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HomeMy WebLinkAbout3.1 Supplemental (3)Jaime McAvoy From: Deborah Padovan Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2013 1:22 PM To: cici chen Cc: Debbie Pedro; Brian Froelich; Jaime McAvoy Subject: RE: Our response letter and other document Dear Ms. Chen, Thank you. Your email has been received and will be provided to the Planning Commission. Deborah L. Padovan City Clerk Town of Los Altos Hills 26379 Fremont Road Las Altos Hills, CA 94022 Phone: 650-947-2513 From: cici chen [mailto:cicilchen@gmail.coml Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2013 12:11 PM To: Deborah Padovan Subject: Fwd: Our response letter and other document resent... SUPPLEMENT AGENDA ITEM ## ZJ Distributed: 1 O 13 i 15) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: cici chen <cicilchen ,gmail.com> Date: Thu, Oct 3, 2013 at 12:06 PM Subject: Our response letter and other document To: dpadovan@losaltoshill.ca.gov Cc: Brian Froelich <bfroehch@losaltoshills.ca.gov>, Debbie Pedro <dpedro r@losaltoshilis.ca.gov>, jima.,pc@gmafl.com Kavita Tankha <kavitat@comcast.net>, jsmandleahotmail.com, nchard.partridge@comcast.net, John Chen <johnjunchen@agmail.com>, Scott Stotler <scottnstotlerdesigngroup.com> To: Los Altos Hills Planning Commission Re: 2210 Old Page Mill Road House Project Dear Ms. Padovan, Please kindly forward the below attachment to the planning commission members for tonight meeting at 7:00pm. 1. Our letter to the planning commission 2. Gerth Lane Road Maintenance agreement (19.57) l } 3. Most recent Gerth Lane Home Association -Meeting Minute Thank you very much for your prompt assistance. br, Dr. John Chen and Cici Chen To The Los Altos Hills Planning Commission RE: Dr..and Mrs. John Chen's house proposal at 2210 Gerth Lane From: John and Cici Chen Dear Planning Commissioners, First, we would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude for your review of our.house project, associating with the application for the. right of way reduction. We are very thankful that you came to our site and viewed the proposed development site as well as the neighborhood environment. We have lived on:Gerth Lane since 2008 and fell in love with the Los Altos Hills neighborhood. Our three daughters have grown from children to teenage girls, and we look forward to continue living here after retirement in the .future so our girls can come visit us during vacations/holidays with their own families. We envision annual reunions with children and grandchildren for many years to come. In order to fulfill this vision, we decided to build a house spacious enough to accommodate our family needs. Last Friday, our planner, Mr. Brian Froelich, forwarded to us our neighbor objection letters, which indicated their objection against the front setback, roadway r -o -w reduction, and the construction of a large house on. Gerth Lane in general. We fully respect their opinions. We hereby would like provide a few more facts on these issues. 1. Front setback on Old Page Mill Road ➢ Staff Support: The planning staff and managers (Mr. Brian Froelich, Ms: Debbie Pedro, Mr. Richard. Chiu, Mr. John Chau, and Mr. Carl Cahill) met with us multiple times from February. 2013 through July 2013 to discuss our house project, and the staff agreed that our parcel is a corner lot and has frontages on two right-of-ways (Old Page Mill Road and Gerth Lane). Furthermore, the staff was in consensus to call 0Id Page Mill Road front with the 40' front setback requirement. Therefore, based on staff approval, we proceeded to design the site plan with such setback confirmation. Please see the comment from the engineering department in our email exchange: Planning and Engineering Department response: Your property at 2210 Old Page Mill Road is a corner lot and.has frontage on two rights-of-way. The Town's Subdivision Ordinance defines frontage as follows: 9-1-202 Frontage means that portion of the length of a single parcel or lot which abuts public or private road rights-of-way. LAH Municipal Code 10-1.202:.Lot, ' lot" means a lot abutting on two (2) or more intersecting roads. > Santa Clara County Zoning Ordinance (January 2013 rev.) further defined the frontage of a corner lot: Lot frontage: The boundary of a dedicated public or private road right-of-way as it fronts along a lot. To determine the front lot line for setback purposes, see "lot lines." Lot lines: The lines bounding a lot as defined herein, with the following speck Classifications and criteria for determining setbacks. For purposes of this definition, "street" shall mean "right-of-way,-" as defined herein. 1.The front lot line is normally the line that abuts a street. 2. The front lot line of a corner lot is normally the shorter line (representing the narrower lot dimension) of the two lines abutting a street. If a corner lot's overall depth - to -width dimensions are more strongly representative of the lot's orientation such that an alternate frontage determination would yield a larger building envelope, the right-of- way line that corresponds to the lot width (longer line in that case) shall be deemed the front lot line for setback.purposes. In the case of a curved corner, a determination may be made by the zoning administrator that an appropriatelysituated point along that curve shall demarcate the front lot line from the exterior side lot line. Therefore, based on the staff support and the common practice of the Santa Clara County zoning ordinance, we have complied with the requirement. 2. Gerth lane R7.0 -W (LAH): > GP -Cir -pg 7 "The right -or -way is the area that includes the roadway and the paved area for:driving, as well as otherrelated uses such as utilities, pathways, drainage channels and roadside vegetation. " The Right of Way Objectives: > GP=Cir-pg7 "The policies and implementation measures should result in: 7 Adequate space in public right-of-ways to accommodate rural roadways, pathways, utilities, drainage, and vegetation buffers." > GP-Cir-pg9 "Develop right of way standards to generally accommodate roadway pavement, drainage, vegetative screening, utility, slops, and pathways... > Gp-Cir-pg 14 "spacious rights -of -ways. wide enough so that trees and shrubs can provide a substantial buffer between the roadways and paths and between the paths and adjacent properties. We fully appreciate the town's policies and efforts to maintain the rural -like environment by managing sufficient space for roadway, pathway, utility, and vegetation. Noted here in the town R -0=W objectives, they all indicated the right-of-way, including: • Roadway pavement (Gerth: 14ft) Pathway (Pathway Committee voted no pathway on Gerth) • Utility/drainage (on existing 30' easement) • Vegetation screening (on existing 30' easement) Taking the example from the Arastradero public road trail project, (one portion of Arastradero Road is designed to be 12' one way), if Gerth Lane adapts the same two- way traffic with a 24' pavement, then a 40' r -o -w should be sufficient to meet the town's R -O -W objectives with the addition of 8' per side for utility/drainage/vegetation screening. • Furthermore, among the current 130 private streets, about 40 streets are designated with 40' R -O -W. These are Cul -De -Sac streets, just like Gerth Lane (see attachment 1). • Gerth Lane's unique characteristics: o 12' Bridge o Matadero Creek o Cul -de -Sac o Dead. end to open space conserve and Stanford reserve o Remote possibilities for future public development o Road only serving 12 households with very minimal traffic We sincerely ask for your consideration in reviewing our case and allowing Gerth Lane to be a 40' r -o -w private street, if deemed requiring a dedication. 3. The affected parcel size: ➢ 20' dedication, 2210 Lot size reduced to 0.9 acre ➢ 10' dedication, 2210 Lot size reduced to 1.0 acre In 1994, our neighbor at 2240 Old Page Mill Road obtained an approval from the City Council for reducing the 30' dedication to 20' because the town intended to keep a minimum of 17acre lot for the affected property. We would like to ask to for your approval as well in following this precedent case to support keeping our land at a size of 1 -acre, per the town's 10-1.501 ordinance (minimum parcel size). 4. The Dedication process: LAH-Circulation & Scenic Roadway Element —Jan 20, 1999: - _ 'The-Towr;'s-current'process for roadway dedication/acceptance is M documented in an -- ordinance. -The to n' adopted a policy in 1997 that details a process for acceptance of private roadways which identifies the role of the Town and responsibility of private road owners." "The dedication of private roadways to public ownership when e e by affected. property owners, when they have been upgraded to current Town standard and where all necessary dedications have been offered by adjacent property owners." - "For every private -road to be dedicated to public ownership the formation of maintenance agreements between property owners responsible for monitoring and maintaining their respective private roadways." These statements indicated that: ➢ Current town practice of the roadway dedication has no legal documentation to support its legality. This process triggers mostly when a homeowner has to apply for a permit for the site development. ➢ Most owners comply with the road .dedication only because they have to obtain the permit to process building. Affected property owners.do not voluntarily request these dedication offers. ➢ Property owners can choose not to dedicate to the public by actively maintaining private roads. Therefore, we question the legality of the town's current process of land dedication to public ownership. The Gerth Lane Nome, -Owners' Association: (GLHOA) has sustained the road_ -- maintenance agreement since 1957, and we have actively preserved the road and bridge since . . then. GLHOA's intention is for Gerth Lane TO NOT BE DEDICATED TO PUBLIC OWNERSHIP. We sincerely'ask for your support in honoring our unanimous request to keep Gerth Lane private/NO Dedications! S. March 21, 2013 LAH City Special Meeting Minute: The Staff recommended accepting private roads into the town only once they are brought up to town standards and keeping non -through roads private with a recorded road maintenarice agreement. We question the purpose of the town's request to ask -dedications on Gerth Lane since the town has no intentions to accept Gerth Lane. Therefore, we sincerely ask for your thorough review of the town's dedication process and the 3/21/2013 council meeting minutes to consider our proposal in keeping Gerth Lane a private street with no dedications to public ownership. • Town Of Los Altos Hills Study Sessions of Private Roads: - - - --- -- - http://www.losaltoshills.ca.aov/documents/city council meetines/2013/LAN City Council 201 3 3 21/LAHCC 20130321 study session dieital.odf • Town Of Los Altos Hills Study Sessions of Private Roads Power Point Presentation: -http.//www.losaltoshills.ca.Oov/documents/city council meetines/2013/LAH City. Council 201 3 3 21/LAHCC 20130321 study session powerpoint presentation pdf 6. To address our neighbor complaints: ➢ Visual impact of the house size: • 2210 Old Page Mill Proposed size - 6100 sf • 2265 Old Page Mill in construction now - 6733 sf ➢ Property Setback (from the center of the existing easement): • 2210 Old Page Mill. (proposed) - 55 ft • 2265 Old Page Mill (built) - 50 ft • 2275 Old Page Mill (building now) - 55 ft • 2215 Old page Mill (built) - 55 ft We are not comfortable with being discriminated against for building a spacious house because our house is located near the road entrance (in fact, 2209 Old Page Mill is a two-story house located nearest the bridge entrance). Instead, we will work actively with our landscape designer to develop a realistic landscape screening plan that not only screens but also can successfully blend in with the current rural environment. Noted that the majority portion of the proposed house facing Gerth ;Lane is indeed one story, the proposed house is almost invisible from the bridge point of view (Picture 1). Therefore, we believe that vegetation buffers can be the best solution to minimizing the visual impact from Gerth Lane. We very much appreciate your time in reviewing this document and we look forward presenting our case on Thursday 10/3. Sincerely, John and Cici:Chen Attachment 1. LAH 40' r-o-w private streets 2. Picture from Bridge Private -Street List with 40' r aix.. Narne Section Reference Almaden Court. Tr # 411f6 & 4382. App, toiOsa Way Tr# 4 Atherton.Court. Tr-9 5624 Bassett: Lane Tr# 4169: Beatrice Lane Tr#-3331 Bella=Laciera_Drive R.eso tt75, 197$.&. Reno:.- It Oo 1:980 Birch"Hill Way T43464' Brendef Nye bulb td end Tr# 35.05 Briories.Court TO-40. 5 Buena Vista Drive P NL502 M:43 B. irke: Lane.. R'OS. 608/23' Byrne Park Lane: f rst bulb to end Tt# 465T & 5068` 17'I;a Def`So1 PM .306 M 15 Carada• Court Tr# 4227' Casa Mia Way Tr#>41.14 Cortez-Lane T`# 4185 CobritryWay Cul-de-sac Bulb=to end Crescent Lane Tr# 99.7` Cumbra_Vista Court Tr# 2842 Dtefidg Lane Tr# 6963 Deer Springs Way Sly property line of 27267 Deer Springs. Tr#4.875,.4657 Way to end Edgediff Place. Tr# 3.117 E'� :'nat,Court }t; Place_ TW. 2842 Eucalyptus Lane Ginny Lane Jarvis Way Julietta Lane Kriste Lane Laurel Lane .:Lennox Way. Lone Oak,. Lane Luc:ro Carie Lynndale Way Old.Snakey.Road Rhes..Ridr;e Drive Tanglewcod .Lane Templeton Place Toyonita Road. Tripoli,Pourt Arroyo Way (not exist) Hill Way (_need: research) Ridgewood Lane.(share driveway of -25860 & 25870 Vinedo Lane) Tr# 3668 Tr# 3328, P.M. 327 M 22 s'ly property line of. 24370 Julietta Lane to Tr# 4897 & 5266; end Reso, 852 .ROS 78 M 52 Tr#` 2986 Tr#`3425 Tr# 4855 s'iy 20' Reso. 57-94 Tr# 4994 se'ly, property line of 11950 Rhus Ridge Tr# 41.69 Road to. end Moody Rd to "tee" Tr#.6355 Tr# 8.487 Ravensburry Ave North to South is private, except se'ly property line of Reso..1030, 1977, 23750 Ravensbury Ave to se'ly property Tr# 13 I ine of 23350 Toyonita Rd _ Tr# _4158 .P.M. 238 M 54 •y � Iii, In y�s..yratK. t . ..: 16Gi:• . �e fes, <a. PCAD X%I'fr ?5A.... k2P, . . Tbs 'purpcae of° ails agreweent shsil ba ;to.;aaS,nt�inahe �prisats rose and bridge 1*"Stanford Kills'.:dasignated on the -' CouaLf )tap as "laert91 Ione", %'ln `600d ceWiP. for the purpose of ' zaintainina aooesQ. to Fagg il .Road,: fort ble users Nov herebT agree to share° in'th." azpense .of 3ta_,:ualAteefs�eos ;n _0 ; e000rd with the articles of ag7oement herein expressed. g* ---TIj*--T6—ro["L6 b+a "asaiesc aLtsLa4iee= troie Pa��Xill • hoed to AM* nearest border of the uppermost lot -in the .,, tract', 'beim approxisateT9 l `fas:L:In ooh as�d; ratting ' in width from,`3a feet IL 'tb, ot"tom to 20=.feet. sti ,the top. , 5 Participating ProPertIOG shall conaist of Cisee improved, and CTsas 8'unaprovr3', sere or, more homes Pith rights of "ti"cont©Ined-ln their..dee3e., proe►idYng x :: _S M. xt access to ae►g: �Si l Road' o ar`anT pRrt or -:Harts of. GerCh. e % .� x ne. 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Roll call of the Gerth Lane Road Maintenance Association o There are 12 members in the Road Association 0 7 of the: 12 members present:.; • Ainslie Mayberry ainslie(a),virtualcfo.net / John Nagel j ohn.nagel(a),mac. com • Gary Kremen kremen ,aol.com • George_Thangadurai_ eor e.than adurai intel.com / mkumar(anvp.com • Vaughan Pratt pratt,cs.stanford:edu / Margot Pratt margotpratt(agmail.com / Zoe Pratt: • . Ken Bryant makeb(abearthlink.net • Al Thaik (amt email-house6Dyahoo.corn • Chuck Gillis candrgill(i�aol.com / c-rgil@comcast.net o N5 of the 12 members -were not present . • Jo Burchard j ombur ;msn. com • The Hogans hogans(a),emaill.com • The Chens cicilchen(a,gmail.com / johnjchen@,yahoo.com •. The Synders snydermarg_(a,aol.com-/ robinsnyder73 0,yahoo. com • The Baders cmbaders(&,yahoo.com (pending close) Minutes from last meeting — Vaughan is looking for them Bridge - update on bridge issues o Sign posting for Fire Department requirement is done. o Action item -- John to call rescue people to verify they will come across bridge. • Chuck brought up the need for the roadway boards to be tightened; a possible Work Day activity Treasurers report o Big past expense -- engineer report cost $2,000 • Fund is $600 currently in the red • Assessment of $250 for each parcel * 12 parcels will be assessed. o The bridge was last repaired July 16 and July 17th 1988 • Flood in 1963 - 1966 destroyed the bridge, rebuilding added second pier. o Ainslie's suggestion -- dues every year Private and Confidential Gerth Lane Homeowners Association 0 20,000 square foot in road o Chuck moved here in 1985 o Discussion of work weekend • Work Day set for May 19th, 2012. • Discussion of some of the type of work required included trimming of branches & foliage, maintenance of mailbox area (both sides of Gerth Lane). o Vaughan to get quote on installing Gabion rocks for sides of road where erosion is a problem. • Discussion on increasing the annual dues from $25 to $250 per year. Motion was raised, seconded and resolution passed. Vote: 7-yes; 0-no. Annual assessment will be sent to all members in Q 1 of each • Vaughan to set up a GLHA checking account at Stanford Credit Union or other appropriate financial institution. • Gary to get cracks filled, and road sealed quote from Dryco • Gary and Chuck to get signs for speed-limit blind driveway, stop sign. • . Gary to call Mr. Roadshow on speed limit, blind driveway, stop sign rules • Discussion on removing habitats that encourage rodents, i.e., heaped piles of firewood (s.b. neatly stacked with both sides open), piles of branches and twigs, piles of lumber/collapsed structures, etc. • Discussion on continued Spangenberg illegal use of road • George talked about his plans for construction. • Ainslie (and others complained) about Big Creek lumber parking trailers along Old Page Mill Road near mailboxes. o No commercial parking -- Gary to call Liz Kniss Meeting was adjourned at 9:40pm. Respectfully submitted, Gary Kremen, Secretary Private.and Confidential Gerth Lane Homeowners Association