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Minutes of a Special Meeting February 21, 2002 Town of Los Altos Hills City Council Special Meeting Thursday, February 21, 2002, 5:00 p.m. Town Hall, 26379 Fremont Road 1. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL Mayor Casey called the Special Meeting of the City Council to order at 5:05 p.m. at Town Hall. Present: Mayor Casey and Councilmembers Cheng, Fenwick and O'Malley Absent: Councilmember Finn Staff: City Manager Maureen Cassingham, Planning Director Carl Cahill and City Clerk Pat Dowd 2. STUDY SESSION ON SETBACKS AND HEIGHT ORDINANCES • The Planning Director presented a proposal to Council on setbacks and height ordinances for their review and comment. This report was the result of discussions by the Planning Commission. The goal of this proposal was to allow increased building heights under certain conditions including additional setbacks and maximum continuous wall heights in order to promote architectural diversity. The proposal was also an incentive based approach to locating the primary building mass away from the 30 and 40-foot minimum building setbacks. The Planning Director noted that the Planning Commission had agreed to side setbacks of 45 feet for areas of increased height up to 32 feet since many lots in Town tended to be rectangular in shape. Bill Maston, architect, commented on the number of homes that suffered architecturally because of certain ordinance restrictions, particularly the height ordinance. He recommended a compromise to encourage architectural integrity. Mr. Maston also commented that the language was already in the Code that setbacks may be increased. Council discussed this proposal and the diagrams depicting the proposed concepts. They also addressed the issue of architectural integrity. Council agreed that it was important to get public input on these issues and agreed to a Town-wide mailing. • February 21, 2002 Special City Council Meeting 1