Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Residential Design Review topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Commission approves replacement two-family home at 309'311 Eureka after contested neighbor design review
Summary
Following months of negotiation and a marathon public hearing, the Planning Commission approved demolition and a revised two-family design for 309'311 Eureka Street while declining to sustain two neighborhood-filed discretionary-review (DR) petitions.
The Planning Commission heard competing neighborhood and sponsor proposals for the demolition and replacement of a two-family house at 309'311 Eureka Street. Neighbors on Twentieth Street filed discretionary-review (DR) requests arguing the proposed replacement would cause exceptional light, air and privacy impacts and that the historic character of the block merited different treatment.
Project architect John Lum and the Friels (project sponsors) presented a revised design that reduced overall height by 14 inches, stepped back the upper floors and clipped rear corners to reduce massing. The sponsors said they had already reduced gross floor area by roughly 25% compared with earlier filings and argued further reductions could threaten a heritage Monterey cypress's root system and make the upper units infeasible.
Neighbors and DR requesters produced alternate schemes that would lower the building datum and reduce rear massing without excavation, and several neighbors testified that the sponsor's outreach process had not produced meaningful compromise. Neighbors provided shade studies and said primary living-room and kitchen light would be materially reduced by the proposed massing.
After extended deliberation, the commission found the discretionary-review criteria for "exceptional and extraordinary" circumstances were not met and voted 4-1 to approve the demolition and the sponsor's revised replacement project (not taking DR). Commissioner Moore voted no, citing the lack of agreement between neighbors and sponsor; other commissioners found the revised design sufficiently responsive to direction provided at the prior hearing.
Commissioners directed the sponsor to continue coordinating with planning staff on final details and emphasized the importance of minimizing impacts where possible, but the entitlement moved forward.
