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Notice of Public Hearing

We received out Notice of Public Hearing on Saturday, 22 September. This was required because we need to put something on top of the retaining walls to keep people from falling down 4 - 5'.

We haven't hit the hearing yet, but it's been a bit of a process so far. No one mentioned that we needed have a conditional fence permit when we got our plans approved & permits issued It didn't come up until 6 June when our permit was rescinded. OK, we apply for the permit on 20 June. I was told the public hearing would occur in 4 - 6 weeks. On 30 July I talk to the city. I'm told everything is moving along.

14 August

I talk with the city again. I figure since we're already on the way to public hearing, we should ask for everything we want. The most they can say is, ``no.''. All we need to do is hand-modify the existing plans (all 6 copies of them) showing exactly what we want.

20 August

I talk with the city yet again to make sure everything is being done correctly. So far so good.

21 August

I take the latest modifications in. These include rough elevations, where we plan to put fences and the type we want to use. I've talked with both neighbors at this point and think everyone will be happy.

17 September

I talk to the city again to confirm that all is well.

Here's the notice of public hearing:

1 October

Our public hearing was postponed for two weeks. Last Thursday (27 September), the people from Santa Cruz Planning went to the site & could not resolve what I had given them with what they saw. They also asked for more drawings, which is pretty much how I spent my weekend. The new hearing should be 17 October.

17 October

The public hearing finally happened! Not a lot to say, but here's how it went: we were first on the agenda since we were postponed two weeks ago. I got to the podium & pointed out some inconsistencies to the Zoning Administrator, namely:

• Finding #1: ``As conditioned, the proposed fence is reasonably necessary for the full use and enjoyment of the property, as it will provide privacy and security for the bedrooms exposed to High Street.''
  ---> Well, the bedrooms, as well as the rest of the house, are about four miles from High St. so this particular fence isn't going to provide much protection there. Apparently, while reading ``Laveaga Rd.'' the person typed ``High St.'' Anyone could have done that.
• Exhibit ``A'': ``...and a 6-foot high extension to the existing 6-foot high fence...''
  ---> No, we're putting a 7 1/2' high fence on our retaining wall, behind the existing 6' high fence. Since the retaining wall is about 4 1/2' high, this will provide the illusion of a 6' fence.

So, after discussing this with the zoning administrator, he postponed our part of the hearing to the end of the meeting to give our neighbors time to show up.

The end of the meeting rolls around (30 minutes later, there were only three of us at the meeting), none of our neighbors shows up so the conditional fence permit is granted, just as we requested. Now we need to wait two weeks to allow anyone to file an appeal. After that, we need to apply for a building permit (read, more $$$) because the fence height exceeds 6'.

As an aside, both others at the hearing were proposing to add on to existing houses. One of the neighbors got up and droned on for 20 minutes about how there's been construction on various projects in his neighborhood for the last 2 years and he's tired of the noise. Argh!

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