The town’s commissioners found a Los Gatos resident’s remodeling project too extreme for approval at last night’s Planning Commission meeting.
David Maggetti, the property owner of 132 Teresita Way proposed demolishing his 2,339 square foot house and constructing a 3,368 square foot house on the property. In addition, Maggetti proposed constructing a 600 square foot above ground pool with substantial decking on a sloped hill.
Commissioners voted 5-0 to deny construction of the project with both Chair Thomas O’Donnell and Vice Chair John Bourgeois being absent.
Commissioner Marcia Jensen, who took over the role as Chair Commissioner at the meeting, stated that her reasoning for denying the applicant was because building a pool on a hillside defies the town’s Hillside Design Standard. The Los Gatos policy states that natural land forms should be preserved by minimizing grading and that hillside landscaping should follow the natural topography of the land.
“We have not been presented with any compelling reason why we should deviate from the town’s hillside standards and design guidelines,” Jensen said.
However, Maggetti and the project’s applicant Dan Townsend strongly disagreed.
“This isn’t a drastic remodel and the pool construction is very simple,” Townsend said.
“We think this is a reasonable request, and it doesn’t impact any neighbors,” Maggetti added.
Maggetti and Townsend would not take recommendations on redesigning the house because they said they were not interested in proceeding with the project if the pool cannot be constructed as they proposed. The two men plan to appeal the decision of the Planning Commission within the next 10 days.
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mike hunt Sat, Oct 31, 2009 - 11:38 am
It is funny that Town policy can be supportive or unsupportive of every project that appears before them. For example, the policy used to deny this application, ” minimizing grading and that hillside landscaping should follow the natural topography of the land”, can be used to support this project because an above ground pool requires the least amount of grading and will disturb the natural topogrphy the least.