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Commissioner Narum stated that she had a comment on Commissioner O'Connor's <br />concern about some of the houses along the road on top of the hill. She noted that <br />while his comment was valid, she thinks that after grading is done, those houses would <br />actually be a little bit lower and a bit off the road, so it would not be a road with houses <br />right on it. <br />Commissioner O'Connor stated that he was looking at the map, and some of the <br />building envelopes come up and actually abut the road, so there is the possibility that a <br />homeowner could request coming right up to the road, which would put the house at the <br />peak because the road follows the peak. He indicated that he did not like the road there <br />either and noted that he did not think the two larger lots would be an issue because the <br />driveway goes down the topography; however, for the 20- or 30 -acre property, he did <br />not see any reason for having the building envelopes sitting right on top of the ridgeline. <br />Commissioner Narum stated that the topography on Lot 3 is a very steep hill falling off <br />to the right where the building envelope is, which limits the location of the building <br />envelope on the lot. <br />Commissioner O'Connor stated that he did not want to have to draw the development <br />plan for the applicant. He noted, however, that there were 51 homes there at one time, <br />15 or 20 of which were pretty prominent on top of the ridge; but there were another <br />30 homes or more that were not. He indicated that with 500 acres up there, the <br />developers should be able to find a place to put a home that is not sitting on a <br />prominent ridgeline. <br />Commissioner Pearce stated that in some instances, that might result in restructuring <br />the lots. <br />Commissioner O'Connor added that probably the road might also have to be <br />restructured. <br />Commissioner Olson indicated that he was concerned about the process here. He <br />stated that to some extent, he thinks the cart is before the horse, and if the idea is to sell <br />these lots to people who think they can further develop them, in other words, there is no <br />interest in agriculture at all, then there needs to be disclosures indicating that is not a <br />possibility. <br />Chair Pentin stated that with respect to the location of the current pads in view of the <br />previous proposal and the topography, it seems that the developer is making attempts <br />not to get up on the ridges. He noted that it appears like the proposed plan follows the <br />same route as the previous layout, and, therefore, he is not sure what the visibility is on <br />the current plan versus which ones were visible and were not visible on the previous <br />plan. He stated that from what he is seeing of the topography, it appears that the hills <br />around these houses are the lower parts of the topography. He added that he is not <br />familiar with the road in the sense of it running right along the top of that ridge, and he <br />would like staff to address Commissioner O'Connor's statement that the houses on that <br />PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, March 28, 2012 Page 20 of 33 <br />