Speak Out

Council must address monster home building

For the past three sessions of the Sunnyvale City Council, there has been an elephant in the chamber. Only councilwoman Julia Miller saw him at the first session. Finally, at the last session, some other members saw him, too. The elephant is the city's approval of a huge two-story house in the middle of a group of single-story Eichler homes on Wright Avenue. Neighboring homeowners feel that they have been violated. They have lost their privacy and probably have suffered a loss in the value of their property.

Other single-story homeowners, including Eichler residents, are worried that the same thing may happen to them next.

Obviously, the city made a mistake when they approved this "monster home." Nobody wants to admit that. So what can be done now?

* City staff needs to work with the builder of the house to resolve the neighbors' privacy concerns;

* Staff must be instructed to stop approving projects that do not meet the guidelines for single-family homes. If the applicants feel that they have not been treated fairly, they should be allowed to appeal to the city council. This interim measure should be instituted until the building codes can be updated;

* The city needs to complete the study on building "big box" homes in single- story neighborhoods expeditiously so there are specific building codes that limit the size of big-box homes and second story additions in single-story neighborhoods. These controls already are in place in our neighboring cities.

Until this is done, nobody who lives in a single-story home is safe from losing their privacy.

Werner Gans
Sunnyvale

Correction

Councilmember Jack Walker did not make a motion to discuss a moratorium on so-called "monster homes" as reported in the "Code Rage" story [Sun, May 31]. Councilmember Fred Fowler made the motion. The Sun regrets the error.

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