CCMIN110315 - Laserfiche WebLink

Vice-Mayor Brown asked Mr. Huff about his thoughts on how a City could protect against someone stuccoing over wood cladding on a house that is not considered a resource. She said obviously some of the examples do not show people are true to maintaining historic features per se. Mr. Huff said he thinks the example is one where any architect or staff would step in and not let it happen. To get to the point where the City is indicating a certain type of window must be used or for a realtor to relay to a potential buyer they cannot add onto the house or must have shudders, it is a bit irritating. He said in some situations people should be rewarded for maintaining historic character and materials, but he thinks the situation is one of over-governance of what people can and cannot do. Jon Harvey said what he sees happening is mission creep. He thought what the City was setting out to do was to create a list of homes that met historical criteria and apply new rules to those homes which could be simple. He suggested getting back to what they set out to do, which is if a person is on the list the rules apply. If they are not on the list, they do not. If there is wiggle room with homes built before 1942 but are not on this list, he asked how this could be conveyed to perspective buyers or realtors. He also thinks that expanding design review to all first story additions or modifications just makes it worse than it already is and he does not think it is a broad issue in the community. Mayor Thorne closed the public hearing. Councilmember Pentin said he thinks the survey is great and identifies the houses that qualify which gives the City an opportunity to help those and future homeowners of what they can and cannot do with their homes. He supported acceptance of the study and said he found it fascinating to read. He also supported the draft amendment for historic homes. To extend this, Councilmember Pentin thinks it is somewhat onerous, as staff has mentioned in the report that "there is a concern subjecting non-historical homes to heightened design review which could discourage homeowners from undertaking improvements and result in over-prescriptive and uncertain design outcomes." He said if the 106 homes that are pre-1942 have bad windows, doors, balconies and cladding, he thinks the way they will return is to allow homeowners to make decisions in the future. He did not support Item 4 therefore. If it is the decision of the Council to pursue staff obtaining information, he welcomes that, but he thinks this gets into mission creep and over-regulation. Vice-Mayor Brown clarified that Councilmember Pentin was referred to the staff recommendations when voicing his comments. Vice-Mayor Brown said there are many beautiful historic homes in Pleasanton and whether doing her job as a real estate agent or bringing guests or visitors to town, going to those historic homes is a big part of what makes Pleasanton special and a resource. She thanked those homeowners with historic homes and said her home is 20 years old and she said she absolutely supports the proposal being exempt from CEQA. She supports the historic resource survey and said she learned a lot about historic designs and the 12 styles. She supports Option 2 and said did not believe the City needs to regulate every detail. She suggested staff look at porches, windows, roofs and make sure the modifications do fit the home and the style that is there. Regarding Item 4 which is to discuss extending it beyond the 91 homes, Vice-Mayor Brown said she does not think it should be as strict for the pre-1942 homes but would support some discussion to block the idea of allowing someone to put stucco over a wood clad house or major modifications to a Queen Anne home. She thinks staff is just asking as to whether the Council would support the idea of talking about the issue further and seeing what it would look like. She would like to protect what Pleasanton has and she suggested some guidance be provided by staff at the counter but not regulating it like a pre-1942 home would be controlled. City Council Minutes Page 12 of 16 November 3, 2015