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HomeMy WebLinkAbout5/6/2019 Item 2, Mills Goodwin, Heather From:Russell S Mills <RMills@csuchico.edu> Sent:Sunday, May 5, To:Advisory Bodies Cc:Bell, Kyle Subject:ARC Meeting May 5, 2019 Attachments:Joint Memo to ARC.pdf Dear ARC: Please see the attached memo regarding ARCH-0049-2019. Russell Mills 960 Rachel Court (530) 210-3866 1 1 MEMORANDUM To: Architectural Review Commission City of San Luis Obispo mailto:advisorybodies@slocity.org Cc: Kyle Bell Associate City Planner mailto:KBell@slocity.org From: Current Residents of Rachel Court Date: May 5, 2019 Re: Planned New Residence at 974 Rachel Court File No: ARCH-0049-2019 This memorandum is provided to the ARC by current residents of Rachel Court, as listed following. We are writing to jointly express our concerns with the new residence proposed for construction at 974 Rachel Court. This is the only lot in the SLO Terrace neighborhood that was not developed by Central Coast Builders during construction of all the other homes in the planned development. The lot in question is oddly-shaped, is very steep, abuts the Terrace Hill Open Space in a very prominent way, and is highly constrained by easements, both public and private. A recent photo of the lot is provided to better illustrate the nature of the challenges associated with the design and construction of a residence on this property. Because of the characteristics of this lot, the City has classified the lot as sensitive due to the potential for detrimental impacts associated with any construction at this location. Any residence constructed on this site must be sensitive to these potential impacts and must conform to the character of the existing neighborhood. These requirements are articulated in multiple City documents, for which excerpts from the most significant are provided following. It is important to recognize that when the current residents of SLO Terrace purchased their homes, they recognized that a future residence would be constructed at 974 Rachel Court but also expected that the design of this residence would be sensitive to its location and surroundings. Instead, we find that the proposal for the residence at 974 Rachel Court is extremely overbuilt for this location. The design is at, or even surpasses, multiple limits that apply to development on this site. It should be noted that the City’s normal practice for setting an acceptable maximum height for this residence is deficient for this location, due to the excessive elevation 2 variation on this lot, including large portions that cannot be developed due to existing easements. The proposed residence is non-conforming due to its excessive size – both in terms of its square footage (i.e., 50% greater than the adjacent existing residences) and its height. There are two portions to the proposed residence – (1) a three-level portion that includes a garage and (2) a two-story portion that sits on the upper portion of the lot. From the front, as viewed from Rachel Court, the garage portion will appear to be three stories in elevation due to the presence of a “sleeping loft,” while all the adjacent existing homes are only two-stories in front. From the back side (the elevation visible from Terrace Hill), the garage portion will appear to be two stories in elevation. All the adjacent homes were intentionally designed to be only one story in elevation at the back and were excavated below natural grade, to minimize the visual impact between adjacent residences and from Terrace Hill. The portion of the residence on the upper level of the lot is two stories and will appear so from both the front and the back. Due to its higher base elevation compared to all the surrounding properties, this two-story portion will loom over Rachel Court and the existing neighboring homes. It will also present an unacceptable visual impact from and of Terrace Hill. There are two set-backs incorporated into the design of the garage portion of this residence. The City’s Community Design Guidelines suggest the use of such set-backs may help mitigate the impact of a design when greater height is desired compared to surrounding residences. However, due to the small size of this lot and the proximity of the structure to the street, the neighbors, and the Terrace Hill Open Space these set-back will be ineffective at mitigating the impact of excessive height. Significant changes to the design of this residence will be necessary in order to be consistent with and respectful of its surroundings. For example, the sleeping loft could be eliminated, the floor elevation of the portion above the garage could be made constant over its full length, and the two-story structure on the elevated portion of the lot could be reduced to one story. Granted, this will result in a smaller house, but that is the character of the residence that can be supported by this site. The owners of the property could decide to forgo the planned ADU and could make this room a bedroom, instead, to help increase the living space a smaller residence would provide. Regarding this proposed ADU, the neighborhood’s CC&Rs do not permit the addition of an ADU on this lot. However, laws are changing to encourage ADUs and to restrict the authority of private restrictions on their creation. Nevertheless, the ADU proposed at this site is inconsistent with the other ADUs that currently exist in the SLO Terrace neighborhood. The proposed ADU includes a “sleeping loft” while all existing ADUs are single-level located at the back of the main residence to reduce visual impacts. The proposed ADU is only accessible from the exterior while all existing ADU’s are contiguous with the house and may be used as either an ADU or as an additional bedroom (as many are). The latter inconsistency ensures that the proposed ADU will always result in two households at 974 Rachel Court. This will create a detrimental impact to 3 parking, as Rachel Court currently provides only eight on-street parking spaces for 15 residences. Because of the steep grade of Rachel Court, residents and visitors are reluctant to use available parking on Rachel Street and instead sometimes park in fire lanes and across driveways. Adding two households at the top of Rachel Court can only make this problem much worse, especially since the driveway at 974 Rachel Court will only have sufficient length to accommodate one parked car and there is no on-street parking adjacent to this lot. In conclusion, we find the size and height of this proposed residence to be incompatible with the scale and character of the existing neighborhood and should not be allowed as designed. To help demonstrate our concerns, we request that City officials with authority over this proposal perform a site visit to view the subject building lot, if they have not already done so. We also request that the City require the property owner to raise story poles on the lot to illustrate the profile of the proposed residence. Attachments: List of Co-Signers to this Memorandum Excerpts from City Documents Relevant to the Proposed Residence at 974 Rachel Court Photograph of the Lot Being Considered for Development 4 List of Co-Signers to this Memorandum Jacqulene Maegert 983 Rachel Court Jessie and Joy Sostrin 971 Rachel Court Kris and Steve Roberts 965 Rachel Court Amy Bertorelli and Kurt Pidduck 947 Rachel Court Russell and Leslie Mills 960 Rachel Court David and Cheryl Litster 954 Rachel Court Wyatt and Todd Bertorelli 948 Rachel Court 5 Excerpts from City Documents Relevant to the Proposed Residence at 974 Rachel Court Community Design Guidelines, June 2010, Section 5.3 Infill Development A. General principles. Infill residential development should: 1. Be compatible in scale, siting, detailing, and overall character with adjacent buildings and those in the immediate neighborhood. This is crucial when a new or remodeled house is proposed to be larger than others in the neighborhood. When new homes are developed adjacent to older ones, the height and bulk of the new construction can have a negative impact on adjacent, smaller scale buildings. 2. Continue existing neighborhood patterns. For example, patterns such as front porches and entries facing the street, finished floor height, and garages located at the rear of lots. B. Building design. An infill residential structure should incorporate the traditional architectural characteristics of existing houses in the neighborhood, including window and door spacing, exterior materials, roof style and pitch, ornamentation and other details. C. Visual impacts from building height. The height of infill projects should be consistent with of [sic] surrounding residential structures. Where greater height is desired, an infill structure should set back upper floors from the edge of the first story to reduce impacts on adjacent smaller homes, and to protect solar access. Terrace Hill Open Space Conservation Plan, May 2015 (Final Review Draft) Goals The City will manage Terrace Hill Open Space with the following goals: 3.7 Maintain, protect, and improve aesthetic views as seen from various locations throughout the City of San Luis Obispo. Resolution No. ARC-1017-13 A Resolution of the San Luis Obispo Architectural Review Commission Granting Final Architectural Review Approval of 17 Single-Family Residences …. Lots 17N and 18N shall be designated as “sensitive sites” requiring approval by the Architectural Review Commission of plans for future site development. This status ensures future development will respect existing site constraints, privacy of occupants and neighbors of the project, and be compatible with the scale and character of the surrounding neighborhood. (N.B., Lots 17N and 18N were subsequently merged to create the lot at 974 Rachel Court.) Architectural Review Commission Agenda Report (File No. ARC 74-13) Subject: Review of 17 single-family residences on vacant property with adoption of a Mitigated Negative Declaration 6 As discussed above, the homes are designed to step up or down the hillside depending on the location. Lots 13N through 16N and lots 10 through 14 step up the hillside and will appear single story when viewed from the rear (north) elevation. (N.B., Lots 13N through 16N are the existing homes on the north side of Rachel Court, adjacent to the proposed residence at 974 Rachel Court.) 7 Photograph of the Lot Being Considered for Development N.B., there are private easements associated with the drainage swale at the back of the lot and with the retaining walls at the front of the lot, including the wall that steps up the hillside. The swale and retaining walls are the property of the SLO Terrace Homeowner Association. Only a portion of this lot is unrestricted by easements and all of the lot is very steep. All adjacent residences have been excavated to minimize the visual impact on neighbors and on the Terrace Hill Open Space.