Attachment 7LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 2/13/2019
Item #2, 11 Peralta Avenue
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A P P E A R A N C E S:
Los Gatos Planning
Commissioners:
Matthew Hudes, Chair
Melanie Hanssen, Vice Chair
Mary Badame
Kathryn Janoff
Tom O'Donnell
Reza Tavana
Town Manager:Laurel Prevetti
Community Development
Director:
Joel Paulson
Town Attorney:Robert Schultz
Transcribed by: Vicki L. Blandin
(619) 541-3405
ATTACHMENT 7
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 2/13/2019
Item #2, 11 Peralta Avenue
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P R O C E E D I N G S:
CHAIR HUDES: Now we get to Item 2, which is the
public hearings portion of our agenda, and we will consider
Item 2, which is 11 Peralta Avenue, Minor Residential
Development Application MR-18-008, requesting approval for
construction of an addition to an existing second story of
a pre-1941 single-family residence on property zoned R-1:8,
APN 510-42-073. Property owner: Wendy Fan Kandasamy.
Applicant: Tony Jeans. Project planner: Erin Walters. This
has been continued from December 12, 2018 and January 23,
2019.
May I have a show of hands from Commissioners who
visited the property under consideration? Great, and are
there any disclosures?
Before we proceed, I’d like to explain the format
of our hearing this evening. Since the referral to the
Planning Commission and this hearing is based on an
objection from a neighbor this agenda item will follow the
flow of an appeal. Therefore, we will follow the ten-ten-
three-five-five format. The Objecting Neighbor’s team will
have ten minutes to make a presentation, then the
Applicant’s team will have ten minutes to make a
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presentation, then we will take public comments at three
minutes each, the Applicant’s team will then have five
minutes to make final comments, and the Objecting
Neighbor’s team will finally have five minutes to make
final comments. Of course, questions by Commissioners are
welcomed in each of those sections.
Ms. Walters, I understand you’ll be giving the
Staff Report this evening.
ERIN WALTERS: Yes, good evening, Commissioners.
The 8,000 square foot subject lot is located on the west
side of Peralta Avenue. The site is developed with an
existing pre-1941 two-story primary residence with two
permitted attached Accessory Dwelling Units.
In 2001 two ADUs were permitted on the subject
property, therefore creating one legal ADU and one legal
nonconforming ADU, and this application does not modify the
existing number of ADUs on the site. The residents at 15
Peralta and the six-car garage do cross the subject
property line. These are existing conditions and the
subject application does not include any proposed
modifications to those.
The application before you tonight is a Minor
Residential Development Application for the construction of
a 540 square foot rear addition to the existing second
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story of the single-family residence. The existing
foundation is damaged, and when replacing the foundation,
the Applicant proposes to move the structure 3’ to the
north to further add to the side setbacks, and then also
add below-grade square footage.
The proposed 2,500 square foot home is the fourth
largest in the immediate neighborhood, and the proposed
home meets the required setbacks, lot coverage, height, and
setbacks. The project includes exterior modifications,
including relocation and resizing of windows on the north
and south elevations, and the elimination of one of the two
doors on the front elevation.
In May 2018 HPC reviewed the project and
recommended conditions. The Applicant has incorporated
those changes into the development plans found in Exhibit
25. The Town’s Consulting Arborist provided specific
recommendations to protect the large oak tree at the front
of the property throughout construction.
A Notice of Pending Approval for the Minor
Residential Application was mailed to the surrounding
property owners and occupants, as required by Town Code.
The Town received written objection from the neighbor at 9
Peralta with concerns that could not be resolved with Staff
or through the application. Concerns included privacy,
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mass, parking, and tree presentation as described in
Exhibits 10 and 17.
The Applicant provided a summary of neighborhood
concerns, actions taken, and rebuttal of objections in
Exhibit 12. The Applicant submitted modifications to the
development plans in a letter that summarizes these changes
and that address the privacy and is found in Exhibit 5,
which include window changes.
On January 23rd HPC reviewed these window changes
and recommended that all windows would be double-hung, and
that the second story trellis could be removed or reduced
to 3’.
The Applicant has provided a letter in Exhibit 24
that addresses all these recommendations. All windows can
be double hung with the exception of two in the lower
below-grade square footage area due to egress requirements.
Also, the second story trellis has been reduced to 3’.
Public comments have included letters of support
and a letter expressing concerns regarding parking and
mass.
Based on the analysis provided by the report
Staff recommends approval of the Minor Residential
Development Application, subject to the revised conditions
found in Exhibit 23.
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This concludes Staff’s report.
CHAIR HUDES: Thank you, Ms. Walters. Are there
any questions of Staff from any Commissioners?
I had one question, if I may. In the objecting
letter there was a concern that this could turn into four
units rather than three. How would the Town ensure that
there were only three, meaning the main plus the two ADUs?
ERIN WALTERS: The building permits would be
reviewed per the approval of the Minor Residential Permit
for three kitchens, for three units of a certain size.
After that if there were any moderation or expansion of
that unit, then it would be a code enforcement issue.
CHAIR HUDES: Was there anything in the objecting
letter that made you take a closer look to see whether it
was really three units or four units, and where did you
come out on it?
ERIN WALTERS: It’s three.
CHAIR HUDES: Was there anything in there that
made you take a closer look at it?
ERIN WALTERS: The Applicant expressed concerns
that the storage room at the lower level could be turned
into a fourth unit. Again, it wouldn’t be approved for
that, and so if that occurred in the field that would be a
code enforcement issue.
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CHAIR HUDES: Okay, thank you. Vice Chair
Hanssen.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: I did think of one question,
and it goes to the parking. They have this parking garage—
for anyone that hadn’t read the whole Staff Report—that has
several parking stalls in it, and they’re all very small,
but as you mentioned, there’s no part of this proposal to
change the garage, so is there anything that can be done to
ensure that it does… Because this would impact parking if
they didn’t get around to doing that for whatever reason.
They’re not really using the garage for the purposes of
parking all those cars today, so is there anything that can
be done about that, or we just have to hope that they’re
going to fix it?
JOEL PAULSON: Because they’re not modifying
anything there is nothing you can do about the existing
parking. That is an existing condition that was used for
the three prior units, the single-family home and the two
ADUs, and so that will be the continuation of what will be
the proposed use for the site, so there are no moderations
that can be required.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: Just to confirm given the
legal nonconforming garage units, it is in compliance with
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our number of parking space requirements for the number of
units there are?
JOEL PAULSON: It is in compliance, and I would
actually make a statement and then defer to Ms. Walters to
confirm that, but for ADUs, with our current ordinance if
it’s within half a mile of a bus stop, we actually can’t
require any parking spaces for the ADU, so it would only
require two spaces, period, for the entire three units for
the site.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: Okay, thanks.
CHAIR HUDES: Commissioner Janoff.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Just another question about
the garage stalls. When I looked into the window of the one
on the end, it looks pretty small. Do they actually
accommodate modern sized vehicles? Let’s assume it’s not a
Smart Car.
ERIN WALTERS: Right. A vehicle can fit into the
garage. It doesn’t meet our current standard, but a vehicle
can fit into the garage.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: And open a door?
ERIN WALTERS: It depends on the car.
CHAIR HUDES: Okay, thank you. We’ll now open the
public portion of the public hearing and give the Objecting
Neighbor an opportunity to address the Commission for up to
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ten minutes. Mr. Fox, I believe you’ll be speaking. Could
you please just state your name and address for the record?
JOHN FOX: Hi, I’m John Fox; I live at 9 Peralta
Avenue, Los Gatos, 95030.
CHAIR HUDES: Thank you, go ahead.
JOHN FOX: Good evening. My wife Donna and I live
at 9 Peralta, as I say, immediately adjacent to and below
and south. We’re on a hill; that becomes important to the
backyard privacy issues in a moment.
As things stand today, ladies and gentlemen, you
have six of the seven immediate neighbors to the 11 Peralta
property in opposition to the 11 Peralta property expansion
because of the current property onsite parking limitations,
which if you approve this project will of course get worse,
because there will be two more bedrooms to that property,
and many more cars. They’re increasing by 33-percent the
current four-bedroom to six-bedroom configuration and
they’re adding a length at the back of the house of between
a quarter and a third to that house, which raises the mass
issue.
And you have every neighbor in the neighborhood
very concerned about the towering and majestic oak tree in
the front property that borders between my property and 11
Peralta.
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Apart from the parking and tree problems almost
all the neighbors share, Donna and I have two problems
unique to our property and the proposal. The increase in
mass, although others in the neighborhood who walk
Pennsylvania Avenue also share that concern we have found,
and you have a letter in your file from a neighbor about
that that I’ll come to in a moment; and the loss of privacy
which will occur when 11 Peralta suddenly grows 25- to 33-
percent bigger in the back and rises three stories above
us, because we’re a story below them, so to us that second
story is three stories above us, looking directly down into
our back yard, our kitchen and our breakfast nook area,
which is where we spend most our time in the house, as I’m
sure most of you do too.
They’re also proposing to put three new entrances
to the building on that back side right on our property
line, basically moving the front of the house to the side
addressing our back yard. They’re going to reposition the
main front door entry to the rear of the house at the
junction with our backyard property line, said another way.
That new front door entrance will thus create entrances to
two floors above ground and overlooking our back yard,
kitchen and breakfast nook area, along with the entire
unnecessary, I might add, second-floor patio that will just
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serve as a viewing deck right into everything we’ve got in
the back of the house and the back yard.
I’ve lived in downtown Los Gatos since 1987.
Donna and I have lived with our three kids at 9 Peralta for
almost the past 23 years since 1996, and during which we
have made extensive renovations to the inside and outside
of this historic Julia Morgan home. It’s a house with such
emotional impact on the Town that it was the very first
house, in fact, that this Commission permitted in Los Gatos
to be renovated after the Loma Prieta earthquake.
I’ll link this up in a minute, but in 2014 Donna
and I bought the iconic red brick building at 315
University across from the fire station, the one with the
stone arched buildings, and renovated it extensively inside
and out. As proud citizen of Los Gatos we spent millions of
dollars renovating these properties, and I tell you that
story only because Donna and I are both very, very proud
that we did not have one single objection from one single
neighbor, because we worked awfully hard to accommodate
everybody. In fact, between those two properties we planted
over 50 trees to accommodate privacy concerns of various
neighbors. Fifty. We would have gladly put in more had they
asked us, but we took care of everybody and made sure that
there were no objections to a single thing that we did
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despite massive renovations to both properties inside and
out.
But let’s get into it. Despite Tony Jeans’
written representations to this Commission that both this
project has no impacts on the neighborhood, and that the
parties were close to resolving our differences, that is
simply not true; it’s hogwash.
The privacy issue is our largest concern. It’s
easily solved, in our view, by putting up 12-15 Italian
Cypress trees on two-foot centers, as you see all over this
town. You’ve got examples within 100 yards of this building
of four of them alone, by my count.
Solving that problem would also allow Donna and
me to withdraw our objection to the proposed expansion of
the front to the back length of the house by another one-
fourth to one-third, and the mass that that expansion
entails. It would also allow us to withdraw our objection
to the erection of the large outside patio deck on the
second floor that overlooks our back area and house. That
outside patio will just act as a viewing stand for
everything that goes on in the back of our house.
Is it a massive addition to the rear of that
house? Yes, you bet it is. You received in your Desk Item
on December 12th a letter from a Ms. Kaufman who lives on
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Pennsylvania Avenue and who described to you her reaction
to the project this way: “The scale and scope of this
project is massive.” She reported to you, in fact, that she
cried when she saw the story poles go up. For the record, I
don’t know Ms. Kaufman, I’ve never met her, I didn’t put
her up to do that letter, but I’ve heard that same comment
from a half a dozen people that I see on the street walking
up and down Pennsylvania Avenue. No impact on the
neighborhood? No one believes that except for Tony Jeans,
and I hope you do not.
Donna and I ask that the Commission not approve
the project, or at least disallow construction of the
second-floor outside patio on a property, by the way, that
already has many beautiful gardens and trees and patios,
unless the new owners plant 12-15 20’ high Italian Cypress
trees on 2’ centers on a portion of the fence line where we
have this viewing problem.
If the Commission would order that privacy trees
be planted, that would solve our privacy problem and the
mass problem in their entireties, allowing the new owner to
have her second-floor patio and still easily see the hill
to our south, which is what she wants to see; and the
privacy trees eliminate our concern about the mass of this
project, since we will then not be forced to see it.
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Let me convert to parking. I think the parking
garages are illegal, but I obviously have to defer to
Staff. They’re not 10x20 on the inside, they’re 10x20 on
the outside. Cars simply do not fit in those antiquated and
sagging four-stall garages, and if those garages are to
code, the Town simply needs to change the code; we’ll have
to worry about that at a different time, you may miss that
opportunity here, but regardless of whether the garages are
to code the Commission should exercise its discretion. I
would suggest to you to require a $1 million renovation
like this to have adequate garages to house the many
tenants of this property.
What’s the proof that the cars don’t fit in
there? Let me give you four. Twenty-two years that I’ve
been at that property dozens of tenants have tried and
failed. Every prior owner of the property, which have been
three since then, have insisted in contract at our
suggestion that they require the tenants to park in there,
and they have tried in good faith. I have worked with many
of them. I’ve got down on my hands and knees measuring one
of those garages for them. It hasn’t worked. Twenty-two
years, there’s only been one tenant who has been able to
survive in there for more than a week, and we’ve had dozens
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and dozens of tenants; they used to run that on a six-month
cycle.
Second piece of proof. Tony’s Jeans’ niece, one
of the current tenants, tried parking in the garages and
badly damaged the right side of her vehicle, which then
predictably went right back onto Peralta with a badly
scraped fender and quarter panel. I’m no machine shop guy,
but it looked about $1,000 to $1,500 of damage to me on her
second day of trying.
Next, currently, today, you have five of the
current six cars in that house that are on the streets,
even when they’re under the microscope and everybody is
watching. They’re not in the garages, they’re out on the
streets, and if you’re out there looking today or
yesterday, you’d find that to make it appear even less
dense they moved the cars over onto Pennsylvania Avenue,
hoping that you wouldn’t notice that sleight of hand.
Nobody has been able to live in there for more than a week.
There are cars that physically don’t fit at all. The
Commission should deny the 11 Peralta proposal unless it
requires the owners to build, now, at least four onsite
garages of appropriate size to house the tenant cars.
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There are four different stories we’ve heard
about the tree, which is why the tree is on the agenda
here.
First, Tony told me he was going to take the tree
down because they wanted to put solar panels up on the
south side of the roof.
When the Town arborist told him that wasn’t going
to happen, and the uproar in the neighborhood ensued, he
quickly changed position to position two, the tree was a
threat to life and property and needed to come down. He
begged my assistance with that. The Town arborist and I
both independently came to the conclusion that nothing was
wrong with the tree; it’s very healthy, it’s beautiful. I
would not join him in that false suggestion.
Third position, when that didn’t fly, and the
neighbors were getting very aroused at that point, he said
the tree would not survive construction. That then caused
the neighborhood watch to make sure that he doesn’t poison
the tree. Everybody is watching the tree now, talking to
the Town arborist.
Then he fell back to his fourth position, the
current position, the tree may be damaged and could die
during construction. That’s why I’m going to ask you to ask
for a $15,000 bond to make sure that tree doesn’t get hurt
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somehow magically during this construction, which is
massive, picking up that house and building a new area.
I’m going to ask you to do four things. Whoops,
I’m out of time, so I’ll do that later, I guess.
CHAIR HUDES: Thank you. There’s the opportunity
to ask questions. Maybe some of your points will come up
during that. Do any of the Commissioners have a question?
Commissioner Hanssen.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: As I was listening to your
presentation, I thought you had gone through your
objections and what would satisfy them, and so you talked
about the view and if they planted Italian Cypress. My
question is going to be did I get this right? Just so you
know I’m asking a question. And then you talked about the
parking and what you wanted, and you talked about the tree.
Is there something else that you were looking for that
would make you come from the objection to the satisfied
side?
JOHN FOX: If we got the 12-15 Cypresses it would
solve the privacy and the mass problem, it’s as simple as
that on those two issues. On the parking, they need to
build the garages now, because all those cars are going to
be out there. We usually have between 7-11 cars. Depending
on who is there in the house, we’ll have 13-17 cars
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potentially if you approve all these new bedrooms. We can’t
staff it now. There are many days I can’t park in front of
my house at all on a 100’ lot line facing Peralta. The
third thing is the tree. We’re all going to watch it, for
sure. The Town arborist said he’s going to watch it. But I
think you need to put a bond on him, because Tony wants to
get rid of that tree.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: So, my questions was, was
there something else besides the tree, the parking, and the
view?
JOHN FOX: Just those four issues, Madam Vice
Chair.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: All right, thank you.
CHAIR HUDES: If I may follow up on a couple of
things. You’ve made the point that by planting 12-15 20’
Italian Cypress trees on 2’ centers, that would alleviate
the privacy and mass problem.
JOHN FOX: Correct.
CHAIR HUDES: Do you have any objections to the
structure itself if that were to happen?
JOHN FOX: No, because we wouldn’t see it then.
CHAIR HUDES: Okay, so then your remaining
objection would be to the garage and to the tree?
JOHN FOX: Correct.
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CHAIR HUDES: A question about the garage. You
requested that they build four garages. How did you arrive
at four?
JOHN FOX: Well, it’s my reading of the code, but
I’m going to defer to your more seasoned staff than me. I
calculated it, and Tony Jeans also confirmed my calculation
to me, for whatever that may be worth, but he owes four
garages if you were to code today. (Inaudible) it’s clearly
four as I read the code.
CHAIR HUDES: I’ll follow up with Staff on that
in a little bit. Then the other question related to that:
On what basis can the Town require someone to remove a
nonconforming structure, in your opinion?
JOHN FOX: I don’t think you have to approve and
grandfather and further a bad act. I think you can exercise
your discretion not to further a bad act and make it even
worse than it is. It’s a current nonconforming use and you
have an impact on the neighborhood with the addition of all
of these additional bedrooms, which is going to bring at
least two more cars per bedroom, if not four, to the
existing 7-11 count that we see historically. If you are
telling me that this Commission doesn’t have that power,
then we need to go to Town Council and radically revise a
lot of different codes around here, because this is just an
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atrocity for the neighbors, and this growing, creeping
change that just destroys the feel and look of the
neighborhood can’t be right.
CHAIR HUDES: Thank you. I will be asking Staff
and Council on that. Yes, Commissioner O’Donnell.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I want to know how the
Italian Pines would help your neighbors?
JOHN FOX: How it would help them?
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Yes.
JOHN FOX: Well, it would prevent them from
having to see the powerlines that I currently don’t see
because I’ve got them blocked from our ground-level view
with Italian Pines in our yard.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: The powerlines are
unrelated to this project, correct?
JOHN FOX: Well, no, they are what they would see
but for the erection of the pines, and also, they don’t
have to see me getting into my hot tub every day, which I
now use for medicinal reasons; it’s not a toy anymore. But
the other thing is they’re going to need to put a lot of
trees in. That’s why Tony has suggested some trees, because
they’re taking out a lot of trees to back that house up
another 30-40’ or whatever it is, and they’re going to take
out some gardens and trees. They need to plant trees as it
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is. They’re proposing trees that don’t have any full body,
you can see through them, and they’re not contiguous. There
are going to be big spaces between them, because they need
those for their decoration of their back yard, which has
beautiful gardens, as I said, so I don’t think it
deteriorates anything.
The only concern I have heard from the owner is
that she wants to see the hill to the south of us; the
trees that I’m talking about won’t interfere with that.
Remember, they’re putting in an English basement, so
they’re 3-4’ up, and then you start the first floor, so
they’re starting their second floor at about the 15’ level.
I’ll defer to Staff, who will know precisely, but my rough
calculation was about 15’ up, so we were just trying to
block the view as they look down into our pit, that’s all,
and we don’t think it impacts on them at all. People love
Italian Cypresses; they’re all over the place.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Thank you.
CHAIR HUDES: Other questions? Okay, thank you,
Mr. Fox.
JOHN FOX: Thank you.
CHAIR HUDES: We now give the Applicant ten
minutes to address the Commission. Mr. Jeans, please just
state your name and address.
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TONY JEANS: Tony Jeans, PO Box 1518, Los Gatos.
CHAIR HUDES: Thank you. Go ahead.
TONY JEANS: Mr. Chairman, Commissioners, I’m
getting one of the owners to give you a list of the slides
in case they don’t show up very well here, so this is just
what I’m going to go through briefly.
The background: The property was purchases by
Wendy and Kathleen about a year ago. There are two
buildings: the one on 11 Peralta and the one next door on
15 Peralta; they came together. There are five units,
they’re grandfathered in, and they’re difficult to change
because of potential loss of housing units. Specifically,
the Victorian at 11 Peralta, which is the one that we’re
talking about today, is one single-family unit; it has one
accessory dwelling unit and one legal nonconforming
accessory dwelling unit. That’s how it’s configured now and
that’s how it will be configured after we are finished with
it.
The immediate priority is to remodel the
Victorian, keep the three units, and find out what the
costs are for Kathleen and Wendy. They plan to live in two
of the units. The top two units will be one for Wendy, one
for Kathleen, and they rent out the third. They will then
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rent out the two units in 15 Peralta and sell 15 Peralta if
the costs don’t work out during construction.
We plan to request a lot line adjustment to
reconfigure the two properties—that’s a separate
application—and put in better garages at the rear, again,
if the dollars are okay and also consistent with
sequencing, because we need to access the property from the
rear during construction, so some of what we do at the rear
we can’t do until the construction on the Victorian is
done.
There was a significant amount of neighborhood
outreach that initially started. We talked to neighbors, we
incorporated neighbor input into the plans, specifically
the tree, which we were planning on removing when Mr. Fox
objected; we said okay, we’ll keep the tree. We agreed to
move the house 3’ farther away from his property so as to
be less of a privacy concern for him.
We initially had parking in the application. We
were asked my Planning to remove the parking from the
application, because that would be a separate application
and has nothing to do with the Minor Residential
Development Application. You can ask me questions about
parking later and I will answer them.
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We tried to accommodate requests from the Foxes
at 9 Peralta. There was a list of 14 requests; you have
them in your packet. We could not come to a resolution on
all of them; we did most. Subsequent steps: We’ve been
through to and froing with the Historic Preservation
Committee to make window changes, which have all been
resolved, and there are members of the HPC here, so if that
becomes a question, we can deal with it.
I wanted to deal with a couple of things that Mr.
Fox mentioned. We said there was an approximately 25- to
33-percent increase in the footprint and the mass. Okay, so
let’s look at that. The existing house is shown here, the
proposed is shown to the right. If you subtract the
footprint to the current footprint you have 170’ more,
which is an 11-percent increase, so nothing to do with the
25- to 33-percent that he’s mentioning.
As to the bulk which might be considered square
footage, the square footage of the existing house is 2,100.
It will go to 2,500, approximately 400 square feet of
increase, or 20-percent. Four hundred square feet, the
equivalent of a two-car garage, that’s what we’re planning
on adding to this, so there’s no major 25- to 33-percent
addition that Mr. Fox is mentioning.
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Also, note that the height at the back is lower
than the current house, so we’ve tried to reduce that too.
I’ll talk a little bit about privacy. This is in
the plans, but I want to go through it a little.
First of all, this is 9 Peralta, the Fox’s house.
This on the left is the remodel addition that we’re doing.
We’re proposing a patio at this level and a balcony at that
level. First of all, note that the balcony is 20’ away from
the property line, so if you go up to the edge of the
balcony and you peer over to see into the Fox’s property,
for whatever reason, you’re 20’ away. If you’re on the
patio level the fence blocks the view anyway, so there is
no view here, at the main level, of the Fox’s hot tub which
is used for medicinal purposes.
What we want to do is plant trees that grow to
12’. Twelve feet is the calculation such that at the lowest
level Kathleen will have a view of the Santa Cruz Mountains
and from the top-level Wendy would not be able to see Mr.
Fox in the hot tub. What Mr. Fox has asked for, the trees
have changed, is that the trees be, I’m told, varied, but
20-25’ tall, which would be this high, which is totally
unnecessary.
What we have come up with is something that
provides privacy. If we were to agree to plant cypresses,
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which I do not have the owner’s permission to do, I would
say we’re going to cut them off at 12’ to retain the
privacy in both directions and the view. So, if that is
acceptable to Mr. Fox so that he cannot be seen when he’s
in the hot tub, that’s okay by me. What we had chosen was a
different set of trees which are not just a solid wall that
are totally impervious to sunlight but a tree that allows
filtering of light. You can’t really see through it, but it
is much more acceptable in terms of a barrier, more of a
large hedge-type tree. I think in terms of what I want to
discuss now, that would probably be sufficient.
I can talk a little bit about the parking; I’ve
got another minute-and-a-half. Originally parking was on
the agenda. I submitted a revision of the rear garage,
which is currently a massive six-car garage at the back,
and the plan is to convert it into a two-car garage and a
three-car garage. It has to be done very delicately,
because of not ending up with technical demolition, the
rules that would then require the relocation of the garages
to a different location, but it can be done. But with all
our access, having to come from the back, that can’t
happen, at least the three-car garage can’t happen, until
the access, the going in and out with grading equipment,
with construction equipment, etc., is complete.
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We have no objections to the garages at all,
they’re just not part of the application, because it was
suggested by Staff that we should not include them in this
application, because it’s not part of this application.
I think those were the main areas that I wanted
to address.
I’m a little confused about the three stories
above. We’re one story higher, and in reality, if this were
higher, it would be more visible.
CHAIR HUDES: Thank you, Mr. Jeans. Maybe we have
some questions about that, particularly that drawing. Any
of the Commissioners have questions? Yes, Commissioner
Badame.
COMMISSIONER BADAME: Mr. Fox had stated that his
primary concern was the privacy issue, so can you just
confirm for me, and I think I heard it from your
presentation, that if it meant an approval from the
Planning Commission, and I don’t know how my fellow
commissioners might vote on it, but you’re not willing to
compromise on the tree fence being the Italian Cypress, is
that what I hear you say? Definitely not?
TONY JEANS: We have suggested I think four
different options. We’re open to others, but we would
prefer them not to be cypress, which we don’t think are
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appropriate there on a Victorian, and secondly, when
they’re grown, they provide an absolute wall that is
impervious to light. We’d like something that lets a little
bit of a feeling of light through and still obscures the
vision aspect of the privacy.
COMMISSIONER BADAME: Thank you.
CHAIR HUDES: Thank you, Mr. Jeans. Yes,
Commissioner O'Donnell.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I heard you state
earlier that although you didn’t have your client’s okay,
were you to put in the Italian Cypress you would want them
not be higher than 12’. In other words, you could cut them
off at 12’. Now, forget for the moment that you don’t want
an Italian Cypress, I take that to mean whatever is there,
if it’s 12’ or less, and I’m not asking you to agree to
Italian Cypress, but what you’re saying is you don’t want a
barrier there higher than 12’.
TONY JEANS: Correct, and I think Mr. Fox is
asking for 15-25’, depending on what day of the week it is.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: All right, thank you.
CHAIR HUDES: Commissioner Tavana.
COMMISSIONER TAVANA: Can you comment on the
current state of affairs of privacy in the back yard? Do
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you know what the line of sight is currently to the back
yard? Can you see the hot tub currently?
TONY JEANS: What you are not seeing on this
particular plan is that there is a balcony…
First of all, the house is not back here, it is
out at the dotted line, and there is a balcony at this
level that comes to within 2’ of the property line, so the
existing privacy issue is a balcony that is 2’ from the
property line, directly there, and then exterior stairs
that anyone walking up or down those stairs would have a
direct view of the hot tub. There is no screen along this
fence line. There are some trees farther in. I don’t know
whether the current situation is problematic for Mr. Fox;
I’m sure he’s got used to it for the last 20 years or so
that he’s lived there. I personally believe that moving the
house 3’ farther away at Mr. Fox’s request, which we
acceded to, and then moving the balcony from 2’ from the
property line to 20’ from the property line, is a
significant improvement. You’ve got to remember that the
only line of sight of the trees is from this balcony at the
rear, so we do want to have the balcony and the patio; it’s
fundamental to the enjoyment of the property, and Mr. Fox’s
house is the largest house on the street; it’s about 3,200
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square feet on a smaller lot and they’re trying to see past
it to the Santa Cruz Mountains.
CHAIR HUDES: Thank you. Commissioner Janoff.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Mr. Jeans, regarding the
garage, is it currently protected by the Town’s historic
structure codes? Is it considered to be an historic
structure?
TONY JEANS: It’s not considered to be historic,
but it is a structure which if it… So, it can be modified,
can be changed. I have plans already drawn up fully all the
way through, structural drawings and engineering, to create
a two-car garage and a three-car garage on those lots in a
clever way so that it will not be a technical demolition,
which would require it to be (inaudible).
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: I don’t need those details,
just was curious about the historic status. Thank you.
TONY JEANS: Not historic.
CHAIR HUDES: Thank you. Commissioner Hanssen.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: I wanted to refer to your
privacy drawing again. Have you shared this with the
Appellant, Mr. Fox?
TONY JEANS: Yeah, it’s on the plans.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: And did you discuss it with
him? Because, I mean, based on the view that you told us,
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and the lines of sight, it sounds reasonable, but I didn’t
know what discussions you’ve had with the Foxes about that
and whether or not they could accept that.
TONY JEANS: I think by the time we got to that
point in the dialogue we were no longer communicating
rationally. Like I said, there was a list of 14 questions
that the Foxes had asked us to do, and they’re listed in
your packet, and this was one of them. Our solution to that
was to plant the trees. We went into our property, the
owners and I, and John and Donna, and we walked up to all
of our windows and looked down and said, “Well, how about
if we plant a larger tree here?” which is shown on the
plans, so that trees that are called out on the plan were
trees which at one stage John and Donna had said they would
be somewhat okay with, but then we couldn’t reach a
resolution on the remaining items, and we’re now here.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: But it’s your position that
because of moving the house 3’, and because of the
relocation of the balcony farther back into the property
towards the north that that, in combination with the 12’
trees, would mitigate the privacy issues, that’s your
position?
TONY JEANS: I’m a mathematician, so when I look
at this I cannot see, with a reasonable hedge-type screen
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here, how anyone on either of those two locations can see
that hot tub. This person clearly can’t. Even with the
fence there they would not be able to see the hot tub at
the balcony level up here, which has been relocated from
here, where you could see down diagonally. You can’t see
there; it’s mathematically not possible.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: You answered my question,
thank you.
CHAIR HUDES: I have a follow up on the privacy,
while we’re talking about that. That drawing, you said
that’s in the plans. Where is that in the plans?
TONY JEANS: The top left-hand corner on Sheet 2,
up there.
CHAIR HUDES: That’s a different drawing that
doesn’t show figures.
TONY JEANS: It shows the eyeball looking down as
opposed to the stick figure.
CHAIR HUDES: It’s not that drawing though. This
is new, correct? I actually saw this drawing at Historic
Preservation, but it’s never entered into the plans or
anything that the Planning Commission has seen.
TONY JEANS: I think that the drawing at the top
left-hand corner has actually what I have, an eyeball. I
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don’t have a figure, I have an eyeball. I have that line, I
have an eyeball, that line; it has this, it has that.
CHAIR HUDES: It would be helpful to have this
drawing before the Planning Commission, particularly
interest in the scale of the trees that are drawn there. It
looks like you have two different heights of trees. It
looks like the second height is about 24’ and the third
height is probably 28-30’ tall?
TONY JEANS: I think that was 20’ and that is
25’, based on the original request of the Foxes as to the
height of trees that they wanted.
CHAIR HUDES: And the green tree on the bottom,
is that 10’, or is that 12’, what is that?
TONY JEANS: I have drawn it at 10’, but we’ve
said 12’. It’s probably 11’. This is a 6’ high fence
accurately drawn. I’ve said to block that view, if we do
trees to 12’ it should absolutely screen everyone.
CHAIR HUDES: And is that a drawing that you can
make available to the Planning Commission?
TONY JEANS: It’s in the packet that I just gave
you that you have a series of… Every slide that I put out,
you have that.
CHAIR HUDES: Yes, right. Okay. You just
submitted that, thank you.
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TONY JEANS: So hopefully you can look at that
and see it more clearly.
CHAIR HUDES: Thank you. Commissioner O'Donnell.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: On the parking issue,
it’s my understanding that you’re not asking for any change
in the garages before us, that in fact Staff and I believe
you believe that without touching the garage, and with the
additions you proposed, you will meet the Town’s
requirement on parking?
TONY JEANS: More than meet it is what I’ve been
told.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: This discussion of what
you might do with the garage is all very interesting, but
it is not required by the code, is that right?
TONY JEANS: Correct, correct.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Thank you.
CHAIR HUDES: Okay, thank you. Other questions?
Okay, so we’re now going to open the public portion of the
hearing and take public comment. I have several cards here.
If someone else would like to speak, please put a card in.
My first speaker will be Ed Winn on Peralta.
ED WINN: My name is Ed Winn; I live at 20
Peralta, which is directly across the street from the
project.
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You got a letter I think in your file from Laurie
Jones, who is my next-door neighbor, dated January 17th,
where she lists some objections she had, both specifically
the parking and the tree in front of the house. I wanted to
speak specifically about the parking, but certainly
supporting what Laurie said in that letter, which is quite
accurate.
The parking has been an ongoing problem as long
as I’ve lived there, which is like 12 years now. I have
sympathy for the tenants; they have to park in the street
because the garages are completely inadequate; they’re
unusable. If you go back there and look inside one, you
can’t put a car in there and get out of any reasonable
sized car. So, the tenants are forced to park in front, and
so Peralta Avenue, this nice neighborhood street, becomes a
parking lot. It’s not the tenants’ fault, but the owners I
really think need to do something to fix the problem; it
ruins the street.
From my personal standpoint, many times I can’t
have a guest park in front of my house; it’s taken. They
will park there for several days at a time. Just this last
weekend there was a guy there for four days in a row, and
that’s not the way it should be on a nice suburban street.
I can’t put my garage cans out sometimes to the curb,
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because there’s no curb available. And it’s going to get
worse, it appears.
Now, what I would like to see Tony do, and I
don’t care if it’s phase one or phase two, but some
commitment that those garages are going to be made usable
for the tenants. Right now, I think it’s very mushy as to
whether anything will ever get done, and so I ask that
sometime there’s some stipulation that says we have to have
usable, accessible parking. Thank you.
CHAIR HUDES: Thank you, Mr. Winn. Any Questions?
Yes, Commissioner O'Donnell. If you could stay up, please,
Mr. Winn.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: One question. There are
presently six garages, and I’ve been told by all of you, I
think, that perhaps the garages are too small. We’ve also
been told by the Staff as to what the requirements are for
parking, but that aside, would you be satisfied with four
garages that were the right size?
ED WINN: Yes.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Thank you.
CHAIR HUDES: Thank you. Next speaker, Fellow
Stearns.
FELLOW STEARNS: My name is Fellow Stearns, 37
Peralta. I’m three houses down from the project, and I look
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in my back yard every day and see the story poles of where
Kathleen’s beautiful view of the mountains are going to be.
At the same time, they’re cutting off my view of the
mountains.
I want to reiterate what Ed just said about the
garages. I really wish that was part of this original
permit, because we, too, never can park in front of our own
house, and I’m three houses down from this project. I don’t
understand what the developer said about why you couldn’t
change the garage configuration before. How is it going to
be different if you have to have access to get to the back
with the structure already there? So, I really wish you’d
put a hook into getting those garages, because that’s a
real problem for us.
I really do object to the mass, because I enjoy
looking at the mountains myself, and that will be cut off
by quite a bit. Thank you.
CHAIR HUDES: Thank you. Any Questions? Next
speaker, Mr. Art Monk.
ART MONK: Mr. Chairman and Madam Vice Chair,
Honorable Commissioners, my name is Art Monk. For 15 years
my wife and I have lived at 33 Peralta on the northern
boundary of the merged lot known as 11 and 15 Peralta. You
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have copies of my remarks handed to you. There are two
pages of remarks and there are two pages of exhibits.
These two parcels form a merged lot under Town
Code 29.10.070 due to the common ownership of them, and
you’ll see that code in your handout. I note that both
parcels have sold simultaneously on two occasions in the
last 15 years to identical new owners. Such events likely
void the Certificate of Compliance on the property that was
filed in 2000. We believe the Town therefore must consider
issues concerning the entire merged lot and not just
applications directed to the individual parcel. The
implications of this will be discussed in a moment.
We are not opposed to the proposed present
renovation project. I’ll leave a little bit of air there.
We are not opposed to the renovation project. We have a few
concerns that we have discussed with the owner and wanted
the Planning Commission to be aware of them.
Trees. I was in Erin’s office talking about that
tree about an hour-and-a-half after the first story pole
went up. We are concerned about the potential loss of the
Coast Live Oak labeled #476 on the arborist plan, which is
located at the southeast corner of the property, and the
impact such a loss would have on the look of the west side
of Peralta. Please note that no statement of instability
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appears in the arborist report for #476, and it is the only
Coast Live Oak on the property indicated as being in “good
condition.” All other live oaks on the property are
indicated as being “fair condition.”
The owners have committed to implementing the
recommendations of the Town Arborist. We are skeptical that
these recommendations are sufficient to protect the tree
from attack by those who wish it removed, as initially
written into the building plans, since there have been
instances in the neighborhood when trees oddly became
diseased and had to be removed six months after a removal
permit was denied.
On November 27th the planner of this project wrote
to the neighborhood that, “It is uncertain whether the oak
tree at the front of the property will survive. The tree is
massive and could cause a great deal of damage if it
falls.” So, this statement really is an attempt to
ameliorate the future loss of the tree. We want the loss of
the tree prevented, and all efforts should be made towards
that.
In terms of parking, the parking problems on
Peralta have been exacerbated by the tenants of the merged
lot not using the garages, and the owners admit the garages
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do not meet code and that they’re almost unusable for the
width of cars in use today.
I’ll end my remarks there. I have more things to
say, but you have my written comments.
CHAIR HUDES: Thank you, Mr. Monk. Do we have
questions from Commissioners? Commissioner Janoff.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Just a clarification. You
said that the letter from the planner states this oak tree
was potentially unstable.
ART MONK: No, it did not say that.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: I misunderstood you. Could
you clarify that?
ART MONK: I will read that quote to you again.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: And who is it that you’re
quoting?
ART MONK: (Inaudible).
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Oh, I see.
ART MONK: And the letter was distributed around
the neighborhood and it said, “It is uncertain whether the
oak tree at the front of the property will survive. The
tree is massive and could cause a great deal of damage if
it falls.” You could say that about any tree that’s around
us here.
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COMMISSIONER JANOFF: My question was who are you
quoting?
ART MONK: Yeah, (inaudible).
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Thank you.
CHAIR HUDES: Commissioner Tavana.
COMMISSIONER TAVANA: If you don’t mind me
asking, I’ve driven up and down Peralta and you’re talking
about parking is a concern of yours. I’m curious, where do
you park your vehicle? Are they on the street themselves?
ART MONK: We have a 420 square foot two-car
garage; it has two cars in it, and that’s where we park.
COMMISSIONER TAVANA: Great, thank you.
ART MONK: Great question.
CHAIR HUDES: I have a follow up question on the
parking as well. What is your suggested remedy? You were
able to express a concern, but I didn’t hear what you might
suggest as a remedy for that situation.
ART MONK: We think that the garages should be
addressed immediately before the work is done on the
renovation so that they might even store materials in those
garages during the renovation, but at least we’re not stuck
with the problem of doing the garages after people have
moved into the units and they then have to park all their
cars on the street while the garages are being built, etc.
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CHAIR HUDES: Okay, thank you; that’s helpful.
And the reason I ask, I know you’ve provided it to us in
writing, but it’s come after our deadline for Desk Items,
so we really can only place the weight on what you
submitted given the amount of time that we’ve had to absorb
it, so thank you for clarifying in your remarks.
ART MONK: You’re quite welcome. The exhibits are
there regarding the lot mergers as well as requirements for
parking.
CHAIR HUDES: Okay, thank you very much. Next
speaker is Lee Quintana.
LEE QUINTANA: Lee Quintana, 5 Palm Avenue. I
think you’ve read my initial letter where I had concerns
about the windows and also about the mass of the second-
floor trellis. I think that both of those issues have been
resolved at the Historic Preservation Committee.
I might also add, since I’m the only one who is
speaking who doesn’t live on Peralta, that I am within the
notice area for this particular project. I’m just going to
make some comments in no particular order, as I was taking
notes.
I’d like to say that I’m in a strange position,
because I’m usually up here objecting to a project of Tony
Jeans’, and I’m supporting this project as it’s been
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modified, because I think it meets all the requirements of
the Town. It meets the Town’s obligation for ADUs, and it
is not requesting any changes now to a nonconforming legal
structure, the garage; it maintains the ADUs. In fact, it
doesn’t even use up all the FAR on the lot, even though for
ADUs you can actually go over the appropriate ADR for a
single-family home by 10-percent; they’re not asking to do
that. I think the Applicant has been extremely generous in
agreeing to move the house 3’ farther from the property
line, and certainly the removal of that horrendous outside
staircase is a big improvement.
As to the privacy issue, as Mr. Jeans’
illustration noted, the balcony is sunk into the roof
forms, so if you’re sitting on the balcony you’re not going
to see over the balcony and down into another yard, you’re
just going to see out straight or up. Most people don’t
spend their time on their balcony at the very edge of it
staring down, and even if they did, from my own experience,
my house is about 20’ back from my neighbor’s house. My
bathroom window looks out/down. If I stand at that window
and look across into my neighbor’s lot, I cannot see their
patio or any of their back yard. I don’t think this is a
real issue. I think this is a real improvement to the lot;
it really improves its historic preservation aspects.
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Cypresses I do not think are appropriate, and not
everybody loves them. I have one that was planted by my
telephone pole; I hate it. They cannot be topped; that
ruins the tree.
CHAIR HUDES: Thank you, Ms. Quintana. Maybe we
have some questions. Yes, Commissioner Badame.
COMMISSIONER BADAME: A view of the mountains is
highly prized in Los Gatos, so for the Applicant this would
be a new view for her, because she doesn’t have an existing
one with the balcony; the balcony would create a new
opportunity for her to view the mountains. But at the same
time, it would take away an existing view for Mr. Stearns,
who also takes great pride in viewing the mountains. Do you
have any thought process on how we balance that?
LEE QUINTANA: My impression is it wasn’t the
balcony that was taking away his view, but it was the
building itself; that’s number one. Number two,
unfortunately views are not guaranteed unless it’s a public
view, and from experience I’ve had the same kind of issues
come up from houses that were across the street from me in
two directions that were like 600-700 square feet that
morphed into 3,500-4,000 square foot houses and that
blocked my view of the hills, but that was not necessarily
taken into consideration, because it was a private view.
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CHAIR HUDES: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER BADAME: Thank you for your input.
CHAIR HUDES: Okay, thank you. I have one more
speaker, Belinda Milford.
BELINDA MILFORD: My name is Belinda Milford; I’m
a neighbor on Manzanita Avenue and I walk the neighborhood
often. I guess I don’t have anything new to add, but I’d
just like to add my voice to objection to the plan in terms
of the mass of the building and the parking problem. If
extra bedrooms are being added there will be more tenants
and more cars on the street. I don’t think we want to turn
that beautiful historic street into a parking lot, and the
mass of the building proposed would also do that. Thanks.
CHAIR HUDES: Thank you. Any questions? Okay,
thank you. That’s the last card that I have, so at this
point we will now call the Applicant back to make further
comments. You have five minutes, Mr. Jeans.
TONY JEANS: Thank you. Firstly, the view issue
from the neighbor at 37 Peralta, he’s actually three homes
down the street. The relative portion of view of the Santa
Cruz Mountains that we blocked would be infinitesimal based
on the view from his street out at the Santa Cruz
Mountains. So, you’re just taking away a very small part
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that he is looking at beyond 33 Peralta, which is next
door, and then 15 Peralta.
Let me deal with something that I thought was a
little upsetting. This is a very poor picture, I have a
much better one, of Mr. Fox’s property. As you can see, his
focus is totally away from the house behind, which is my
client’s property. Yes, there are a few windows that look
there, but his lifestyle, his focus, is not looking back at
the house next door, it’s looking away from it.
Secondly, as I said before, he has the largest
house on the street. There are the story poles that you can
see sneaking out behind, and the owner of 37 Peralta, who
lives three houses farther behind, is not going to have a
wide angle destroyed.
I’m going to assume something, because I don't
know if you have the PowerPoint presentation in your
packets that Mr. Fox had. This is one of the pictures from
it. So, this photograph, which was handed out in the
packet, and it’s one of the pictures that Mr. Fox says he
looks out at, I looked at that and I said I don’t remember
that when I go out there. So, I looked at it seriously, and
then I said I also don’t remember the hot tub being quite
like that. So, I went out and I measured the height of
these fence posts at 6’. I measured the distance between
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these fence posts as 6’, 8’ on the longer ones, and I can
see that this has been stretched out dramatically. So, if
Mr. Fox shows his PowerPoint presentation, please be aware
that this is reality, and that is not what he sees. I don’t
want you to be confused when Mr. Fox comes up, if he does
his PowerPoint presentation, and shows you all these
pictures of looking up at the back yard. It’s a very small
portion of view that is being interrupted. There is my
photograph where it is, and I just shocked when I saw it.
Getting back to one point. Actually, I’ll address
the tree first. The comment about the tree perhaps not
surviving is in the arborist report; it did not come from
me. If Erin would find you the appropriate page in the
arborist report, I quoted what the arborist said, and he
said the tree may not survive construction even though we
have moved the house 3’ farther away, which will help, and
you do not know on the other side of the tree is a 4’
vertical wall, so there are no roots growing in that
direction, so it’s precarious and he was concerned about
it, as it’s shown in the arborist report.
I have three seconds, so I’ll just finish there.
CHAIR HUDES: Perhaps we have some questions.
Commissioner Hanssen.
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VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: I wanted to go back to the
parking issue. Although legally there is no parking issue
because of the way our Town Code is, there’s an issue with
the neighbors, so I’d just like to understand.
In your original presentation it was sort of
along the lines of well, if there’s still money available
after everything else is done, then maybe we’ll do
something about this. But the issue that will persist after
this renovation is done, if it’s approved, is that there is
going to be this ongoing parking issue. There are more
likely to be more cars parking on the street, and so
there’s going to be a lot of ill will with the neighbors.
What is your relative confidence that something will be
done to address the parking? There’s a plan conceptually,
but it depends on how things go.
TONY JEANS: A remodel of this magnitude is very
difficult to determine how much it’s going to cost. I’m not
building this house; Kathleen is employing someone to build
it. I do not know where she is on budget. I know that a lot
of costs of construction have gone up dramatically in the
last 12 months. She has a budget that she’s trying to stick
to.
I do know that the garages are usable but very
difficult to use. The interior dimension of the width of
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the garages are 9’-9”. The Town standard for a single
garage is now 11’; it used to be 10’ way back when. The
garage doors, I believe, are 9’ wide to give people room to
turn around and try to reverse in or go in forwards. Yes,
people have dinged the side.
At the moment I’m told by Wendy that there are
five cars that are currently from people who live at the
house. Wendy and Kathleen, when they move in as owners,
remember, you’re going to have a different situation than
you have when you have five tenants, or five units all
occupied by tenants. You’ll have a landlord who is living
on the premises, the owner, and I think you’ll end up with
a better situation.
I would really like there to be money left over.
Kathleen has already paid me and a structural engineer to
do all the necessary work to create the plans for the
garages. That is all done, so it’s simply a case of can we
build them now? Probably not, because of access, and
because Kathleen wants to have five garages, not four,
because she wants one per unit, so that if you have three
units in the Victorian and two on the other, she’d like a
two-car garage on 15 Peralta and a three-car garage on 11
Peralta, but I don't know if that will happen the day the
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work is completed on the Victorian; that’s beyond my
purview.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: I totally understand, and
that’s probably more a question for the owners, but what I
heard you say is—and tell me if I missed anything—it
sounded like the plans exist, it’s just not certain what
the cost of the construction will be, but you also said
that the owners will be moving into the building, which
they’re going to have more skin in the game, if you will,
as to this situation, because they’ll be living at the
place.
TONY JEANS: Right, and the plans are at such a
level that I could submit them tomorrow to Building, but we
can’t do that, because we are required to have access.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: You answered that, so I’m
good. Thank you.
CHAIR HUDES: Commissioner O'Donnell.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: This is sort of a dual
question I think I should ask the Staff first, because
we’re talking about parking and I’m not exactly sure what
we can do about parking today, and I’d like to know.
As I understand it, we don’t have before us now
anything that we can do to change the parking. If that’s
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incorrect, or there’s something we can do, I’d like to know
what it is.
JOEL PAULSON: That is accurate. They don’t have
anything proposing to modify the parking situation as it
currently exists, so a couple of points of clarification.
The three units now, and in future if this project is
approved, only require two parking spots pursuant to your
code.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: For how many units?
JOEL PAULSON: For all three of those units. The
Town also does not require a garage. The Town also cannot
require them, even if they have a garage, to park in their
garage. So, there are a number of issues that may or may
not be resolved moving forward, and so that’s the current
Town Code, and that’s all over Town. We also have
nonconforming garages all over Town, and people modify
their homes and make improvements and we don’t have the
ability to make them modify that to bring it up to current
code.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Let me just follow up,
then. Do I understand correctly, we could not impose as a
condition doing something with the garages to have, for
example, five bigger garages out of the six existing
garages?
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JOEL PAULSON: The site before you is only one of
the parcels, so that would be a difficult stretch to make
that requirement, because you’d be not only requiring
spaces on this parcel, but on the adjacent parcel that’s
not before you this evening.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Well, okay, but I want
to get that clear. Some portion of the six relates to this
parcel?
JOEL PAULSON: Absolutely.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: So, what is it, three?
JOEL PAULSON: Three.
TONY JEANS: Three-and-a-half.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I’m trying to get to the
jurisdictional issue. If we could say well this is great,
we can only deal with three, let’s impose the condition
that those three be sized—it seems to me to lose one space—
so that your tenants could get in more easily and get out
more easily, you’re saying we could do that?
JOEL PAULSON: No, because you have an existing
legal nonconforming situation; you can’t make them modify
that.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: That’s what I thought.
So, I’ll go back to Tony now just for a second. You were
saying that money aside, your client—again, money aside—
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wants to go ahead and make the changes, but one, we can’t
impose that condition on you—we just heard that—and two,
you’re not sure your client can do it until she ascertains
the cost of the initial project, is that correct? In other
words, you can’t volunteer today, notwithstanding what we
can do, to say look, I’ll solve this problem by agreeing to
do it? And we’ll deal with whether that’s enforceable in a
moment.
TONY JEANS: There is a condition that you might
be able to put on this, and that would be that before final
occupancy of the Victorian, the remodeled, all the work
gone on, Victorian, before final occupancy, a building
permit be obtained for the three-car garage portion on this
lot, because we can’t deal with the other lot separately,
I’m understanding, and that would be acceptable to the
owner.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: But of those three, and
I’m…
TONY JEANS: They would be full-size garages.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: You’re taking the
existing three, which are not full-sized, and magically
making them three full-size. How do you do that?
TONY JEANS: I add 6’ to the length and turn them
into 12’ long…
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COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: But that would have to
be approved by the Town?
TONY JEANS: That would have to be approved. I
have already drawn up the plans for the approval of that;
not just the planning set, but also the structural
engineering plans, and that could be done.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: This will probably
involve both Staff and the attorney. I don’t see how we can
impose that condition; however, I wonder if we can make it
part of the record that the Applicant has made this
statement of what he intends to do? What the value of this
is, I don't know, but it least it’s of record, it’s what is
said, and as near as I can tell that’s about the best we
can do on the parking, and that’s more than we could do but
for the voluntary nature of that offer.
JOEL PAULSON: I would look to the Applicant to
confirm. My understanding is that this is what he’s
offering to do as a Condition of Approval irrespective of
whether we can require it or not. So, this is an offering
by the Applicant to do this, so if he’s willing to accept
that condition then you are more than free to add that
condition.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Okay.
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JOEL PAULSON: I will say that currently they are
not only nonconforming as to width, but they’re also
nonconforming to depth, so I’m not sure how he’s going
accommodate that.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Well, if I were he I
would make some more specific offer, i.e. as to the width
and the depth, but if you’re prepared to do something like
that, I’d like to hear it.
TONY JEANS: I do not believe that the depth is
an issue. The interior requirement I believe is 20’ on
depth. We actually have 19’-6” on the inside; we would stay
at 19’-6”. Most cars are up to 16’ in length. You’ve got
room to park.
The real issue there is width, and what I’m
proposing is a 9’ wide garage door with 12’ bays to give
people plenty of room to pull their car in—cars are
typically 7’ wide—and open their doors, get out. This is
planned for that lot.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: So, are you prepared to
make that then a condition of any approval that you might
get this evening?
TONY JEANS: Yes. You’ve got to remember that the
two owners are living there anyway, so they want nice
garages; they want to be able to park their car.
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COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: If you’re prepared to do
it, then fine, we’ll keep that in mind when we make a
decision here. Thank you very much.
TONY JEANS: Okay.
CHAIR HUDES: Just as a follow up to that. Is
that a condition, that offering, to file a permit or to
build the garages?
TONY JEANS: I don’t know how long it’s going to
take to do the work for building the garage. I don’t want
them to not be able to move into the Victorian because the
garage isn’t yet final, so my suggestion is that they come
in, they spend their money, they pay for the permit, they
get things underway, but I don’t think… It’s technically
very difficult because of the non-technical demolition
requirement on those garages, so it has to be done
incredibly carefully or all of a sudden, they go away, and
you can’t put them back. So, my offer is to pull the permit
and get everything ready. That’s as much as I can do. I’m
not the builder, I’m not the owner, but the owner said yes,
they’ll do that.
CHAIR HUDES: Thank you. Commissioner O'Donnell.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Implicit in that is not
only that you will pull the permit, but that you will—an
old word was forthwith—start and complete construction,
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subject however to the approval of the Town of the plans
which are submitted.
TONY JEANS: I’m okay with that.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: That way it’s just not
going to be out there forever.
TONY JEANS: That’s all right.
CHAIR HUDES: Thank you. Commissioner Janoff.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: I’m confused about the
technical demolition concern that Mr. Jeans is commenting
on, specifically since we’ve heard that a garage is not
required. Can you comment, Mr. Paulson, on whether the
structure could be removed before building anything in
order to provide access for building materials or open-air
parking? I’m confused where the technical demolition
relates to this structure.
JOEL PAULSON: A technical demolition does relate
to this structure if you want to leave some of it and not
have to go through a subsequent discretionary review. If,
for instance, he wants to demolish this entire structure,
the three on the one side and the two on the other, then he
would, for the three for sure, be over 450 square feet, so
he’d have to come through for a Minor Residential
Application for a detached accessory structure more than
450 square feet, so he would have to go through a
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subsequent discretionary review. Now, if he came in and
just wanted to take three-and-a-half of them off and leave
the other on the other lot, that is possible and that would
not require anything other than a demolition permit for the
portion he’s tearing down.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Thank you.
CHAIR HUDES: Thank you. And a reminder, we’ll
have opportunity to ask questions of Staff in
deliberations. Any more questions for Mr. Jeans?
I had one, and this comes back to some concerns
that the neighbor raised in his first statement. He said
that the addition rises a story above the existing home at
9 Peralta, and so I wanted to understand how that is
happening. So, is the height of 11 Peralta changing in a
way that it’s another story above what exists, an
additional story above what exists?
TONY JEANS: No, the addition that we are doing
is going to be 2’ lower than the building that is currently
there. When it’s moved it’s not being elevated; it is
staying at the same level. I think what Mr. Fox is trying
to get you to believe is that this, because it’s at a lower
level, is one or two stories higher than his house. I’m
confused as to that.
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CHAIR HUDES: Okay, thank you. That’s helpful. I
was going to ascertain that the height was not going to
change when you lifted the house and moved it over.
TONY JEANS: That is correct, and it’s shown on
the engineering drawings as such.
CHAIR HUDES: The other question I had was about
the existing staircase and how that relates to the privacy.
Today from the existing external staircase is there a sight
line to the hot tub at 9 Peralta?
TONY JEANS: If you’d turn around and look at the
color rendering behind you, you can see the balcony and the
stairway coming down, and you can see that anyone going up
and down those stairs is going to stare at the hot tub, and
anyone on the balcony above is going to be looking at the
hot tub, albeit not directly at a 90-degree angle; it’s an
oblique angle, but yes, it is. So, the orange one is the
orange painted stair that you saw when you went out there,
and the little thing in the back yard is the hot tub, and
the stairs you see as you go up and down.
CHAIR HUDES: That answers my question, thank
you. Any other questions for Mr. Jeans? Okay, Mr. Fox,
would you please come up. You have five minutes plus
questions for your comments and discussion.
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JOHN FOX: Very good. Thank you. Let me just give
a potpourri of responses here.
I don’t want anybody on this panel to think that
Mr. Jeans or the Applicant were accommodating to us in any
way. We asked for a number of things. What did occur were
things that were mutually beneficial to the Applicant and
to us or were differentially only of benefit to them.
I did not request that the house be moved 3’
back; that’s just wrong. Tony Jeans approached us and
suggested he was going to move it back three feet. My
suggestion was no, you ought to knock down the cottage and
resituate the house in the middle of the property; that was
the only thing I said about moving it. We never suggested a
3’ move. He did that for his own parochial, private reasons
before we ever knew about the project. That was the first
thing he told us on day one.
Let’s talk about the access. He’s going to have
access. He says he can’t knock down the garages or touch
them, because he needs access. That’s false. There’s about
a 12’ dead area to the south of the garages. That’s how he
has told me, and in my presence told his client, that the
contractor he told me he had hired was going to access the
property, which was new news to her and to me, and he’s
going to not of course take down any garages. So, he could
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be correcting these garages today without any impact on his
access, because he’s going to access it not through the
garages but through this 12’ strip of land that exists
between his property and the garages.
The thing that you ought to know about the
garages, too, is this: They have told me flatly,
repeatedly, that they cannot afford to build the garages.
In talking with the owners themselves and with Mr. Jeans,
they told me that they would not give me a guarantee that
they would build it within a year of occupying the
property, nor would they give me a guarantee that they
would do it within five years. They said, “We just don’t
know. We can’t afford it.” And that cost problem is getting
worse for them apparently, according to what I understood
from Ms. Wilson.
Mr. Jeans is making it sound as though the Staff
forced him not to file a second application for the
garages. What Staff told him was you need to technically
separate it into two, not that it wasn’t wise or
appropriate to fix the garages, as I think he was trying to
suggest.
Mr. Chair, I agree with you. I’ve never seen that
drawing of the sight lines. I don’t trust them. I hired my
contractor, I hired my landscaper, to run sight lines to
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figure out what the height of the trees was. This was not
off the cuff. I told them both to assume a 5’-6” point of
view, a 6’ person with eyes down a little bit lower, and
they came up with 18-20’. My suggestion to Mr. Jeans has
consistency been 20-23’. I don't know where the suggestion
that we’ve been variable about that came from.
We have heard one suggestion of a tree type. We
haven’t heard two or three or four; that’s just factually
wrong. We did hear that that one tree would be open; it
would not block. It was going to be a short tree for
decoration; it wasn’t going to be a privacy screen. We’re
not locked in on Italian Cypress, we just want something
that will block the view of this massive piece of house
that’s coming, and to block the sight lines.
As to the staircase, somebody walks on the
staircase for less than probably three seconds from the
areas that you could see from the staircase perhaps twice a
day. In my 22 years there I’ve seen somebody on that
staircase maybe three dozen times if I’m lucky. This is not
somebody sitting on a porch or standing on their porch;
they walk up casually here and there. Right now, since 1900
when Julia Morgan built our house to the footprint that it
is, the two houses sit with the front door at the same
place and the back door is at the same place. He’s pushing
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out 20-percent more according to him, 25-percent more
according to my construction general contractor.
Our landscapers just disagree with his sight
lines and with his measurements. I don't know if he’s
counting from the wall line and not the porch. We were
counting from the full width of mass, the beginning of some
structure to the end of some structure, and we came up with
25- to 33-percent, depending on which structure you
counted. Thank you.
CHAIR HUDES: Thank you, Mr. Fox. Do we have
questions? No questions. Okay, thank you.
JOHN FOX: Thank you so much.
CHAIR HUDES: We will now close the public
portion of the hearing and we can now move forward to
questions of Staff, and discussion of the item at hand.
Would anyone like to get the conversation going with some
comments, perhaps? Commissioner O'Donnell.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: (Inaudible) Staff for a
second, but as I understand the report the proposal
complies with all of our requirements. In addition to
complying with all of our requirements there is an offer
here to add a condition which we could not otherwise
require relating to the three garages.
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On the other side of that is that although it
complies with all of our regulations, and although an offer
is made on the parking which we otherwise couldn’t require,
there are still some objections to it. I guess the question
I would have then is it seems to me the condition on
parking could be a good condition if properly framed, but
if there are some other things we could do to satisfy… It’s
not our obligation to satisfy everyone, it’s our obligation
to satisfy what the requirements are. Sometimes we’re able
to go a little bit beyond that, so I guess I’m really
saying are there some suggestions of what we could do to go
beyond, notwithstanding the otherwise satisfaction?
CHAIR HUDES: Commissioner Badame.
COMMISSIONER BADAME: Well, to that question,
Commissioner O'Donnell, I would ask Staff, one of the
remaining concerns was that the Applicant take out a
$10,000 tree protection bond. Has that ever been done as a
Condition of Approval? How common would that be?
JOEL PAULSON: I hate to say ever, because I’ve
only been here eighteen-and-a-half years, so I’m not sure
what happened before that. What I will say is that our Town
Code, the tree protection section, specifically does allow
the Town to request or require a bond for trees if we think
it’s necessary, so that is something that is possible.
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COMMISSIONER BADAME: So, is it Staff’s opinion
that it is not necessary?
JOEL PAULSON: From Staff’s opinion currently
it’s not necessary, but if that’s something that is
important to the Commission, then we can definitely request
that bond. The amount, I know Mr. Fox mentioned a number,
but we would look at the tree evaluation from the arborist
report and then determine a bond from that point.
COMMISSIONER BADAME: Thank you.
CHAIR HUDES: Commissioner Hanssen.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: I wanted to ask a question
again about the parking. There were a number of comments
made about the number of bedrooms potentially increasing,
which could lead to more cars, and we don’t have number of
bedrooms anywhere in our code tied to the number of parking
spaces, correct?
ERIN WALTERS: That’s correct.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: And then just to also
reconfirm, the added difficulty we have with this property
in particular is that the State of California really
encourages us to have more ADUs, and although we’re not
adding more ADUs, one of the ways that they’re encouraging
ADUs is to reduce the parking requirements if you’re so
close to a bus stop, whereas if it was some other structure
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that didn’t have an ADU there might be a requirement for
more parking spots, but there is less because it has ADUs,
which are encouraged by the State of California, is that
correct?
ERIN WALTERS: That’s correct.
CHAIR HUDES: Commissioner O'Donnell.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: The only kind of bonds
I’ve ever seen, not including this tree bond we’re talking
about, but typically if I bond something then I have to
violate something to cash the bond in. In other words, if
you bond something relating to a tree, I assume it means
that you won’t do something, or you will act with care in
taking care of that tree.
Now, if the tree dies from reasons beyond your
control, I would assume the bond would not pay off. So, I
guess one of the things I have in my mind is if we have no
present belief that the tree is under any particular stress
because of this, and I say that because we’ve been told now
that the report we have says that this construction may
cause the tree to suffer, so that apparently is in it.
So, I guess the question then becomes if you
approve the plans and they do exactly what they said they
were doing, and pursuant to the report that does cause
stress to the tree and the tree dies, I just find that
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unusual. You’ve told somebody they can do something, you’ve
had them bonded, they do exactly what they said they would
do, the tree dies, and now you’re trying to cash in on the
bond. I would suggest to you that may be an interesting
lawsuit.
CHAIR HUDES: Just to follow up on that, is Staff
prepared to address that fully tonight, or is that
something that Staff would prefer to have some more time to
look into, the bondability of the tree?
JOEL PAULSON: We don’t need any more time.
CHAIR HUDES: Okay, thank you. Commissioner
Janoff.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: I’m just wondering if we’re
getting a little too precise regarding the requirement or
the suggestion that we have a bond. Is there a different
way to ensure the viability of the tree that does provide
for compensation to replace the tree should construction
damage it to the point that it fails? Maybe bond is not the
right vehicle, maybe it’s just simply insurance.
CHAIR HUDES: Commissioner O'Donnell.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I think that would
require further study, because I’ve never heard of that
kind of insurance, which doesn’t mean anything, because I’m
no insurance expert. Personally, I would think that—yes, we
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have an insurance expert, I forgot—if we were to put some
teeth into the requirements of take care of the tree during
construction, and I don't know what that is, but I think
we’re on safer ground with that. For example, periodic
inspections to see that the tree is indeed being protected,
and as you notice in front of this town hall, and you saw
the protections that are up against the trees here, that
kind of thing, to me, is a positive step, and I would
prefer to think that the proper party could design some way
to ensure as best we can that that tree is protected. I’d
rather do that than look for an insurance policy, because
with that sense the insurer would want to know what am I
insuring and what happens? That’s very confusing.
CHAIR HUDES: Commissioner Janoff.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: In the Conditions of
Approval, Item 10-B, it does say, “A licensed arborist
shall monitor the Coast Live Oak tree identified during
demolition construction.” So, the inspection and monitoring
are a part of it, but—question to Staff—what happens if the
inspecting arborist determines that the tree is being
negatively affected?
JOEL PAULSON: We’d have to make a determination
based on their information as to what next steps would be,
whether there’s a remedy to incorporate other measures to
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help the basically continued viability of the tree during
the completion of construction or following construction,
or if something catastrophic happens, then that would be
another path that we would have to go down.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: So, you have recourse
beyond…
JOEL PAULSON: Absolutely.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: …to address a problem
beyond just the monitoring.
JOEL PAULSON: Pursuant to the Town Code and the
arborist report, as provided.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Thank you.
CHAIR HUDES: If I may, I have a question about
an issue that was raised by Mr. Monk. I’ll quote him. “I
noted both parcels have sold simultaneously on two
occasions in the last 15 years to identical new owners.
Such events likely void the Certificate of Compliance on
the property that was filed in 2000,” and I believe that
that’s the act that caused the two parcels to be merged.
He’s suggesting that the Town consider issues concerning
the entire merged lots, not just applications directed to
an individual parcel. Does the Town Attorney have any
opinion about whether those events would void the
Certificate of Compliance and whether we must consider the
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entire merged lot, and not just applications of an
individual parcel?
JOEL PAULSON: Before the Deputy Town Attorney,
if she has anything to add, we appreciate Mr. Monk’s
position. Erin and I actually met with Mr. Monk and
discussed this issue. The Town issued a Certificate of
Compliance saying there are two legal lots in, I believe,
2001, and so to come back and say that that now would no
longer be valid because of property transactions that
happened subsequently, we don’t think that that’s based on
any legally defensible stance. I’m not sure if the Deputy
Town Attorney has any additional comments.
LYNNE LAMPROS: Two separate lots can be owned by
the same person without it voiding a Certificate of
Compliance, if it was stated that they were two separate
lots.
CHAIR HUDES: Thank you. Commissioner Hanssen.
VICE CHAIR HANSSEN: I wanted to kind of make a
comment; I didn’t have a question per se. I wanted to note
as far as the view is concerned there’s already a condition
in the proposed Condition of Approval regarding the privacy
landscaping, and then the only thing is whether you agree
with the actual plants that are being planted, but that’s
in there and there are quite a few other terms in here;
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Conditions 11-14 are all related to privacy for the
southern neighbor.
That being the case, I wanted to make a general
comment about the application. I generally support this
application.
I have some concerns about the parking being
followed through on, but legally we can’t do anything about
that pursuant to our Town Code, and they actually do meet
the requirements of parking even if it doesn’t sound very
practical; our hands are tied. I think it was generous on
the part of the Applicant to offer to put at least the
building permit in place, which is at least somewhat of
stake in the ground. It doesn’t mean that they’ll actually
go ahead and build it, but if we’re able to add that to the
terms and conditions I think it adds a lot to the good
faith of the project to follow through on that, and I don’t
think the Applicant wants to keep the parking the way it
is.
And this application does meet all of our Town
codes and requirements, so as long as there is something to
help address the privacy, there is at least a good faith to
address parking, and then we have adequate tree
protections, I would support this project.
CHAIR HUDES: Thank you. Commissioner O'Donnell.
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COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: I will make a motion,
and assuming it gets a second, we can discuss that.
I’ll make a motion that we find that the proposed
project is categorically exempt pursuant to the adopted
guidelines for the implementation of the California
Environmental Quality Act Section 15301. I make the finding
that the project complies with the Residential Guidelines,
approve the Minor Residential Application MR-18-008 with
the Conditions of Approval contained in Exhibit 23 and the
development plans attached as Exhibit 5, and add to the
conditions that pursuant to the offer of the Applicant that
prior to the completion of the project as approved the
Applicant will file all necessary applications to take the
three existing garages on the subject property and make
them into garages which otherwise comply with present
requirements, and that action on the pursuance of the
permit be done forthwith within a reasonable time. So that
would be the motion.
CHAIR HUDES: Commissioner Badame.
COMMISSIONER BADAME: I second the motion.
CHAIR HUDES: Okay. Before I call the question, I
just wanted to make sure that we have thorough discussion
of all the items that have been raised, and so I wanted to
maybe just come back to the tree and privacy issue.
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I have a hard time dealing with documents that
are given to us during the course of the hearing and
understanding how they will be implemented or not
implemented in the drawing. This particular drawing shows a
10’ tree, according to testimony from Mr. Jeans, so my
question is do other people feel that we need to have
anything further on the privacy issue, including
potentially a scale drawing or a drawing that shows the
height of trees that would be required? Commissioner
O'Donnell.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Let me make sure I
understand. You’re saying if that were attached to make it
clear that it’s part of the conditions, that would not in
your judgment perhaps be something that should be added?
CHAIR HUDES: I’m looking at this and there’s no
scale on this drawing. I would really not be comfortable
with adding this without scale and documentation of how
high the trees would be.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: What I’m saying is we’ve
had oral testimony as to that, which we could mark up right
now, I believe, and then note that as an exhibit, unless
you believe we have not gotten adequate testimony as to the
heights. In other words, Mr. Jeans as I understand it, told
you what he meant by that drawing.
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CHAIR HUDES: He also stated that the trees were
12’, as well, so if this were a part of the record, I would
want the record to show that the privacy tree would be of
minimum 12’ height. Would the maker of the motion be open
to that?
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Yes, I would accept
that.
COMMISSIONER O'DONNELL: Seconder?
COMMISSIONER BADAME: I would also accept that as
the seconder of the motion.
CHAIR HUDES: Thank you. Commissioner Janoff.
COMMISSIONER JANOFF: I’d just like to comment
that I think that’s very valuable clarification for the
Conditions of Approval Item 13, which is tell how large of
what’s appropriate, but without some reference to actual
number and dimensions it would be hard to ensure that the
privacy issues are satisfied on both sides, and I’d just
like to comment to that.
I think it is as important to the Applicant as it
is to the Foxes that adequate privacy is put in place, so I
think a solution that is mutually satisfactory is
achievable.
The other thing I’d like to add, I am in favor of
the motion as stated and as amended, however, I would
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encourage the Applicant to see whether there is something
more creative that could be done regarding the garage
spaces in the interim. Anecdotally we’ve heard that the
garages spaces are not actually usable, so saying that you
have parking spaces onsite is probably technically correct
but actually not practically true.
There’s possibly an interim solution between
leaving the structures as is and unusable and building the
brand-new garages at the time that you have the means to do
so, including, again to the Community Development
Director’s point that a garage is not required. Could be a
pad of some sort could be provided so that it provides the
two required spaces and more. I think your tenants would
appreciate having onsite parking as much as the owner.
So, I would just encourage some creative look at
what to do to be good neighbors and help to provide the
parking so that you can demonstrate to your neighbors, who
seem to have a pretty consistent complaint, that you’re
trying the best that you can to provide onsite parking.
CHAIR HUDES: Before I call the question I’m just
going to make another comment that I will be supporting the
motion, however, I want folks to understand that there were
very legitimate concerns that were raised through this
process, that we’re dealing with two properties that are
LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 2/13/2019
Item #2, 11 Peralta Avenue
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magnificent properties that are a very important part of
the heritage of Los Gatos, and as such it is very important
that we listen to all of the points that were raised and
that we ensure that any future construction that goes on
will respect the heritage of these properties, and so I
appreciate the participation and all of the points that
were raised, and I want to thank the community for
participating in what seemed maybe like a lot of detail,
but this is extraordinarily important as these are just
magnificent structures that are very important to the Town.
So, with that, I’ll call the question. All in
favor? Opposed? The motion passes unanimously. Mr. Paulson,
are there appeal rights on this?
JOEL PAULSON: There are, thank you, Chair.
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 HUDES: Okay, thank you.