15 ATTACHMENT 9 - Laserfiche WebLink

And in my letter, I mentioned how the Specific Plan was developed, and it was really developed by Wayne Rasmussen, who was our former Principal Planner. He had hiked all of these hills, and he had looked at the sites that were the best environmentally, and he cut out the ones that had too much tree removal, and all of those things. And then I began to think about it. I said, I better check with him. So, I sent him the paragraph. He called me back immediately, and he said: "Mary, you are exactly right. All of those sites, whether they were a little bit general, but they were always, always the best sites environmentally -the ones that required the least amount of grading, the least of the tree removal, etc." I'm going to go back to the June 8 report again: "Residential development standards. "All home sites..." and this in the Hillside Residential, "...must be located within the designated development areas as generally depicted on the land use plan. Lot lines may extend into land designated as open space, but primary residential buildings and residential accessories may only be sited within the designated development areas. The rest, [where that house is going] is open space." And under Siting and Land Use Objectives here, we are supposed to "...preserve the major ridgeline in the southern plan area, limit development of hilltop areas to homes that can be substantially screened, and accommodate it without disrupting the natural character of the site." "A portion"... and this is staff s comment ... "of the existing ridgeline would not be preserved, as it would be cut up to 40 feet deep to construct a large flat pad for the residence, even if large numbers of evergreen trees were planted around the residence and. accessory structures, it would take many years to substantially screen the residence." My husband and I were absolutely appalled when we saw the photomontage. And I looked at that and I said I am never going to believe another one, ever. And then I read the peer review. And if you've read the peer review, it says they did not take off the top of the hill, and they do not have this big driveway, this 16-foot to 20-foot driveway which they have to have. I did not have to have such a wide driveway because I did it in the County, and yes, the fire trucks can get up there. And they have all kinds of trees in the way that are not there. If you were standing at my house, and look at that hill, and I'm really sorry, I know Steve Otto came out and did take a picture of the hill, it is extremely steep, and there are a lot of trees, that, even if they are not taken out, are going to be damaged. Then, on November 20, 2003, when they finally submitted the plan, Heidi Kline who was the planner in charge of this before Steve Otto came along, commented: "The location of the new hillside residential lots do not comply with that identified in the Vineyard Avenue Comdor Specific Plan land use map that shows the additional lot to be located...on the flat bench area, where the existing garage structure is located." And grading: "The proposed flat-pad grading of the top knoll area is not consistent with the intent or the requirements of the Vineyard Corridor Specific Plan, `grading for buildings, 10