06 ATTACHMENT 5 - Laserfiche WebLink

March 12, 2009 Dear Mr. Dolan, The purpose of this letter is to share with you a very troublesome situation that has developed with the Masonic Lodge on Hopyard Road in Pleasanton. Until a few years ago, there was no problem with the Masonic Lodge. There was no noticeable noise from the building, and their activities did not cause a nuisance. A few years ago, however, the Lodge built glass doors on the north side of the building, built a patio on the north side, landscaped the north side, and built a fence to provide privacy from Hopyard Rd. These building and grounds changes resulted in the Lodge starting to have parties and other activities on the north side of the building during the day, opening the north side doors or keeping them open during parties at night, extending the parties in the building into the north side yard area, and having sound from parties inside the building pass through the doors on the north side. Initially we wondered how the City Council and Planning Commission could grant a permit in a residential area for a business to conduct such activities. The other two closest businesses to the Masonic Lodge, which are both churches, do not have these types of activities. This question caused us to request a copy of the Lodge's conditional use permit and also research the Planning Commission files and meeting minutes for background on their thinking behind the provisions of the permit. What we found indicated clearly to us that the Masonic Lodge is violating the intent of the planning commission and the conditional use permit they were granted. The property was originally owned by St. Claire's Church. St Claire's sold part of the land to the Mason's. Therefore, a land parcel that was originally only meant for only one building now has two. The 1977 staff report recognized this to be a problem in that the second building would be located closer to the residents than preferred. The Staff report on page 1 states, "One of the positive features of the conditional use permit approved for the church was that all structures were shown on the southern part of the parcel considerably removed from the residences north of the subject property. The current proposal shows the lodge building and a possible future parking in that intervening upper zone." The site map has the back area being a parking lot. Regarding the proposed conditional use permit, the Staff Report on page I states, "While lodge meetings are normally staid affairs which do not generate much commotion, lodge buildings are commonly rented for non -lodge affairs such as wedding receptions and parties which can be nuisance creating. Physical separation of such facilities from residences therefore would normally be desirable. While it might be pref rable to have the lodge building farther south on the property, it would be possible to design the structure so as to maintain any noise generated frorp within. Thi could be done by prohibitingopenings on the north or west sides of the structure, and therefore, Activity would be focused away from the northern reidences." The staff report was clearly concerned about noise nuisance, and wanted the building to be designed to keep the noise within the structure and activities away from the north and west sides of the building so as not to be a nuisance to the neighbors.