By Elizabeth Cloutman

MV’s Lincoln Drive opts for allowing only single-stories

Yet another neighborhood in Mountain View’s Gest Ranch development has opted to restrict housing development to single-story homes and allow only ground-level expansion.

At its June 27 meeting, the Mountain View City Council approved the first reading of an ordinance amending the city’s zoning map to re-zone 23 parcels on Lincoln Drive as a single-story overlay zone. Lincoln Drive is the sixth neighborhood in the Gest Ranch development, which borders on Los Altos, to request such re-zoning.

According to Curtis Banks, senior planner for the city, the council was expected to approve the second reading of the Lincoln Drive ordinance July 10, after the Town Crier went to press. “After the second reading is adopted the new ordinance will take effect 30 days hence,” Banks said.

In June 2000, the Mountain View City Council adopted new re-zoning procedures for overlay zones that allowed neighborhoods to opt for single-story zoning. Los Altos passed a similar ordinance in May 2000.

According to a community development department report prepared for the Mountain View City Council prior to the public hearing June 27, a neighborhood must meet five requirements in order to qualify for single-story overlay zoning. First, the area must be a reasonable geographical unit. Next, an application for re-zoning must be filed by at least 50 percent of the affected parcels. The Lincoln Drive petition was signed by the owners of 15 of the 23 parcels, or 65 percent.

Also, under the January 2000 ordinance, at least 51 percent of the affected parcels must currently comply with the proposed height limit. All 23 of the Lincoln Drive homes are single-story. The city’s environmental planning commission was to hold a public hearing and make a recommendation to the city council. The commission held a hearing March 28 and unanimously recommended approval of the Lincoln Drive re-zoning.

The final requirement is that 67 percent of property owners in the affected area who respond to a mailed ballot must indicate support. Sixty-eight percent of the 22 responding Lincoln Drive residents voted “Yes.”

The environmental planning commission did not include a sunset clause, which would place a time limit on the Lincoln Drive single-story overlay zone, because the neighborhood requested that the re-zoning be permanent.

Under Mountain View’s single-story rezoning procedures, petitioning neighborhoods have the option to place time limits on rezoning. A neighborhood can also opt to reverse single-story zoning. This contrasts with the Los Altos ordinance, which limits the ban on second-story homes and additions to seven years, with an option to renew the zoning.