The Cupertino Courier
News
Council approves limits on homes on hillsides
By Crystal Lu
The Cupertino City Council unanimously approved hillside protection standards for 16 properties of more than 20,000 square feet each, categorized as R1-20, on Lindy Lane Knoll.
The approved standards, adopted Sept. 18, address house size, grading, fencing, retaining walls and tree protection and are aimed at implementing a longstanding General Plan policy to protect Cupertino's hillsides.
The council elected to exclude smaller 10,000-square-foot parcels located at the base of the hillsides because these sites are smaller and flatter and development will not significantly impact the hillsides.
The ordinance will become law following its second reading in October.
While the new ordinance requires hillside development standards for the R1-20 residences on the Lindy Lane Knoll, it allows the property owners the flexibility to vary from the standards after providing public notice to the neighborhood and going through and receiving an approval from the planning commission.
More than 10 residents spoke on the issue at the Sept. 18 council meeting.
Ron Berdi, whose property in the RHS zone is under hillside regulations, said the same standards should be applied to the properties on the Lindy Lane Knoll because they are on a hill.
The R1-10 and R1-20 residences along the foothills of Cupertino were not required to meet any hillside standards for decades. They were treated as flat-land properties until the city council passed an ordinance known as the 15 percent RHS overlay in 2005 to impose some of the hillside standards on lots with an average slope of 15 percent or greater.
Affected residents oppose the 15 percent RHS overlay because they believe it restricts their property rights and may diminish their property values.
Sherry Fang, one of the R1-20 residents, said the overlay zoning was unjust and violated the 14th Amendment.
Fang's husband, council candidate Mark Santoro, spoke on behalf of the Cupertino Citizens for Fair Government, a grassroots organization. Santoro said the council passed the ordinance in 2005 "without commission input" and before that the neighborhood had been fine without it for more than 40 years.
Santoro had collected more than 100 signatures on a petition against the 15 percent RHS overlay.
"It's unfair to pick out this little area," said resident Bill Couergerich.
"To single out a small subset is wrong," added resident Viranjit Madan.
