By Linda Taaffe
The story of a Los Altos neighborhood disgruntled over the size of a proposed condominium project may not initially sound out of the ordinary in a city where the battle to retain the area’s rural character seems to play out on nearly every street. The developer typically pushes for a larger development than residents think is reasonable for their neighborhood.
The Lassen Street project had an uncommon twist, however, that eventually prompted the Los Altos City Council to change specific zoning laws and revamp the city’s affordable housing policy last week.
It was the city hall in this scenario, rather than the developer, pushing for a larger development.
Lassen condominiums
Lassen Street falls in one of two Los Altos neighborhoods with special zoning laws intended to add high-density housing to the city to help meet its regional housing needs as determined by state law. This means developers are required to build to a higher residential density than anywhere else in the city.
In the case of the Lassen condominiums, the zoning law required that property owner Christine Viera build more units than she wanted.
Viera said she was against a higher density project. She had approached the city with plans to replace the single residence on her 7,100-square-foot lot with three units, but the zoning requirements forced her to build four. Viera even inquired if she could get a variance to build a smaller project.
If Viera had chosen to develop a same-sized parcel in one of the city’s other multifamily districts, she could have built three units.
R-3-1.8 zones
City officials designated the neighborhood bounded by Tyndall, Lassen and Gabilan and a smaller neighborhood behind El Camino Real as R-3-1.8, or higher-density multifamily zones under the Housing Element in 1995, to help Los Altos with an anticipated housing shortage.
Under the zoning law, as many as 14 new dwelling units could be added to Viera’s block on Lassen Street, according to a city report.
At least 40 new dwellings units could reasonably be added to the Lassen area based on the number of substantially underdeveloped properties, the report concluded.
Viera’s four-unit project is currently moving forward and neighbors have since urged the council to find a way to avoid the high concentration of possible conversions to four-unit dwellings.
“I doubt that this policy was implemented with the expectation of rising real estate prices that have and will continue to create rapid conversion of these parcels from single family to four-family parcels, and the problems that come along with that increase in density,” resident Mike McCarver told the council in a letter. “Even today, as the current prices require more occupants … to cover the cost of living space in these multiple-unit buildings, parking is a problem.”
Changes
Council members said they feared that placing too much high development in such limited areas could unintentionally create “Los Altos’ first slum,” but removing the “maximum” requirement could negatively affect the city’s state-certified Housing Plan, which the city updated at the start of the year.
Such a change would also significantly impact the number of new housing units added to the city’s inventory. The zoning provides the biggest contribution to the city’s Housing Element goals, said city planning director James Walgren.
The city must try to add 162 residential units to its inventory by 2006, under state requirements.
The council revised the ordinance to change how the maximum allowable density is calculated in the zone, which will ultimately result in fewer required units per lot.
Walgren said the city’s zoning law allows only three units for every 7,200-square-feet of property in multifamily areas. Because the majority of parcels in the Lassen neighborhood measure just below that number, 7,100 square feet, the ordinance was written to allow four units for the first 7,100 square feet of lot space in that area.
The revised ordinance allows one unit for every 1,800 square feet, regardless of parcel size.
Developers must provide one off-street visitor parking space for every four units and include 96 cubic square feet of storage space in additional to closet and garage spaces.
In addition, all multifamily projects must include affordable housing, unless the city grants a variance based on financial hardship. Although city law had already required affordable housing on all multifamily units, the city typically waived the requirement for projects under 10 units, saying it would not be financially feasible to require such units for small projects.
