DATE: May 4, 2021
TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: Assistant City Manager/Development Services Director
SUBJECT
Home Avenue Single Family Residence: Adopt a Resolution Approving a Site Plan Review and Grading Permit Application for Proposed Single-Family Residence and Attached Accessory Dwelling Unit on a Vacant 0.21-Acre Hillside Lot with an Average Slope Greater than 20% Located at 2579 Home Avenue, Assessor Parcel No. 081D-1660-040-00, Application No. 202000579, Bich-Khoi Do (Applicant) and Bradley Switzer Trust (Owner)
RECOMMENDATION
That Council adopts a resolution (Attachment II) approving the Site Plan Review with Grading Permit application for the proposed single-family residence and attached accessory dwelling unit on the vacant hillside parcel located at 2579 Home Avenue, based on the required Findings and subject to the Conditions of Approval.
SUMMARY
The applicant is requesting approval for a Site Plan Review (SPR) with Grading Permit application to allow the construction of a multi-level, 3,777-square-foot single-family residence with an attached 1,196-square-foot Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) with related on- and off-site improvements on a 0.21-acre (9,301 square-foot) vacant hillside parcel located at 2579 Home Avenue, Assessor Parcel No. 081D-1660-040-00.
Normally, Site Plan Review applications for single-family residences within the hillside areas are subject to administrative staff level review. However, the City Engineer determined the average slope of the property exceeds 20% which requires City Council review for the Grading Permit per Section 10-8.023 of the Hayward Municipal Code. The project was reviewed by the Planning Commission at a public hearing on January 28, 2021 who voted 4:2 to recommend approval of the project. The project was subsequently reviewed by the Council at a hearing on March 2, 2021 and the project was continued to May 4, 2021 with a vote of 6:0 to allow the Old Highland Homeowners Association (OHHA) and project proponents to meet and discuss the application. In response to Council direction, the following efforts were made:
• On March 11, 2021, City staff met with the property owner, Bradley Switzer, and the project architectural designer, Bich-Khoi Do, to review the comments and feedback shared by the community during the March 2nd public hearing. City staff shared design suggestions that the property owner and designer could consider incorporate into the project’s revised design to alleviate some concerns expressed by the OHHA neighborhood.
• On March 16, 2021, City staff met with John Vukasin and Robert “Bob” Carlson from the OHHA board to discuss the design of the proposed residence and overall concerns expressed by their membership. During the meeting, OHHA discussed the importance of their 1998 Hayward Highlands Neighborhood Plan and conveyed concerns how the Hayward 2040 General Plan did not fully capture the strategies of the 1998 plan. After this meeting, Mr. Vukasin and Mr. Carlson discussed the project further with their membership on how to mitigate the concern of massing, scale, and bulk. OHHA proposed changes related to additional tree plantings, storm drainage improvements, reducing the size of the ADU and number of bedrooms, and converting the garage facing Home Avenue into a carport to reduce the appearance of the home.
• On March 31, 2021, the City moderated a Zoom meeting between staff, the property owner, project architectural designer, and Mr. Vukasin and Mr. Carlson as representatives and liaisons from the OHHA community to constructively discuss what design changes were feasible to appease the concerns of the community, while also meeting the topography and budget constraints of the property owner for his new residence. The architectural designer evaluated the suggestions provided by staff and by OHHA and provided responses on what was achievable and mutually beneficial between both parties. Ultimately, the property owner and designer proposed the following:
1. Increase the setback of the ADU’s building line facing Home Avenue approximately 8’-8” along with reducing the sizes of the projecting decks and roof lines at the two uppermost levels (as viewed from Home Avenue).
2. Positioning trees along the Home Avenue building façade to mitigate the mass of the structure while using local vegetation that blends in with the neighborhood. This is memorialized as Condition of Approval #5 to provide OHHA an opportunity to conduct a preliminary review of the final landscaping and irrigation plans prior to being submitted to the City for technical plan check review. Any feedback received from OHHA on the landscaping plans will be limited to informational only and will not be binding between the two parties.
3. Installation of a drainage ditch across the project frontage via a 12-inch drainpipe to the satisfaction of the City Engineer. This will assist in mitigating any potential storm drainage concerns resulting from the increased amount of impervious surface area now on the parcel. This is included as Condition of Approval #30 and will be further verified and reviewed as part of the project’s technical grading and building permit plan review phase.
• On April 6, 2021, City staff received a letter from OHHA Chair that OHHA is amenable to the project progressing forward provided that the project incorporates the three changes mentioned above, although their association remains opposed to the development due to the size and scale of the proposed construction and the development’s incompatibility with the hillside neighborhood.
• On April 21, 2021, the project architectural designer informed the Planning Division that an unintended erroneous typo was made on the cover sheet of the previous architectural plans that incorrectly stated that the conditioned floor area of the main house was 3,522 square feet and should have noted 3,882 square feet instead. Nevertheless, per the changes noted above, the total conditioned and unconditioned gross floor area of the main home and ADU was reduced by approximately 340 square feet to soften the massing and scale of the structure. Of that amount, 105 feet was removed from the conditioned floor area of the main home and the remaining amount was shaved off from the building’s unconditioned floor area which included the projecting decks and enclosed storage areas.
• Additionally, the Planning Division will be initiating an effort to convert the City’s subjective design guidelines into objective standards to comply with state requirements. As part of this process, City staff intends on engaging with OHHA to extrapolate strategies within the 1998 neighborhood plan and update them into enforceable language to minimize the potential of incompatible residential developments in the future while promoting attractive and neighborhood cognizant architecture. In addition, as part of the required Housing Element update, the City will review all neighborhood plans to ensure that policies and goals that were developed by community members are thoughtfully carried into the General Plan, as appropriate. As part of the initiation of these efforts, staff is meeting with OHHA board members on April 30th for a tour of the neighborhood.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment I Staff Report
Attachment II Resolution
Attachment III Updated Project Plans
Attachment IV Public Correspondence
Attachment V City Council Meeting Minutes 3-2-21