CHAIR KANE: I said thank you before and he came
back. You’re right, Tom. I’m closing the public portion of
the public hearing, turning to commissioners looking for a
comment, questions of Staff, or a motion. Commissioner
Badame.
COMMISSIONER BADAME: I’ll make a comment. To the
Applicant’s point, the Residential Design Guidelines do
encourage architectural diversity, and I’m not opposed to
modern architecture. But they also require that visual
unity be maintained to protect the character of the
neighborhoods, and that’s addressed on page 62. The current
design, it stands out, and this is a corner lot and it
makes it even more pronounced, so I cannot support the
application as presented tonight.
CHAIR KANE: Other comments? Commissioner
O'Donnell.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I agree with my fellow
commissioner on that point. I also wanted to say that Larry
Cannon’s letter of May 15th, on pages four and five,
particularly on page five, he lists issues and problems
that I think in large measure have not been addressed.
It appears to me that although these gentlemen
are very knowledgeable, and I appreciate the work they did,
they’re very intelligent, they seem to have a feeling that
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so much passage of time has occurred that clearly we must
do it differently. The problem is that’s not right.
The problem is as long as the rules are as they
are we are supposed to pay attention to those rules. I
agree with Mr. Cannon that this house somewhere else might
be fine, but in this neighborhood I don’t find it the least
bit compatible with the immediate neighborhood, and as we
all know, that’s what we’re supposed to consider: the
immediate neighborhood, not the larger neighborhood.
CHAIR KANE: I would share with you my support
for that, Commissioner O'Donnell, and I was thinking in one
sense the case is wrapped up for me by the Staff Report
saying that the Town Architect said this was a very good
design for some neighborhoods. That’s what the Staff report
said, but the letter from the Town Architect said
essentially this is a very fine house and would be fine in
some neighborhoods, but not in this one, and I agree. I
mean I think the house is superb, it’s marvelous, but our
job is to protect, preserve, and develop consistent with
the rules, and I’m having trouble getting this one inside
the rules.
Commissioner Hudes.
VICE CHAIR HUDES: I may have some views
different than the Chair with regard to what kind of house
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is permitted under the Residential Design Guidelines. I
don’t have a disagreement about the importance of
neighborhood compatibility as it’s written in the design
guidelines.
I did have a question for Staff though actually
before we get into debate, and that is how are we to take
into account county properties when we’re evaluating
neighborhood compatibility issues? I notice that the county
property is on the square footage chart. Is it also to be
taken into account for neighborhood compatibility?
SEAN MULLIN: Thank you. It is within the
immediate neighborhood and would be considered in the
decision.
CHAIR KANE: Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I know the design
guidelines specify the immediate neighborhood, but I
actually drive through that neighborhood a lot because I go
over to Union Safeway and sometimes the traffic bad at
Blossom Hill. I actually did that today and I drove around
and around and around it, and other than the specific two
houses that were mentioned by the Applicant, I could not
find any house that had this kind of architecture. I mean
they’re all older homes, but they all have the gabled roofs
and they have the same general look and feel. They’re
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different architectural styles, but they all don’t have the
completely modern look and feel.
That being said, I don’t know that it really
changes the neighborhood incredibly to do that, but this is
also a corner lot, so I’m struggling with this one, because
it’s visible clearly not only from the front but on the
side, and as was said, it comes up a little bit, and it is
very different than anything in the immediate neighborhood,
and I would not count the county house, because we don’t
have jurisdiction, and we we’ve had these situations before
where there’s a county house that’s 4,500-5,000 square feet
and our guidelines say you can have 3,500 square feet, so
we can’t necessarily use that as a barometer of where the
neighborhood could be going.
I also wanted to comment that as far as the
standing seam metal roof, although I think that the
arguments made for the sustainability aspect of it were
very strong, and I understand the point about the solar
panels, having done solar panels, I know we put solar
panels on our house and we had to hurry up and get it done
for a specific reason, and that is because the fire code
regulations were changing so that you have to have at least
a 3’ perimeter around your solar panels, so you can’t
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actually cover the whole roof, because the fire codes
require you to have a 3’ border for fire safety.
That being said, I’m on the fence about this one,
but if it’s strictly a matter of neighborhood compatibility
clearly not only in the 11 houses or so around there, but
also in many of the streets around it, you’re not going to
find houses like this.
CHAIR KANE: Commissioner O'Donnell.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: If it’s appropriate I’d
like to make a motion; I think we’ve all had an opportunity
to talk.
CHAIR KANE: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I would move that we
deny the application for the reasons stated by my fellow
commissioners in support of a denial; and also in
particular because the issues raised in Larry Cannon’s
letter of May 15th, particularly on page five of the bullet
points, have not been responded to; and visually having
inspected the site and knowing the definition of immediate
neighborhood, it is not compatible; just visually it is not
compatible, and so that’s the basis of my motion.
CHAIR KANE: Thank you. Do we have a second?
Commissioner Badame.
COMMISSIONER BADAME: Second.
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CHAIR KANE: All right, discussion? Commissioner
Burch, do you have anything to add to this?
COMMISSIONER BIRCH: Everyone has so articulately
stated. I fully agree with my fellow commissioners. I drove
around the neighborhood too. It’s a beautiful home; I just
feel it’s not compatible with the immediate neighborhood.
CHAIR KANE: Okay. You are not usually so silent,
so I was worried.
COMMISSIONER BIRCH: It’s been a long day.
CHAIR KANE: Any other comment or discussion?
Seeing none, I’ll call the question. All those in favor of
the motion, say aye. I count unanimous hands. The
application is denied at this point. Mr. Paulson, are there
appeal rights?
JOEL PAULSON: There are appeal rights. Anyone
who is not satisfied with the decision of the Planning
Commission can appeal that decision to the Town Council.
Forms are available in Clerk’s Office. There is a fee for
filing the appeal, and the appeal must be filed within ten
days.