By More Los Altos, LAH lots would be subject to ban, under proposal

Town Crier Staff Report

A pending county zoning ordinance could ban two-story homes from a greater number of lots in unincorporated Los Altos and Los Altos Hills.

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors is set to review a zoning ordinance that would prohibit two-story homes from flag lots less than 20,000 square feet throughout the county’s unincorporated areas.

Existing guidelines prohibit two-story homes from certain flag lots in areas of the Los Altos Golf & Country Club, San Antonio Hills and the Spaulding Avenue-Winding Way areas. The county adopted special guidelines for these areas in 1998 after neighbors protested the development of numerous flag lots in their neighborhoods. Lots affected by the existing guidelines include those that were neither separately developed nor approved as a single building site prior to 1998.

The new ordinance would expand these regulations to all flag lots less than 20,000 square feet, according to a staff report.

The new zoning ordinance is intended to minimize the impact of housing development on the character and quality of life in the county’s urban pockets.

The regulations are based on existing regulations that already exist in the Los Altos area.