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Mr. Bourg then displayed a picture that shows the retaining wall, which defines the site where the house has to sit and which substantially limits the house and how much of the lot it covers. He noted that without the porch, the house covers 42 percent of the lot; with the porch, 47 percent or nearly half of lot. He added that the site has three variances because the house is too big for the site. He expressed disappointment that staff is now approving the plan because the applicant did not really make changes to the site; the project has a FAR of over 60 percent, which is much larger than 74 homes in the neighborhood, which were at 25% FAR. Charles Huff, project architect, stated that Mr. Cunningham and he tried to work with staff's and the Commissioners' comments and have recessed back the second floor in certain areas. He noted that Mr. Bourg's comment that they have not changed anything in square footage is inaccurate as they have taken quite a bit of square footage away from the front of the house and moved it to the back underneath the roof, basically not increasing the mass of the project. He referred to the graphic presented and explained it in terms of the footprint of the deck and the house along with everything else with it. He indicated that he believes they have come up with a high-quality project that follows the Downtown Design Guidelines, making many concessions in terms of what Mr. Cunningham wanted for a house. He added that it complements the two historic homes on the street and will be a good asset for the community. Mr. Cunningham stated that the windows Ms. Ayres referred to are skylights; and the windows on the loft are way down which will be almost impossible to look through; hence there would be no privacy issues. With respect to the windows on the other side that looks into the windows of the rental property, he noted that staff has indicated that the lot cannot be split in the future and, he confirmed that he would not split the lot and that the two homes will always be under the same ownership. With respect to Ms. Bourg's comment on her art studio, Mr. Cunningham pointed out that the Bourgs have three garages on their lot which is a lot of massing on the street. He noted that the Bourgs' house is totally shaded in the morning because they have installed a second-story addition above one garage, and they have a window that looks into every window in Ms. Ayres house. He added that the Bourgs' front-yard setback from the street is 10.5 feet while his is 12 feet, and the setback to their house on the north side is 12 feet where his is 20 feet. He indicated that the house right next door is bigger than his. Regarding Neal Street being a historic district, he noted that standing at Neal Street with Second Street behind him, the first 15 homes were built in the 1960's, and the convalescent hospital was built in 1974. He further noted that this part of Neal Street is not in the Downtown Specific Plan area and is not a historic district. He added that there are only four homes that qualify on that street: 206, 215, 303 and 309 Neal Street. He concluded that he believes he is bringing more to the street than what is already there. THE PUBLIC HEARING WAS CLOSED. EXCERPT: PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, November 30, 2011 Page 4 of 6