40-Foot Homes Get Commission's OK

Homes planned to be built on land near Commercenter Drive can be up to 40 feet tall instead of 35 feet tall because of a Planning Commission decision Thursday night.

In July 2008, the City Council re-zoned an 82-acre plot of land owned by the Irvine Ranch Water District to accommodate the construction of up to 608 homes. Under that zoning, no residential unit would be taller than 35 feet.

At a , though, Irvine Ranch Water District asked for the height restriction to be loosened to allow "attached residential" units—a category that includes apartments and townhomes—to reach 40 feet in height.

A representative for the planned development told commissioners at that meeting that the extra height would allow for the homes to be built with 9-foot-high ceilings and pitched roofs. Other areas in the city that were recently re-zoned for residential use allow for home heights of up to 45 feet.

"The extra 5 feet of working space just gives the architects more flexibility to design the most attractive and market-accepted products," wrote Joe J. Stucker of developer Louis Operating Corp. in a letter to the city staff.

But the commission on Jan. 13 asked the city staff to gather more information, after resident Julie Curran, whose home overlooks the vacant water district land, said the proposed change would block her family's view.

For Thursday's meeting, the landowner and the city staff showing how the new homes will look from vantage points in the Meadowood neighborhood, the Autumnwood neighborhood and the area of Marin and Wisteria.

"The additional information provided by the applicant indicates that the increased height of 5 feet has relatively minimal effect," according to the staff report.

Commissioners agreed with that finding and voted unanimously to OK the height increase. No members of the nearby neighborhoods attended the meeting.

"In looking at the material that was presented, it becomes clear that some of the concerns that were expressed by the community probably weren't as valid as they initially believed," Commissioner Tim Hughes said. "There were questions about obscuring the views of the mountains and those sort of things, but it's clear from this that we're really not doing that."

The homes in the proposed development, which will be called Serrano Summit, have not yet been designed but will be built in the "Early California" style of architecture. In the staff report for Thursday, the city staff included an explanation of what that style entails: "a full pitched 4:12 roof, articulated building planes, building embellishments such as arcades, balconies, porches and architectural treatments."