1 Stevens Ct Staff Report

To:	PLANNING COMMISSION
From:	DANIEL M. WATROUS, SENIOR PLANNER
Subject:	FILE #30104: AMENDMENT TO KUHNS PRECISE PLAN (PD #31) TO ALLOW ADDITIONAL FLOOR AREA AND AMEND A BUILDING ENVELOPE; 1, 5 & 9 STEVENS COURT; Ben Barnes, et al, owners; Assessor=s Parcel Nos. 58-111-25, 26 & 27
Report Date: Meeting Date:	DECEMBER 7, 2001 DECEMBER 12, 2001

The project is the proposed amendment to a precise plan (the Kuhns Precise Plan) for property located at 1, 5 & 9 Stevens Court. The applicants wish to increase the maximum floor area permitted for these three lots, each of which is currently developed with a single-family home. The application also requests to amend the building envelope for the property at 1 Stevens Court.

The Kuhns Precise Plan currently limits each parcel to a maximum floor area of 3,600 square feet, including the garage. The applicants propose to amend the text of the precise plan to allow additional floor area "if attained entirely within undeveloped space within the existing mass and bulk of the approved house, so long as the total floor area does not exceed the floor area ratio otherwise permitted by the Tiburon Zoning Ordinance for a lot of this size." This application requests to modify the text of the precise plan to modify the maximum floor area for each parcel to 3,600 square feet, excluding the garage.

Plans have also been submitted (Exhibit 8) which illustrate the construction of additional garage space for the property located at 1 Stevens Court. These plans also show the construction of a deck and stairs that would be constructed on the south side of the house, most of which extends beyond the current building envelope for this lot. This application also requests to modify the building envelope for this lot to allow the proposed deck and stairs.

The Kuhns Precise Plan was originally approved in 1980, then expired and was reapproved without any changes in 1984. The precise plan includes three parcels accessed by Stevens Court, a private street. Town Council Resolution No. 3121 (Exhibit 4), which contained the consolidated conditions of approval for this precise plan, stated that "the maximum gross floor area for each parcel shall not exceed 3,600 square feet, including the garage." This condition of approval was imposed by the Town Council during hearings on this development proposal in 1980. The Council minutes do not reflect extensive discussion on this floor area limit, but indicate that the applicant was requested to indicate the anticipated floor area for the three homes in the subdivision.

These house size limitations on the Kuhns Precise Plan were imposed prior to the Town’s adoption of Floor Area Ratio (F.A.R.) limits in all residential zones. House size limits were placed on certain precise plans in the early 1980’s, as a precursor to current floor area limitations. Current practice for the Town of Tiburon is that all precise development plan approvals specify floor area limits on all lots within a development. These limits are commonly more restrictive than the "default" floor area limits found in Section 4.02.08 of the Zoning Ordinance.

For comparison purposes, under the Town’s current "default" F.A.R. standards, adopted in 1990, the property at 1 Stevens Court would be allowed a maximum floor area of 6,866 square feet; the property at 5 Stevens Court would be allowed a maximum floor area of 5,355 square feet; and the 9 Stevens Court would be allowed a maximum floor area of 4,117 square feet. In each case, the default F.A.R. would also allow an additional 600 square feet for garage space.

The 1995 application to increase the floor area maximums for this precise plan (File #39502) requested that the maximum floor area for Lots 1 & 2 (1 and 5 Stevens Court) be increased to 4,800 square feet, with the floor area for Lot 3 (9 Stevens Court) increased to 4,600 square feet. At that time, the applicant stated that the additional floor area would be "added to the lower portion and downhill side of the house[s] which would then have no impact on uphill neighbors." Several uphill property owners along Round Hill Road raised objections to the request to increase floor areas for these homes.

The Planning Commission determined that this increased floor area was inappropriate, and did not recommend approval of this request in its resolution to the Town Council (Resolution No. 95-13, attached as Exhibit 2). The Town Council included the following language in adopting Resolution No. 3101 (Exhibit 3):

In 1999, another request (File #39904) was filed to increase the permitted floor area for the three homes in this subdivision by allowing additional floor area if contained within the existing mass and bulk of the approved houses, so long as the total floor area did not exceed the floor area ratio otherwise permitted by the Tiburon Zoning Ordinance for lots of these sizes. This request was approved by the Town Council under Resolution No. 3360 (Exhibit 5). Since the approval of this amendment, Design Review approvals for such additions were granted in 2000 for the home at 5 Stevens Court (increasing the floor area of the residence to 4,967 square feet) and in 2001 for the home at 1 Stevens Court (increasing the floor area of the residence to 4,441 square feet). The house at 9 Stevens Court has its originally approved floor area of 3,180 square feet.

A prior request (File #39705) to modify the building envelope for the property at 1 Stevens Court was denied by the Planning Commission in 1998. That application involved a request to construct an L-shaped, uncovered staircase at the southern corner of the house. The Planning Commission determined that the proposed staircase would have extended too far into the dripline of a mature oak tree. The Commission noted that the preservation of this tree had been the focus of extensive discussion in the creation of the original building envelope for this property, and denied the request to amend the building envelope to construct this staircase.

The applicants have indicated that the primary intention of the requested text amendment to the Kuhns Precise Plan is to bring the floor area requirements for the three homes within this subdivision to more closely resemble the Town’s default floor area standards. As noted above, the current floor area standard for this subdivision requires that garage space is included in the overall maximum floor area for each lot, while the F.A.R. standard contained in the Tiburon Zoning Ordinance allows an additional 600 square feet of floor area beyond the lot size-based floor area.

The three homes within this subdivision have been designed to nearly fill the existing building envelopes for each lot. The current house locations would somewhat constrain the ability to add significant amounts of additional garage space with adequate access without modifying the building envelopes. However, if each home is allowed to essentially deduct the garage space already provided from the allowable floor area for each lot, then more living space could be added to each home as well. Theoretically, the size of each of the three homes could be increased by the size of the existing garage space for each residence, to a limit of 600 additional square feet of living area.

The requested deck would extend 6 feet out from the end of the existing deck at the southern side of the house. The deck and staircase would extend approximately 11 feet to the rear of the proposed house. Although a portion of the deck closest to the proposed garage and a small portion adjacent to the southern corner of the house would be within the existing building envelope, most of the proposed deck and the entire proposed staircase would be outside the currently approved envelope.

The applicant’s stated reason for the proposed deck and staircase is to provide access from the primary living areas of the house to the rear yard. However, the recently approved lower floor area for this house includes access from a stairway to the rear yard. Although this approved stairway does not provide direct access from the upper floor to the rear yard, many two-story homes do not have independent direct access from the upper floor of the house to a lower rear yard area.

The applicant expressed the same reasons for the exterior staircase requested in 1998. This prior request involved a staircase that would have extended 14 feet out from the southern corner of the house, 8 feet further than the currently requested deck extension. In denying the previous precise plan amendment for the staircase, the Planning Commission focused on the potential impacts of the proposed structure on the dripline of the nearby oak tree. The construction of the proposed deck would project much less into the dripline of this tree, and would likely not result in significant harm to the health of the tree.

The proposed project has been reviewed for consistency with the requirements of the Tiburon Zoning Ordinance regarding precise plan amendments and the Tiburon General Plan. The project appears to be consistent with the overall intentions of the Kuhns Precise Plan, as the building envelopes would not be altered for two of the homes, and the proposed envelope amendment for 1 Stevens Court would not result in significant increases in visual mass or bulk when viewed from neighboring properties. The requested allowance for additional living floor area would not result in a significant increase beyond the originally approved floor area limits for these lots, and would still be significantly lower than the default floor area ratios for lots of these sizes.

Policy LU-22 of the Land Use Element states that "the Town shall adopt housing size limitations for residential development as part of the Zoning Ordinance for reasons detailed in Open Space and Conservation Policy OSC-6 [which states that "the Town should encourage well-designed projects that enhance its image through the development and design review processes. Monotony in design, and massive structures and site coverage that overwhelm the surrounding area, shall be avoided."] Possible methods include, but are not limited to, floor area ratios, coverage, height, bulk, and square footage limits." The proposal to allow additional floor area for garage space would bring the floor area standards for this subdivision into closer conformance with the more recently adopted Town-wide floor area ratio requirements.

The project is exempt from the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act per Section 15301 of the CEQA Guidelines.

The Planning Commission should determine whether the proposed addition is consistent with the direction established by the Town regarding the previous requests for modifications to the floor area limitations within the Kuhns Precise Plan, and requests for building envelope modifications for the property at 1 Stevens Court.

The Planning Commission=s approval of this project action would be a recommendation to the Town Council. Should the Commission vote to deny the project, that decision would be final unless appealed to the Town Council. If the amendment to the precise plan is approved by the Town Council, subsequent Town permits would include Site Plan and Architectural Review approval and building permits for the proposed garage, deck and staircase additions for 1 Stevens Court, and any other subsequent additions for the homes within this subdivision.

Staff recommends that the Planning Commission hold a public hearing on this item and determine if the proposed application is consistent with the Town’s standards for precise development plan amendments and the Town’s recent direction regarding similar applications. If the Commission determines that the application should be approved, it is recommended that the draft resolution recommending approval of the project to the Town Council be adopted.