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privacy. He added that all the structures in their property were in place when they moved in eight years ago, and they had done no renovations or additions. Mr. Susanto noted that another important fact is that the egress is required only for the window but not to fix the damaged wall. He further noted that they also have a deck in the main patio area which would prevent them from planting trees for screening purposes. He added that installing a window without addressing the privacy issue would decrease the resale value of their house. Mr. Susanto then stated that other cities are very aware of privacy issues resulting from second -story windows and have guidelines and setback requirements in place for that purpose. He then read excerpts from the residential design guidelines of the City of Palo Alto and the City of San Pablo. Mr. Susanto noted that City staff had suggested a proposal to plant three trees, and requested that staff discuss the species with the landscape architect. He stated that the proposed 15- gallon trees would be approximately five to six feet tall, which would not be as tall as the fence and would not help mitigate the privacy issue. He added that the growth rate of the proposed trees is one to one - and -a -half feet per year, which would take six to nine years to grow up to 13 to 14 feet to reach the middle of the four -foot tall window at a 12 -foot elevation. He proposed that the height of the tree be ten feet so the wait time can be reduced by 50 percent or up to three or four years. He also offered another suggestion for compromise and offered to share the cost, up to $200, of making the egress of the existing window on the other side of the house up to Code. Mr. Susanto stated that there is no absolute right of use in a community with homeowners associations, and where there are no homeowners associations, the right of use falls back on the City planner. He added that the City must act as fairly as possible, make careful decisions, and take privacy issues into account. He indicated that they are not asking for absolute privacy; however, the window would look right into their main area of daily activities. He stated that he finds the proposed conditions in the staff report would work for both sides, but approval of the window without condition is something they cannot willingly accept due to its many negative impacts. Commissioner O'Connor asked Mr. Susanto if his family has lived in the home for eight years and if the second -floor addition and the deck were done by the previous owned. Mr. Susanto said yes. Catharine Pranoto, appellant, added that the deck also includes an outdoor Jacuzzi. Frederic Leroudier, applicant, stated that they had a situation where water was coming inside the house and needed to be fixed as soon as possible because there was mold and dry rot. He stated that as part of the plan, they thought it would be a good idea to add the window. He added that because they understood there could be impacts on DRAFT EXCERPT: PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, February 9, 2011Page 3 of 8