Albany planning commission approves house-raising at 1120 Curtis Street despite neighbors’ solar and privacy concerns

The Albany City Planning & Zoning Commission on July 8 approved a design-review application to lift and remodel a single-family house at 1120 Curtis Street, voting 3-0 after a public hearing that included multiple neighbors who warned the change would block sunlight and future rooftop solar.

Associate planner Mira Han presented the application (PA 26-016) and said the project proposes to raise the existing house by 7 feet 5 inches, replace the front porch with a 27-square-foot entry, add a 117-square-foot rear deck and produce a 2,122-square-foot, four-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath two-story home with a maximum height of 23 feet 3 inches on a 3,750-square-foot lot. Staff recommended approval, finding the project meets R-1 development standards and noting it is categorically exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

Neighbors at and near 1116–1118 Curtis Street told the commission the raised structure would cause substantial winter shading, impair the efficiency or feasibility of rooftop solar, reduce passive solar heating, and create privacy issues. Neighbor Jaehyun Kim, homeowner at 1118 Curtis, said the proposed 23-foot wall sits about 7 feet from his primary living-room windows and "will plunge my primary living space and the kitchen skylight ... into permanent shadow and drastically degrading the interior habitability of my home." Several speakers also questioned whether the existing lower level is a crawl space or a basement that should count toward floor-area-ratio (FAR) calculations.

The project architect, Scott Golka, said the design responds to local housing needs for larger families, explained that lifting the house addressed foundation and cost constraints, and presented a voluntary shadow study. Golka said the study showed winter-solstice shading would extend existing shadow on portions of the roof but that the proposed project does not create substantially worse impacts than the current dense neighborhood pattern. "I don't think the impact ... on our neighbor to the north is significantly more than the building already is," he said.

Planner Mira Han and staff briefed commissioners on code points: Albany's zoning rules exclude shading or daylight protection findings for single-family residential projects, and a floor area calculation can include basement-like spaces if average interior height from exterior grade exceeds five feet; staff said the proposal meets the 0.55 FAR limit and is below the district's 28-foot maximum height.

Commissioners discussed privacy mitigation (clerestory and high windows on the north elevation), tree protection (the front paperbark is a city-owned street tree subject to parks-and-recreation permitting and review by the city arborist), and confirmed the record contained multiple letters of opposition. Vice Chair Pilch moved to approve the application; Commissioner Nelson seconded. The commission approved the design review 3-0; staff announced a two-week appeal period and required story poles remain in place during that time.

The commission did not modify the staff conditions of approval at the hearing. The planner and applicant said tree protection and other construction protections will be addressed during building-permit review and by the city arborist. Next procedural steps: the two-week appeal period begins with the decision; if no appeal is filed the applicant may proceed to building permits subject to permit conditions.