Menlo Park: Split council sets home-building rules Menlo Park: Split council sets home-building rules (July 27, 2005)

By Renee Batti

Almanac News Editor

There were no surprises last week when the Menlo Park City Council opened its deliberations on controversial new rules making it easier for some homeowners to renovate their single-story homes: After a series of residents decried the changes and the two dissenting council members reiterated their complaints against it, the ordinance was given final approval on a 3-2 vote.

The vote finalized a June 28 preliminary approval of the zoning ordinance amendments.

The changes will allow most property-owners building a new single-story home or a substantial single-story addition on a lot of at least 5,000 square feet to apply directly to City Hall for a building permit rather than going through a public hearing and review before the Planning Commission.

The most contested element of the new ordinance is that it eliminates the longstanding process by which neighbors can ask the Planning Commission -- or the council on appeal -- to intervene when they believe that a planned project will impact them adversely.

The new rules will go into effect August 18.

Nine residents urged the council not to go forward with the ordinance, and one spoke in favor of the new rules at the July 19 meeting.

Former planning commissioner Stu Soffer said that the new ordinance would directly benefit him if he wanted to add on to his home. Yet, he said, "I don't have a problem with the current ordinance," which allows neighbors to register legitimate complaints when a project is being planned.

Council members Kelly Fergusson and Andy Cohen opposed the measure. They and other opponents criticized the ordinance's elimination of the neighborhood notification process now in place: Currently, notification of construction plans goes out to neighbors within 300 feet of the project area -- typically 30 to 50 residences, according to Ms. Fergusson.

Under the new law, only residents of immediately bordering parcels will be sent notices. Opponents argue that those notices will be sent late in the planning stages, when it would be more expensive for a builder to address issues brought up by neighbors.

Mayor Mickie Winkler, who with council members Lee Duboc and Nicholas Jellins supported the change in regulations, said that the new rules "are not radical amendments" to current law, saying that there will still be "considerable staff oversight" over projects.

She and Ms. Duboc argued that the changes will encourage single-story houses that can have less of an impact on neighborhoods.

Ms. Fergusson had argued for a compromise: an administrative review of proposals instead of the current Planning Commission hearing and review. But the council majority, she said, had stonewalled her idea, which would have been "fair to applicants and fair to neighbors."

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