By Eliza Ridgeway

The Los Altos Hills City Council last week tinkered with an ordinance intended to soften the impact of highly visible new housing developments in town.

The ordinance, which addresses houses built on ridgelines and hilltops, had undergone a series of proposed revisions in recent months that were criticized as too subjective and unfair to residents.

The council approved removal of the phrase “highly visible lots” from the ordinance, describing it as too vague, and rejected heightened restrictions on the approval of such lots. As revised, the ordinance would leave identification of potential problem houses to the planning department.

Councilman Mike O’Malley said he wouldn’t want to put staff in such a subjective position. The initial identification of “highly visible” homes lies at staff level. Existing city code directs staff to send properties that encounter “substantive neighbor opposition” to the planning commission, City Manager Carl Cahill said.

“I want people to know in advance if they are going to be living in a highly visible lot,” said Councilman Craig Jones. “If you can’t apply it in advance, you can’t just apply it when neighbors complain.”

With the phrase “highly visible lots” removed, the ordinance will now apply only to homes prominently located on hills.

“It is pretty easy to tell if a lot is on a ridgeline or on a hilltop based on a topographic map or survey,” interim Planning Director Debbie Pedro said. “In the past five years, about 3 to 4 percent (of new home applications) or less would fall into the ridgeline or hilltop cat-

egory.”

“It’s up to staff. It’s all in the eye of the beholder what a ridge line is,” said Councilman Jean Mordo. “Essentially what we have to do is use common sense.”

The Planning Commission had forwarded three suggested revisions: that new homes in prominent locations meet three required landscaping and construction criteria, that new homes have automatic ineligibility for fast-track development approval and that the phrase “highly visible lots” be removed from the ordinance.

As revised by the council, new prominent homes would only need to meet one or more of the landscaping and construction criteria, based on staff evaluation, and could qualify for fast-track approval rather than automatically going before the Planning Commission.

A final vote on the ordinance, as amended, will occur at a future council meeting.