REPORT TO PLANNING COMMISSION
SUBJECT
Title
Public Hearing: Action on a Rezoning and Minor Modification at 554 Saratoga Avenue
Report
BACKGROUND
On March 9, 2018, Jane Armstrong, filed an application to rezone an 8,500 square foot property located at the northwest corner of Scott Boulevard and Saratoga Avenue from Professional Office (OA) to Single Family Zoning District (R1-6L) in order to allow residential use of the property. The existing OA Zoning District does not allow single-family residential dwellings as a permitted or conditional use under Santa Clara City Code Chapter 18.30.
The site is occupied by an existing 1,651 square foot one-story office building constructed in 1976. A single-family residential neighborhood is immediately adjacent to the north of the site. Diagonally from the project site is a professional office building and east of the site is a recently constructed condominium development
The existing building on the site is situated with a 16 foot 3 inch front yard setback and four foot and nine inches interior side yard setback. Because the minimum front yard setback of the R1-6L District is 20 feet and the interior side yard is five feet, the proposed rezoning would also require approval of a Minor Modification, normally processed as an administrative action. In this case the Minor Modification is scheduled for City Council action to coincide with the proposed rezoning.
DISCUSSION
The property owner has leased the property as an office since its original construction. Over the years, the tenants converted the floor plan to use the building as a mixed commercial and residential use with neither the benefit of a building permit nor the owner's consent. No formal correction case was generated at this time because the applicant is proactively taking steps to bring the property into compliance with applicable City requirements, including the subject requests to rezone the property and an accompanying application for building permit...
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