Sunnyvale resident Kathy Fyke, owner of a house at 19020 Monte Vista Drive, failed to schedule her insulation inspection by Aug. 27, six months after her Feb. 27 framing inspection, building official Brad Lind said. Inspections must be completed every six months for building permits to remain valid.

Lind said, however, that he has not terminated her permit and that he is trying to work with Fyke because she was confused about the inspection. He said she thought that a followup to her February framing inspection qualified as the next inspection necessary to keep her permit alive and didn't realize that the next inspection had to be of the insulation. She called to schedule the followup framing inspection Aug. 24, Lind said.

The Saratoga News, as it did in its earlier story about the property, placed a call to Fyke. The woman who answered the phone asked, "Why do you keep calling this number?" and then said, "I can't help you."

Lind said he expects Fyke this week to bring him a strategy of what to do to bring the residential project to completion, a strategy that could include terminating her existing permit and allowing her to reapply after she pays some fees.

"It's a very touchy situation," Lind said. "I'm trying to work with Kathy at this time to move this project forward. I want to give everybody the benefit of the doubt."

Meanwhile, however, at least one neighbor near Fyke's house said she has grown tired of seeing the property constantly under construction and unoccupied, and she doesn't understand why Fyke is getting this second chance.

"I blame it on the city of Saratoga," said Martha Miroyan, who lives next door to Fyke's property. "I think the city of Saratoga is failing all of us. If that had been me or someone else, we would be cited. I don't know why they're doing this. I feel that the city of Saratoga should be embarrassed."

However, action the city took earlier this summer, when neighbors complained about coyotes and rattlesnakes possibly occupying the empty structure, looks like it has had some success. The city involved Santa Clara County's vector control program, which worked with Fyke to abate the animals. Miroyan said it's been four weeks since she's seen any coyotes in the neighborhood, and two weeks ago she saw a deer, common in the neighborhood but which hadn't been around with the presence of the coyotes.

"To me, that's a good sign," she said.