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Developer drops disputed application for Broadway
SJ planning suggested denial of the proposal
By Kate Carter
After weeks of heated opposition to a so-called "monster home" being proposed in Willow Glen, the project developer withdrew her application for rezoning the land to make way for the controversial project.
The San Jose Planning Commission was to have reviewed the proposal to split a single residential lot on Broadway Avenue into two on Sept. 12, but the project had already been withdrawn.
San Jose Planning Department staff had recommended a denial of the proposal.
Neighbors near the site, 1067 Broadway Ave., had submitted a formal protest and petition challenging the plan that would have created a "flag lot" and allowed for the construction of an approximately 2,900-square-foot, one-story house in the backyard of an existing approximately 2,000-square-foot house on a 0.4-acre lot. The proposal would have split the lot into two, with about 10,600 square feet for the rear lot and about 6,000 square feet in front.
Neighbors said the lot would be better split in half to create two lots facing Broadway Avenue, but city officials said the lot, at 80 feet across, was too narrow to accommodate two lots side by side.
Further complicating the matter, however, the developer, Emily Chen, and her partners, had already torn down an existing house on the site and built a house across the front.
At an Aug. 28 neighborhood meeting, Chen said she built the house after city officials told her the side-by-side lot split was not an option.
But according to the planning staff report, city officials had told her that the flag lot split should include a common driveway that both houses could use. Chen then built a garage attached to the front house on the opposite side of the driveway serving the rear house, which "effectively precluded the shared driveway option and resulted in a proposal with more cars and pavement at the front of the site," the report stated.
That, and the facts that the rear garage would not address the street; the existing and proposed houses, not including the garages, are each more than 1,000 square feet larger than most of the other houses in the neighborhood; and that its design is "not in keeping with the character of the neighborhood"--were all reasons cited in the report for the staff's recommended denial.
"The prior expansion of the existing house now limits the options for providing a project that conforms to city standards and addresses the concerns of the neighborhood," the report concluded.
Chen did not return calls.
Juli Moultray, who, with her husband Michael, submitted the protest, said the planning staff's recommendation and Chen's decision to remove the application were successes for the neighborhood and potentially other neighborhoods in Willow Glen and the city.
"The broader issue here is, how do we retain in policy the character of neighborhoods like Willow Glen that are different," she said. "We're very hopeful that we can start that dialogue. Different districts have different needs."
Moultray also said the neighborhood has shown itself to be effectively organized to make sure future developments are done with the community's needs in mind.
"I think the community did a very good job coming together," she said. "We did our research, and we did it early. We know there are going to be new developments on the street. We'll just be very hopeful that future development teams work with the neighborhood."
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
