SUBJECT: 375 TAYLOR ROAD; FILE # 701178

The applicant is requesting Design Review approval for the construction of a new single-family dwelling and accessory structures on property located at 375 Taylor Road. The house would have an overall height of 25 feet. The main level would include a living room, kitchen, dining room, two bedrooms, two full and two half bathrooms, a library, sitting room and indoor spa. Two upper level areas would include another bedroom and additional space above the sitting room. A large (2,886 square foot) garage would be situated the lower level.

 A swimming pool and outdoor spa are proposed in the central courtyard of the home. A detached studio building and a tennis court are also proposed on lower portions of the site.

The structures would cover approximately 8,329 square feet (3.9%) of the lot. The house, accessory structures would have a floor area of 8,329 square feet, with a 2,886 square foot garage, for a total of 11,215 square feet. The proposed floor area would be 2,465 square feet more than the maximum of 8,000 square feet of floor area and 750 square feet of garage space allowed for this parcel of this size. Therefore, a floor area exception is requested.

The subject property is situated adjacent to the Ring Mountain Open Space Preserve. The site slopes down from the nearby ridgeline; the approved building envelope for the property is situated well below the ridgeline. Access to the site is provided by a private driveway leading from the end of Taylor Road, extending across the open space; this driveway also serves the nearby home at 325 Taylor Road, but is not available for access to any other residential properties in the vicinity.

The proposed house would have a very contemporary, unorthodox exterior design. Numerous different building shapes and roof forms would be utilized, with many curved surfaces and few right angles used in the design. Different rooms of the house would appear from the exterior as individual building forms, connected in an overall U-shape by hallways primarily visible from the central courtyard.

The property owner has indicated that the intent of this building design is to create an overall building form that blends into the sloping hillside, in some ways resembling boulders distributed across the site. The stucco finish and colors of the exterior walls are intended to be consistent with the color of the surrounding grasslands during the dry months of the year.

The proposed house would only be marginally visible from other homes in the vicinity. The house directly to the east of the site (4545 Paradise Drive, accessed from Pellegrinelli Drive) is screened by row of tall pine trees along eastern property line of subject site. Two other nearby homes to the northeast (4633 and 4635 Paradise Drive accessed from Madsen Lane), have limited views from upper floors toward the proposed structures, but are generally oriented toward San Francisco Bay, away from the subject site. Other vantage points are considerable distances away; the story poles for the proposed house can be seen from homes along Hillcrest Road over 1,500 feet to the south, and from the open space at the northwest end of Mateo Drive (via a path lading west from the street).

Although the proposed house would be visible to varying extents from nearby properties, the structures would not block any significant views for nearby homes. The story poles erected on the site do not appear to break the horizon line from any residences, and indicate that only views of currently undeveloped private property would be obscured by the proposed house.

The forms of the proposed house design would also appear to be consistent with the principles of the Tiburon Hillside Design Guidelines. In addition to avoiding potential view impacts, the proposed design would be consistent with the following principles:

Goal 1, Principle 3: Avoid large expanses of any material in a single plane; on downhill elevations, break up masses of building with horizontal and vertical elements.

Goal 1, Principle 5: Follow hillside contours with horizontal building elements to increase integration of dwelling unit and site.

Goal 1, Principle 10: Balance horizontal elements of the structure with vertical accent elements (stairs, chimneys, etc.); avoid single form solutions to building envelope.

Goal 2, Principle 11: Site building so they don’t "stand out" because of location on property.

However, the location of the proposed studio building and tennis court some distance from the residence would appear to be inconsistent with Goal 2, Principle 10, which states that "remotely located outbuildings are discouraged." Given the overall size of the property (over 4.8 acres) and the large building envelope, the Design Review Board may determine that the location of these accessory structures is satisfactory, and avoids undue clustering of development on the site.

A tennis court is proposed to be constructed in the northeast portion of the primary building envelope. Although details have not yet been provided, the applicant has indicated that the court would be bordered on the north and east sides by screening no more than 15 feet above the level of the finished court surface, in compliance with the requirements of the precise development plan.

The submitted landscaping plan indicates that shrubs and ground cover would be the dominant vegetation surrounding the proposed structures. Several oak trees are proposed to be planted toward the center of the proposed house and near the tennis court; a number of smaller acacia trees would also be planted near the tennis court. Most of the property outside the approved building envelopes would be maintained in a natural condition.

Previously submitted plans for this project indicated several portions of the proposed structure would have exceeded the 25 foot maximum building height established by the precise development plan for this property. Story poles were erected based upon the previously submitted plans that indicated that a portion of the roof proposed to be constructed above the rooftop deck on top of the library, along with much of the large circular chimney structure, would have exceeded a height of 25 feet above natural grade. The applicant has since submitted revised plans that comply with the maximum building heights established for this property.

Staff has reviewed the proposal and finds it to be in conformance with the development standards for Ring Mountain Parcel "G" Precise Development Plan with regard to building envelopes, height limits and fencing.

Section 4.02.08 of the Tiburon Zoning Code states that the Design Review Board may grant exceptions to the required floor area ratio requirements if it makes the following two findings:

1. The applicant has demonstrated that the visual size and scale of the proposed structure is compatible with the predominant pattern established by existing structures in the surrounding neighborhood; and

2.    The applicant has demonstrated that the proposed structure is compatible with the physical layout of the site. The characteristics include, but are not limited to, the scale of trees, rock outcroppings, stream courses, land forms, and the dimensions of the lot.

The floor area of most homes in the vicinity is much smaller than that proposed for this dwelling.

Most nearby homes along Paradise Drive and Taylor Road have floor areas ranging from 4,100 to 5,600 square feet, although most of these homes have been developed on lots less than an acre in size. The adjacent property at 4545 Paradise Drive has 8,027 square feet of floor area on a 251,341 square foot lot, while the nearby home at 325 Taylor Road has only 4,287 square feet of floor area on a 230,869 square foot lot.

The visual size and scale of the proposed project is more difficult to compare to the surrounding neighborhood, due to the contemporary design and meandering building footprint of the structures. The intention of the proposed design to create different building masses that would follow the contours of the site, without creating a more imposing, single visual mass on the site. The more articulated design proposed would help mitigate the overall size of the proposed house, and would create a visual size and scale that should be reasonably compatible with other structures in the vicinity.

Submitted plans