Changes in planning could give Saratoga better protection
Changes in planning would require hearings
By Kate Carter
The planning commission is taking its task of bringing planning code in line with planning department practice as an opportunity to possibly make changes to better protect Saratoga.
Any changes to the city's zoning code would require public hearings and city council review before the council could finally approve them.
The commission May 22 began an initial review of discrepancies between the city's planning ordinances and handouts given to people interested in doing demolition or construction in Saratoga. The discrepancies were noticed during the past year by city planning staff, all of whom have worked for the city for a year or less.
Planning department director Tom Sullivan brought nine such discrepancies to the commission's attention May 22 and asked for its direction to make the department more consistent, either by changing the code or changing the handouts. The commission had previously addressed one of the inconsistencies, dealing with rear-yard setbacks, and the city council earlier this month approved a change to the city's ordinance.
As the commission discussed several of the items, it suggested that possibly neither the code nor the handout reflected what the best practice in those situations could be.
One of those was the code's provision for trees that would require a permit in order to cut them down. The code requires any tree with a circumference greater than 40 inches, or an oak with a circumference greater than 32 inches, to have a permit for removal. The handout instead requires a tree with a diameter greater than 12 inches, or an oak with a diameter of 10 inches, to get such a permit.
Sullivan noted that not only are those two different measurements, but they actually reflect two different size trees--a tree with a 12-inch diameter actually has a circumference of 38 inches. He suggested that requiring the circumference is an easier measurement to take, but commission vice chair Lisa Kurasch said that the standard arborists' measurements are in diameters.
However, the commission also discussed reducing the size of trees that would require a removal permit. It formed a tree subcommittee to discuss that, two other ordinances addressing required setbacks from trees and required review by the city arborist and a requirement for removal permits for dead trees. Kurasch, Mike Garakani and Jill Hunter joined the subcommittee.
The commission will receive additional information from Sullivan about possibly broadening the ordinance that requires an additional foot of setback for every foot of height over 18 feet. Sullivan suggested that the ordinance could distinguish between the setback for new construction, in which the entire building should be set back the full amount, and additions of increased height, in which the greater setback would apply only to the added construction.
Sullivan will also provide the commission with additional information about the code's provision for variations to standard requirements, of which the commission now has no limitations. Sullivan said he has never seen an ordinance like this and will gather information from other cities for the commission to use in determining limits to the variations or removing the variations altogether.
The commission preliminarily resolved three other code-handout discrepancies by asking that the handouts be brought in line with the code. In one situation, the handout mentioned four items for which no variance was possible; however, that is not supported by the zoning code, which the commission suggested was the higher authority.
It also said that the ordinance's formula for determining a lot's slope, using the net site area that doesn't include roads and easements, should be the requirement rather than the formula in the department's handout, which calls for the area to include roads and easements. Sullivan said that using a smaller acreage for the area, as required by the ordinance, would result in steeper slopes and thus smaller acceptable buildings.
Finally, the commission directed staff to create handouts explaining floor area standards, about which handouts do not currently exist. Some examples are that the permitted floor area must be reduced 1.5 percent for every foot above 18 feet and that a room's floor area must be doubled in floor-area calculations if the room's ceiling is higher than 15 feet. Sullivan said that many people building homes in Saratoga aren't aware of those requirements until they are far along in their design and construction process.
Sullivan also told the commission that a caveat stating that the city's code is the final source for planning requirements will be added to all the department's handouts
Saratoga, California Since 1955
