The Los Altos Hills City Council and Planning Commission met Nov. 18 in a joint study session to discuss color-board policy and to review housing design guidelines.
The color board, requiring earth tones on new houses to blend with the surrounding environment, has come under criticism.
Town officials intended the color board as a guideline to limit visibility. Numerous factors affect a house's visibility, including paint reflectivity values and the type of material beneath the paint (roof tiles have a higher reflection rate than wood), house location (ridge line vs. a flat lot), and landscaping.
Mayor Elayne Dauber pointed out that while landscaping is crucial, promised landscaping often doesn't get completed and shouldn't be counted on as a mitigating factor.
Councilman Steve Finn said, "My impression is that the color board should be applied in 20 or 30 percent of the cases, like a highly visible lot where you see it across a ridge or two." He later asked, "What is wrong with seeing the house?"
Planning Commissioner Dot Schreiner got to the heart of the issue: "Are we trying to see the hills or the houses?"
Councilman Bill Siegel said, "This is the one area we should deregulate. ... We all have such individual viewpoints. Is it worth all the hassle?"
Since residents have not used unusual colors when repainting, the general consensus was to trust to individual resident taste.
A similar discussion was held on town guidelines for mitigating "bulk" in fast-track housing designs.
Fast-track refers to a permit request approval process currently undergoing a yearlong trial, in which applications meeting all requirements can bypass the planning commission and go directly to the city council for approval.
Dauber said, "We used to have something called a building envelope. This is an objective way of saying how high your house could be. It was not a good way to do it. ... If we could write an ironclad ruling, we wouldn't need a planning commission."
Councilman Bob Johnson said, "Fast-track is working."
Councilwoman Toni Casey said that even when there are no complaints from neighbors, the planning commission still argues over issues of bulk.
Siegel said city staff should have discretion. He also cited a fundamental difference between him and Casey. "If you go by the numbers, you will abolish the planning commission, which you would like to do, and I don't agree with that," he said.
The consensus called for Planning Director Curtis Williams to write a proposal curtailing or possibly eliminating color board usage, and determining guidelines for applying paint reflectivity values. After completion, the proposal would be put on a council agenda for public discussion.
A second consensus was to maintain current guidelines until fast-track completes its trial year.