When she moved from Japan to the United States in 1994 and a house hunt brought her to a one-story house on Randy Lane, Kimiko Sato fell in love with the neighborhood right away.

"The neighborhood is the typical American residential neighborhood I saw in Hollywood movies," Sato, 55, says of the Linwood Acres, which consists of 68 houses on Larry Way and Randy Lane. The neighborhood is bordered by Highway 280 on the north and the Apple Computer campus on the west.

"It is predominantly made of one-story houses," Sato says. "The street is wide. There are no fences in the front yard. And our mailboxes are on the street, so people talk to each other when they get their mail. It's a neighborhood where you picture a boy riding a bike down the street to deliver newspapers every morning."

Sato bought the house and lived a peaceful life until her next-door neighbor, Sam Liem, bulldozed his old one-story house and built a two-story house in 2001.

"They have five windows on the side that can directly look into my backyard, my kitchen, my bathroom and my bedrooms," Sato says. "I have no privacy in my own house. I don't want any more two-story houses in the neighborhood."

The tension between one-story and two-story homeowners is not new to Linwood Acres. Since the neighborhood was developed in 1951, two-story houses have replaced 10 percent of its California Ranch-style houses.

And the conflict between one-story and two-story homeowners is not new to many neighborhoods in Cupertino.

But in Linwood Acres, the hostility has hit the boiling point. This neighborhood is not unlike a reality television show, spiced with threats, secrecy, lawsuits and accusations of racial discrimination against Asian (some of the two-story homeowners are Asian).

What started as conflict about the houses has moved on into an acrimonious brawl about rezoning that some neighbors claim is democracy in action. With all this dissension, Linwood Acres has become a neighborhood of sign language.

Larry Way resident Steve Prosser put a sign up in front of his house that says, "Join in voting no 2-story homes. Help keep our rural atmosphere." as a protest against his next-door Vietnamese neighbor, who built a large, one-story house with a masonry wall. Liem put up a sign saying "I forgive you" after a neighbor called the police and told them that Liem illegally stayed in a storage house one evening while his house was under construction.

What makes Linwood Acres especially open to development of two-story houses is its zoning. Unlike most of the city's residential neighborhoods that fall under the regulations of R1 zoning, Linwood Acres has been designated an agricultural/residential area (A1) since it was incorporated into the city of Cupertino in 1955. Longtime resident Adeline Marchese says the residents wanted to be incorporated in Cupertino instead of San Jose because they believed they would have greater control of their neighborhood in a smaller city.

And residents there have fought to keep the A1 zoning until recently.

"Prior to 1999, the A1 zone was more restrictive than the R1 zone," says senior planner Peter Gilli. "In 1999, the city council adopted a new set of two-story regulations for the R1 zone to protect existing neighborhoods from monster homes. The size of second-stories was reduced and privacy planting [of shrubs and trees] was required to partially block views from second-story windows and neighboring yards. Presently, the R1 zoning is more restrictive than the A1 zoning in terms of design control and privacy protection."

A grassroots movement to rezone the Linwood Acres neighborhood started when the city's building division received a permit application for a two-story home on Randy Lane in September 2002. The residence was the third two-story house proposed in the neighborhood since January 2001.

This was the final straw that prompted Linwood Acres residents to reverse what had been their long-standing resistance to rezoning and accept the city's previous suggestion to rezone the neighborhood to R1.

Back in 1984 and 1986, the planning commission recommended that the city council rezone the Linwood Acres neighborhood to R1. Both times, strong neighborhood opposition to the recommendation stopped the city council from taking any action on it.

But residents realized they couldn't keep their "leave-me-alone" mentality anymore.

"The house under construction is a daily reminder of what the "leave-me-alone" attitude would mean," says Randy Lane resident Terry Griffin.

For the past year, a group of residents has worked with the planning staff to craft a new zoning for the neighborhood.

After overcoming a long learning curve, the group finally came up with a proposal that some members claim combines the merits of both A1 and R1 zonings. The group will present its proposal to the planning commission at its Sept. 22 meeting. Once approved by the planning commission and the city council, it will become the permanent zoning of the neighborhood.

The group proposal, which retains many elements of R1, keeps the 30-foot front setback requirement in A1 to preserve the neighborhood's rural atmosphere.

"The group proposal is a compromised version between people who want only one-story homes and people who want only R1," says Griffin, spokesperson for the rezoning task force. "Nobody gets 100 percent of what they want."

The proposal demands more neighborhood notification and privacy protection than both A1 and R1. It doesn't allow having side windows on the second story and three-car garages in the front. Landscaping plans are required for any addition. Neighborhood notification is needed for both one-story and two-story development.

However, this is a proposal that many residents are not satisfied with, and the rezoning movement has divided the seemingly harmonious neighborhood even more.

Out of the rezoning effort have come three divided groups, those who like the combined A1-RI proposal, those who simply want R1 zoning and those who don't like either.

For some old-timers who moved into the neighborhood before the construction of the Apple campus and Highway 280, the rezoning proposal doesn't work because it allows construction of two-story houses.

Residents who prefer R1 don't like it either, because R1 is less restrictive than the group proposal in terms of neighbor notification and privacy protection. They have even established the Linwood Acres Property Rights Group against the rezoning task force and have collected signatures opposing the proposal.

And there are still others who don't care for R1 or the group proposal. They don't want to get involved at all.

Not only the neighborhood but also the rezoning task force that came up with the group proposal is divided.

Heated disputes were common at meetings, according to city planner Gilli, who coordinated the task force. He says at one meeting, group member Ed Auch got angry with another member, Thanh Nguyen. Auch stood up, approached Nguyen and pointed fingers at him. "[Ed] was so close to Thanh that I pulled him away," Gilli says.

Planning Commissioner Marty Miller, who happened to observe that meeting, says, "It was a difficult meeting to sit through." He says, "There is a fine line between the rights of the property owners and the rights of the neighbors. It is understandable that people are very emotional about it, but I was disappointed with one of the neighbors who was too aggressive."

While some task force members such as Griffin believe the proposal represents democracy at its best, some like Nguyen think it is democracy at its worst.

"I am among the minorities [in opinion] at the task force, and my opinions are not respected by other people," Nguyen says. "When you talk about compatibility, you should look at the city as a whole. We don't live in the country anymore."

Another group member Robert Jemin, who got so frustrated at one meeting that he stormed out, says that the group should not have the right to draft zoning for the neighborhood, because they are not professional planners. "They are just laymen," he says of the rezoning task force. "The group proposal will make the neighborhood inconsistent with the rest of the city and probably will affect the property values."

For other task force members, Jemin and Nguyen are just two people who own property in the neighborhood but don't care about the neighborhood.

"They don't even live in Cupertino," Griffin says. (Jemin inherited the house he grew up in on Randy Lane from his grandmother. He currently lives in San Francisco. Nguyen lived on Randy Lane for seven years before moving to Saratoga and currently rents out the Randy Lane house.)

"The city council members and planning commissioners are not professional planners. Although we are not professional planners, we, as residents, understand what the neighborhood needs and wants," Griffin says.

As both sides criticize each other and claim that their group has the majority support, some residents just shake their heads and regret seeing the neighborhood divided.

"Some neighbors have problems with their neighbors. What they need is arbitration, not zoning laws," says Geoffrey Paulsen, who has lived in his Randy Lane house for 16 years. Paulsen is the bicycle and pedestrian commissioner for the city.

He says he doesn't mind having taller houses as long as they are built with the considerations for the neighbors. He also suggests some Caucasian residents need to adjust to their Asian neighbors.

"Our neighborhood is like a small United Nations and a microcosm of Cupertino," Paulsen said. "We have people from Korea, Malaysia, Japan, China and Hawaii. The cultural diversity makes our neighborhood special."

Right now, both sides are waiting for a showdown at the Sept. 22 planning commission. No matter what decision the planning commission makes, it will take a long time for the neighborhood to work out its differences in zoning and hard feelings.