HomeMy WebLinkAbout4/4/2023 Item 6a, Halsted (2)
Diane Halsted <
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:841 Patricia Drive--addendum
Attachments:mar 31,2023 Mayor and City Council Members.pdf
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Please append this to the previous email I sent to the council.
1
To the Mayor and City Council Members,
I have, since I sent by email a short missive to the city council about the project at 841 Patricia Drive,
received a copy of the letter the attorney wrote about the appeal. It gives me real pause.
The letter is not entirely honest or accurate.
For starters, the house is absolutely not compatible with adjacent homes. It is a show place, far larger and
taller than any property adjacent. Properties to the south are part of another subdivision with different
CCRs: no second story or ADU is allowed. The house looms over the first two properties on Patricia
Court. A modest one -story house would not be so invasive. If the size of the home and the treatment of
the property were sensitive to the surroundings, then it would be compatible. What is proposed is not
compatible.
Second, the attorney seems to think that the owners should do whatever they choose on their property and
the city should make exceptions to accommodate them. Caveat emptor. They bought a piece of land with
some topographical and environmental restraints. There is no implied need for a bridge. Theirs is a desire
for a bridge which is not legal. No one uses 100% of their property and no right to do so comes with
ownership. It does not matter how pricey the property.
The lot was originally owned by the attorney who helped the developer with the project. It was never seen
as a buildable lot—hence its remaining unoccupied for decades. I resent the attorney’s asse rtion that the
neighbors want the property to use as a park and his implication that they have used it as such. That is
absolutely untrue. No one uses that land. The comment about some neighbors having gates onto the
property because they want to use it is meanspirited. Thank goodness I have a gate: without it, I would
have had no access to land that no one else took care of but that affected my own property and that I was
forced, therefore, to maintain. Others are in the same position. I believe adjacent neighbors are genuinely
concerned about the wildlife—mostly turkeys and deer—and view the environmental impacts of such a
project as significant. Again, if the owners were genuinely concerned about the neighbors, they would
build a home suited to the site considering the unusual topography and leaving the creek areas untouched.
Last, the attorney says the creek goes underground. It does not. It comes to the property in question from
a culvert under Patricia Drive. From there it is open and flows sometimes not at all and sometimes with
dangerous swiftness. The creek is very much on this property. Only one of the four owners, past and
present, has maintained the creek. The present owners sent a person to check with adjacent property
owners who asked what I needed done. I had just spent $3000 on tree removal or trimming because the
trees had fallen or broken and damaged my fence. Nothing needed to be attended to at that time. Since
then, no one has done anything to maintain the creek or the growth in the creek. In 47 years living in my
home, I have spent well over $20,000 taking care of the effects of the creek and vegetation—none of it on
my property but all affecting my property.
Because of where my home is located, the building of this house and the development of most of the
property will have little impact on me. Nonetheless, I resent the tone of the letter and the assertion that a
bridge is “implied.” They purchased the land; they need to be mindful of its limitations rather than
moving tons of dirt around and changing the topography to suit themselves. They should be stewards of
the land and not manipulators. Then they would be good neighbors.
Diane Halsted
258 Patricia Court