From: Ana Stefan [mailto:anastefan2000@gmail.com] Sent: Monday, September 15, 2014 2:54 PM To: Cynthia McCormick; Michelle Cc: Deepak Sharma Subject: Fwd: for Cindy Hi Cindy, Since this neighbor at 18774 Dundee Ave expressed his concerns, please make a note for your presentation to planning commission, also Michelle please have this addressed as well. On top of the previous remarks (that the height of the house is now at 22' 6" which is 3' lower than what he saw in the story poles, and that the height of the front living space has been drastically reduced, so the overall the height is much lower than what Steve is reacting to) there are couple other things that contradict his opinion on our project being "so far out of proportion with all the rest of our houses". Of course he forgot to take a closer look at these: 1. 2nd house from Steve 's house (square box on map) is 1 year old single story house (triangle on map), the height of this house itself is touching close to 18' (you can pull out the records). At 22' 6",we are only 4' 6" above the height of the single story house which is just 1 house away from Steve. 2. 4 house away from Steve's house on the right (star on map) is a 2 story house, I don't know the exact height of this house, but is certainly appears higher than our 22' 6" at the max. Steve's argument about our house being imposing doesn't stand ground in the presence of Houses 1 and 2 already on the street and closer to his house. And here we are only comparing Dundee Av which has not been rebuilt as much compared to adjoining McDole or Montrose street. 3. Also the point Steve made about our house being visible all the way from the other side of Dundee, that is due to the way the street takes a turn there. Our house is almost at the turn, so doesn't matter what is built there, it is visible from the far end of the street. Our landscape architect has proposed planting another tree in front yard so that our house is not so directly visible from far end of street. It is more of an issue for us than the neighbors and our landscape architect has addressed it with the help of 2 trees for the right side of property to provide some screening. Best Regards, Ana Stefan and Deepak Sharma
Response to neighborhood concerns. Hi Cindy, Please add the following response to the neighborhood concerns in our project package. Following were the houses in immediate vicinity of our house that had raised concerns. With the latest revision to our project plans, we have tried our best to address these concerns. We strongly believe the heavily modified project fully addresses these concerns. As shown in the map, houses 1-5 had raised concerns about our first draft of house plans. All other houses were perfectly ok even with our initial plans and they continue to fully support the revised project plan. Following is the update on houses 1-5. House 1: We met neighbor in house 1, she is pleased with the revised project plans and has no concerns about the plan. She happily signed the neighborhood notification form without any comments / concerns. House 2-3: We are sure these neighbors would have also appreciated the changes we have made to the plans. However both these neighbors have moved-out and these houses are now on sale. http://www.mlslistings.com/property/ml81430922/18843-dundee-av-saratoga-ca-95070 http://www.mlslistings.com/property/ml81431785/13211-kevin-st-saratoga-ca-95070 House 4: Various design changes in latest revision go at length to address these neighbor s concerns: *. Ground Level of our house is now moved further away from their house by 3. *. Height of our house s first floor is aligned very closely to this houses height. This is not the case in neighborhood where a new house is build next to an older house, however we have brought the height down so that it looks almost aligned from street level. *. Second level on house 4 side starts 15 front the front setback. This is a total of 50 away from the street level. From the street level second story element is so far recessed on house 4 that it is hard to appreciate any second story element on this side from street. *. There are no bedrooms on the house 4 side.
*. There are no windows on house 4 side that can look into their house or the backyard. The only windows on house 4 side are obscure bathroom windows. *. The small balcony next to master bedroom has a full wall on house 4 side. There is no direct line of sight from the balcony to this house 4 s backyard. The only way to look towards house 4 backyard from our house would be to lean forward from the balcony while risking loss of life from a fall. If someone is that curios to look into neighbor s backyard, it is easier and less risky to grab a ladder and climb on the roof. *. Even after risking life and leaning from balcony, there is limited line of sight to house 4 s backyard from the balcony. This limited line of sight is further blocked by a mix of existing trees already planted in house 4. Further screening plants are proposed in plans on our lot towards house 4 side. This should deter anyone from ever risking life to lean forward from the balcony just to look at house 4 s backyard. House 5: *. House 5 practically has no impact from our project. *. The nearest point of house 5 fence line from our second level is about 70 away. *. Right on the other side of fence (in house 5 lot) is a dense olive tree about 12-14 tall. This provides perfect year around screening. Also planted on our side are trees that further add to this screening and ensures 0 visibility from either side. *. Also house 5 has the huge retractable antenna, that has a wingspan of 40 X30 and which can up to 60 high. While it makes for a great view of NASA type facility year around from our house, it can be too much at times. Our neighbors in house 4 have already planted 3 big trees to provide screening up to 40-50 in height and width. These trees are redwood and silver dollar eucalyptus. These trees are already at 12-15, by the time our project is complete, and these will be 15 and will provide further dense screening to parts of house 5 backyard which are already around 100 from our second level. The line of sight for these parts of house 5 backyard is also only if someone is risking live an leaning forward from the balcony. *. While we haven t yet decided on which tree and location, we will be planting screening trees to avoid the steady view of the massive antenna (and its metal tower) from our house. Other adjoining houses that share backyard fence with us were perfectly ok even with our initial plans and they continue to fully support the revised project plan. This includes the 3 houses that share backyard boundaries with our house (houses a,b,c). House a and b already have very dense screening plants / trees along the backyard fence line. In our project plans, we are adding dense
screening plants along the fence line with house c. Neighbors in house a,b,c are ok with our plans to address the privacy concerns by using existing and new screening plants. Best Regards, Ana Stefan and Deepak Sharma
Before we get to our response to this single neighbors concerns, we must point out the 2 recent larger developments within our community (Bellgrove circle and Dorcich Ct. ). There are 95 2-story houses in BellGrove Circle (Afton Av. becomes Bellgrove Circle) and 6 2-story homes in Dorcich Ct. These houses are built within 18 and 8 years respectively. We cannot ignore these neighborhood developments as these are inherent part of our community. Among them, Bellgrove circle is 9 houses away from our home. It hosts the nearest Saratoga city park (Bellgrove park) for us. It will be a terrible mistake to disown these homes, City Park and exclude them from our immediate neighborhood. All these homes share their side / backyard fence with other 2-story homes and a very good percentage of them share their side/back yard fence with single story homes. A few of the single story homes sharing the fences here are also the original 1952 build with 1100 sq. ft. footprint). They are all co-existing peacefully in this neighborhood. Neighborhood has been greatly improved (both in appearance and in terms of home values) by the addition of these newer developments. Following is the response specific to this single neighbor s (nitpicking) concerns: c). The height of the structure is 4-6 taller than 18 that doesn t require planning commission review. Neighborhood is full of these houses (18 tall) next to houses 12-15 in height. So we should limit the concern to 4 6 above 18 but well within the max allowed 26. There are several houses in neighborhood that had built to this height and beyond. Community Viewsheds: At only 22 6 (4 6 above 18 ) in the middle of plot, there is no impact on viewshed from any of adjoining properties. The second story element of the house is centered in the middle of the plot, it is 50 away from street, 60 away from rear neighbor, almost 19 and 21 from side neighbors. Neighbor on 18858 dundee Av has several 2 trees 50-60 high in front yard and another 50-60 high tree in backyard. There are 1 tree planted on our front yard, 2 on neighbor 18830 dundee, There are 2 more trees proposed on our front yard. All of these trees have mature height of 40-50. Within couple of years, the only view from the street in front and houses thereafter will be of beautiful tall trees and the Saratoga Mountains above them. Privacy: Privacy concerns are completely addressed by following measures: *. Removing the bedroom from 18830 dundee side of the house. *. Bathroom window on the 18830 dundee side are obscure. *. Bedroom on 18858 dundee side has window on side that is 5 above and hence allows for no views from there. *. The bedroom window and balcony are facing backyard which is 60-70 away from the rear side home fences.
*. Abundant privacy screening plants are already there on the rear side properties and further more are proposed in the design. *. House on 18830 dundee and the house behind it have the least of the privacy impact from our house as their no direct line to sight to these properties from our second level. The proposed screening plants bring down the privacy concerns to 0. After all this, any concern raised for privacy is nothing but an excuse. *. The 3 other homes that share the backyard and side-yard fence with our home have no privacy concern. They are perfectly fine with the existing privacy screening plants and new privacy screening plants. d). The number of 2-story homes and their % changes as we define the neighborhood area. Within 500-600 ft. our house, there are already 4 2-story homes. If we go to 1000 ft. from our homes, we reach the Bellgrove circle, which has 95 beautiful 2 story homes. If we go to 1500 ft. from our homes, we also have 6 newly built of homes of Dorcich court. And in between there are many more 2-story homes. Depending on how we define neighborhood, the % of 2 story homes in neighborhood will be at in 2 digits. It can be anywhere from 15% to 30%. The city needs to do a survey and calculate the exact %. Irrespective of the % of 2 story homes (just like % of any minority group), they are (and must be) welcome in city of Saratoga as long as they are within the rules / setbacks. Following is specific response to other points neighbor had risen: *. 3 out of 4 houses on the rear of our house are touching 18 in height, 3 houses in front of us are 18 and above. 15 used to be the average when houses were build in 1952, there is a very small % of homes in that footprint without any addition. Today s average is not 15 but is 18. *. The entry way of the house starts at 11 and reaches 15 further away from street. *. Less than 25% of the house is on the second level. Even further smaller portion of the house s roof ever reaches 22 6 and it is well centered on the plot. f) Neighbor at "18830 Dundee Avenue" has made comments about choice of tall trees on our property, while they have recently planted 1 redwood and 2 "silver dollar eucalyptus" trees on their property. Even through the trees proposed on our plot are much smaller than redwood and silver dollar eucalyptus trees, we should have equal right to plant redwood and eucalyptus. g)
The feedback received from city planner and planning commission on the first design draft has been fully integrated in second draft of the design. This meets all the guidelines in the design book, several drastic changes has been made to have a practical functional home. Anyone still in objection to current plan is only looking for excuses as arguments against the project. *. As described in item [c], Privacy concerns are fully addressed. There is no window to the sides that provide direct line of sight to neighbor s homes. *. Light tunnels only need a setback of 5. There are several houses in neighborhood which have basements and their light tunnel utilizes the allowed setback of 5. Our plans provide for 8 setback for light tunnel, which is 60% more than required. *. Our house plans provide for much larger setbacks than required by city rules: - The light well setbacks are 40%+ more than required, on both sides of the house - First level setbacks are 40%+ more than required, on both sides of the house - Second level side setbacks are 18 4 and 21 respectively, with exclusively obscure (bathroom) windows on left side and one 5 sill (high) window on the right side - Second level rear setback, at 56, provides added privacy on the only side with clear, regular sill height windows on the upper level Best Regards! Sincerely, Ana Stefan, Deepak Sharma