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the houses that do have patios all have them front-facing. He noted that part of Ms. Kiziloglu's dialogue is that she does not want a balcony in the front yard because she wants to have privacy, which is ironic because that is the same reason he does not want her to have a balcony in the backyard. Mr. Cummings stated that the long and short of it is whether they feel there is privacy there. He noted that the applicant could stand on her balcony and claim privacy, but the neighbors down at sea level would feel like people are sitting over them and potentially looking. He indicated that he does not have any problems with the Kizilogus' character; he believes they are great neighbors, nice people who are generally fairly quiet. He noted, however, that the problem is he cannot guarantee that she is actually going to live there forever. He pointed out that things change and people sometimes have to move; but the balcony in the backyard will stay, and there could someday be somebody creepy or strange living there and staring in the backyard at his wife and daughters and their friends. Mr. Cummings stated that it all comes down to a privacy issue. He indicated that he does not feel that under any circumstances, any balcony back there will provide any remediation with screening and privacy and would make them feel absolutely comfortable. Commissioner Balch stated that looking at the slide with the view of the mulberry tree taken from the applicant's window, noting that going down the road, that heritage tree could be diseased and changed out or trimmed or thinned, it appears that there would be a pretty significant view of the Cummings' backyard, with or without the balcony. He asked Mr. Cummings if he would agree. Mr. Cummings agreed. Commissioner Balch then asked Mr. Cummings if the balcony presents a problem because it extends out a little farther. Mr. Cummings replied that that was part of the problem. He stated that having a balcony facilitates the ease of privacy violation by having a comfortable place where one could sit and just be there, but nobody would sit at a window to peak into the neighbor's backyard. He noted that whether that tree is there or not, there would be a place that facilitates that type of activity, and it would make them feel way more violated. Commissioner Nagler commented that obviously a lot of work on everybody's part, including staff, has gone into trying to solve this problem, with a lot of good will on both sides: the appellant would like to see the house remodeled to have the neighbors get what they want, and the applicants are trying to mitigate the neighbor's issues and would like be able to do construction as they want. He noted that everyone has come up with a number of ideas from putting a wall on the side of the balcony to screen the view to some sort of lattice work screen to these trees. He asked Mr. Cummings if, in the course of all of that, none of those came close to solving his privacy issue. EXCERPT: PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES, May 27, 2015 Page 3 of 14