By Clarence Cromwell
The Planning Commission took a step toward preserving hillsides last week when it unanimously denied permission for a huge accessory building, bigger than some houses, on a Santa Rosa Drive lot.
Sanjeev and Deepa Chitre hoped to build a 3,367-square-foot building behind their 4,133-square-foot house. The structure would have contained five bathrooms, a large recreation and party room, sauna, home gym, two guest rooms, nanny's quarters, library and a home office.
"I wanted to have something of a structure where we could have a few guests and entertain people," Sanjeev Chitre said.
But commissioners said that with three bedrooms, five baths and a kitchenette, the building amounted to another house on the property.
The hillside zoning in the Chitres' neighborhood allows one house for every 2.5 acres, and they already have a house on their 2.49-acre lot. Accessory buildings are permitted by the zoning code, but the commission must find that they are "subordinate" and "incidental" to the main house.
Commissioner Kathryn Morgan said calling the building an accessory structure "subverts the intent of the code." Most accessory buildings approved in the area have been between 500 and 1,000 square feet, according to town planner Kristine Syskowski.
Members of the commission likewise hesitated to allow the heavy grading the project required to keep the peak of the building lower than 15 feet, the height limit for accessory structures.
"It's just another example that we need to finish up what we started on tightening up hillside development," Commissioner Michael Abkin said.
Unlike other areas of the town, Los Gatos hillsides are unprotected by a floor-area ratio, a formula used as a guideline to keep large houses off small lots. The ratio is specifically aimed at houses that appear unduly large from the curb. But hillside lots are much larger than flatland lots and generally screened from the road by trees; therefore, a 30-foot height limit for hillside houses is used to prevent massive-looking structures.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, May 15, 1996.
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