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Council Watch
Changes to 'monster home' law make it less beastly
Second-story additions will be primary trigger for design reviews
By Jessica Lyons
In an attempt to tame the beast that the proposed "monster home" ordinance would have become had it become law, the city Planning Department has recommended some changes to Councilman Frank Fiscalini's law, setting specific height and floor-area ratio limits on new houses and remodels.
Planning's initial proposal would have flooded the department with homeowners needing special permits to remodel, necessitating at least 700 additional permits, according to city planners. Each additional permit means one more design review, costing precious time and money for homeowners.
The new proposal is more realistic for everyone involved, planners say.
"It's a very direct and definitive approach," senior planner Jean Hamilton says. "It's a more objective process and it certainly gives homeowners the opportunity to move at a quicker pace."
In San Jose, the present height limit for houses is 2 1/2 stories and 35 feet tall. Currently there is no floor-to-area ratio limit. Planning's proposed changes to citywide development standards would limit a house's height to two stories and 30 feet. Floor-area ratio would be restricted to 0.45 of the first 5,000 square feet of lot area, plus 0.25 of any lot area in excess of 5,000 square feet. This means, for example, that a 5,000-square-foot lot would be allowed a 2,250-square-foot house, a 6,000-square-foot lot would be allowed a 2,500-square-foot house and a 7,000-square-foot lot would be allowed a 2,650-square-foot home.
The law as initially proposed did not restrict height or floor area, but only set certain "triggers" that would require the construction to undergo a design review.
"The initial proposal created a large volume of site development permits, and on a lot of them, the only thing that was triggering them was the height allowance and floor-area ratio," senior planner Jean Hamilton says. "There's really not a need for two-and-a-half stories in single-family construction."
To analyze the additional workload the ordinance will bring to the department, city planners examined all the new construction permits from last fiscal year, looking for construction that would have triggered a design review if the new law had been in effect. Looking at construction permits under the initial triggers mandated an extra 700 site development permits, Hamilton said. Under the newly proposed guidelines, however, the planning department would only need to review an additional 175 remodels.
"From a city resources standpoint it's certainly not feasible to propose something that would require additional staffing of eight to 10 people to implement a whole new program," Hamilton said. "If we're going to implement a new program, let's hope that it's reasonable so that the city can support it."
Planning's proposed changes to the monster-home ordinance also recommend five specific thresholds that would trigger the need for a design review:
* any new house;
* any property listed on the city's Historical Resources Inventory;
* square footage increase of 100 percent or more over the original house;
* any second-story addition;
* remodel of more than 50 percent of the exterior walls, per department policy.
The intent is to stop the construction of two-story giants, Hamilton says, adding that the second-story addition trigger is expected to bring in more than half of the required building permits.
"We're shifting what we're looking at here to primarily second-story additions," Hamilton says. "A single-story home can add on and increase the square footage up to 99 percent and we're not going to ask them to come in. But if they are dealing with a second story at all, they are going to have to come in."
Some Glenites are afraid that the proposed law still will not protect Willow Glen from invasion of the pink elephants. Known for its quaint old homes and friendly squirrels, Willow Glen stands to lose its history if some architectural standards aren't put in place, critics say.
"I still don't think it goes far enough," says J. Michael Gonzales, president of the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association. "We need something more specific for Willow Glen, maybe not for Blossom Hill, or Almaden Valley or North San Jose, but for Willow Glen we need specific criteria. This ordinance may be a good starting place, but I think there needs to be one more step."
A public hearing to discuss the proposed design-review law will be held at the Planning Commission meeting on Aug. 25 at 7 p.m. in the City Council Chambers.
Pending the commission's approval, the proposal will be passed on to the City Council. The council is scheduled to take action on the proposed ordinance on Sept. 7.
Information on the proposed law is available online at www.ci.san-jose.ca.us/planning/sjplan/.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
