06 ATTACHMENT 5 - Laserfiche WebLink

Law mike,: ice: of Stuart M. Flashman 5626 Occan View Drive Oakland. CA 94618 -1533 (510) 652 -5373 (voice & FAX) c•mail: stu ! +'stul�nsh.com Delivery via email Mr. Mark Dennis, Senior Code Enforcement Officer Mr. Adam Weinstein, Planning Manager/ Deputy Director of Community Development Mr. Gerry Beaudin, Director of Community Development City of Pleasanton P.O. Box 520 Pleasanton, CA 94566 -0802 June 15, 2016 RE: UP- 77 -13, Pleasanton Masonic Center (3370 Hopyard Road)_ Dear Sirs: I am writing on behalf of my clients, Michael and Darlene Miller, regarding the Planning Commission hearing next Wednesday, June 22nd, and the City's unwillingness to enforce the conditions on the Use Permit governing use of the above - referenced parcel. As you know, this parcel is situated in a residentially zoned area, and is directly adjacent to my clients' home. The parcel's location in a residential area is obviously central to understanding the use permit conditions. The lodge apparently conformed to the conditions in the use permit until 2004. Since then, however, there have been systematic violations of those conditions, and of the underlying zoning. My clients have repeatedly asked the City to enforce the use permit and the zoning, to no avail. Most recently, Mr. Mark Dennis, Pleasanton Code Enforcement Officer, wrote to my client, in a letter dated May 13, 2016, that Condition Number 1 of the Lodge's Conditional Use Permit only applied during the construction of the lodge building, and therefore had no effect on current lodge operations. Both my clients and I find this interpretation nothing short of ridiculous. Nowhere in the use permit is there any indication that this condition was for construction activities. Nor has the City ever raised this claim in all the time that my clients have been attempting to have the Use Permit enforced.' The City cannot simply rewrite conditions to avoid their enforcement. 1. THE MASONS CANNOT USE THEIR PROPERTY IN WAYS THAT MATERIALLY INJURE SURROUNDING NEIGHBORHOOD PROPERTIES OR RESIDENTS. When the Lodge received its Use Permit in 1977, the governing zoning regulations were essentially the same as they now are. Under RM zoning, and specifically Municipal Code Section 18.124.070 (b), the City must make the following finding before granting a conditional use permit: B. That the proposed location of the conditional use and the conditions under which it would be operated or maintained will not be In the staff report for the cancelled January 2015 Planning Commission hearing, the City acknowledged That enforcing this condition "would not allow continued use of the patio area."