By Julie Mehta
After an unusual tie vote at a previous City Council meeting, Councilmember Anne Marie Burger cast the deciding vote to allow a 536-square-foot first-story addition and 769-square-foot second-story addition to a 4,154-square-foot house on Sobey Road.
The applicant's next-door neighbors had appealed the Planning Commission's approval of the additions out of concern that the second-story addition would hurt their hillside view and property value.
At the April 3 meeting, councilmembers Karen Tucker and Donald Wolfe opposed the appeal, saying they believed the project's impact would be minimal, while Mayor Paul Jacobs and councilmember Gillian Moran said they wanted the residents to find a way to make the addition on one story only.
Councilmember Burger was absent that day; because of the split vote, the issue was automatically continued to the April 17 meeting.
Burger said that after reviewing the minutes and tape of the public hearing and visiting the site, she believed that the addition would not interfere with the appellants' home. She sided with Tucker and Wolfe, making it a 3-2 vote to deny the appeal and allow the additions as planned.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, April 24, 1996.
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