HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/1/2019 Item 08, Novotny
1121 Montalban Appeal
Resident: Dean Novotny, Owner of 408 Lemon Street (neighbor to project)
I ask the Council to uphold the conditions placed on APPL-0393-2019 to limit the bedroom
access to a single door. While I understand the desire to find creative ways to add housing
within the city and to grow in an efficient and safe manner, this attempt by the developer to
circumvent safety and community impact considerations is not in the best interest of anyone,
except the developer.
In the approval process for new projects, the City planners are tasked with taking into
consideration and balancing many parameters, including evacuation under emergency
situations that might include a catastrophic fire or a Diablo Canyon Power Plant emergency.
Given the solemn lessons learned from the 2018 Camp Fire in Northern California, I am
confident the City understands and takes seriously that such considerations can be a matter of
life or death. To support the developer’s attempt to immediately double the occupancy load by
allowing both the partitioning of bedrooms and addition of second access doors is not
responsible or reasonable and puts the developer’s interests over the safety of the community.
The developer is already being supported in this project with density bonuses and other
concessions, such as requiring only 15 parking spaces for 19 one- or two-bedroom units and a
commercial space. Clearly, the 15 parking spaces will not support the anticipated occupancy
and the development will be dependent upon the limited street parking currently available. If
the developer is allowed to put in double door access to the bedrooms, particularly in
combination with the partitioning, these units will function as two- and four-bedroom units,
which allows the developer to rely on disingenuously labeling them one- and two-bedroom
units for purposes of getting approval and then shifting the majority of his parking responsibility
onto the community for street parking.
Thank you for your time and for keeping your focus on the overall wellbeing of our community.
Dean Novotny