PC 012313 - Laserfiche WebLink

Chair Blank commented that the language of the ordinance does not specify whether it is a natural hillside or an artificial hillside. He questioned whether it is really a hillside if it has been graded. Mr. Dolan continued that staff tried not to talk about specific pieces of property, but it is impossible not to, as this is the situation occurs on Lund Ranch II, where there is this slope which staff calculated to be somewhere in the vicinity of 16 percent in its natural state, and the people who farmed the property at some point wanted to get from one side of the property to the other, and they plowed right through it and created this lower roadway, but the banks that they left are quite steep, just like what happens when a freeway is built. He noted that if this is considered an unbuildable area and cannot be graded, a development will be built all around it with that feature in the middle, which will never be visible because the houses will be around it. He indicated that the essence of the question is what has been accomplished with this relative to the purposes of Measure PP. He stated that he thinks the Council's position is well measured in that here is a circumstance where it does make sense, so the Council included this and directed staff to create a process for an exception, which is what staff did. Chair Blank noted that this looks like an extreme example and inquired if there are less extreme examples. Mr. Dolan replied that this is really the only one that staff knows of. He noted that staff did struggle with the issue on a previous, somewhat different, application with the Hana Japan restaurant. Mr. Dolan then displayed a slide of a more distant view of the Lund Ranch II land which demonstrates what the 16- percent natural slope used to be, with the cut going through it. He added that a second aspect to this is that the slope continues down and at the bottom of it is a creek. He noted that what it looks like is that they wanted to build a barn down next to the creek, and so they actually scraped out a flat area at the toe of this slope and formed another slope that is obviously graded to create that flat space at the creek. He pointed out that the slope maps for this site shows two little slivers: one is that passageway that they created, and the other is where they scraped away the toe to have a flat spot for the barn. Chair Blank inquired if it is a safe assumption that staff would not normally let this practice continue today. He noted that thinking ahead, if other people start doing this kind of activity which leaves natural slopes of greater than 25 percent, it would create more of an issue there. Mr. Dolan replied that this is out in the middle of a farm, and the City was not involved when this happened. He continued that this level of grading would probably require a grading permit, and staff would determine if the land was stable. He stated that he doubted there would be any more of this in the future, especially if there is any intention to develop later. He added that it would not serve the owners well as they would be PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, January 23, 2013 Page 7 of 44