‘Dip house’ survives vote

Barbara Diamond

Approval on Tuesday of the proposed “dip house” cast a pall over the

City Council.

The council voted 3-2 after a closed session with the city

attorney to approve the 1,100 square-foot house for the problematic

lot on Glenneyre Street at the dip near Calliope Street.

“Speaking with the city attorney can be a sobering experience,”

said a despondent Councilwoman Cheryl Kinsman. “The problem is that

this is a legal building site. The question is what do we want to put

on it? Do we want to decide ourselves or have the court decide? I

want us to decide.”

Kinsman voted with Mayor Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider and

Councilwoman Jane Egly to approve the project.

“I don’t support this project, but I will vote for it,” Egly said.

“It shouldn’t have been a legal building site, but after conferring

with the city attorney, the wise decision is to vote to allow the

project.”

“We did what was best for the city, because we had to,’ Kinsman

said. “We couldn’t let it go to court. We would have lost.”

Pearson-Schneider said the city should have required an

environmental impact report on the property, but the staff said that

no distinctive habitat and the absence of a city-mapped watercourse

inclined them toward the less demanding negative declaration of

impacts.

“I don’t think we have approached this project with enough care,”

said Councilwoman Toni Iseman, who voted against the project and

wanted it returned to the Design Review board for further scrutiny.

A parade of neighbors objected verbally and by letter to the

project. The long-standing objections were based on traffic safety --

the lack of sight lines driving out of the property onto a collector

street -- and environmental concerns.

“There is a watershed, I have seen it overflow,” said Annette

Stevens, who lives across Glenneyre Street from the proposed home.

“If he wants to build, he should build on my side of the street. I am

100 feet from a blue line stream.”

A blue line stream is one that is colored blue on U.S. maps.

Restrictions apply to the proximity of buildings near the stream,

unless there is no other place for a structure on a lot that can be

built upon. “Development on a stream bed is folly,” Bluebird Canyon

resident Leah Vasquez said. “The lot should never have been listed as

a legal building site.”

The project had been rejected by the Design Review Board on a 3-2

vote and was appealed by property owner, Jeff Garner, the architect

for the home, which he designed for his son on the challenging lot.

“Does this project make good sense? Probably not,” Community

Development Department Director John Montgomery said.

“There is only one person who wants this project approved -- well

maybe his attorney, too,” Kinsman said.

Attorney Gene Gratz said denial of the current project would

constitute a taking because the parcel is a legal building site and

the proposed home met all city codes and every request the city had

made of the architect. He said the council was obliged to approve the

project.

The proposed project is for a 1,100-square-foot, single-family

home and attached two-car carport under it. The elevated home will be

built on caissions driven into the bedrock below the flood plain.

More than 80 percent of the lot will be covered with impermeable

material, only about 30 percent of it house.

A long driveway to near the back of the property doubles back to

wind up under the house for vehicle storage that allows a turnaround

so that drivers do not back out onto heavily traveled Glenneyre

Street.

“Glenneyre is not just a street, it’s a thoroughfare,” Iseman

said. “Our job is to ensure public safety.”

Gratz said his client would indemnify the city and hold it

harmless. Councilman Steven Dicterow, who voted to deny the project,

requested a pledge not to sue.

City Attorney Philip Kohn recommended the council direct staff to

prepare a resolution with the council findings to approve the project

and conditions of approval. The conditions include a review by the

Army Corps of Engineers and the county, which has a drainage project

planned sometime in the future.

The resolution will come back to the council on the consent

calendar for the June 7 meeting.