camino was built -- he built as a ranch style to compliment the block. thank you. any other speakers in favor of the dr? >> good afternoon, my name is dorene green berg. we live at 125, 28th avenue, the other day they mentioned that we came up with our opposition to the project at the very last moment. this is not exactly true. in fact, we asked for the drawing on 3 occasions. first, at the preapplication meeting that took place on september 7,

2011. we asked them to send us plan. we have not received these plans by october 4th, when i sent an e-mail asking for the status of the plans. actually no definite answer has been received. then i sent a 3rd e-mail on november 1, 2011 for the plans because without the plans we could not discuss many things. again we have not received the plans until it was said before christmas eve of 2012. more than a year after we requested them. that's why we come up with our position that late. to us, it shows a little

real cooperation from this part. we oppose this remodeling. thanks. >> commissioners, good afternoon. my wife grew up on --el camino del mar. her parent have lived there for 40 years. they were not able to be here. we have dinner at their house every week and i'm quite familiar with the area. milton myers built this house. as it's been mentioned the property is

on an upslope, while it's a single story residence, it's all around the lengthy front footage of the property giving a sweeping view from every room from 2 bedrooms, living room, dining room and kitchen. the neighbors don't object to the project sponsors improving their property, they would like to see them do so in a way that if it meets their needs. they do object modifying in a way that takes away from the historic property and in mpinges on the mid block open space. as soon as the property

went on the market prior to the death of the own, the neighbors listed to the broker that they would object that this development to the project plate applicants are now proposing that they would oppose this. the dr applicants would like to work with the sponsors to develop a plan that will satisfy their needs and be acceptable to everyone. they have not had that opportunity. the project applicants selected to proceed by developing the plans and seeking approval of those plans that frankly ignored the neighbors concerns. they have provided information to the neighbors only to the extent that they are required bylaw to do so. they have

strayed from efforts by ignoring plans for the next year-and-a-half. most recently in a meeting january, that i attended, i was asking for plans and told i wouldn't be provided them. thank you. any other speaker in favor of the dr? okay. seeing none, project sponsor? >> good afternoon commissioners, on behalf of the sponsors. the project before you today on discretionary view is a modest expansion on the home of a sea cliff

neighborhood. i want to have abby come here. they are a little bit better prepared to explain this project considering jean is an architect and architectural photographer. >> i have handouts. >> good afternoon, commissioners and neighbors. i'm jean snooer. i'm one as the architect and homeowner. the corner sites show. can we have the power points, please. our corner side is located on the map in the intersection of sea cliff and --el camino del mar. it rest on a promissory. it

wraps around the corner. most of all the transparent ey of the house of the courtyard is breathtaking. it was built in 1951. one of my architectural professors offered me some advice a number of years ago. he said express your design in 6 words. in this process is it's, historic resource, livable home, 21st century, these are the principles that are designing the direction, the historic resource evaluation and the secretary interior standards. the

existing home, this is a diagram of the existing foot print. you will notice in the courtyard, u shape of the hope there is no block massing as represented by mr. williams there. it's an open courtyard. there is a sunscreen or wind can khan pee that projects out. canopy. you can see at the bottom of the dark horizontal line represents a setback from the face of the building. the

existing home as i mentioned is only the bedrooms and they are located on the ground floor. with diagrams here is the flow of circulation up to the 2nd level. that is stepping through the garage and up the existing stair to the second level which is the location where we intend to build, reconstruct the maids room and expansion to the bedroom. we want to simplify the internal circulation which is indicated here. by doing so we remove the stairs. you see the two small horizontal arrows so that we have internal

circulation up to our bedroom on the second floor. also in the central courtyard we are indicating the amount of private open space. this shows the view from sea cliff and --el camino and del mar and the maids room. this is the proposed view with our addition. as you can see it's quite modest. it's the extent of the building mass that would be seen from the same way at sea cliff and --el camino and del mar. finally with respect to the neighbors on 20th avenue, we can get into more details about the numbers of the discussions we've had with them, but in the upper diagram or photograph we are showing

the existing condition, the edge of the current second story maids room. you can see a little patch of blue ocean. with the original idea of our addition we suggest that we had considered a shed roof which is a pitched roof that you see in the center photograph. we also were concerned about responding to neighbors concerns about the stairwell which you see sort of the vertical slot. just to the left of the shed roof. so we hide some views where the major concern of the neighbors. we lowers the height of both the stairs and of the roof itself over the bedrooms. so there is a flat roof. this is the view

of one of the neighbors second story bedrooms and as you can see the line of the roof is in alignment with the horizon. so my question how much light is being affected when the top of the roof to the buildings is actually at the horizon line. this is a section through the addition of the upper right. we are pointing out the area of the existing 2 story, to the left of that horizontal black bar, you can see that there is a lower roof line and that's the roof over the stairway and to the left is the bedroom which pops up as it provides a break in the massing. you can also see the outline of the neighbors next door and that our roof is below the top peak

of the roof of the next door neighbors. >> i am going to break at this point for abby. you know what, sorry, i will add. okay. i will add that the new addition will not alter the character defining feature of the u shape and the courtyard will be maintained. these are distinctive elements noted in the evaluation issued by the city. in fact the historic resource specialist that reviewed our plan and signed off on it is that it's the only location for expansion. we also want to be sensitive to the environment by creating a green roof over a portion to capture

rain water. i will be please today answer questions later. >> hi, commissioners, good afternoon. i'm abby snooer, i have been involved on community outreach with projects. even though we have yet to move into our home, 3 of our --el camino neighbors support our project. our immediate neighbors who are very sympathetic to our goals. they know how important it is to renovate for a modern lifestyle. we have had two official meetings with our neighbors. the first one on september of 2011 after which we started our process explaining going through the

process on this complex site as to how to move forward. it took a long time for the zoning administrator and we knew how to proceed and from that point we had to go through historical resource evaluation. after all of that we submitted our application in december of 2011, however we did not actually post the notification until december of 2012. that was a long period of time where we were working closely with staff here to make sure what we were designing worked with parameters and guidelines and codes that was given to us. in the meantime, as well, we were asked by the neighbors to deliver drawings and we explained that we were in this process. there were several e-mails that will a test to

this. they still asked joe butler to get the drawings for them and in january of 2012, joe butler verified with us that he was representing the 28th avenue neighbors and the drawings were given to him. i would to call --el measure who has been helping us. >> good afternoon, commissioners. i'm an architect and applicant for the project. i would like to say that i responded to mr. butler's request and at the direction of the property owners transmitted property drawing to mr. butler around january 2012. i just

want to clarify that. thank you. >> two highly recognized designers in the city support us. and bob who is also a sea cliff resident of over 30 years. we also have the support of two of the neighborhood associations as was stated earlier. i thank you for your time and i will answer any questions later. >> thank you. >> thank you commissioners, as you can see from the proposal it's a relatively modest proposal and there is a reason for that because abby knew that they were one with the historical resources that were going to apply a lot of restrictions and what they can do here. yes, we are aware that there were neighbors that were going to be sensitive to any projects they approaches. this is the result of being aware of those restrictions. the home adds 515 square foot. this is the existing home and i would

like to point out that there is clearly quite a large front setback at the beginning of the front of the lot. and then again we've got the small addition here, very small and visible from the street. there is a height increase of just 2 feet and maintains it's 2 story character which is in a neighborhood of both two story and three story buildings. as a point of comparison it currently and will maintain the lowest floor ratio area on the block. now, the project will also have extremely minimal impact of light on the requested properties. as we discussed four of the properties are at least ninety feet away and this is another good picture. to give you an idea of how small this impact is going to be from that distance. and one of the things that this picture does not show is that as part of the project, this tree is being removed and in fact the rear of the

existing building is actually being about 3-4 feet is being removed off the back end of the building. the stairs. that gives you an idea that it's going to open some more sight lines there as well. the closest neighbor is 25 feet away. any privacy impact on the neighbors is going to be minimal. obviously we are dealing with a situation when it's considering the number of windows facing john abby's home. they have incorporated slot windows which are going to be replacing large windows. it going to improve privacy in that sense and then screened with landscaping. one of the things i also wanted to mention is that the deck is setback 10 feet from the property line and there is no expansion of this building moving towards the property line. it's currently a roof and the roof is being converted to that deck. it's a

small deck area. 13 by 8 feet. this is not where you can have a backyard barbecue. this is where you can have a cup of coffee. more as jean has mentioned the planning department has given us very direct guidance that any additional changes to the building is going to have a negative impact. this is what we are limited to since it's an historic nature. we have an exterior stair to access the small bedroom. this is going to help it function as a 3 bedroom home. thank you very much. >> calling speakers in favor of

the project. fisher, stanford, >> good afternoon, i'm peter win kel scene. i'm here for the planning negotiation. i have reviewed the project and been all through building in our opinion the addition is minimal and minimal impact on the neighborhood and we recommend that you not take dr and prove the project as shown. thank you very much. >> i'm here to give my

perspective nor for the project. pet trees loved oh. when 535 on --el camino sold we were happy it was purchased by the snaers. with were happy they did not turn the house into something it was not meant to be. being sensitive to its architectural design of the house. we have seen the plans, have seen the drawings of the

addition. it will beset back from the street and have minimal change to the facade of the house and entirely in keeping with the existing architecture. we support the project and look forward to having them move in as neighbors. >> thank you. any other speaker in favor of the project sponsor? >> my name is stanford. i live with my wife in the property next door to the building. we are in support of this program of this development. when i heard mr. williams and mr. butler describe this project, it was hard for me to recognize it. mr. williams wants to

demolish it and mr. butler wants to make it into a museum. we don't think either of those are appropriate. the change to this the building is very minor. it covers, it affects us directly. we have two windows that would be blocked by this new addition but i have been in the development business for real estate for over 30 years and i know that there are adjustments that need to be made when a person comes along to accommodate a property to their needs. this is a very minimal accommodation. they have been very open with us. we've learned of their plans early on. they showed us their plans several times and they have made some modifications to discussions that have gone on. i don't recognize the complaints of the other neighbors on this project. we very much support it. >> thank you, any other

speakers in favor of the project? okay. seeing none, dr request ors, you have rebuttal. ors, you have rebuttal. >> thank you. let me start with the visibility issues. pushing this addition 25 feet forward is going to end up with an impact at --el camino and del mar. and you have seen this plan. that can't be accurate shfrm -- here is what it looks like now. you can see it clearly. it's going to come forward. it's higher and going to come forward 25 feet. so the visibility is the no. 1

defining criteria of that story. the view of the addition is just not right. this is not an under sized how was. this is larger than 4 of the neighbors house. 3200 square feet. the structure down the south property line was part of the original construction and i submitted the article from the examiner which shows that this is how it will now be presented to --el camino del mar, it's going to be wider and taller. so it's our contention that you cannot change this particular

site in this manner without affecting the resource. the change is minor, yes, it's a small addition, but it's placement where we think should be the rear yard. there has to be some rear yard and no one has addressed how to rear yard is being addressed in this instance. we are asking to you look at the alternative. >> i think i have 10 minutes of rebuttal >> you have two minutes for rebuttal. >> thank you, project sponsor, rebuttal 2 minutes. >> thank you. to speak again to this historic issue. this is what the planning department looked at with 3 rounds with several revisions of the project. it's been very closely looked at before it got to this point. also with respect to the

distance from the front property line. the new addition is at the property line. the home is a comfortable home, they have children now and grand children coming and this is going to be a house where they can enjoy together. we have the lincoln house home owners association in support of that project. considering the arguments being made we just want to make the point that the planning commission is well aware, that nothing in the general plan or residential plan or any other of the policies protect private views which is a concern m this case. we with respect the commission not grand dr and prove the

project. thank you. >> the public hearing is closed and opening it up for commissioners and comments. >> i had a question for staff to begin with. i think one of the dr requestors talked about the rear yard. it appears there is a rear yard. i don't think it's not in compliance. i don't see the -- >> well, the question that was raised by the dr requestors is where we measured the dr from and in this case we relied on planning code d where it converges to a single point which in most cases results in a roughly triangular shaped property. that's how we measured the rear yard in this case. >> part of the existing building is