A staff-approved house-rebuild project is almost complete in the El Quito neighborhood. But both the neighbor across the street and the city's community development director say the construction should never have been OK'd without the planning commission's review and approval.

Work is wrapping up on the one-story, 2,825-square-foot house at 18661 Paseo Lado. It was about two years ago that the building's owner, Gordon Tefler, purchased the property with plans to tear down the existing 1,919-square-foot home and build a new house for his family.

He submitted plans to the city in early 2001, and by mid-April he had received the community development and building departments' approval to go forward with the project.

Community development director Tom Sullivan, however, said he doesn't know why the project, which called for a building height of about 20 feet, received the approval without a public hearing and a review by the planning commission. Projects higher than 18 feet, he said, must always receive commission approval.

Sullivan can't explain what happened because at that time he wasn't working for the city, and no community development department staff members connected to the project are still working there.

That's a cause for concern for Emma Wyckoff, who lives across from the house in question and said she is bothered that she didn't get to comment on the project, as well as by some of the changes to the project that have gone ungoverned by the city.

She said she would have liked the opportunity to tell the commission that the new house's front windows could limit her privacy by directly facing her own home. She would also have liked the chance to raise concerns about the project's height, she said, as well as express support for Tefler's choice of roof shingles.

But Tefler, she said, has since changed the kind of roof shingles used on the building, and, without a resolution and conditions from the planning commission, Sullivan said, there's not much the city can make Tefler do, as long as he is meeting the city's basic requirements. He did say, though, that if Wyckoff or other neighbors had expressed their concerns earlier, rather than just this past spring, there may have been some way for the city to work the situation out.

The one thing left by this summer that was still up for discussion, Sullivan said, was the landscape plan. Wyckoff said she thought that, with appropriate planting, the house could be screened from a significant view of her house's interior.

So Sullivan, Wyckoff and Tefler met July 30 to discuss Wyckoff's review of the landscape plan. Tefler said he agreed to show Wyckoff his plans, though not necessarily change them, and then dropped them off Aug. 19.

Wyckoff said she never got them and was thus surprised to see workers creating framing on the front for the pouring of a circular driveway along the front of the house, in addition to a straight driveway into the garage. And she's concerned—not only that the July 30 agreement wasn't kept but also about the appearance of all that concrete.

Tefler said the circular driveway will help make the house more marketable. He said that, after all this time, he has to sell the house instead of live in it. He said, also, that he is tired of the amount of complaints Wyckoff has raised about his project on a variety of different issues.

This particular complaint of hers, however, has led to some city action. On Aug. 26, the city issued a stop-work order on the pouring of the concrete to allow the public works department to determine if the circular driveway was permissible. After confirming it was, the city lifted the order that afternoon and work proceeded.

Sullivan said that he would encourage Tefler and Wyckoff to come to some resolution on the landscaping plan, but he knows of no consequences against Tefler if he doesn't get Wyckoff's approval.

Resolution aside, Wyckoff said she is mostly worried about what this situation bodes for the future of her neighborhood. The sale of the Dorcich orchard to a developer is expected to be completed in the coming months. It's important to her, she said, that nearby residents get their voices heard early enough for any new development there to address their concerns, before it becomes too late.

"We're depending on the city to protect us," she said. "Right now I have no confidence in the city process."