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Page I of I Leslie Mendez From: Joseph Heman " I Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 12:54 PM To: ::[:,'- -:- .' - ---, r-.. " T I Cc: Leslie Mendez Subject: Comments on Dusting Boyce project at 4646 Second Street - PADR-1338/PV-131 ,~ ' - u t; Dear Planning Commission Members, Earlier this year I wrote to you about a proposed plan by one of my neighbors (Dustin Boyce at 4546 Second Street) to substantially enlarge his existing house, Since Mr. Boyce's project will be heard this Wednesday (PADR-1338/PV-131) I am writing to you again to raise my concems about the excessive size of this project and to ask for your support to maintain the character of our neighborhood by preventing inappropriate over- development My overall concem (and that of many of my neighbors) is that Mr, Boyce is proposing to build a house and a garage that are simply too large and too tall tor the size/shape of his lot, tor the proximity of his neighbors, and tor the character of our wonderfully preserved neighborhood, Mr. Boyce's project would create a feeling of overly- dense development that is clearly inappropriate for our charming, historic downtown neighborhood. I also have serious concems about the aesthetics of the proposed changes to his house, especially evident in the design of the front elevation, The front elevation shows, in my opinion, that Mr. Boyce's proposed plan is a classic example of a "monster home", where someone has been allowed to construct an overly large addition onto the back of an otherwise charming, historic old house. Please understand that neighbors have truly tried to help Mr, Boyce come up with a supportable plan, The Planning Department and Mr. Boyce had asked neighbors to participate in a number of meetingslworkshops (five, or more, I believe) to provide Mr. Boyce with our feedback to help him come up with a supportable plan. However, atter,investing a significant amount of our personal time participating in these meetings, it was frustrating to see that our feedback/concems were ignored by Mr, Boyce, The size of his house and garage are essentially the same on both his first plan and on his current plan, Even his reduction in FAR, from more than 60% to 45%, was primarily achieved by making minor design changes, not by reducing the actual size of the house and garage. The result of these minor changes is that large portions of his house and garage, which were originally designed as living spaces, would no longer be included in the FAR calculation, hence the reduction from over 60% FAR As tar as I know, due to its excessive size, Mr. Boyce's project is the only one that has encountered such strong neighborhood opposition. In closing, I would like to ask again tor your help in preserving our neighborhood by not approving Mr, Boyce's project in its current form and by helping him understand that neighbors would be happy to support a project that is reasonable and appropriate, Thank you for your time and attention. 1 T , ., . 9/27/2006