Milpitas planning commission recommends city council approve covered-deck variance at Evans Road property

The Milpitas Planning Commission voted April 9 to recommend that the City Council approve a variance allowing a proposed 1,082-square-foot covered deck to encroach into the side-yard setback at a single-family home on Evans Road.

The vote followed more than an hour of testimony, questions from commissioners and a staff presentation that concluded with a recommendation to deny the project. Planning staff said the project would enlarge an existing nonconforming structure and did not meet the findings required for a variance under the city’s hillside rules.

Planning Director Shaili Lee summarized the application and the staff recommendation at the start of the public hearing. Associate planner Randy Baez told commissioners the applicant sought a minor site development permit and a variance to build the covered deck on a 0.8-acre parcel in the R‑1H (single-family residential hillside) zoning district. Baez said the Hillside Combining District requires a 40-foot minimum side-yard setback and that portions of the existing dwelling—built before the district’s 1992 adoption—already encroach into required setbacks. Baez said staff did not find special circumstances that justified enlarging a nonconforming building and recommended denial.

The applicant (listed in the…