Lafayette panel approves two‑story house at 968 Fourth Street with condition to obscure upper windows

The Lafayette Design Review Commission on April 24 approved a two‑story, 2,098‑square‑foot residence at 968 Fourth Street, finding the project exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and adding a condition requiring that four upper‑level master‑bedroom windows that face a neighbor be constructed of obscured or translucent glass.

The condition was adopted as part of DRC Resolution 2025‑01 after commissioners and members of the public raised concerns about privacy and tree removal. Project planner Madison summarized staff’s recommendation and the project scope, including lot and house measurements, tree removals and required mitigation. Architect Joseph, speaking for the applicant, said the owners had reconsidered an earlier one‑story design and “decided that doing the two‑story house, with the one‑car garage, was just a better thing to do economically and also for them to live.”

The project site is a 0.12‑acre lot on the south side of Mount Diablo Boulevard accessed from Barraga Boulevard and Fourth Street in central Lafayette. The existing single‑story house is about 647 square feet; the proposed new house would have about 2,098 square feet of conditioned floor area, roughly 700 square feet on…