Saratoga News

Council isn't heeding residents' wishes

By Cheriel Jensen

Radical, precedent-setting changes are taking place in most Saratoga neighborhoods. With little citizen awareness or input, our low-density neighborhoods are changing to medium- and even high-density.

Rarely have neighbors been able to appeal these changes because the appeal fees are $450-$600 for each level of appeal.

Such an application was submitted for my neighborhood. I appealed the Planning Department approval of an expansion doubling the interior square footage of a developer-neighbor's house and placing it too close to the top bank of the creek.

The expansion occupies the whole portion of the back yard not already occupied by a pool and is set back only 12-14 feet from the rolling drop-off of the creek bank. It threatens a large oak on the top bank and the natural creek environment.

The creekbank there has already slumped, leaving part of the pool suspended. The addition depends on the same slumping bank for structural stability. A construction project and public funding to shore up the bank may be required because of this expansion. Two creeks converge at the site. When water is high and fast, eddies quickly carve the bank. I have lost more than 10 feet of bank following past hardening on the developer's side. More of my land will be torn away if the construction necessitates a project to stabilize the opposite bank.

My $450 appeal was heard in a backroom Planning Commission meeting, inaccessible to the general public. It would have made little difference if I had been allowed to complete a sentence in the two minutes allotted for me to speak. The decision was slam-dunk for the developer. Commissioner Kaplan even expressed disgust that I had troubled her with the appeal.

First thing the next morning, I appealed to the City Council. Days later, I was called and told I was too late, the permit had already been issued. I explained that a permit could not have been issued between the evening meeting and the time my letter was submitted, unless the permit had been issued before the Planning Commission meeting took place. If so, the hearing was a sham. Called later, I was told the permit had not been issued, and I could appeal. The cost--another $450.

I requested that the City Council limit the size of the addition and require enough setback to protect the oak tree and the natural creek environment and to prevent hazard.

My council appeal was denied 3-2. Only two councilmembers voted to protect the neighborhood and creek environment--Jim Shaw and Stan Bogosian.

Councilmembers Gillian Moran, Don Wolfe and Paul Jacobs voted for the developer.

If the size of many homes in our settled neighborhoods were doubled, there would be a change in neighborhood character, runoff, flood hazard, vegetation and views throughout our city. Should Saratoga residential back yards be filled in with houses? It is happening here. The appeal fees in Saratoga are a violation of the constitutional right of citizens to petition their government. No matter, developers still have their way with us, appeals or not.

Cheriel Jensen is a Quito Road resident.

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