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Published on 09/01/1999 All articles from this issue

Council denies appeal of neighbors: 2-story design on Jay St. ruled OK

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue / Town Crier Staff Writer

In spite of a strong lobby in past months from some Jay Street residents to keep their area a one-story neighborhood, a two-story house is coming.

At its Aug. 24 meeting, the Los Altos City council denied the appeal of a Jay Street resident and said the two-story addition for Pierre and Monica Laurent may go forward.

For the Laurents, a two-story home "is an issue of lifestyle," Pierre said. They currently have one toddler and Monica is expecting their second baby in January.

"It's a choice of having a bedroom on the second story and a back yard to play rather than a house in the back yard," Pierre said.

Just a few months ago, the council sent an approved two-story remodel for a different family on Jay street back to the Architectural and Site Control Committee for more design work.

Instead of doing a redesign, the couple put the house up for sale.

That sent the Laurents back to the drawing board. "We had our plans in hand, but they were not good enough for the neighborhood. We did a complete redesign," Pierre said.

He presented to the council "all the effort we've put into the house design to remain consistent" with the street.

They minimized bulk by using a recessed balcony; they chose materials - shake and stucco - already used on the majority of homes on the street; they doubled the setback on the side yard; and they committed to plant adult trees, Laurent said.

In addition, they had "100 percent support of adjacent neighbors," Laurent said, the ones on either side, in back and the three across the street.

One Jay Street neighbor spoke to the council about fairness. "Can we allow property owners to improve their own property? Or allow others to control it? We don't want to chase away yet another nice neighbor by our intolerance," he said.

It took the mayor several taps of his gavel to quiet the applause that greeted those remarks.

One speaker asked the council to delay a decision on the house until the city resolved the question of a one-story overlay zone, which many on Jay Street have said they want for their neighborhood.

But the council went ahead and said the Laurent house could go forward.

"They followed all the rules," said Mayor Lou Becker. "The adjacent neighbors have no objections. And they're complying with the general conditions of a single-story overlay zone" should one be adopted for Jay Street.