By Town Crier Staff

The Los Altos City Council will consider giving Jay Street residents a second chance to ban two-story homes from their neighborhood if they can convince the city that last year’s election process was flawed. This is the first time the council has considered conducting a revote on a second-story overlay application.

The May 13 decision could give other neighborhoods that fail to pass the temporary zoning change a second chance.

Jay Street has been the only neighborhood to file for the zoning change that was unable to muster enough votes to put the law in place during the two years that the single-story overlay law has been in effect. Seven neighborhoods have approved overlays since 2001.

Some Jay Street residents have alleged that someone distributed misleading and erroneous information about the zoning law, which persuaded some neighbors to vote against it.

Only 60 percent of the Jay Street property owners who voted supported placing a single-story overlay zone on the street to prohibit the addition of two-story remodels and homes from the area for at least seven years. The overlay needed a 66 2/3 percent majority of votes cast to pass.

Since the Jay Street campaign last November, city officials have routinely distributed overlay information sheets to voters to avoid further confusion.

The Jay Street hearing is the first time a neighborhood has appealed a “no” vote.

Under the city’s process, two councilmembers must agree to put the appeal on the agenda before neighbors may be heard.

The single-story overlay zone is a process that enables neighborhoods to prohibit the addition of two-story homes from their streets through an election process. The voting results are held in place for seven years.

The council rejected an appeal from the Deodara Drive neighborhood during a public hearing earlier in the evening. The overlay zone narrowly passed with just enough required votes. Residents against the zoning alleged that the city did not follow proper election procedures regarding ballot signatures and counted invalid votes.

The council determined that city staff had followed proper procedure and approved the vote. The 29-parcel neighborhood in south Los Altos will restrict all new construction to one story and to 20 feet or less in height over the next seven years.