Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Urban Design topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
ADR members press for lighter trellis, smaller spiral stair and improved parking on Willow Hill remodel
Summary
Design debate centered on a large remodel at 3 Willow Hill Road: members supported the project overall but asked the applicant to push the gabled trellis back, consider a less enclosed spiral stair to reduce visual bulk from below, and revise parking-pad geometry for safer ingress/egress.
The ADR committee spent the longest discussion of its meeting on a sizable remodel proposed for 3 Willow Hill Road, endorsing the project’s broader goals of restoring the hillside while asking the applicant to revise several key design elements before a final packet goes to council.
Designer comments described terraces, a reduced two-level rear deck, a new parking deck adjacent to the garage, a hot tub and an overhead trellis intended to make an upper deck usable through more seasons. Designer: "The idea of lightening that structure and making it a structure of interest will help those spaces as well," he said, describing terracing and a plan to reintroduce native specimen planting to the slope.
Multiple ADR members raised concerns about a fully enclosed metal-mesh spiral staircase and a large gabled trellis. One member urged reducing perceived mass: “I would prefer to see just a horizontal trellis out there that you could just minimize the amount of volume that you've got on the hillside,” an ADR member said. Members recommended stepping the trellis back toward the existing roof line or limiting the gabled element to half the deck and encouraged exploring hip or flat alternatives. Several members also suggested the mesh stair be reduced in scale or re-envisioned as a lighter-railing treatment so it does not read as a solid mass from the street below.
On parking, members asked for a slightly wider parking pad to make backing maneuvers easier and discussed whether a two-space pad would be acceptable given the narrow geometry of Willow Hill Road; a vice chair said removing on-street parking from the canyon would be a public-safety benefit. The designer agreed to explore options and to work with staff to align details; staff will circulate revised drawings and advise whether another ADR hearing is necessary.
The committee recorded conditional support: it will forward a recommendation to council provided the applicant responds to the requested modifications and coordinates changes with staff. The decision preserves the applicant’s overall hillside-restoration goals while elevating neighbor-protection and view/visual-mass concerns as criteria for the final design packet.
