Attachment 3LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 7/27/2016
Item #3, 16362 Hilow Road
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A P P E A R A N C E S:
Los Gatos Planning
Commissioners:
Mary Badame, Chair
D. Michael Kane, Vice Chair
Kendra Burch
Charles Erekson
Melanie Hanssen
Matthew Hudes
Tom O’Donnell
Town Manager: Laurel Prevetti
Community Development
Director:
Joel Paulson
Town Attorney: Robert Schultz
Transcribed by: Vicki L. Blandin
(510) 337-1558
ATTACHMENT 3
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P R O C E E D I N G S:
CHAIR BADAME: We are moving to Item 3, which is
16362 Hilow Road, Architecture and Site Application S-16-
011, to consider an appeal of a decision of the Development
Review Committee approving an Architecture and Site
Application to construct a new single-family residence on
property zoned R-1:8, APN 532-04-082.
May I have a show of hands from Commissioners who
have visited the site? Are there any disclosures from
Commissioners? Seeing none.
Mr. Paulson, I understand you will be providing
us with a Staff Report this evening.
JOEL PAULSON: I will provide a brief Staff
Report. There’s not much to add above and beyond what is in
the written Staff Report, but generally this is a parcel
that’s currently vacant. There was a home on it prior to it
being vacant, which was granted approval to be demolished
within the county.
The applicant submitted an application, and the
application went to three DRC hearings. The first two DRC
hearings the matter was continued, and at the third hearing
it was ultimately approved. Over that time the Applicant
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tried to work with the neighbors in an effort to address
the concerns that were raised, which were varied, and
ultimately at the final hearing the adjacent neighbor, the
Wagners, came and spoke and had mentioned that they felt
their concerns were adequately addressed with the changes.
Subsequent to that an appeal was filed, and
generally that is outlined in Exhibit 15; all of the
relevant reasons for why the appeal was filed are in the
Staff Report. Generally, there were concerns with the
cellar, and also with neighborhood compatibility issues
with mass, size, two stories, and the existing neighborhood
that’s out there.
The Appellant is also obviously here and she will
be presenting, and I will be passing out a hard copy of the
PowerPoint that she’ll be going through. Additionally, the
Applicant has provided some photos that I will also pass
out at the same time.
After addressing the concerns, and at the final
hearing, the Development Review Committee determined, as
was originally the case at the first hearing, that the
application is consistent with the Residential Design
Guidelines, is consistent with the neighborhood—there is a
two-story house directly adjacent to this property—and was
in compliance with all of their applicable requirements,
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and therefore approved the application, as stated
previously.
Therefore, as recommended in the Staff Report,
Staff recommends that the Planning Commission deny the
appeal and approve the Architecture and Site Application as
set forth in the Staff Report.
That concludes Staff’s presentation, and we’re
here for any questions.
CHAIR BADAME: Thank you, Mr. Paulson. Questions?
Commissioner Hanssen followed by Vice Chair Kane. Go ahead,
Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: The first question I had
on this is did I misread the application, or would this not
be the largest house in the neighborhood?
JOEL PAULSON: It will not be the largest house
in the neighborhood from a square footage standpoint. The
property adjacent to it is 3,584 square feet, so it is
larger in square footage.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I’m looking at the
combination of the house and the garage, and on page 5 of
the Staff Report it says 4,411 house and garage, and I
don’t see anything smaller than that.
JOEL PAULSON: We provide that information for
the Planning Commission’s consideration. We don’t take that
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into consideration when we’re looking at it. We look purely
at the square footage for the house and the garage
separately.
And again, we look at the immediate neighborhood
as one component as defined in the Residential Design
Guidelines, but there are also other homes in the immediate
area, not in the defined immediate neighborhood, that have
FAR in excess of both house and there are some garages that
are similarly sized.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: But yet it is among one of
the very largest houses in the neighborhood if it does get
approved. I’m just wondering why this didn’t come to the
Planning Commission when we’ve seen other applications
where it’s one of the largest houses in the neighborhood. I
was kind of curious about that, and why it had to come to
appeal that a resident would have had to pay for when it’s
very much on the high end of the neighborhood. This isn’t
even talking about the cellar; this is just the two-story
house.
JOEL PAULSON: After Staff’s objective review of
the application, in light of the existing policies and
guidelines and code, Staff determined that it was compliant
with the Residential Design Guidelines and the code, so
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that’s why Staff didn’t forward it to the Planning
Commission.
If it was the largest house in the neighborhood,
then that probably would have automatically triggered it.
Staff would have brought that forward, which is typically
what you see.
The other typical scenario is if there were no
two stories in the immediate neighborhood, we would have
brought that forward too. That’s pretty typical protocol
from Staff.
CHAIR BADAME: Confirm that house that’s next
door is in the county, so do we consider county property
that’s not subject to the Town of Los Gatos Residential
Design Guidelines?
JOEL PAULSON: We consider county; that’s the
immediate neighborhood. If we used that marker, then there
would be no immediate neighborhood in this scenario.
CHAIR BADAME: Commissioner Hudes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: What’s the status of 16386
Hilow, which I believe has similar square footage, the
house and identical lot size?
JOEL PAULSON: That is true, and that is still in
Staff technical review. I believe they have installed story
poles, but if I recall correctly the item is scheduled for
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technical review again on August 10th, and following that
technical review a determination will be made as to whether
or not that application needs to come before the Planning
Commission, or whether that will be heard at the DRC.
CHAIR BADAME: Commissioner Hudes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: With regard to the story
poles, I believe the height of the house was lowered. Do we
know if the story poles were lowered as well, or if what I
saw out there is accurate?
JOEL PAULSON: We’ll let the Applicant also speak
to that, but what I understand from reading their materials
is that these story poles have not been reduced, so that is
at the original height when they went through, so it would
be 2 feet lower than that, but I would look to the
Applicant to confirm that.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Thank you.
CHAIR BADAME: Any further questions? Vice Chair
Kane.
VICE CHAIR KANE: I believe this house was built
in 1991, when we researched, because I’m interested in the
annexation. Do you know when the Town annexed this
property?
JOEL PAULSON: This property in question today?
VICE CHAIR KANE: Yes.
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JOEL PAULSON: This year, so this house was not
built in 1991. The original house was built well before
that.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Maybe it was the house before
that.
JOEL PAULSON: It’s the property before that I
think is where you’re recalling the 1991.
VICE CHAIR KANE: I have the same concern that
the Chair does about the county standards versus our
standards, and we’ve got ourselves in the crosshairs over
our Residential Design Guidelines being much more specific
than the county, which we call comparatively looser.
When I did the 2-2-5 study on the houses, meaning
if you’re standing on the porch of the subject house, you
look at the two houses to the left, the two houses to the
right, and the five houses on the other side of the street,
everything is one story, except for the county house. I’m
just trying to justify the preservation of the
neighborhood, which is the purpose of the provision, when
I’ve got a situation with a double standard next door that
might in the not too distant future get annexed, when and
if and as appropriate, and I don’t want to be encumbered by
that. You’re saying it’s something I have to live with?
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JOEL PAULSON: As stated before, that’s their
immediate area, that’s their immediate neighborhood. If you
did not want to count or include county homes, no house in
the immediate neighborhood is in the Town, so then one
would be all by itself.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Well, I would reiterate then
that everything in the immediate neighborhood is a one-
story, except the one next door.
JOEL PAULSON: That is true.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Which is buried in trees and
leaves and vines. I didn’t even know there was a house
there.
JOEL PAULSON: Yeah, it does have extensive
vegetation; that is true.
CHAIR BADAME: Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I had a question about the
arborist’s report as well. If I understood this—and if I
missed something, correct me—when this property was part of
the county the Applicant was given approval to remove Trees
5 and 6; they gave them a Tree Removal Permit.
JOEL PAULSON: Correct.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: In reviewing this
application, what I thought I saw in the arborist’s report
was that she looked at the trees and she made a table and
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it said basically she didn’t even look at Trees 5 and 6,
which were the ones that were proposed for removal, and she
wrote a comment that Tree Removal Permit obtained.
JOEL PAULSON: True.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: So we’re basically
accepting the county’s review of the arborist situation is
my interpretation of that, because she didn’t write the
trees, nor did she comment on the viability of saving them
or anything else.
JOEL PAULSON: The Applicant is currently I
believe proposing to save one of those trees, which is Tree
5. Tree 6 they’re still proposing to remove. The Tree
Removal Permit, and then again I took this over a little
bit later than midstream, so I don’t have all of the
extensive background with the previous Tree Removal Permit,
but I believe, and the Applicant can confirm this, that
actually the Town issues the Tree Removal Permit for this
property, but I would look to the Applicant to confirm
that.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: And what basis would…
JOEL PAULSON: I don’t have the application in
front of me of what he used for his determinations, but it
is in our system.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Okay.
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CHAIR BADAME: I have a question. The Cellar
Policy was included as an exhibit with Item 2 for Happy
Acres Drive, but not with this hearing. So just confirm
that we can borrow that exhibit and use it in our
evaluation for this hearing.
JOEL PAULSON: Most definitely.
CHAIR BADAME: Thank you. Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Actually, I’m glad you
asked that question. I had a related question on process
and procedure.
In looking at the findings for approval, normally
we talk about the cellar in the context of the General
Plan, and then there is also a resolution that because the
General Plan mentions cellars, using it in lieu of visible
mass above ground. Then we also have the written Cellar
Policy of the Town. In the findings there is nothing about
the Cellar Policy per se, so how does this 2,000 square
foot cellar factor into our approvals if it’s not part of
the conditions or findings for approval?
JOEL PAULSON: Because you don’t have a finding
for the Cellar Policy that we have to make.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Right.
JOEL PAULSON: So now that can be part of your
deliberations and you can determine that you think that
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maybe a cellar shouldn’t be permitted here; that’s
perfectly fine.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Under what document
though? Is it because it doesn’t comply with the
Residential Design Guidelines, or it doesn’t comply with
the General Plan? Supposing that that’s a direction that we
went, what would be our finding?
JOEL PAULSON: I could think of instances on any
number of applications, including this one, where you could
make one or all of those, so I would base it on typically a
Cellar Policy.
I will just give a little bit of background from
Staff’s perspective. How we look at the Cellar Policy is we
look at the house, the above ground mass. This one happens
to be one where the cellar is completely below grade, so we
look at the above ground mass, excluding the cellar, and
make a determination as to whether or not that meets and is
compatible with the existing neighborhood. Once we make
that determination, if it happens to be compatible with the
neighborhood but they’re close or at their FAR, we don’t
inform folks that they cannot have a cellar because they
haven’t reduced additionally the above ground mass.
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COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Understood. What I heard
you say is that it’s going to be considered as part of the
compliance with Residential Design Guidelines.
JOEL PAULSON: That is one option. You could also
make a determination that you don’t feel that it complies
with the Cellar Policy. You can make any one of those, so
it’s not necessarily a finding, it’s really justification
for a decision if you decide to go that route.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Okay.
CHAIR BADAME: Thank you for your explanation.
Any further questions? Seeing none, I will open the public
portion of the hearing and allow the Appellant ten minutes
to address the Commission, and I assume that’s Ms. Susick.
Ten minutes, and I need a speaker card. You don’t have to
take the whole ten minutes, if you don’t want to.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Miss, I want to add to what the
Chair said. You get ten minutes to present, the Applicant
gets ten minutes to present, then we have a public portion
of that for anyone that wants to speak on it, and the
Applicant gets five minutes to rebut whatever, and you get
the final five minutes if you want them or need them.
SHANNON SUSICK: Shannon Susick, 16407 Shady View
Lane.
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Just to comment on what Commissioner Kane said.
These are all homes right on Hilow; I’ve put the addresses.
They’re all single-family.
This is the one next door to it. That is not
really visible from the street at all, or from behind on
Shady View. Much wider setback because of the driveway.
Unfortunately, my pictures are not that great.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Ms. Susick, could you hold on
just sec while we pass out your program?
SHANNON SUSICK: Oh, yeah.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Then we can follow along with
you.
CHAIR BADAME: I believe her clock is ticking,
but I’m sure Joel Paulson will fix that.
SHANNON SUSICK: All these quotes are taken from
the Residential Design Guidelines. Blend into the
neighborhood rather than stand out. I looked at the 2-5-2
rule as well, and they’re all single-family, except for the
one. The guidelines are maximums, not goals.
This is what Hilow Road looks like from Shannon
to Topping, right about at the corner of Shannon.
This is looking the other direction, to the north
to Shannon Court, which is all in the Town of Los Gatos;
those are all single-level homes.
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Arguments that I’ve heard is that—and this is
from some of the residents or neighbors—well okay, the
structure that was demolished was rat infested, it was
horrible looking, it was a rental, it was a disgrace; but
for me and most of the residents of our town, I don’t think
that that’s a good argument to support development, because
that’s what some of the residents said that lived by the
old Honda dealership that were in favor of Laurel Mews,
Birdbird Lane, the Thrash House. Yes, it was an eyesore,
but I don’t think that that’s the way that we should plan
our development, and not in this part of the county where
there are so many lots and homes that are similar.
Also, the whole argument about it being an
unincorporated county pocket, boy, oh, boy, that’s a tough
one for me, because I’m in the county and half of our
street is in the Town. Have to look at every one of these
applications as a whole, because this is a huge number of
homes that are going to be developed.
Here are some single-level homes that were built
in the last ten years in the immediate neighborhood. Sorry
it’s so dark. These are on Hilow, across the street. These
are on Shannon Road; this was a lot split; they have some
basement. This is across the street.
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I recommend the denial because of the bulk and
mass, and use of the Cellar Policy, which is under review,
is a misuse. You start out with 3,000 square feet in a
3,000 square foot footprint, which would have made the
house, including the basement or cellar, over 8,000 square
feet.
The design doesn’t blend into the neighborhood.
They’re all single-family, single-level.
Here’s across the street again. This is a newer
home.
Now, this I think is pretty important, and that
is that, “Some homes were constructed with little
consideration to the neighborhood’s architectural styles or
characteristics. Others were remodeled with little
sensitivity.” And this applies a lot to the county pockets,
because they don’t have the residential guidelines that we
do in the Town. “But these aberrations will not be
considered when analyzing a neighborhood.”
There are a few houses that stick out that are
two stories, and here are some of them. This happens to be
next door to me. I got no story poles, I got no notice; the
house was scraped and this went up.
Here is the plot map, and I put notes on the
bottom: two-level, single-level, and the lines across the
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middle are where the first two-story homes start on Hilow,
except for the one next to the subject, and those are all
embraced by a huge grove of eucalyptus and other redwood
trees, except for one where they’ve just recently cut down
some trees.
Here’s another one two doors down, the pending
application that you were looking at. That is noted on that
chart as a large… It’s pending, and they’re waiting, most
likely, for this application to be developed. This is
behind me.
Also soon to be seen in these chambers, yes,
16466 Hilow Road, pending sale. Marketed as an incredible
opportunity to build on over 11,000 square feet, and I
understand that the person that just sold the house down
the street from me, that built, remodeled, and sold after
two years, is in contract for this one. Story poles have
kind of faded.
This is the house next door. It’s single-level,
fits into the neighborhood, it’s 3,500 square feet, quite
applicable. It’s the same amount of square footage as what
the Applicant wants to do.
My recommendation is to deny the current
application for the reasons stated, and also my appeal that
was submitted on the 15th.
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Also, I would like the Town to consider—and I
will bring it up to the Town Council—reviewing the
Residential Design Guidelines for Los Gatos for parcels
under 15,000 square feet, as I believe the FAR ratios, the
cellars, and the setbacks are being abused and maximized.
The unincorporated pockets of this town are so
many, and it’s so much more that is available to develop
than in the Town, I think it really needs to be looked at
carefully, whether it’s in the county or they scrape it and
it’s in the Town.
Also, please note that some verbal and written
comments came from parties with vested financial or other
interests waiting for this application to be approved so
that the other houses can be approved.
There are many excellent examples of single-
level, or single-level with a basement, homes that conform
to the neighborhood. I would recommend a single-level home
with a basement. The developer said he has some
engineering; that is fabulous for basement space.
I’d ask you to please deny the current
application, as it does not conform to the immediate
neighborhood. It uses the cellar in addition to the mass
and bulk. It compromises the neighbors’ privacy, the views
of the hills, and to say nothing of the infrastructure; the
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roads, the schools, police services, and garbage. Thank
you.
CHAIR BADAME: Thank you, Ms. Susick.
Commissioner Erekson followed by Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER EREKSON: Would you remind me of
your address?
SHANNON SUSICK: 16407 Shady View Lane.
COMMISSIONER EREKSON: And is your property in
the Town limits, or outside?
SHANNON SUSICK: I’m in the county.
COMMISSIONER EREKSON: Thank you.
CHAIR BADAME: Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Thank you for you report
and the details in your appeal. You had a chart on the back
of your appeal to the Town that had a list of all the
houses, not just the 2-2-5, but more in the surrounding
area, and whether or not they had basements.
SHANNON SUSICK: Yes.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Because I think part of
where it seemed like your appeal was going is it was sort
of like a combination of a two-story plus the basement,
bulk and mass over the top. I heard you say you had done
some research and the house next door that is the largest
house in the neighborhood does have a basement underneath?
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SHANNON SUSICK: No, they don’t have a basement.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: No, they don’t. But they
have a single story and they spread it out?
SHANNON SUSICK: Yes.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Okay. You said in your
appeal though that you… I mean I’m sure it was hard to come
up with the details, but out of the 37 or so houses on
your…that only two or three have basements, cellars.
SHANNON SUSICK: I think that there are three, to
my knowledge on Hilow that have basements, and two of them
are partial basements, or actually all three are partial; I
think they’re not a full footprint underneath.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: We can ask Staff, but I
did note that you had gone to the trouble of preparing this
information.
SHANNON SUSICK: Yeah, so as long as you guys
have that, because I brought copies of that as well.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Okay.
CHAIR BADAME: Any further questions for Ms.
Susick? Seeing none, thank you, Ms. Susick.
SHANNON SUSICK: Thank you.
CHAIR BADAME: All right, I will now invite
comments from the Applicant and their team, and they also
have ten minutes to address the Commission.
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DOUG DAL CIELO: Planning Commissioners, my name
is Doug Dal Cielo. I am the legal counsel for Valy
Jalalian. By the way, my address is One Bayview Avenue,
#11, in Los Gatos; I’ve been a proud resident of Los Gatos
for over 20 years.
With us today we have the architect, Daryl
Fazekas, as well as the real estate agent, Mike Brown. Both
Mr. Brown and Mr. Jalalian spoke with the various agencies
as well as the neighbors in getting this project approved.
I want to compliment Mr. Paulson, who did a very
thorough and meticulous report, and of course, the
Applicant wants you to accept the Staff Report’s
recommendation to deny the appeal and make the four
specific findings delineated on page 7 of the Staff Report.
I don’t want to repeat the contents of the Staff
Report, except for a few items that go directly to Ms.
Susick’s comments.
First off, actually I’d like to go to my letter
that is dated July 13, 2016, I believe it’s Exhibit 16, to
the Staff Report, pages 15-30. You’ll see at the bottom of
page 1 the immediately adjacent home, 16350 Hilow Road.
It’s a two-story home, approximately 3,000 square feet,
surrounded by mature landscape and trees, and it reaches a
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maximum height in excess of 28’, which is obviously 2’
below the maximum height of Mr. Jalalian’s proposed house.
If you go to page 2 of my letter, it indicates
that there are 27 homes on Hilow Road, 9 of which are two-
story, with an average of 3,700 square feet, and on Shady
View Lane there are 30 homes, 13 of which are two stories,
with an average of 3,200 square feet, so I don’t think by
any calculation of determination, whether it’s part of the
Town versus the county, if you look at the two streets that
run parallel, there’s no question that this two-story home,
26’ in height, fits in with the neighborhood. It definitely
will not stick out.
Now, of interesting note, the home immediately
adjacent if you are facing Ms. Susick’s home, the home to
the immediate right, as she pointed out, is very large. In
fact, it is 16395 Shady View Lane. It’s a two-story home,
28’ in height, 4,206 square feet on a lot of 8,400 square
feet, and of course this subject lot is just shy of 12,000
square feet, so a much larger home to the immediate right
of Ms. Susick’s home as you face her home.
Now, going back to the Staff Report, it does a
good job of detailing the significant concessions made by
the developer here, Mr. Jalalian. The Town approved this
application on June 7, 2016, with all agencies signing off.
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The consulting architect made three
recommendations; they’re found on page 4. All of those were
adopted and implemented by the developer. He then
approached all of the immediate neighbors and made numerous
concessions, seven to be exact. If you turn to page 6 of
the Staff Report, all seven of those immediate neighbor
requests have been implemented, so those neighbors that are
directly impacted seem to recognize the obvious, which is
how soon can you get it built, because I know I’m going to
make a hundred grand of so. Everyone’s tide rises when
these types of beautiful homes are built.
Which gets us to, I think, the true agenda here
of the Appellant. If you look at the home immediate one
house to the right as you’re on Hilow facing basically her
back yard, one house to the immediate right is the Hariri
home, and if you go to my letter dated July 13, 2016,
Exhibit B, you will see the beautiful renderings for the
Hariri home, which is going to be one yard removed from the
back yard of Ms. Susick. She wrote an email on July 3, 2016
to my client indicating that she wanted to pursue this
appeal with the Planning Commission to, “make sure that
there was no impact and precedence to be set by this
development.”
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So you’ve got a situation where this home that’s
been approved by everyone, including the immediate
neighbors, that is not the largest home on the block, so to
speak, really isn’t the issue or subject. The real issue or
subject is that precedent that she’s worried about setting
for these other two projects that are much nearer in
proximity to her immediate home.
If you turn to Exhibit C of my letter, there are
four color photographs.
Now, this brown fence depicted in the first
photograph, this is the fence that is shared by the Susick
back yard, so these photographs were taken from the other
side of the fence, if you will. You can see on that first
photograph how mature and large that tree is. This goes to
the privacy and impact to the neighborhood and views;
that’s another one of her complaints in the appeal.
If you go to the second photograph, you can see
my client’s story poles, barely. And keep in mind that
someone asked if the story poles had been reduced. They
have not been, so these story poles that you see in the
second photograph there are 2’ higher than the actual
maximum height of the home. So in photograph 2, if you
lower that 2’, I submit you’ll barely be able to see the
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story poles, if at all, particularly when considering that
Ms. Susick’s home is one story.
Third photograph shows the mature landscape.
Again, there’s no conceivable or possible privacy or view
impact to the Susick home relating to this proposed
development.
The final photo is another angle of the story
poles. Again, you can see how tall the trees are behind the
story poles. It’s not going to impact anyone’s privacy or
views, certainly not from Ms. Susick’s home, and again, the
immediate neighbors are encouraging this development.
Is that beep for ten minutes?
CHAIR BADAME: You have 30 second left.
DOUGLAS DAL CIELO: Thirty seconds. Okay, thank
you. We have several neighbors here in support of the
project, and obviously myself as well as the architect will
answer any questions. Thank you very much.
CHAIR BADAME: Thank you, Mr. Dal Cielo. I do
have a question for you with your exhibit that you passed
out to the Commissioners, and that would be 3-A, the photo
of Ms. Susick’s one-story residence with the two-story next
door, which would be 16395 Shady View at 4,206 square feet.
Do you have information if that home is in the county or
within the Town of Los Gatos?
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DOUGLAS DAL CIELO: The one on 1-B there?
CHAIR BADAME: 3-A.
DOUGLAS DAL CIELO: I don’t have specific
information. I believe that Ms. Susick said that it was
part of county. I don't know one way or the other.
I’m glad you brought that to my attention; I
meant to mention that. That photograph, 3-A, depicts the
home to the immediate right as you face the Susick home,
and 1-B depicts the brown, shingled home to the immediate
left as you face the subject development, which is of
approximately the same square footage and 2’ higher. Thank
you.
CHAIR BADAME: Thank you. Questions from
Commissioners? All right, I have a question maybe for the
architect, which is part of the team.
DARYL FAZEKAS: Daryl Fazekas, architect.
CHAIR BADAME: Thank you. When we look at our
Residential Design Guidelines, we do look at the immediate
neighborhood, and we’re looking at how many two-story
homes, how many one-story homes. Did you at any point in
time, because you have a deep lot, just consider elongating
the home as a one-story and taking advantage of the rear
setback, which is pretty ample?
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DARYL FAZEKAS: In general what we try to do is
we try to minimize the footprint in order to provide the
owner with the maximum back yard and private area, the
maximum area for landscaping, and if we covered twice the
footprint we would have twice the runoff, so what we try to
do is keep the rainwater onsite.
CHAIR BADAME: Thank you. Any further questions?
Seeing none, thank you. All right, I will now invite
comments from members of the public. Our first speaker will
be Debra Wagner.
DEBRA WAGNER: My name is Debra Wagner, and my
husband and I have lived at 16374 Hilow Road for about 25
years.
When I first met Mr. Jalalian, the first thing I
said to him was, “I hope your plans don’t involve a
basement,” because my point is related to the ground
movement that we’ve experienced already with our patio
dropping, cracks, and doors no longer closing because of
land movement that’s primarily on the north side.
Another concern, which I didn’t exactly realize
at the last meeting, was that even though he reduced his
3,000 square feet, I was told it was going to be 1,700
square feet, but with the 3,000 plus the 1,700 and the 900
square foot lot, he’s still up to 5,279 without a garage,
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and there’s no way that that’s not the largest house on the
block.
In any case, going forward, for example the
property at 16350 Hilow, which you’re talking is a two
story, it’s a total of 2,958 square feet with an actual 300
square foot wine cellar, which is exactly used for the
storage of wine; it’s not used for a living space.
Going forward in the neighborhood with the
continued development that we’re going to be seeing, the
basement consideration guidelines absolutely need to
change. These are full-on living spaces, so by not
including these underground living spaces in the square
footage, the FAR is meaningless and subject to abuse.
With this uncounted living space the neighborhood
is forced to accept basically a duplex on a single property
without proper designation. How can disregarding
underground living space be seen as complying with the FAR
when it’s not for storage, it’s for actual living space?
So this 3,479 square foot house on the top, plus
the 1,800 square feet on the bottom, that’s a huge house,
and just because you can’t see the living space, that
doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. The FAR requirements were
meant to protect neighborhoods from oversized houses, so
not counting underground living spaces essentially denies
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that there is any impact and pretending that these
consequences don’t exist.
Please take into consideration the
recommendations shown on number 5 and how it affects the
overall neighborhood, because the policies absolutely need
to change when you’re considering basements. These are not
cellars. Cellars are for storage of food. These are living
spaces.
After we suffered through 25 years of rats,
termites, weeds, and other aspects of property owners’
negligence on both sides of us, we now have an oversized
dwelling with someone looking into my bathroom, and then a
monolith on the other side, which is cutting off all the
light to our house.
CHAIR BADAME: Okay, Ms. Wagner. You’ve got 5
seconds to wrap it up, but your time is up.
DEBRA WAGNER: Okay, yes. The newest house that
was built in our area, which is right across the street,
16397, single-story, 3,300 square feet and it’s the newest
house built on our street.
CHAIR BADAME: Thank you. We have a question for
you. Commissioner Burch.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: I have a couple of
questions, if that’s okay.
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CHAIR BADAME: Yes, certainly. Go right ahead.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Being as you are the
adjacent neighbor, you touched on a number of items in what
you were speaking about that I wanted to ask you about.
The first one, in your letter dated May 17th, you
did mention the water issues. Can you expand a little bit
on what has been happening with the water runoff on your
property?
DEB WAGNER: Well, every house on our side of the
street has a sump pump, and when our sump pump gets blocked
we have an absolute lake in the back yard. We’ve been told
that with the geological or whatever he’s done, that he’s
assured us that next door the water table would be more
solid than what we’re experiencing with a flat back yard,
but I don't know that. So there is a high water table in
our yard. Everyone on our side of the street has a sump
pump, or else they have a lake in their back yard.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Did you have an opportunity
with the Applicant to take a look at the civil drawing with
the…
DEB WAGNER: Yes, we did.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Okay.
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DEB WAGNER: And I didn’t realize until the story
poles went up that the windows are going to go right into
my bathroom.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: That was my next question.
DEB WAGNER: We’ve lived there for a long time,
and I feel like we’re the Bermuda Triangle in this whole
thing, because we’re just sinking, and everything else is
just invading on both sides.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: When you met with the
Applicant, did you discuss this window issue?
DEB WAGNER: I did, and I think that he said that
he was going to try to make some changes.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Have you had a chance to
look at the drawings that we are looking at to see if
anything has been addressed?
DEB WAGNER: I did, but I don’t remember them
right now. I’m not looking at them at the moment.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Okay, thank you.
CHAIR BADAME: Thank you. Any further questions?
Seeing none, thank you very much, Ms. Wagner, for your
comments. Our next speaker is Perry Hariri.
PERRY HARIRI: Madam Chair and Commissioners, I’m
Perry Hariri, property owner at 16386 Hilow Road. We are
two houses south of the Applicant’s property. We purchased
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this property two years ago, and I my wife and I have three
kids who attend Los Gatos schools, two at Fisher and one at
Blossom Hill. We’ve been residents here for over ten years,
and this is our opportunity to build a house on our lot,
which is again, two houses down.
I’m here to support Mr. Jalalian’s application.
We’ve witnessed his whole process. He has conducted three
DRC hearings. He’s met with all the immediate neighbors. I
believe every single neighbor, with the exception of the
Wagners, support his application, and he’s gone to
extensive lengths to meet their concerns. He’s reduced the
height; he’s reduced the square footage. I think the issue
here isn’t whether the Cellar Policy or Design Guidelines
are applicable; the issue is is he conforming to the Design
Guidelines? The DRC determined that he is. You’re going to
change Design Guidelines; you can do that later. The issue
today is is he doing that?
Just as far as the neighborhood character is
concerned, Hilow Road has nine two-story homes. The one
next door is a two-story home. The Design Guidelines say
that you can consider the home adjacent to an immediate
neighborhood, even though it’s in the county, as Mr.
Paulson said, otherwise nothing would be considered an
immediate neighbor in a lot of areas. Almost every single
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new home on Hilow is a two-story home. Almost every single
one, with the exception of one.
Two-story homes, there’s a reason people do them.
It preserves a lot more open space. It preserves a rear
yard for people to enjoy their back yard. You double the
square footage. Otherwise, you can’t put a pool in, the
kids don’t have a yard to play in, and it doesn’t really
substantially reduce the height anyway.
So I’m here in support of it. The Appellant here
is in the county three houses down; they’re not considered
an immediate neighbor. The house next to the Appellant is
far larger, taller, it’s 4,200 square feet, and the two
houses in front of her are also two-story, so she’s fully
aware that the character is changing in the neighborhood.
Also, the average square footage on that street
is 3,700. This is 3,500; it’s below the average square
footage on that street. Thank you.
CHAIR BADAME: Thank you. Any questions? Seeing
none. Jeanne Driedger.
JEANNE DRIEDGER: Hi, I’m Jeanne Driedger, 16359
Shady View Lane, Los Gatos; I’ve been there for 43 years.
I am not in support of this, even though they’re
saying all the immediate neighbors. I am directly behind
this proposed house.
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My concern is the basement. Like the Wagners, we
do have movement. I have a three-year-old patio toward the
back of my property, which not only has cracked, and he has
seen it, it has further cracked since he has seen it. It
has risen in some areas and dropped in others.
This is because of the drought. Our house also
has movement. The doors don’t shut correctly, and this is
all new to the house. I have noticed over the 43 years that
when we have water years the house is more stable and the
patio was fine, but not since the drought have we noticed
it as much as we have now.
So I would like to see, if he has a cellar, to
have it smaller like the White’s house at 16350. Have it
smaller; have a cellar like they do. They entertain in
their cellar, it has wine, and they have had parties in
that cellar; it doesn’t have to be that large.
I am a resident next to that house, and I don’t
approve of it.
CHAIR BADAME: Commissioner Erekson has a
question for you, if you’re done speaking. Okay,
Commissioner Erekson.
COMMISSIONER EREKSON: Have you done any
geological research or any geological analysis done that
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the size of the cellar that they would build would have any
relationship to the movement of soil or to your property?
JEANNE DRIEDGER: No.
COMMISSIONER EREKSON: Thank you.
CHAIR BADAME: Thank you. Whitney Halladay.
WHITNEY HALLADAY: Yes, hi. Thank you for
allowing me this opportunity to speak. My name is Whitney
Halladay; I live at 16400 Hilow. I’m here with my husband
Jason, and we are a hundred percent in support of the
project on Hilow, as well as we heard more about the Hariri
house; we are a hundred percent in support of that house as
well. We live just three houses down and next door to the
Hariri house.
We’ve looked very closely at the design. We feel
that the proposed two-story home is very compatible in
style and size with many of the other homes on Hilow as
well as all around other neighborhoods nearby. There are
many homes that are two stories on Shady View. There are
many new developments, and there are more to come that will
be two-story homes, so we’re in full support of these.
We do understand that the DRC already approved
this project and there were a number of discussions, and
the final conclusion was that it conformed to everything
that the builder needed to do to build this beautiful home,
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so we definitely are in support. It would be a real shame
to not approve a project like this that would beautify our
street, and with so much positive feedback from all the
neighbors that exist directly across and next door to this
home, it would be an absolute shame.
So we’re in support, and we hope that tonight you
approve this project. Thank you.
CHAIR BADAME: Thank you, Ms. Halladay. Tony
Jeans.
TONY JEANS: Tony Jeans, PO Box 1518, Los Gatos,
California. I was going to come here to listen, because I
thought this would be an interesting property, because it’s
got a county issue, county pocket, it’s got cellars, it’s
got two stories and one stories. I just want to make a
couple of comments.
I use cellars in part to stabilize houses, stop
them moving around. When you do a full cellar with a
structural mat slab at the bottom, it will actually help
when you get changing drought versus wet versus drought
versus wet, which makes the earth move around. When you get
down to a stable area underneath, it really does stabilize
the house, so a cellar can be very useful from a structural
standpoint.
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Obviously the builder has to make sure that they
waterproof it effectively, because if you do get
underground water you have a potential problem, you’ve got
to deal with that; but that’s their problem, not really
your problem.
The next point, I’m going to try to make it a
little easier for you, I think. The Cellar Policy, like it
or not, basically says it is not counted in the FAR,
because the FAR is designed to make you look at bulk, scale
and mass of a house and whether or not something that big
belongs in their neighborhood, and whether there is an
underground component is not relevant.
That’s what the policy says. Now, the policy you
may or may not like. You can say well that means that you
can have more people in the house, etc., but that is not
really the point. The point is if you’re driving through
beautiful Los Gatos neighborhoods, is the house going to
stick out like a sore thumb because it’s too big? The
Cellar Policy is designed to allow people to put some extra
space in there, and not have it clutter up and block the
neighborhood views and neighboring views.
So mass and bulk, I think, and the size of the
house and the compatibility becomes what you should be
considering, and I think that should be tempered with the
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fact that the DRC has considered it three times and has
ultimately approved it, which gives it a considerable
amount of weight, because the Staff in Los Gatos is
probably one of the best staffs around, and they do a lot
of work before they make a decision. Thank you.
CHAIR BADAME: Commissioner Hudes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Thank you, I appreciate your
perspective as an architect. I wondered if you were
involved in this project. Are you involved in this or
another project in the immediate neighborhood?
TONY JEANS: No, I’m do projects in the county. I
do projects that I have to make a decision, just like the
architect did here: Do I try to change this as a one-story
house and add on sufficient so that it doesn’t get
incorporated into the Town of Los Gatos? If I decide that
the owner needs a bigger house to satisfy their needs, then
do I do it as a one-story or a two-story based on
compatibility with the neighborhood? But I’m doing nothing
in this neighborhood. This was just a pure interest to me.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Thank you.
CHAIR BADAME: Thank you, Mr. Jeans. Appreciate
your input on the Cellar Policy. All right, I have four
speaker cards remaining, and it’s not clear to me if
they’re part of the Applicant’s team. Laurie Vitale, Scott
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Urban, Mike Brown, and Craig Ford. If any of you are
members of the public and not the team, please come
forward. Seeing none. Do we have somebody coming forward
that’s not a member of the team? Please state your name and
address for the record.
SCOTT URBAN: I’m Scott Urban; we live at 16561
Englewood Avenue. First and foremost, I want to commend all
of you. My house is new on Englewood, but I just wrote a
check; I never was involved in the inner workings, and I
imagine what it would be like with empty seats up here and
developers could just grab a hammer and do whatever they
want, so I commend you.
I’m a neighbor to the house Valy Jalalian built
on Littlefield. It sold at the end of last year, and as far
as I can tell it’s very comparable to the home that’s going
to be built here on Hilow. I guess he considers himself
very lucky, because none of us objected on my street,
Englewood, Littlefield, Marchmont, or Topping, and I’ve got
to say, I’m here because he was the greatest contractor. We
just really got to know him well. It was a two-year
process; he took down the old house, built the new house. A
few of us had concerns about some of the redwood trees, and
he hired an arborist. Every step of the way, he was just a
top-notch guy.
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It’s important for these two-story homes, and I
do agree, it’s our new lifestyle, but as long as they fit
in aesthetically, then I think most of us are very happy,
and my family and all the neighbors, I haven’t heard a
single complaint.
I want to emphasize too, the family that moved
in, we love them. I think the house sold for like $4
million or whatever, and to them I think it was kind of a
drop in the bucket, and they just want to raise a family in
Los Gatos where their children could walk to Fisher and
walk to Los Gatos High, and they love it. We see them every
morning, we walk together and they’ve just been a good…
It’s the same home, so as a neighbor I’m in support. I know
Hilow is two streets over, but I recommend…
I think with you I feel sorry for a bit, because
I think the lady who spoke against Valy, I think you’re the
next (inaudible).
CHAIR BADAME: Please face the Commission. I’m
sorry.
SCOTT URBAN: I’m sorry. I think you may have a
neighbor who just is intent on troubling an idea, and I
think the neighbor who is going against Valy, ultimately to
go after this last speaker you had who is building the home
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next door to the lady who is opposing Valy, I think just
take all into account.
I again want to emphasize, we love the house
that… It looks like it’s the same home is going to be built
on Hilow. We’re very happy. We love the new neighbors.
Also, the cellar that is in the house on
Littlefield, the new owners at first dismissed it, and to
them that’s just been a huge blessing. The children love
it, they have their friends over and… Again, I just wanted
to support Valy and just come as a neighbor. Thank you.
CHAIR BADAME: Thank you, Mr. Urban. All right,
we have no further questions, so at this time I will invite
the Applicant… Oh, we have another speaker card. All right,
I’m now calling Jim Fox.
JIM FOX: Hi, my name is Jim Fox. I’m really
nervous; I’m not good at this. I live at 16344 Shady View
Lane, Los Gatos. I’m here in support of my neighbors who
are against the project.
I can barely see the house from my house, but I
can see it. As far as that, it doesn’t directly affect me,
but if you go down Shady View Lane you’ll notice on the
left-hand side, mine is the last single-story house. I have
this huge monstrosity next to me, and the neighbors are
wonderful, but my wife looks at the windows and stuff, and
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we just had another huge monstrosity go to the left of us
just in, and the windows look right into our yard, so we
have basically no privacy when we go into the back yard, so
we have to consider are we going to put a building up
there? They’re planning to put a tree up there, but the
tree is going to come into our yard about 40’, the tree
that they originally planned, so we knocked that out. So
I’ll have to put a trellis up or something if I want
privacy in our back yard.
My biggest concern is we have some neighbors that
are uncomfortable with it. I wish the neighbors could come
up with an alternative that the builders could do, because
I’ve been to the meetings with both parties, and they think
the place is too big, but haven’t really been given any
guidelines as far as what would be acceptable to them.
The underground basement, I’m a little bit
concerned about that. I’m not an expert on this; I’m just
basically going to use common sense. It’s like putting a
boulder in a river, because the water flows from the south
to the north, so when it rains, yes, the homes get flooded,
and if you don’t have good drainage… They have planned for
good drainage; they have what I believe is called a Dutch
drain or French drain into the back yard, and it’s very
large. But you still have a boulder there, and normally
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what happens when you have a boulder is it rises a bit and
it goes around. Well, the neighbor just to the south of
them is going to get their water table raised up, and when
we viewed the property, and we went there with the
architect and the builder—I think it was the builder—the
water level was pretty high, like within 4’. You saying it
was growing and stuff, but it seemed it could be a flooding
problem.
Anyway, I just wanted to show that there are
neighbors that aren’t for the project, and I’m directly
affected by large, as the realtor calls them, McMansions
right next door. My neighbors are great, but we didn’t
realize it was going to be the monstrosities that they
turned out.
CHAIR BADAME: Thank you, Mr. Fox. Commissioner
Burch has a question for you.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: I was just curious if the
home built next to you, is that the county property?
JIM FOX: Yes.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Okay, thank you.
JIM FOX: But county or city, we’re all
neighbors.
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CHAIR BADAME: Thank you, Mr. Fox. All right, the
Applicant and their team are now invited to address the
Commission for five minutes.
DOUGLAS DAL CIELO: Thank you, Commissioners. I
want to address briefly the three objections to this
project.
Ms. Wagner talked about the cellar and how that
makes it “one of the bigger houses on the block.” I echo
the comments of Mr. Hariri. This is not the time or place
to debate whether the policy is correct. The simple issue
before the Planning Commission in this appeal is whether or
not this meets the guidelines, and it clearly does.
I think just from a practical standpoint, this is
completely underground, so why would anyone care about
square footage, whether it’s a wine cellar or living space,
if it’s entirely underground, and the guidelines and rules
indicate that cellars are not included as part of the
square footage? Finally the cellar area has been
significantly reduced from the original proposal.
The second objector—I didn’t catch her name—her
primary concern was this water level issue, and that was
also the concern of the third objector. I draw the Planning
Commission’s attention to Exhibit 12, which is the
Applicant’s geotechnical engineering report, and that
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report was done on this specific issue. The speakers
admitted that they weren’t experts in this area, and the
expert rendered an opinion that if this cellar is
constructed properly, and it certainly will be, because
there are going to be liability concerns by the developer,
then it’s going to have no impact whatsoever on that issue.
I echo the architect’s comment that cellars are often used
to stabilize a home, and so I think it’s a positive in a
number of respects.
My final comment is to this issue of the
McMansions coming into town. I think people can’t have
their cake and eat it too. By that I mean they can’t want a
fair market value appreciation of their homes due to these
McMansions that come into town, and simultaneously want to
object to them. It just doesn’t make any sense to me. In
other words, if they’re given a simple choice: Do you want
a neighborhood of 1,000 square foot, single-story homes
that have a fair market value of $1 million, versus having
the entire tide risen for everybody? For every nice two-
story home, with or without a cellar, that is built,
property taxes are going to go up, which is good for the
Town, and each neighbor is going to have a material
appreciation of their personal residence. That can’t be
lost.
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On that basis, I recommend and request that the
Planning Commission deny the appeal and affirm the specific
findings. Thank you.
CHAIR BADAME: Commissioner Burch.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: I have a couple questions.
CHAIR BADAME: Go ahead.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Is your geotechnical
consultant here?
DOUGLAS DAL CIELO: No, I don’t believe so.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Because I’m hearing
conflicting information. I’m hearing multiple people say
that the water table is around 5’, and I think I heard
numbers in that approximation from three people, and this
report says that it was more like 14’. However, it sounds
like this is a follow up to an original geotechnical report
dated February 3rd that we don’t have a copy of.
DARYL FAZEKAS: Well, we have one geotechnical,
which is known as a soils report; we may have an addendum
to that. But the water table is at 14’. The basement goes
down 10’ and is completely waterproofed. Any water
traveling north, south, east, or west would not bump up
against the side of the basement and be diverted onto a
neighbor’s property, which I think was the big issue they
were raising.
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COMMISSIONER BURCH: So then to confirm, you do
have a French drain going around the… Basically, it looks
like the water gets diverted to the very front of the home,
back to the back, and there you’re going to have a
bioswale, a “shallow gravel basin,” it says.
DARYL FAZEKAS: Correct, yes.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Drawing C-2, from the front
of the property to the street it looks like you’re just
diverting the water based on slope to the street drainage,
is that correct?
DARYL FAZEKAS: Yes, ma’am. And then there’s also
an overflow. The neighbors behind us were concerned that if
it really rained that no water would flow on their
property, so we’ve designed it so that if the water gets
too high, it would go out to the street.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Now, where is that shown? I
don’t see that on C-2 at all. And that was going to be one
of my questions, that if we get a deluge of rain…
DARYL FAZEKAS: On that drawing, it would be the
upper left corner swale, overland release.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: How would you get the water
from the very back of the property to the street though?
How are you diverting it in that way? I don’t see any
piping.
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DARYL FAZEKAS: It’s overflow, over land. It’s
not part of a piping system.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: So the land is going to be
sloped where if the water…
DARYL FAZEKAS: The land is always higher than
the street.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Yeah. No, I know. It would
help if you had had your geotechnical consultant here,
because it does sound like the water is an issue for
adjacent neighbors. Can I ask another question?
CHAIR BADAME: Of course.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: On a different note,
typically with projects, we get a materials board. Did you
provide a materials board.
DARYL FAZEKAS: We provided an 8.5”x11” materials
board, but I’m sorry, I didn’t know that we had to do a
large size.
CHAIR BADAME: The Chair is in possession of a
sheet with the materials, even though it’s not the board
that we can actually touch and feel, but I’ll be passing
this to the Commissioners.
DARYL FAZEKAS: It’s simple tans and browns.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: I have some other questions,
but I’m going to let my other Commissioners speak first.
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CHAIR BADAME: All right, Commissioner Hudes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: I believe that one of the
neighbors who spoke raised issues about visibility into
their bathroom. Is this an issue that you’re aware of, and
have you addressed it?
DARYL FAZEKAS: Yes, we have. On the floor plans
and on the elevations you’ll see that all the second floor
windows on the right- and left-hand side of the building
are 5’ from the floors. In other words, from the floor to
the bottom of the window is 5’, which is about there, and
then they go up 2’ more. We always do this on this type of
house. We’re 20’ from the property line.
What’s unusual about this case is that we get
shown ten trees on the right side between us and the
neighbor, and she requested that we remove them and have no
trees at all. So now privacy is… We can put those trees
back, if you’d like.
CHAIR BADAME: Further questions?
DOUGLAS DAL CIELO: Can I elaborate on that one
point on the privacy of the bathroom? If you take a look at
the Staff Report on page 6, it clearly indicates that at
the June 7, 2016 DRC hearing only the Wagners spoke at the
hearing. The Wagners commented that there had been positive
improvements to the project, that they prefer no trees
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along the northern property line, and that the construction
should be carefully monitored. So those were the complaints
that were voiced, all of which were acquiesced to by the
developer.
CHAIR BADAME: All right, thank you. Vice Chair
Kane followed by Commissioner Hudes.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Counsel, does that mean
something happened to those windows over the bathroom,
because it didn’t say that exactly?
DARYL FAZEKAS: No, the bathroom windows, all of
our side windows on the side yards, are no less than 5’
from the floor. So in other words, someone can’t look down
into their property.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Okay, this says some of the
issues were addressed, but people tonight…
DARYL FAZEKAS: That bathroom issue is the first
we’ve heard tonight.
VALY JALALIAN: We’ve already addressed that.
That was a concern that was brought up by (inaudible), and
we implemented the change, so we raised that up so that the
privacy is maintained. So that’s specifically addressed,
and we brought that up in the DRC meeting. They were
satisfied.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Need a speaker card.
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CHAIR BADAME: Sir, may I ask who you are?
VALY JALALIAN: Sorry about that. I’m the owner
of the property here.
CHAIR BADAME: So okay, you’re…
VALY JALALIAN: Valy Jalalian.
CHAIR BADAME: Okay, thank you.
VALY JALALIAN: Sorry about that.
CHAIR BADAME: Thank you. Commissioner Burch.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: I’m going to ask a policy
type question, then. Because the neighbor brought this up
when she had her opportunity to speak, and they’re saying
it’s been addressed, do we have any way that we could get a
confirmation from the neighbor that she has seen this and
feels that this addresses her privacy issue? Can we call
her back up?
JOEL PAULSON: I think she had stated when she
was at the podium that she saw the plans, but she can’t
recall whether or not they were raised. The fact is the
Applicant raised the sills to 5’ on both sides; not just
the Wagners, but on the other side as well, in an attempt
to address the privacy concerns.
CHAIR BADAME: All right, so back to the policy.
It would be inappropriate to reopen the public comment,
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then? Is that what I’m hearing from the Town Attorney?
Would you like to weigh in?
ROBERT SCHULTZ: You have closed it, but it’s
always up to the Commission whether they want to reopen a
public hearing or not.
CHAIR BADAME: Commissioner Burch, would you like
Ms. Wagner to step up to the podium? I can reopen it, if
you feel it necessary.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: I don’t want to be a pain,
but I would, because this has come up oftentimes recently
with the homes, and it’s been something people are quite
concerned about, so I want to make sure that she feels
satisfied before we start weighing in on this.
ROBERT SCHULTZ: I would close your questions to
your Applicant before you call her back up, if you have any
other questions.
CHAIR BADAME: Any further questions for the
Applicant while we have them at the podium? Seeing none,
thank you very much.
Commissioner Burch, you’re not being a pain with
your request. I’m going to reopen the public portion of the
hearing and call Ms. Wagner back to the podium.
DEBRA WAGNER: Apparently we have not seen the
revised plans. We were just told that they were dealt with
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regarding the windows. I checked with my husband, he says
we have not seen the revised plans, so I don't know about
the window. I saw the original plans, I was not happy with
them. I had people putting up the story poles, and they
were looking right into my window.
And the reason that I didn’t want the trees is
because of the type of trees they were putting up. We had
serious sewer problems with the tree roots getting into our
sewer, and it cost $10,000 to put in a new lateral. We have
already over there a redwood tree, an olive tree, three
butterfly bushes, three crepe myrtles, and a Japanese
maple. I have plenty of trees over there, so I don’t want
any more tree roots.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: Okay, thank you. That
answers my question.
CHAIR BADAME: Vice Chair Kane followed by
Commissioner Hudes.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Ms. Wagner, help me recollect.
There was a lady named Jeanne…
DEBRA WAGNER: Yes.
VICE CHAIR KANE: …who I think has left.
CHAIR BADAME: She’s left.
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VICE CHAIR KANE: She also had a privacy issue,
but I can’t figure out why. If you’re on one side of the
house, where is her house?
DEBRA WAGNER: Her house is behind his house. I
don’t exactly remember what it was that she had said.
VICE CHAIR KANE: I heard two privacy issues. I
just wanted to make (inaudible).
DEBRA WAGNER: Yeah, I think there was, and I
think it was because of the two-story into her back yard.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you.
CHAIR BADAME: She was at 16359 Shady View, if
anybody could use that in context. Any further questions
for Ms. Wagner? Commissioner Hudes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Yes, thank you. I know you
haven’t reviewed the plans that have been submitted. Do you
have an opinion about the solution that’s been suggested to
raise the window height to 5’ to prevent some of the
privacy issues?
DEBRA WAGNER: That would be a good suggestion if
I could visualize it, but I can’t visualize it right here.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: Okay, thank you.
CHAIR BADAME: Any further questions? Seeing
none, thank you very much.
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We are going to take a ten-minute break. When we
come back, we will be inviting the Appellant to the podium
for five minutes to add any further comments, but for now
we are going to take a ten-minute break.
(INTERMISSION)
CHAIR BADAME: Before we invite the Appellant
back up, I’m going to allow the Applicant back to the
podium so that he can respond briefly to Ms. Wagner’s
comments.
DOUGLAS DAL CIELO: Thank you very much. Ms.
Wagner made two complaints.
The privacy issue we’ve addressed in the form of
the windows 5’ from ground level, and she admits she hasn’t
seen the plans, but rest assured, he did make that change
to accommodate her.
The second issue had to do with the water level.
There was a complete soils report from day one, and then
pursuant to the Wagner’s request there was the supplemental
report, which is Exhibit 12 the Staff Report. So competent,
qualified, licensed professionals have indicated that this
cellar is going to be completely waterproof, and if
constructed properly, which it will, it will have zero
impact to the neighbor’s property and no issue relating to
the water level.
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The cracking in the patios of the Wagner’s
property, and presumably some other neighbors, is that the
construction is 40 to 50 years old and there are no pumps
involved and there is no modern drainage. This house is
going to have all of those bells and whistles, so there’s
going to be zero impact to the Wagner’s home as far as the
water level. Thank you.
CHAIR BADAME: Thank you. The Appellant is
invited back to the podium for five minutes to add any
further comments.
SHANNON SUSICK: Hi. I really didn’t think I was
going to have to discuss anything like an agenda that I
supposedly have, which I do not; accused by an attorney
that does not know me, and I’ve never met, and knows
nothing about me, just about the outside of my house; or
discussing other applications, because I was just talking
about this application.
My agenda is I care about this town. I care about
this valley. I’m a fifth generation Californian, fifth
generation Bay Area. I was born and raised in Palo Alto; my
grandmother is here in Los Gatos. Despite the findings of
the Staff that it complies with some of our guidelines, I
believe that there are still issues with this project.
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In my initial appeal I stated that the Cellar
Policy for the Town of Los Gatos per the General Plan
states that cellars are to be encouraged in lieu of visible
mass, not in addition to. This cellar has been reduced to
1,800 square feet, which is a good idea, but that is still
larger than 14 homes that are in the immediate neighborhood
that are less than 1,800 square feet, so they have a cellar
that’s larger than that, and they have the visible mass and
it is blocking views. Not mine, but neighbors.
That’s about the only comment I have, other than
the rest of the issues I brought up in the PowerPoint. I
think with 3,400 square feet above grade, a 900 square
foot—which is almost as large as what was demolished—and an
1,800 square foot… Let’s just add that up. Forty-three
hundred, fifty, one hundred square feet of living and
garage, which is considerably large.
I would just ask that you consider some other
options, which would be to remove the cellar, since it’s in
addition to the bulk and mass, or reduce the size of the
project, perhaps again, bringing it to a single level like
other homes, maybe using a basement there if the basement
is going to be so amazing.
Having lived in this neighborhood for 14 years,
originally there were creek beds that ran from the
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mountains, which some people may not know that are new to
it, so there are underground streams, there are high water
tables throughout the neighborhood, so that is an issue,
and if they resolve that, that’s great. I would say have
something built that conforms to the neighborhood and the
immediate neighborhood. Thank you.
CHAIR BADAME: Thank you, Ms. Susick. Don’t go
away, Vice Chair Kane has a question for you.
VICE CHAIR KANE: You may have just covered it,
but I’d like you to succinctly answer only this question:
Why did you file the appeal?
SHANNON SUSICK: I felt that it did not conform
to the neighborhood, and I have neighbors down the street,
a couple that have left, that it was impacting their views
and their living space. Now one of them said that she has
issues with the basement, not with the two stories.
So I just thought that in this case, and I also
requested this of the Town, that when we’re going to scrape
houses, whether it’s in the county or the Town, I don’t
think it should go through the DRC. It’s basically like a
small, little new… It’s a single-family residence, but it’s
a new development, so that was my main issue.
VICE CHAIR KANE: Thank you.
SHANNON SUSICK: Thanks.
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CHAIR BADAME: Thank you. The public portion of
the public hearing is now closed. Do Commissioners have any
questions, comments, or a motion? Commissioner O'Donnell.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I just have some
comments, because I do want to hear what everybody has got
to say.
To me this would be fairly simple but for the
house which is immediately next-door, which is two stories,
because clearly it doesn’t fit the 2-2-5, except unless one
considers the two-story house which is in the county. I
think the Staff is correct in saying you kind of have to
consider it, but I would say this.
My experience with what the county has allowed to
be built arguably in this town is horrendous. They put in
big monstrosities and they don’t seem to care about it at
all, so I, while willing to accept that one has to take it
into consideration, I personally would give it less
consideration than were I, for one, have this town making
that decision, and two, my agreeing with it.
I believe that this house is out of proportion to
the neighborhood, the neighborhood as defined close in. It
is not helpful to me to take 30 houses and figure out what
percentage are two stories or more. Walk down that street,
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look at this house; but for the house which is hidden
behind all the trees, these are one-story houses.
I don’t have a problem with the cellar. If
somebody wants to revise the Cellar Policy, it’s probably a
good idea. That’s not my problem with this house. My
problem with this house is both its scale and mass is not
consistent with the neighborhood as we define neighborhood.
I throw that out, because that’s a rather simple
approach to this problem, and I don't know whether it’s too
simple, so I will look forward to some comments.
CHAIR BADAME: I agree with you, Commissioner
O'Donnell. I feel that when you look at all the square
footage combined, even with the cellar that we’re not
supposed to count, but there’s still going to be usage of
that cellar and the garage, you have 6,000 square feet of
home.
When I look at the General Plan Land Use Policies
that also is used in conjunction with the Residential
Design Guidelines, it does talk about intensity and
neighborhood character, so I’m looking at the
intensification of the use, even though we don’t count the
cellar, the 1,800 square foot of the FAR; it still is
intensification within the neighborhood that doesn’t seem
compatible with the immediate homes in the neighborhood.
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Those are my concerns. I share them with you,
Commissioner O'Donnell. Commissioner Burch.
COMMISSIONER BURCH: I won’t repeat everything
you guys just said, but I agree. I was also thinking if
this was just a new application, if we didn’t assume DRC
had seen it, we typically get quite a bit higher detailed
drawings, including materials boards and things, and I’m
not as comfortable approving an architectural application
without the type of detail we normally get as in our full
applications that come in front of us.
I’m also still concerned about the water. Too
many neighbors have said the same thing, and while I
understand the French drain and the bioswale, the whole
runoff doesn’t really work. I wish that they had had their
consultant here so I could ask some better questions.
CHAIR BADAME: Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I wanted to add another
comment. There were so many comments made during the
hearing about this and that house that was not in the way
that we define neighborhood, and we the Planning Commission
have to base our decision on our Residential Design
Guidelines, which are very, very clear that immediate
neighborhood is the two houses on either side and the five
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houses across the street; we can’t consider any other
houses in the neighborhood.
I did the math on the existing houses minus the
two proposals that are on the table of the 2-2-5 houses,
and I did it in terms of an average, so the average square
footage of those nine houses is 2,200 square feet. So
clearly a house that’s going to have, as Mary said, 6,000
square feet even though we don’t count the Cellar Policy,
isn’t in keeping with the nature of the immediate
neighborhood.
CHAIR BADAME: Thank you, Commissioner Hanssen.
Vice Chair Kane.
VICE CHAIR KANE: To the degree it matters, much
has been made of the three DRC meetings, and I think the
reason they had three meetings was at the first meeting
points were brought up that needed to be ameliorated; the
parties said lets go work on that. Much the same happened
at the second meeting; some things had been ameliorated and
the parties said let’s work on it further. The third
meeting, the same thing.
Just for the heck of it, at those meetings,
unlike your dedicated Planning Commissioners, there was a
great variance in attendance at that meeting, with the
exception of the Community Development Director. I don't
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know if the continuity flavor was picked up that the
neighbors were very concerned about this.
And secondly, counsel for the Applicant correctly
pointed out that the consulting architect for the Town,
Larry Cannon, made a number of points that he was concerned
about, and that the Applicant had addressed those concerns,
I think pretty specifically Concerns 2 and 3. Concern 1, it
was suggested that we reduce 1’ of height in the ceiling
and address the Town Architect’s concerns, but this is what
I read when I read it the first time.
Larry Cannon says, “The house may seem a bit
large for the immediate neighborhood,” and that coming from
Mr. Cannon is pretty strong, because he’s usually really
less direct. “The only two-story house in the immediate
neighborhood is the one immediately adjacent to the north.
All other nearby houses are relatively small one stories.”
Larry has picked up the same thing that we’re
picking up, that this seems a bit out of place in its mass
and scale and intensity. I’m agreeing with what I’ve heard
so far, and adding that to some degree the Town Architect
agrees with us as well.
CHAIR BADAME: Any further comments from
Commissioners? Would anyone like to entertain a motion?
Commissioner O'Donnell.
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COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I’ll make a motion. I
would move that we grant the appeal and remand the
application to DRC with directions for revisions based upon
what we’ve just said, which is basically it shouldn’t be a
two-story house; it is too big. So that would be grant the
appeal to deny the architecture…
Oh, I see, the alternative would be the first,
which is sending it to DRC. The fourth would be to grant
the appeal to deny Architecture and Site Application.
That’s the one, that’s the motion that I’m making. Grant
the appeal and deny the Architecture and Site Application.
CHAIR BADAME: Does your motion include sending
it back to the DRC? It wasn’t clear to me.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: It’s “or,” so it would
not include it.
CHAIR BADAME: Okay.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: In other words, you have
a selection here to things you can do.
CHAIR BADAME: Got it. Okay, all right.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I wouldn’t be opposed to
sending it back, but based on what we’ve said today sending
it back doesn’t seem to be very helpful. So my motion is
not to send it back, but is to grant the appeal and deny
the Architecture and Site Application.
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CHAIR BADAME: With that, I would second the
motion. Further discussion from Commissioners? Commissioner
Hudes.
COMMISSIONER HUDES: I’m a bit conflicted on
this, because I’m trying to apply the immediate
neighborhood rule, and with an adjacent house on a similar
sized lot that is two-story I’m having a hard time seeing
this as a true exception to the neighborhood.
When I read the language about the neighborhood
compatibility, I read some things about trying to recognize
that you’re in a neighborhood of single-family houses, and
that’s kind of where I’m coming down on this; I’m leaning
toward supporting the motion, because I think that there
have not been significant design elements in the house to
make it compatible with the single-family homes that are
adjacent to it, including an attempt to maybe create a
situation with the large amount of vegetation that is in
the next door home. In my mind, if it were doing more to
try to blend into the single-family nature of the adjacent
homes, even if it were two-story, I would be more likely to
support a development of a two-story home there.
CHAIR BADAME: Vice Chair Kane followed by
Commissioner Hanssen.
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VICE CHAIR KANE: To supplement those remarks,
Commissioner Hudes, someone in writing or otherwise
referred me to page 11 of the Residential Design
Guidelines, and there is a lot in this that would support
some of our views and allow for some flexibility in others,
but in the general design principles on page 11,
Introduction, Chapter 1, “The following principles have
been used in the development of the guidelines, and will be
used by the Town to evaluate plans and designs.” The second
one says, “Designed to blend into the neighborhood rather
than stand out, “ and I think there’s an issue with that.
The other that I picked was, “Relate a structure’s size and
bulk to those in the immediate neighborhood,” which goes to
Commissioner Hanssen’s summing up and dividing by five.
I think we can find support in the Residential
Design Guidelines for Commissioner O'Donnell’s motion.
CHAIR BADAME: Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I just wanted to comment
that I thought the Appellant’s suggestions and
recommendations had a couple different ways to approach a
problem. I don’t necessarily feel like it can’t possibly be
a two-story house, but I think to bring in the character of
the neighborhood there are a couple of options, one of
which could be to remove the cellar and keep the house as
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is, or it could be to get rid of the second story and keep
the cellar. There are some ways to accomplish the same, but
just in terms of the motion that was made, I don’t
necessarily agree that it can’t possibly be a two-story;
that’s one way to attack the problem.
CHAIR BADAME: Commissioner O'Donnell followed by
Vice Chair Kane.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I made the motion the
way I did simply because I believe that it is a creeping
kind of problem. If you put two stories there and put an
Amazon forest around it, you’re going to have one more two-
story in the neighborhood. We’ve got a house just down the
block, which is story poled at the moment. They just feed
on one another. If you want to change the whole
neighborhood, go ahead. Start doing one at a time and
you’ll change the neighborhood.
If, on the other hand, you think there’s room
still in Los Gatos for single-story homes, and you find a
neighborhood as we define it, which is basically single-
family homes, I don’t think getting rid of the cellar is
going to make the house compatible with the neighborhood,
because you don’t look at the cellar.
So I’m not discouraging a vote, but I want to
make it clear where I’m coming from, and I’ve seen this now
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for a long time. We take neighborhoods that used to be one
way, we totally change them—and I’ve been doing this for 15
years, I guess—and those neighborhoods you don’t recognize
anymore. But it starts with this, and maybe that’s what
ought to happen. But then you talk to people who say ghee
whiz, why did Los Gatos change? Why is it all these big
houses? Those aren’t the people who own big houses, mind
you.
I feel that this house, because it is a two-
story, and a large two-story house, is not compatible with
the neighborhood. That’s the basis of my motion, but if
somebody can support it for another reason, I wouldn’t
discourage that vote.
CHAIR BADAME: Commissioner Hanssen.
COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I think your point was
well taken. I think that your motion is going to be denied
based on the compatibility with the neighborhood and
Residential Design Guidelines, so I can definitely support
the motion because of that.
CHAIR BADAME: Thank you, Commissioner Hanssen.
Vice Chair Kane.
VICE CHAIR KANE: I just heard some references to
two stories might be acceptable, and maybe that’s true, but
I want to make it clear that using the 2-2-5, we got nine
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potential houses, one of which is a two-story. That’s not
going to compel me to support a two-story. I’d like to
preserve the neighborhood, and I would defer to wiser
counsel, but to supplement Commissioner O'Donnell’s
remarks, I’m going to try to do more to preserve
neighborhoods than maybe I or we have done before, and that
neighborhood has nine potential houses, every one of them
is a small house except for the guy next door. That doesn’t
compel me to look forward and approve a two-story in the
future.
CHAIR BADAME: All right, any further discussion
before I call the question. Seeing no one, I will call the
question. All in favor? Opposed? Passes 6-1 with
Commissioner Erekson opposed.
Mr. Paulson, are there appeal rights of the
actions of the Commission on this item?
JOEL PAULSON: There is, thank you, Chair Badame.
Anyone who is not satisfied with the decision of the
Planning Commission can appeal that decision to the Town
Council. Forms are available in the Clerk’s Office. There
is a fee for filing the appeal, and the appeal must be
filed within ten days.
CHAIR BADAME: Thank you.