339 – 341 Bella Vista Ave.
The applicant previously applied to build two 2760 square foot homes on two 53% (average) sloped non-conforming lots (4106 & 6049 square feet) subject to the Hillside Development Standards and Guidelines. The project was not approved upon appeal by the Town Council in April 2012. A third application have now been filed by the applicant that involves combining the two lots into one, removing mature oak trees, and building a 3,139 square foot home with ???? stories and multiple patios.
The hearing date at the Planning Commission has been set for 4/13/16 and responses to the Mitigated Negative Declaration, due by 03-24-16 by 5:00 pm, can be emailed to mmoseley@losgatosca.gov.
Go here to read the Mitigated Negative Declaration Mitigated Negative Declaration 341 Bella Vista
Further thoughts on this Property
The LGCA has recently met with the property owner in line with our objective to be fair to both sides of an issue. From our observations, it sounds like the Maggi Court residents were not aware that the lot was build-able when they bought their properties. They were looking into a hillside slope with trees. When the owner of the property, Dan Ross, tried to build two houses on the lot, he did not realize that he would run into such strong opposition from the neighbors. The Planning Commission sent Mr. Ross back to the drawing board with the instructions to reduce the size of the structure(s). Mr. Ross states he can do that by either building two smaller homes that would fit the zoning codes, which he states is allowed, or he states that he could build a single home on the 2 lots, combing them into one lot that will fit the zoning requirements.
If I understood Mr. Ross correctly, he might consider selling the property, “as is”, to the residents of Maggi Court; however, I did not ask at what price, but at least this might be a equitable solution to both parties. As LGCA does not want further intensification of Los Gatos, we would favor this solution.
In our headline, we called it a non-conforming lot, which I believe it was when it had the two houses proposed at the size they were proposed at. The headline was wrong if the house does not have three stories. As currently proposed, the garage roof could be considered a third story, and may be partially visible to the Maggi Court residents. Mr. Ross’s statement is that he can change that to a carport, but in deference to the Bella Vista residents across from the house as well as drivers and walkers going by, he states that they would not see the clutter of items usually kept in a garage.
Mr. Ross is to provide his own bullet points on his side of the story which we will put on this site.
As of the 4-13-16 Staff Report, the lot is non-conforming in that it does not meet the 90′ depth requirement.