Photo by Monique Schoenfeld, Town Crier
Construction crews hammer away at a new house along La Paloma Road in Los Altos Hills last week. Planning Director Curtis Williams said the project would have qualified under the town's new "fast-track" ordinance, which sends applications that meet regulations and are unopposed straight to the Los Altos Hills City Council for approval.
Special to the Town Crier
Fast-track ordinance meant to address tensions in LAH
EDITOR'S NOTE: The scene has played itself out numerous times in recent years: New residents, flush with Silicon Valley wealth, come to established communities expecting to build their dream homes. However, their visions are sometimes at odds with those of surrounding residents who decry everything from garish architecture to loss of scenic views and invasion of privacy. In the first of a two-part series on housing tensions, we look at the ongoing controversy over new development in Los Altos Hills and how town officials and residents have worked to forge compromises.
Los Altos Hills residents and town officials are hopeful a new ordinance will ease long-standing controversy over site development.
The new "fast-track" ordinance will be applied for the first time Tuesday on a planned residence at 13769 Wildflower Lane. The ordinance will push some new homes through the approval process faster - and without going to the planning commission - if they conform to town guidelines and have no substantive opposition from neighbors.
The debate, which may be diminished by fast-track, centers on the seemingly incompatible ideas of "property rights" vs. "community rights," or unchecked building vs. more controlled development. The town council is divided on the issue - and there is apparently a rift in the town as well. The dichotomy has grown over the past 10 years, as stock option money has built increasing numbers of new homes. Skyrocketing land prices have raised the stakes.
Advocates of individual property rights say the ordinance will reconcile neighbors in the hills, while others insist it eliminates planning commission input vital for providing a community voice.
Mayor Pro Tem Steve Finn said he is optimistic the ordinance will stop neighbors from being pitted against neighbors. "The real issue is being more objective and applying the rules evenly," he said. If everyone realizes all residents are entitled to the same things, and everyone understands what those things are, the rift will be quelled, Finn said.
"People think they can design their neighbors' homes," he said. "It is creating tremendous divisiveness."
Council member Toni Casey said, "Fast-track doesn't eliminate neighbors' input, but it will make it more clear the rules should be equally applied to everybody.
"We'll never reduce it all," Casey said, "but we'll come a lot further in ending these unnecessary, emotionally draining neighborhood disputes."
Under the ordinance, notice of a hearing is mailed to all residents within 500 feet of the property after story poles are erected. Fast-track supporters say this notification of neighbors, in addition to the need for neighborhood approval for a home to be fast-tracked, will induce neighbors to communicate and reduce tension.
Objectivity has become a rallying cry and buzzword for Finn and Casey, who were elected to council last year on the strength of their campaign for changes in regulations for new housing. But not everyone touts a cut-and-dry numerical formula as the end-all of the housing debate.
Mayor Elayne Dauber said the town can't and shouldn't always use uninterpreted objectivity. "You can't make one set of numbers that fits each house," Dauber said.
She is unhappy with what she feels are visible architectural excesses in the hills. For example, some residents have poured concrete surfaces to the edges of their property on three sides. "Their open space is achieved because their neighbors didn't build the biggest house they possibly could," Dauber said.
Changes in the town have likely come about because of a shift in attitudes, often represented by the newer residents. Council member Bob Johnson said, "The demographics of our town have been changing over the last five years. We have a new breed of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who have been moving into the hills because they would like to live in a rural area."
The tension has increased because some residents "have a different assessment of what their responsibilities to the rest of the community are," Johnson said.
Longtime resident Valerie Chown said the disagreement is not simply between new and old residents. "There's definitely two factions: it seems like there's one camp that says, 'Let's preserve Los Altos Hills, the openness and the flavor,' vs. 'Let them build anything they want as long as it fits the numbers,'" she said.
Chown, whose neighborhood has undergone significant construction over the past year, is concerned the new ordinance will reduce the voice of existing residents. Also, "the planning commission seems to be stripped to some level of their ability to comment," she said.
Johnson, who presented the basic idea for the fast-track ordinance at a packed town meeting in January, said fast-track will help the planning commission by clarifying the laws. "(The planning commission) has been facing a lot of criticism without real marching orders from the council," he said.
"It was very plain to me we had split right down the middle in this town: a group who felt the planning commission did a very important job in retaining the rural nature in our town, and people who felt the planning commission did a bad job and something had to be done about it," Johnson said. With fast-track, he said, "I think this will no longer be a source of dissension in the town."
Council member Bill Siegel disagreed, saying the new ordinance will have little impact. "There's not really opposition to trying to move homes that are noncontroversial through the process in a faster way," he said. "Fast track is limited quite tightly to homes that do not challenge the numbers."
Planning commissioner Carl Cottrell said fast-track will be "good for the town" and appreciates the reduced workload for the planning commission, but he doubts the ordinance will extinguish tension over site development. "It won't change the feelings that might exist," he said. "People still have all the same choices to make in terms of size and architecture and so on."
There has been a huge amount of criticism of the planning commission's procedures and decisions, especially since the last election, when the issue was dragged into the limelight. Planning Commissioner Carol Gottlieb said it's been difficult for the planning commission to deal with constant criticism - often from people who had never attended a meeting. She pointed out the commission's job is to force a compromise between new builders and established neighbors, which means each group ends up slightly unhappy with the commission's decisions.
Planning Director Curtis Williams, who carries an enormous amount of responsibility in fast-track's implementation, said the planning commission has often allowed itself more subjectivity than necessary, but he thinks subjective criteria is sometimes appropriate. And with fast-track, much of that interpretation is being shifted to him and the town's staff. "I have to ultimately make those decisions as to which way it goes," he said.
"My worry is it will put him in the hotspot," Dauber said. "It puts him in a political debate."
Williams said he knows there will be pressure to fast-track more homes, but pointed out town staff is used to saying 'no.' Staff can also choose to push the decision to the planning commission if it doesn't feel comfortable.
Longtime resident Rick Ellinger said fast-track will ultimately help. "If it leads to good designs that are closer to the town's guidelines, that's a good thing," he said. Ellinger, who spent four years on the planning commission and participated in many other committees, said the town's vague ordinances and building guidelines have added to the community's disagreements over site development.
But Siegel said he is concerned the fast-track ordinance is also vague and will have to go through a lengthy debate. City council and the planning commission plan to hold a joint meeting in September, where they will clarify the ordinance.
The argument has already begun about a section of the ordinance which limits planning commission control over "specific design and architectural features." The city council voted at its July 15 meeting to apply the phrase only to chimneys, windows and skylights - until it has time to decide otherwise.
Siegel said the real issue behind fast-track stems from its beginning as an attempt to abolish the town's design guidelines.
Williams said town staff hopes to address these deeper issues of how to change town codes to reflect today's vision of the hills. He said revision of the land use element, a section of the General Plan relating to site development, may help alleviate tensions among residents.
A 12-person committee has been appointed to develop a survey to send to residents and revise the land use element, which hasn't been updated since the 1970s. "This will be the big-picture opportunity to discuss those questions," Williams said.