Photo by Monique Schoenfeld, Town Crier
Owner Gary Greenberg's cottage, behind his property on Avalon Drive, shows access from Avalon to the cottage's garage. At issue is whether a vehicle can access from Avalon to the garage.
Town Crier Staff Writer
Some Sunkist Lane residents are not happy with the looks of a new second-living unit that backs onto their street. Calling it "a shed with a fence," they have taken their concerns to the city council.
The Los Altos City Council voted June 9 to ask the planning commission to review the project.
"We built this guest house in compliance with all codes and requests made to us by the city of Los Altos," said owners Gary and Eileen Greenberg in a prepared statement after the council meeting. They live in the main house that faces Avalon Drive. "We are in full compliance for this project."
Which has left council members shaking their heads. And the question is, "What the council should do now," said Mayor Kris Casto.
So they sent it back to the planning commission to consider three things: if the project is in compliance with the design approval; if it is in compliance with the no ingress-egress from Sunkist; and to examine the conditional use permit for compliance with the ordinance for parking, said city clerk Carol Scharz.
City code for a second-living unit requires one covered and one uncovered parking place.
The planning commission is also to consider any remedies if there are findings of anything not in compliance, Scharz said.
The owners said they feel like a "political Ping-Pong ball, a victim in this matter. We can't help the fact that we have complied with the building codes and put a structure on the property."
The main lot faces Avalon Drive, but has a thumb of land that extends through to Sunkist. The Greenbergs proposed a main house facing Avalon and a gingerbread-like cottage, that matched the main house, to face Sunkist Lane.
Instead, in a vote February 1997, the council denied the variance that would have been needed to have a second living unit face a street different from the main house, and required the cottage to be turned around. This left its backside facing Sunkist, and the cottage became "an accessory structure," which meant the roof had to be lowered.
The Sunkist neighbors who are raising concerns with the council cite that access to the cottage must be from Avalon, with a driveway from Avalon back to the cottage.
"We feel that these are not the real issues," the Greenbergs said. The real issue - not being over a driveway or access to the guest house - but that some Sunkist neighbors are unhappy about a structure that has been built on a vacant lot that has existed for over 50 years."
Exacerbating the situation was the rainy weather that kept the owners from installing the driveway shown on the plans, until last week, that would allow the tenant to get her car from Avalon back to the garage attached to her cottage.