Publication Date: Friday Oct 17, 1997

FOOTHILLS: Council nixes downzoning in foothills

A proposed open space zoning change for Palo Alto's foothills that would have decreased the allowable density from one unit for every ten acres to one per every 20-160 acres was voted down by the City Council at a special meeting Wednesday afternoon.

The change was recommended by the Planning Commission as part of the revisions to the city's Comprehensive Plan. Commissioner Owen Byrd said it would have allowed the city to conform with the county's zoning for rural areas.

"All we did was suggest that city hillsides be treated the same as county hillsides," Byrd said on Thursday. "The county standard is, in the Planning Commission's view, a better approach to regulating hillside development."

City Attorney Ariel Calonne warned that a recent decision by the California State Supreme Court has made it easier for property owners to claim an illegal "taking" when cities undertake downzoning measures. He said the council needed to have a better reason for the proposed downsizing than simply a desire to keep current with Santa Clara County policy.

"That change shouldn't be done for something as trivial as, quote, consistency with the county," Calonne said. "I'm not saying don't do it, I'm saying explain why it's necessary."

Despite their refusal to further restrict density in the foothills, the council did choose to acknowledge that the city's current urban service boundary could also be referred to as an "urban growth boundary."

While this change does reflect county terminology, council members were quick to point out that the change in the Comprehensive Plan is in name only. "We are not intending by that to make any substantive change to the way we have used the prior wording, which is urban service boundary," said Council member Jean McCown.

Council member Dick Rosenbaum said "it's completely unnecessary to make the proposed zone change," especially because the current zoning--one dwelling for every ten acres--seems to be working well. "I almost feel it's an abuse of government power," Rosenbaum said.

However, according to Greenbelt Alliance, a San Francisco-based open space advocacy group, seven Bay Area communities have adopted urban growth boundaries to contain suburban sprawl and 14 more plan to consider them in the next year.

Palo Alto Planner Virginia Warheit told the council there would be nine property owners and a total of 14 parcels affected by the zoning change. "These are parcels that are 20 acres or greater, meaning that under existing regulations they may expect to (subdivide into) two or more parcels," she said.

Those property owners include the Palo Alto Hills Golf and Country Club, Alta Mesa Memorial Park, Stanford University, Kaiser Cement and developer John Arrillaga, who has a housing project currently in the works.

The council spent more than five hours tackling the Comp Plan, the blueprint for the city until the year 2010. They voted 9-0 to certify the EIR for the plan, and moved through the introduction to the first section on land use. The discussion was continued until Nov. 10.

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