Attachment 2March 13,2017
Town of Los Gatos Council Members
110 E. Main Street
Los Gatos, CA 95030
RE: Request for waiver of the Technical Demolition fine for 205 University Avenue, Los Gatos
We respectfully request a waiver of the technical demolition fine imposed with respect to construction
at 205 University Avenue.
By way of background, we purchased our home in October 2013. Aftera long process of workinB with
an architect, the BuildinB and Planning Department, the HPC, and interviewing several contractors, we
started the remodel process.
We both work full time and were not at the construction site on a daily basis. As we learned after the
fact, when commencing work on our home remodel, our contractor removed the cripple wall siding on
the driveway side of the house, to gain access to the underside, for purposes of retrofitting the existing
structure with a proper, current code compliant foundation. At that time, they discovered significant
water damage to the exterior siding on the driveway side of the house, rendering most the driveway
side wall siding unserviceable, deteriorated beyond repair. Due to the lack of insulation paper on the
entire driveway side wall siding, water and sun caused damaBe to the siding integrity, allowing water to
seep through the inside of the siding, creating significant and extensive, unrepairable damage in
multiple locations. The contractor removed the wall with the intent to restore the driveway side wall of
the home to the same look and location as before, while preventing any further damage and
deterioration.
ATTACHN,IENT 2
Unfortunately, and what brings us to this situation, is that our contractor did not know that he should
have consulted with the Building & Planning Department prior to removing the wall. We changed
contractors prior to commencing construction because our first selected contractor (who signed the
demolition affidavit), had some worker's compensation insurance matters that needed to be addressed.
We discovered later that our second contractor did not receive or sign a demolition affidavit.
We, as Owners, did not know that the contractor was going to remove the wall. Our contractor should
have also informed us before proceeding. This was a deviation from the approved plans with the Town
of Los Gatos and from our authorized instructions to him as our Contractor. We were utterly shocked
when we came to the house 3 days after construction commenced to find that not only had that wall
been removed, but our home had been tagged with a "stop Work Notice".
we ask that the Town of Los Gatos consider our plea to waive the Technicar Demorition fine on our
home based on the following reasons;
' lt was not an intentional noncompliance with the Town Code. The wall was restored exactly as
it was before, including at the same location, using like materials.
' The Technlcal Demolition resulted in a very large financial burden; modestly calculating costs
that we can recall, and thal are clearly associated with the Technical Demolition, totaling more
than s38,000. please see Exhibit A. Thiscalcuration do€s not include the extra expense fof
our housing costs during the delayed construction and the additional months we had to pay
the mortgage on property without being able to live there.r we restored the house to have t h€ sam e stru ctural appearance as theoriginal house. The
improvements made to the facade have added varue to the neighborhood and to the Town of
Los Gatos on a well-traveled street that serves as the gateway to Old Town.r we remodeled the inside of the house to hav€ a crassic design, incorporating some of the
original pieces ofthe house intothe design. Forexample,we re-used the 1oo+yearold parlor
Doors that were originalto the house. Additionally, as a tribute to the origina I structure a nd
"bones" of the house, we used some of the original wood that was removed during the
remodel to have a custom bench, table and shelves built and used in the interior design.o Please see attached pictures that show some before and after pictures.
we bought this house because rt has always been our desire to live and be a part of the downtown
community of Los Gatos. Since moving into our home, r (Tami) ioined the Los Gatos chamber of
commerce to learn more about the businesses and departments that serve the Town. I have attended
meetings and mixers and assisted as a volunteer at the "Girl's Night out" fund raiser for the chamber.
l'm continuing to be involved and volunteer with the LG Chamber of Commerce.
Additionally, lintroduced myself and participated in a "rlde along" with sargent Kalipo Kauweloa. My
intent was to understand more about the department and about the Traffic issues around downtown.
Late last summer we hosted a Block party at our home. we invited allour neithbors on unlversity
Avenue from the corner of Saratoga Los Gatos Rd to old Town. rt was a fun afternoon/evening and a
great opportunity to get to know our neighbors.
Both Dave and r have careers that take up most of our time, but when we are not at work, we enjoy
walking, shopping, dining and being a part ofthe downtown community of Los Gatos and we rook
,orward to many more years here and the opportunity to becoming more involved with the Town and
the Community.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
With sincere re gards,
TamiSho David Plewa
205 University Avenue, Los Gatos
408-489-5568
Re-application Fee 5 L2,752.0O
New Permit fee & Plan Check fees S s,352.00
Additional Architectural fees s 2,200.00
Fire Sprinklers S 6,200.00
Fire sprinkler permits and engineering and trenching for
new water valve for pressure to run sprinklers S 2,6u.oo
Story poles S 1,2oo.oo
PG&E junction box.
They require that we increase the size of the conduit
and trench it allthe way to the splice box.
Therefore, we need to run a new trench.S 4,ooo.oo
Temporary power pole from PG&E s 1,634.00
Remove and replace approx 216 sf of 6" thick driveway
approach, sidewalk, and driveway, per city of Los Gatos S 2,4s6.00
Exhibit A
Additional Costs Assoclated with Technical
Demolotion Cost
Total:i 3&421.00
Exterior at time of
purchase
Exterior now
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