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in a neighborhood of this age of single -story homes, people will slowly start to do additions and move upwards, which she realizes is not necessarily ideal for the rest of the residents but feels it is a natural evolution and cannot necessarily be stopped from happening. Commissioner Piper stated that based on the design and everything that she is seeing, she thinks the house is very tasteful and would fit in the neighborhood, even with a second story. She noted that the view impact from Ms. Bengtson's property is pretty significant; however, while she did not go into Ms. Bengtson's backyard when she visited the area, she is really struggling with this because it appears that this is not actually a direct view. She stated that one would have to turn left and face west to get to this particular view. She added that she assumes the view is not visible from the house and that one would actually have to be in the yard to see the view; she asked staff if that would be a correct assumption. Ms. Wallis confirmed that the views that would be impacted are from Ms. Bengtson's backyard. Commissioner Piper continued that based on the diagrams, it does seem like the views are significantly impacted from Ms. Bengtson's backyard. She indicated, however, that this is the only thing that would really make her deny this addition altogether, and she is not in favor of doing that because she does believe that a second story, particularly with this design, is very reasonable for the neighborhood. She stated that she would like to continue the item and have the homeowners try to work this out. Chair O'Connor noted that the Commissioners have differences of opinion. He stated that he knows this neighborhood well and knows that it is primarily single story but that it is also zoned for second story homes. He added, however, that part of what the Planning Commission is allowed to look at is how this addition /remodel would fit into the neighborhood and how it would be or not be in harmony with adjoining homes. He added that one other thing the Commission is allowed to look at in the design is whether or not it can be mitigated or if as much of the view as possible can be preserved through architectural design and such. He noted that viewscapes are always difficult, and there are no view easements in this neighborhood. Chair O'Connor agreed with a lot of what Commissioner Allen stated and added that he does not think the actual architectural style of this home fits the neighborhood. He noted that he has seen a lot of single -story neighborhoods that have gone to second -story additions, but they have kept within the style of the neighborhood. He stated that this addition is very different and when he went out and actually saw the story poles, he found the roof to be a lot higher than he was originally led to believe. Chair O'Connor stated that he thinks there is a way to compromise and mitigate with the neighbors. He indicated that rather than deny the application outright, he would also like to have this go back and have the applicant work with the neighbors to see if some PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, August 13, 2014 Page 11 of 32