By Clarence Cromwell
Saratoga voters may someday cast ballots on part of the planned expansion at the Odd Fellows' retirement facility, the city attorney told the City Council in an Oct. 31 memorandum.
The memo responded to the council's Oct. 18 request that City Attorney Michael Riback explain the effects of the Saratoga Neighborhood Preservation Initiative on proposed expansions of the Odd Fellows' property.
The initiative, if passed, would require a majority vote in a citywide election to rezone residential areas for commercial use or higher-density residential use. Voter approval also would be required to sell or rezone existing parks for commercial or residential use.
Councilmembers wondered whether the initiative's success would derail a housing proposal before the Planning Commission. The plan calls for the construction of two new apartment buildings and 19 duplex cottages and the renovation of the 83-year-old senior citizens' home and an existing apartment complex on the Odd Fellows' property off Fruitvale Avenue.
Riback's two-page reply states that the Odd Fellows may need voters to approve a zoning change if the organization insists on building the 11 duplex cottages it proposes for an 11-acre portion of the land, zoned for "very low-density, single-family residential." Without the zoning change, nine cottages could occupy that portion of the property.
George Ivelich, the Odd Fellows' architect, said that, regardless of the numbers of units, the 11-acre portion of the site will actually be less dense than similarly-zoned neighborhoods, because the 1,200-square-foot cottages are smaller than family homes and will likely house one elderly person each.
"In any comparison, you'll find that what we're asking for is less intense," Ivelich said.
Nevertheless, a vote would be required, even if the city accepted the zoning change and approved the project before the March 26 election, Riback said. The initiative mandates that its own rules will supersede any planning or zoning changes made between the Nov. 2 filing of signatures for the measure and its passage by voters. If it passes, that is.
Riback said he intends to research the validity of that section of the initiative.
"We do not know at this time if such a provision for retroactive effect of an initiative would withstand judicial scrutiny, but assuming [that section] is valid, any changes made in general plan designations by the council in the course of approving the project would not be effective if the initiative were later enacted," Riback wrote in the memo.
Riback said the Odd Fellows could possibly defeat the aim of the initiative if the development of the duplexes was far enough along before voters accepted the initiative. Getting both the zoning change and a building permit before that time might exempt the property from the new ordinance, he said.
But Clyde Vaughn, executive director of the Odd Fellows facility, said the parcel in question might not be developed until the turn of the century, during the second phase of the organization's long-term building plan.
The initiative would not apply to improvements on the 27-acre section of the property, zoned for "quasi-public facilities," where most of the first-phase construction will take place, starting next year.
Asked about the city attorney's memo, initiative organizer Jim Shaw emphasized that the initiative is not designed to "freeze" zoning designations.
"The Odd Fellows project will not necessarily be stopped," Shaw said. "It may just have to be put to a vote of the people. I have no opposition to the Odd Fellows home, per se."
The Planning Commission is scheduled to discuss plans for the expansion of the Odd Fellows' facility on Dec. 13 at 7:30 p.m. in the Civic Theatre at City Hall, 13777 Fruitvale Ave.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, Wednesday, December 6, 1995.
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