Palo Alto city officials have rejected a tentative settlement and instead are encouraging a developer that plans to build 14 homes behind the Hyatt Cabana Hotel to drop a lawsuit against the city and hotel neighbors.
The developer, Glenbrook Court Limited Liability Company, had reached a tentative settlement with the Greenacres I neighborhood in August. But the settlement depended on the city's participation.
The Palo Alto City Council, however, decided in closed session Nov. 25 that the issues raised in the lawsuit should be dealt with during the public hearings on the development proposal, and urged the developer to drop the lawsuit.
"By taking that position, unless the developer dismisses (the lawsuit), the city is forcing all of our homeowners to go to court," said Kent Mitchell, attorney for the Greenacres board.
Mitchell, Glenbrook Court's attorney Chilton Lee, and Palo Alto architect Tony Carrasco, a managing member of Glenbrook Court, had plans to meet last Monday afternoon to discuss what to do. Carrasco said he expected they would make a decision by the end of this week.
The lawsuit names all 153 homeowners in the neighborhood and seeks to dissolve the residents' claim to a one-foot-wide strip of land at the end of Glenbrook Drive next to the property line of the 10-acre Cabana site. Residents don't want roads or bike and pedestrian paths to connect their quiet neighborhood to El Camino Real, and claim they can grant or deny access across the strip.
The strip was a major point of contention in an earlier development proposal for the whole hotel property. That proposal, for 93 homes, was withdrawn when B.B. Patel bought the hotel in the spring.
Glenbrook Court has submitted an application to build 14 homes on a new cul-de-sac to be called Glenbrook Court. The cul-de-sac and homes would be built on 3.5 acres at the back of the hotel property. Carrasco is also working with Patel to remodel the hotel, which faces El Camino Real at the Los Altos border.
In the tentative settlement, the residents agreed to give Glenbrook Court an easement as long as the property deeds for the new homes prevented any future access to El Camino.
The developer filed the lawsuit under the belief that the city wanted the one-foot access issue resolved, and that a lawsuit was the only practical way to do so.
Last month, a dozen Greenacres residents asked the City Council to formally discuss the issue.
"We urge the City Council to review this matter to save the homeowners, the City and the developer time and money," Greenacres board member Gloria Kreitman wrote to the council. "How often do we have a situation where the neighbors and a developer agree on a development proposal?"
Instead, the council met in closed session and decided that the settlement "would force the Council to make premature policy decisions about the proposed development of the Cabana site."
"I understand their (the developer and residents) point of view," said Senior Assistant City Attorney Debra Cauble, "but from a city perspective, the city is being asked to agree to certain policy decisions that are supposed to occur during the public hearing process."
"Needless to say I was very disappointed at the council's lack of willingness to address these issues," Mitchell said. "Now (the city) will have to decide in court because the court will make them address it."
Glenbrook Court plans to submit more information on its development proposal to the city by Monday. Part of that package will include a bike and pedestrian path.
"We'll probably submit it because it's a requirement," Carrasco said. "The neighbors are not very happy about us including it. We're trying to work it out with Kent Mitchell as well as Ken Schreiber (director of planning)."
--Heather Rock Woods
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