Pike property under review by commission

The city’s refusal for years to approve numerous applications for a sub-division of his property stirred Gale Pike’s pique, so he sued the city.

Settlement of a lawsuit paved the way for a new application — although without any guarantees of approval.

The planning commission reviewed at the June 11 meeting a draft environmental report prepared by a city consultant on Pike’s latest proposal and found it only slightly wanting. Commissioners continued the hearing until a special meeting at 7 p.m., Sept. 19, with a request for some revisions to the report.

“They really just wanted an elaboration of information already in the draft EIR, which is just an informational document, not an approval of a project,” said Senior Planner Scott Drapkin, who prepared the staff report for the commission review.

Pike wants to divide his 13.3-acre property off of Thurston Drive into six parcels: 4.1 acres divided into three residential building sites; 9.0 acres dedicated to public open space; 0.1 acre of private open space and 0.1 acre for the extension of Thurston Drive approximately 200 feet with new paving, a cul-de-sac, retaining walls and on-street parking.

Thurston Drive currently exceeds the allowable length of 750 feet and does not have a turn-around. The proposed project would add another 200 feet, for a total length of 950 feet.

A variance for the extra length requires “findings,” as the legal justifications are called.

The findings include a fire department review of the application and certification that emergency access and provisions to protect the health and safety of the community have been established.

The construction of houses are not proposed in Pike’s application. However, the potential impact of the construction of three homes is addressed in the environmental review.

Pike’s property is located in the Temple Hills residential neighborhood, at the end of Thurston Drive, a private street in the residential/hillside protection zone.

The existing pavement ends just before the project site and the property is bordered by residences on the east, west and south, and by Park Avenue to the west.

The parcel is designated in the city’s General Plan as a high-value habitat and significant natural water course.

Previous applications have been submitted with various configurations for residential development, none of which were approved.

The three lots proposed for residences in the latest application all have adequate road frontages and vary in size from 40,406 to 80,452 square feet, well above the 14,500 square-foot minimum allowed in the zone.

They comply with minimum depth standards, maximum standards for hillside development and are less than the total of 24 building sites that may be served by a dead-end street, terminated with turn-around.

However, the city requires one on-street parking space for every 50 feet of residential lot frontage, in this case three.

Neighbors objected to proposed parking in the cul-de-sac as a detriment to their quality of life and to the additional burden on Thurston Drive.

“The purpose of the commission hearing was to provide initial comments on the adequacy of the draft EIR and to identify areas we thought should be expanded,” Planning Commissioner Norm Grossman said.

Commission comments will be included in a response document, which is required for certification of the final environmental report.

A complete copy of the staff report on the application is available for review at City Hall or at www.lagunabeachcity.net.

A notice of preparation of the draft environmental report was distributed on Feb. 28, 2006, for a 30-day review period.

A public scoping meeting was held March 22, 2006.

Public comments within the scope of the California Environmental Quality Act are addressed in the draft.

Comments on the draft received during the comment period from May 9 to June 25, 2007, will be responded to in the final environmental document.