City of Redondo Beach Tom Wooge
415 Diamond Street 3307 Johnston Avenue
Redondo Beach, CA 90277 . Redondo Beach, CA 90278
1 April, 2023
Re: Residential Objective Standards
Dear City Planning Dept,
Further to the Design Guideline issues raised previously, the Objective Standards proposed also spur some concerns and suggestions as follow:
Objective Standards as Proposed
A. General Standards
Setbacks Minimum
Front: setback second story +10-ft more than required front setback ⦁ A visual rejection of the possibility that a coherent shape may be more beneficial to the building's design.
⦁ Forced terraced "wedding cake" mass aesthetic is personal at best. ⦁ Enforced uniformity is not necessarily beneficial; "to commit a sin twice does not make it less of a sin."
⦁ Additional front setback of the second story shifts bulk to the rear where it greatly impacts neighbors' bedroom and backyard privacy to the sides.
Nobody has privacy issues in the front.
⦁ In suburban neighborhoods, the wide streets and front yards create a spatial vacuum, 100-ft wide between facing houses of only up to 30-ft tall makes it difficult to even see both sides in one view if there are trees and certainly not a scale or privacy issue.
Terracing is more meaningful on narrow urban streets: the world famous central street of terraced homes on Acoma Pueblo, NM are only 20-ft apart as the cosmic center of the universe and civilization, -the oldest continuously inhabited site in North America.
⦁ Seismic earthquake safety standards encourage continuity of second story exterior walls down to the foundations. Inconsistent setbacks make tortured structures which, though expensively engineered to current building codes, 1 have only a fraction of the safety of rational design. ⦁ Modular pre-fabricated construction is frustrated by inconsistent setbacks. ⦁ To achieve an arbitrary stepped effect, it would be far kinder to reward a covered front entry porch with accommodation in a possible 6-ft reduction of the front setback. Soft Power outperforms evil coercion! ⦁ Concern about house-fronts not being in-line along the street should be addressed by optional extended open front porches, as apparently desired by the planning department.
⦁ Suggest making a required percentage of gross second floor setback area based on first floor footprint, to be distributed as preferred to best support the overall house design.
Side: setback of second story +2-ft average more than each side setback ⦁ Aggregated setback becomes a prohibited side balcony (see below). ⦁ Even if they are not easily accessible balconies, they will look like ones from the neighbor's point of view; -imagined threats to privacy are more threatening than actual visibility of neighbors.
⦁ Diminishing efficiency of room disposition in a reduced width significantly increases the actual area / bulk needed.
⦁ Many other concerns regarding a front setback also apply to the sides, particularly structural and modular continuity issues.
Other Standards
Front Entry: shall be within 3'-6" of front of front-facing garage ⦁ The tall & skinny R-1A houses are wall-to-wall garage with no opportunity for a visible entry, measured in any direction.
Balconies: Interior Lots: no side-facing balconies
⦁ Too late; side setbacks above have already required side-facing virtual balconies.
Modular Construction Standards (Pre-fabricated)
Building Materials: Metal, Precast Concrete, Wood, Brick, Stone 2 ⦁ Brick and Stone are unsuitable for pre-fabricated structures, unless used as wallpaper, a tacky veneer.
Design Guidelines: extra 6' front setback
⦁ Instead allow 6-ft extra encroachment, as a front porch.
Limit corrugated metal panel to 2/3 front facade area
⦁ In the shadow of the Northrop Grumman highrise manufacturing buildings, corrugated metal panels from ground to sky, and beyond, are the dominant environment.
Hillside / Sloping Lot Standards
c. Corner lots, sloping downward front to back, garage access shall be from side ⦁ A terrible idea which places the garage caddy-wompass to the world, a barrier to the California suburban lifestyle ideal connection of indoor and outdoor living areas flowing through the house to backyard. ⦁ The only benefit is to reduce boring consistency of front facades along the block.
d. & e. Why require front door anyway adjacent to garage? ⦁ Garage users may open a convenient interior door.
⦁ Proximity just encourages using the driveway as an entry walkway.
C. Basement Standards
Basement Garage restricted
⦁ A basement garage should be allowed in all cases, by way of ramp or car lift.
D. Mezzanine Standards
(Proposed) Definition:
⦁ Mezzanine area(s) should not be tied to 1/3 of the arbitrary overlooked room(s), as they most sensibly occur above collective low supporting areas such as bathrooms, closets and hallways and may serve as a common attic for storage.
3 ⦁ A mezzanine is generally understood as limited to 1/3 of the relevant floor footprint area and requires two routes of emergency egress, one usually a ceiling hatch/folding stair.
a. not allow both basement garage & mezzanine on upslope lot ⦁ If the 30-ft height limit follows the slope, as defined, why is the name or number of levels relevant?
⦁ Any arbitrary 2-story limit might not make sense on a steep site. b. No plumbing fixture
⦁ This seems a violation of an occupants' interior privacy. d. 2nd story mezzanine to have extra 15' front, 5' side & rear setback ⦁ If the exterior bulk of a home is the concern, the interior should be free to resolve the most elegantly efficient solution. A sensible mezzanine can greatly reduce second story footprint -and diminish perceived bulk where it really matters!
f. Mezzanine + roof decks limit 500sf
⦁ A mezzanine should simply be limited to 1/3 of the relevant floor footprint. ⦁ A roof deck may be limited, but why? A rooftop swimming pool is the height of luxury and privacy.
F. Single-Family Parking Standards
d. Corner Lots: No curb cut allowed on front
⦁ Same as for sloping lots, above, a side street curb cut places parking at the rear of the house which severs the important connection of indoors to outdoor backyard living areas that define the California good life.
Alley Access
a. Two covered parking spaces shall be provided with access from alley ⦁ Rear parking intrudes on precious backyard living area. ⦁ Detached garage requires walking through weather to reach a home and should never be a requirement.
4 Tandem Parking was discussed by the planning commission which proposed to eliminate tandem spaces as counting toward required parking. ⦁ Tandem parking is often the most efficient and beneficial use of site area and greatly improves the exterior appearance through garage door reduction. ⦁ Tandem parking is so beneficial that the otherwise required double wide driveway should be allowed anyway if needed for parking; equivalent to what would otherwise be available.
⦁ The expressed concern that a tandem garage could be used for storage with displaced vehicles outside would also apply to double-wides. Autonomous cars, as a service, are expected to greatly reduce the number of private cars permanently on site, a major benefit for tandem area conversion.
G. Front Yard and Parkways: Landscaping Standards
Trees in R-1 zone shall be preserved
⦁ The City Public Works Dept. cut down my 30-yr old Acacia tree, on private property, well back from the parkway, without notice or permission. This standard must work both ways.
I. R1 Character Area Standards
TRW Tract Roof Decks Prohibited on properties less than 120' depth. ⦁ The Tract is subdivided into orthogonal streets with 110-ft deep lots and diagonal streets with 120-ft deep lots, so that half would be permitted roof decks and half prohibited from having them! Makes no sense.
In summary, many objective requirements have capricious penalties when applied without sufficient consideration of implications in possible cases. As variances would be needed for unforeseen or unequal hardships, the time and cost to the public for this remedy should be streamlined.
A clear statement of planning goals and approved subjective standards ought to accompany objective requirements to filter out arbitrary aspects when not relevant or counterproductive.
Sincerely,
Tom Wooge
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