New zoning ordinance should go forward New zoning ordinance should go forward (January 21, 2004)

By Lee B. Duboc

I am proud of the new residential zoning ordinance that is scheduled to become policy in our city. Because it will be constantly monitored for the first six months by a committee made up of a planning commissioner, a City Council member, an architect, and staff, glitches will immediately be brought to the entire City Council and rectified.

Yet, you may be asked by some people to sign a petition that will stop this ordinance from being activated on schedule. And, if this petition signing effort is successful, the following negative results will ensue:

* Your neighbors who live on "standard" lots will continue to build the so-called "monster" homes that so many of us complain about. They will continue to build by very liberal standards without any neighbor notification and without any form of review. They will continue to build to the most permissive standards of any city on the Peninsula. (Standard lots comprise approximately 50 percent of the residential parcels in Menlo Park and are found mainly in Linfield Oaks, parts of Allied Arts, West Menlo, parts of the Willows, Sharon Heights, and Hillview Manor.)

* If this petition signing effort is successful, 50 percent of the lots in Menlo Park will continue to be designated "substandard." The homeowners will continue to bear the cost, time, and unpredictability of review requirements that are much more stringent than other cities on the Peninsula, including Palo Alto. And, those citizens, many of whom are less affluent, will not attain the universally desired standard of fairness and certainty. (Substandard lots are found in much of the Willows, Lorelei Manor, Flood Triangle, Suburban Park, Belle Haven, parts of Allied Arts and throughout the community.) However, if the petition signing effort is not successful, and the ordinance takes effect as scheduled, we can look forward to the following positive effects:

* There will be a reduction in out-of-scale housing, a.k.a. "monster homes."

* People will be encouraged to update their homes because the hassle and cost of remodeling will be reduced.

* There will 100 percent neighbor notification, not just the 50 percent required now. "Porta-potty notification" that a new project is in progress will be a thing of the past.

* And, if people on standard lots want to build to the same liberal standards as allowed today, they will, for the first time, have to undergo either neighbor and/or Planning Commission review.

I am excited about enactment of this long-awaited ordinance. I'm sure that once you take the time to learn all the facts and not just hear emotional distortions, you will be as well. I urge the citizens of Menlo Park to accept the recommendation made by the Almanac in its editorial on December 24, 2003: "It is time to stop the dissension on this important ordinance and see how the new building guidelines will be received. The six-month review, and the look back after 18 months, offer a good opportunity to make that happen."

Lee B. Duboc is mayor of Menlo Park.

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