Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian sees the light at the end of the tunnel in the controversy over new housing development in the county’s unincorporated areas outside Los Altos and Los Altos Hills.
After seven meetings with residents, including one held Monday in Los Altos, Simitian will propose a three-part plan to go before the Board of Supervisors Aug. 18 that calls mainly for limiting square footage on underlying lots.
The proposal is the outcome of a 90-day moratorium on new building in local, unincorporated pockets, that went into effect May 5. The Board of Supervisors agreed to the moratorium, which ends Aug. 18, so that Simitian and residents could agree on a set of new development standards before new housing could be built in the 1,400-home area south of Foothill Expressway. The area includes the San Antonio Hills and Los Altos Golf & Country Club neighborhoods.
The moratorium came about due to numerous conflicts among neighbors over remodeling and new building that resulted in large homes on small lots.
“We’re delighted with the way this has turned out,” Simitian said last week during a visit to the Town Crier. “This was a heartening exercise – people can feel good about the fact that North County got heard.”
Barring any changes after Monday’s meeting, Simitian proposes to:
Adopt development standards for underlying lots, which are lots created by deed or subdivision but not reflected on updated parcel maps. This has allowed property owners to divide one lot into two or three, and build additional homes.
The two-for-one and three-for-one developments have been a source of contention because of their high density and the lack of notification. There are approximately 150-200 parcels with underlying lot lines in this area.
Revise the definition of floor-area ratio applicable to all lots in the N1 zoning district, a residential designation that applies to most of the area;
Apply the N1 zoning designation to a portion of the San Antonio Hills neighborhood around Putter Way and Spalding Avenue, where parcels are smaller and underlying lots are prevalent.
Development standards for underlying lots include reducing floor-area ratio, or the amount of housing versus the size of the lot, to a maximum of 25 percent. The county currently allows up to 35 percent. The proposal also would require design review for all two-story houses developed on underlying lots, and limit to a single story, homes developed on underlying lots reconfigured as flag lots.
If adopted by supervisors on Aug. 18, the changes would take effect immediately, Simitian said.
Peter Mc Sweeney, county liaison director for San Antonio Hills, Inc., the homeowners association representing 1,100 homes in the affected area, said he supports the recommendations “100 percent,” but noted they only affect about 10 percent of the total parcels. “I, for one, would like to see them widen the scope a bit,” he said.
Mc Sweeney said the county should consider such elements as setback requirements for first- and second-story homes, and the “padding” of parcels (see letter on Page 8). But most of all, Mc Sweeney said the county should require design review for any nonconforming, two-story structure. This would require notification to neighbors before construction starts, and eliminate unwelcome surprises.
Simitian said Mc Sweeney’s suggestion is “one of two issues in play” that was to be discussed at Monday’s meeting. The other consideration is keeping new development to a minimum 2,000-square-feet on underlying lots.
“We’ve tried to be respectful of legitimate, competing interests,” he said, “(balancing) the people with property and legal rights vs. the character of the neighborhood. We focused on the issue that there are no bad guys.”
The input that went into these recommendations was great, according to Simitian. He said the meetings drew an average of about 100 people, and a survey the county sent to 1,500 homes, drew 260 responses.
“This is the first issue that has involved a significant number of folks,” Simitian said. “People have taken a sense of satisfaction that they can make the system work.”
