Council overturns planners on the Francis Oaks appeal
By Nathan R. Huff
Francis Oaks residents knew the day would come. After defeating or stalling plans for a number of homes on the quiet, hillside street, they lost a battle on Oct. 16, as the Los Gatos Town Council granted a property owner's appeal.
Michael Moffat, on his second appeal to the council, received a unanimous vote overturning the planning commission's Sept. 13 denial of the project. The approval means Moffat and developer Tony Jeans can begin work on the 5,500-square-foot house on eight acres of steep hillside land.
The proposal faced less neighborhood resistance than other Francis Oaks applications, but several residents continued to fight the project on the grounds that it was out of scale with the neighborhood, would create traffic problems, and was too close to the road.
The council, however, spent little time debating the neighbors' concerns, centering instead on the denial by the planning commission. "The planning commission did sort of get tripped up," Councilwoman Linda Lubeck said, in making her motion to grant the appeal.
In May, the commission had approved the application, but added a last minute condition barring future subdivision of the property. Moffat appealed the condition to the town council, which granted the appeal but sent the application back to the commission with instructions to view the home with the understanding that the property could be subdivided at some point in the future.
Things became a little more complicated at the subsequent planning commission hearing after a motion to approve the project for the second time went down 2 to 3. A subsequent motion to deny was passed 3 to 2, but, according to the applicant and several staff members, the reasons for denial were somewhat convoluted.
While the motion to approve died partially because of concerns over landscaping, the motion to deny the application focused on the size of the home, given the possibility of future subdivision.
Jolie Houston, a lawyer for the applicant, summarized her opinion on the process: "Essentially what happened was the application was approved with six conditions; you asked for the [subdivision] commission to be removed; it got remanded back, and the planning commission denied the project on essentially the same condition you just had removed."
Neighbors disagreed, saying the commission did exactly what it was supposed to do--look at the house through the context of future subdivision. Neighbor Lee McLaughlin questioned the precedent the council would set by approving such a large home, particularly if the potential exists for another home of equal size on the property.
"At this point in the process," Councilman Joe Pirzynski said, "the objections are various and sundry and they relate to individual items, many of which I think have been mitigated."
The council, at Councilman Randy Attaway's request, added the condition that the home match the 3-D model submitted by the applicant.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
