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Published on 11/24/1999 All articles from this issue

Councilman sorry for negative impressions, will work to resolve his permit violations

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By Leslie K. Martin / Town Crier Staff Writer

In a special meeting last Thursday, three members of the Los Altos Hills City Council discussed a request, denied by the town's planning commission, to amend a permit and variance for construction completed on Councilmember Steve Finn's property. This is the second instance within a month in which a city official found himself in violation of the regulations he was sworn to uphold.

Planning Commissioner Charles Wong finds himself in similar circumstances and is working with the town to resolve alleged violations on his property.

Finn and Councilmember Bill Siegel, who lives near Finn, recused themselves from the board. Finn offered his statement from the floor during the public presentation. Remaining board members, Mayor Elayne Dauber and Councilmembers Toni Casey and Bob Johnson, voted to send Finn back to the planning staff to work out violation disparities with Planning Director Curtis Williams.

In 1997, Finn received a development permit and variance. The permit granted an additional floor area of 101 square feet, which allowed Finn to rebuild an historic schoolhouse on his property. Staff inspecting the area in August reported that significant grading had been done, and retaining walls built, well beyond the scope of the original permit.

For the second time within a month, Casey and Williams disagreed over the definition of what is a violation.

"Are there any violations on the property?" Casey asked. "The retaining walls, and the work that has been done - are they code violations?"

"They are code violations in that they were constructed without a permit," Williams said. "I don't see that the construction itself is in violation of any codes, other than that it requires approval."

"I'm sorry to be here tonight," said Finn, who apologized for being unable to attend the planning commission meeting. Finn said that the schoolhouse restoration was the last of an eight-year, multi-million dollar effort to restore his property after earthquake damage. "During the course of construction, especially between 1990 and 1992, I found it fairly customary to enter into discussion with (staff) ... and in that process, did handle six items, that I think are similar to this, over the counter."

Finn and Williams met last year on Dec. 2. Finn remembers discussing the proposed retaining walls, and Finn left with "the absolute belief that, as long as the walls did not exceed 3 feet in height, were at least 10 feet from the property line, and I balanced the cut and the fill, that I could go ahead, I had an open building permit.

"I've been accused of being arrogant ... of being a power monger. If I had not followed procedure, I feel that I deserve that criticism. I really am disappointed that it's come to this, and unfortunately, I worked really hard all my life to keep my good name, and now in the last few months, it seems to have deteriorated. I've become rather infamous around here rather than being an active member of the community, which was really my intent, and I apologize for that."

Williams denied discussing any proposed construction except in very general terms, and said, "I did not authorize this work to be done. I also would never have said you don't need to get a permit. This is not only an issue of planning approval, but it's also of building approval. So I differ very extensively with Steve on his recollection of what that meeting was."

Supportive neighbors agreed that the retaining walls are barely visible, and Finn explained that a French drain system built into the walls also helped solve a longtime neighborhood runoff problem from his property down onto neighboring driveways and into garages.

Johnson said, "It's hard to view the Finn estate and not be impressed with its beauty and know that it is an asset to the community."

But even though he promotes the idea of compromise and the friendly discussion of disputes, Johnson said, "I think the planning commission had made a good decision ... I know that Steve said he thought he had permission, but it's not there in writing.

"If Steve Finn comes along and says I have a violation here and says please fix it, this leads to a perception that it doesn't matter if you do a little extra work on your permit, because if you get caught, you can come to the council and speak nicely and fix it."

The voting council members decided to send the case back to the planning staff in order to be consistent with their decision to do the same in Planning Commissioner Wong's case last month.