Los Altos Hills City Council members clashed with Santa Clara County Fire Department officials last week, as confusion reigned over county fire codes regulating driveway access.
At Thursday’s council meeting, an ad hoc committee of the town’s Planning Commission delivered a presentation on driveway and road access requirements for accessory dwelling units and residential lot subdivisions, detailing the current standards and problem situations that may occur when a lot is subdivided.
Under current fire codes, driveways serving two residential dwellings that are more than 200 feet from the roadway must be a minimum of 12 feet wide. Driveways serving three or more dwellings require a minimum width of 20 feet for roadways, posing a problem for residents with rear parcels who may want to add an ADU or subdivide their lot under State Senate Bill 9, which aims to ease the housing crisis by diversifying the housing supply.
Amid pushback from the council, SCCFD agreed to alter its regulations to accommodate the driveway standards for up to two residential parcels as opposed to single-family dwellings, fixing the ADU situation but not the subdivision problem.
Councilmember Kavita Tankha posed a situation to Brad Fox, assistant fire marshal, and Hector Estrada, deputy chief of fire prevention, both of whom attended the meeting. She asked what would happen if a resident at the top of a private street were to remodel, and if remodeling meant encroaching on the properties further down the street to expand the roadway.
Planning Commission chairman Jim Waschura detailed a real-life situation on Sherlock Court, in which residents were OK with road widening as long as the resident doing the remodeling paid for it.
Tankha lamented the expensive process Hills residents must undergo, only to be told that a road must be widened, and suggested that SCCFD change its standards to better serve the town.
“I feel like there was no desire to compromise and make things OK for the residents,” Tankha said. “Our town does have narrow roads. Should the town go about doing everything backwards? For so many years, you live with these rules and you know these rules were made about the size the roads were before the fire district changed their rules. So how about having smaller engine size to service our town?”
Waschura said the town could avoid many of the problem situations with the new policy change; he noted, however, that the 20-foot-wide road requirement is not from the county, but the state.
“They have now changed their policies so that adding an ADU does not require the 12-foot driveway to be widened – I think that’s a significant improvement on the situation,” Waschura said of the SCCFD’s efforts. “We do have some roads that are narrower than 20 feet. That’s a problem. I don’t think we should be accepting that situation, especially public roads. Public roads have a 20-foot-wide requirement that doesn’t come from Santa Clara County. That’s a California fire code requirement for roadway access.”
Estrada emphasized the safety aspect when advocating for wider roadway access, explaining that most emergency medical service calls require at least one fire engine and one ambulance, and that poor weather and/or lighting must be taken into account when considering road width.
“If you’re increasing the number of people on any parcel, you’re increasing the number of people at risk when there’s an emergency,” he said. “Basically, being able to get in and get out effectively is a minimum
standard.”
