Menlo Park: Move to overturn home-building rules Menlo Park: Move to overturn home-building rules (January 21, 2004)

** Foes of Menlo Park's new home-building rules seek vote to repeal them.

By Rebecca Wallace

Almanac Staff Writer

Frustrations over new home-building rules in Menlo Park boiled over this week as a group of residents launched a signature-gathering effort to get the proposal overturned.

At a January 19 press conference in front of the City Council chambers to kick off the referendum campaign, Planning Commissioner Kelly Fergusson called the rules "the most sweeping and devastating change to the laws of Menlo Park since we became a city 75 years ago."

If the required 1,700 signatures -- 10 percent of the city's registered voters -- are gathered by February 12, the day the zoning ordinance changes are scheduled to take effect, the City Council must either repeal the changes or have the voters decide whether they should be overturned, according to City Attorney Bill McClure. That would happen either in the next general election in November or in a special election.

At the press conference, Ms. Fergusson also called the new ordinance changes, to which the City Council gave final approval January 13, a boon for developers, saying they would pave the way for more oversized homes blocking the sunlight and privacy of neighbors.

True to form in an issue that has been highly controversial, a subsequent question-and-answer session dissolved into a shouting match, with supporters and opponents disputing whether there had been enough public outreach on the ordinance.

Resident Sam Sinnott also took exception to a flier by referendum supporters that described him as a developer and said he had helped draft the new rules.

He said that as an architect he would not benefit from the ordinance changes, which seek to streamline the approval process for new homes and major remodels, creating a rules-based approach relying less on the human discretion of the Planning Commission.

"I make my money on (commission) hearings," he said.

Rather than benefiting developers, he said, the new rules help residents on smaller lots. While the current rules deem about half the lots in town "substandard" because they are small or oddly shaped, and require their projects to go through the Planning Commission, the new regulations would treat all lots the same, only requiring a higher standard of review for homes that exceed certain building measurements.

City Councilwoman Mickie Winkler, who championed the new home-building rules, was one of about 15 people at the press conference but did not speak. Councilman Chuck Kinney, who voted last week with Paul Collacchi against the proposal, did take the microphone to lend his support to the referendum effort.

"I just feel we can do better," he said, reiterating his earlier call for including design guidelines for homes in the ordinance.

Mr. Collacchi also told the Almanac that he supported the campaign.

Ms. Fergusson said she didn't know how many supporters she has but that they are from all over the city. Allied Arts neighborhood resident Elizabeth Houck will coordinate the campaign's volunteers, who will go door-to-door and set up tables downtown, Ms. Fergusson said.

In Menlo Park's last referendum in 1998, voters overturned the council's ban on gasoline-powered leaf blowers.

Before the press conference, Ms. Winkler told the Almanac the referendum effort was a "political ploy" by Ms. Fergusson to raise her profile in the community.

If the rules are repealed, Ms. Winkler said, she doesn't think the council would come up with new ones any time soon because of the time and effort involved. That means sticking with the current ordinance, which Ms. Winkler said everyone agrees needs to be refined.

"I hope people will think about what they're doing before they sign," she said.

Ms. Fergusson said that as a mother and owner of a civil engineering business she didn't have time for higher political goals and would not run for council.

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