Case Will Have at Least One More Hearing at A Future City Council Meeting
A group of nine San Marino residents which appealed the Design Review Committee’s 3-2 decision to approve plans for a proposed 3,068-square-foot two-story Cape Cod home on a 12,444-square-foot lot at 2630 Lorain Road found unanimous support from the Planning Commission at the commission’s July 27 meeting.
“This is not the city where we just try to fit something in and when it’s hard to fit we call it done,” Commissioner Raymond Cheng said to the designer of 2630 Lorain Road, Francis Tang. The commission echoed Cheng’s sentiments in its 5-0 vote, which overturned the DRC’s decision to approve the project.
Tang filed an appeal of the Planning Commission’s decision later in the week. The San Marino City Council will have at least one opportunity to hear the case at a future meeting.
At the commission’s first hearing on the case, commissioners were left confused about the scope of their authority regarding the property. At the commission’s second hearing on July 27, legal clarification provided by city planning staff and City Attorney Steve Dorsey allowed the commission to examine the case anew.
According to Associate Planner Amanda Merlo, the commission could conduct the hearing subject to all the same standards as the Design Review Committee.
However, Merlo reported, commissioners were not permitted to consider the proposed 2,880-square-foot two-story home on a 7,568-square-foot lot—abutted by the Rubio Wash—to the east of the subject property.
Tang, 70, also owns the property, which currently hosts a 2,005-square-foot, one-story home on two tied lots. Tang wants to untie the lots, but he must first acquire building permits for approved homes on both lots. While the 2,880-square-foot home is in its preliminary stages, approval of the proposed 3,068 square feet is Tang’s first step.
Tang, who designed both proposed homes, said that he and his wife—16-year residents of San Marino—want to build a home to live in and enjoy. When pressed by commissioners about his intentions for the smaller property, Tang explained that he hopes one of his adult children will move in next door.
Despite Tang’s renewed case, commissioners and members of the public had numerous concerns with the design, which helped to crystalize the overturning vote.
They considered the proposed home to be incompatible with itself and the neighborhood, noting massiveness, incomplete drawings, an excessive number of roof pitches and other design deficiencies in their critiques.
Additionally, concerns with the home’s size and overall design motivated commissioners to use the term “Cape Cod” lightly in their discussion of the proposal.
“There are a lot of iterations on a Cape Cod. This is not one of them,” Commissioner Howard Brody said of Tang’s drawing.
Commissioner Raymond Cheng provided his understanding of the jumbled design.
He explained that the 14-foot ceiling height for the proposed living room, 18-foot ceiling height for the proposed circular staircase and tall ceiling heights in other parts of the house largely contributed to the awkward arrangement of five roof pitches at the proposed home’s rear.
“Once you start on the wrong foot, you can’t fix it,” said Cheng in his support for a complete redesign of the project.
Vice Chairwoman Susan Jakubowski advised her fellow commissioners of the potentially precedential nature of the project.
“We don’t want any dominoes falling on Lorain,” she said, expressing her concern that other homeowners west of the Rubio Wash may make similarly incompatible requests.
Rich Haserot, a former planning commissioner and DRC member, called the DRC approval process for this case “very badly flawed.”
In identifying what he perceived as “flawed,” Haserot criticized former DRC members for comments made during the DRC’s approval of 2630 Lorain on April 20.
In response to a comment that “the allowable footage is in accordance with [the city’s] regulations,” Haserot responded, “the [square footage] limits in the zoning code are absolute minimums and maximums, they are absolutely not entitlements.”
Haserot also denounced the comment made by a former DRC member, “I acknowledge that modern living requires a degree of flexibility and adaptation. For the Cape Cod, overtime, dormers and front-facing gables and porches have worked their way in as acceptable elements.”
Commissioner Brody, after hearing Haserot’s critique, added, “Maybe that person would be better off the DRC.”
New Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance
The Planning Commission unanimously approved a draft water-efficient landscape ordinance for the city. The ordinance will go before the city council for final review at a future meeting and will affect new construction with 500 square feet or more landscape area and existing rehabilitated landscapes of 2,500 square feet or more landscape area.
According to a staff report, major changes that will have the greatest impact on San Marino residents include:
“The Maximum Applied Water Allowance formula will remain the same, but the evapotranspiration rate will change, which reduces the amount of water that can be used on a property.”
“The new Maximum Applied Water Allowance restrictions will effectively allow up to 25 percent of a residential landscape to use high water usage plants, such as turf.”
In street medians, there are “no high water usage plants allowed, including turf.”
“The usage of gray water is taken into account when calculating the Maximum Applied Water Allowance. Staff is also recommending that graywater systems have the same required setbacks as air conditioning units.”
Dedicated landscape water meters are “required for residential landscapes over 5,000 square feet and for non-residential landscapes over 1,000 square feet.”
In the case of water audits, “the new ordinance requires the irrigation auditor be a certified city auditor or certified third party auditor.”
