Elbow room for families -- just right the second time?

Last Monday (April 23rd) the City Council unanimously adopted a revised plan for the Aldea Hermosa housing proposal in the Saticoy and Wells area. The plan had been through numerous reviews and when it first came to the Council last month, the Council voted 5-1 for to ask the developer to revise the project (see “Not Too Hot, Not Too Cold” posting), imposing a minimum lot width of 40 feet.

That original vote triggered quite a response. Some decried the Council “at the last minute” making changes to a project that had been through numerous commission and staff reviews over several years, leading up to final Council consideration. Others lamented that the project was not scaled back even further. An impassioned plea from the project’s major investor was headlined in the paper, further adding to the commotion.

What a difference a month makes. The developer’s architect simply presented the new plan and expressed the hope that it met the direction of the Council. One neighbor spoke out against approval. The Council voted unanimously to approve the project as redesigned.

So was the change significant? Did it make for a better project? See the attached location finder, side by side site plans, sample elevations of what the smaller homes will look like and a detail of the private space expansion in the redesigned project:

http://www.cityofventura.net/cmblog/aldea_hermosa/

You be the judge. As originally proposed, the project had 50 single-family homes. Twenty-one were larger homes on lots ranging from 4004 to 6155 square feet (nine of which also had small second-units above the garages that could be used by the owners or rented as “granny flats.”) The remaining 29 units were on smaller lots (2520 to 3740 square feet.) Fourteen of those (or more than a quarter of the total homes in the project were on lots smaller than 2880 square feet.

What concerned the Council was the size of usable private space for the families on such small lots. Each had what amounts to a side patio between their homes and the home next door (an easement accomplishes the same purpose as a “zero lot line” which gives all the space between homes to one owner rather than divide it up into two five foot wide strips.) By widening the lots to a minimum of 40 feet width, it increased the size of the sideyards, in some cases by more than 100 square feet (from 560 to 678) and in others by more than 200 square feet (from 539 to 743.)

For those used to looking out their back yard at 2000 square feet of patio and lawn (or a pool), even the revised numbers may seem absurdly skimpy. But from the standpoint of today's smaller families facing whopping mortgages, the extra elbow room may make a substantial difference.

Ideally, the project wouldn't have gotten this far without the change. But we don't yet live in an ideal world. As we work to apply the grand vision of protecting our farm land and hillsides from being paved over while still providing new homes for today's families, we are faced with some tough choices. Aldea Hermosa is just one square in a much larger quilt. But it may be a little more special example of achieving our vision, one neighborhood and one project at a time.