The Inverness Association has appealed the Moonrise Kingdom project, a residential development proposed by San Franciscans Trevor and Alexis Traina that the county green-lighted two weeks ago. The group cited a litany of concerns, ranging from the project’s size and potential to impact northern spotted owls to the property’s zoning two weeks ago.
“This house will be built. I don’t think anyone doubts that. And it will be very beautiful; it’s a beautiful property. But zoning rules have to be complied with in this case,” said Catherine Caufield, a member of the association.
The Trainas’ consultant, Sean Kennings, said this week that the concerns in the appeal were addressed during the county’s review and hearing. There, the Deputy Zoning Administrator approved the project with a few caveats: that the tallest structure, called the Windmill, be trimmed to 21 feet and that the number of trees slated for removal be reduced. (The project includes a new home and the legalization of three structures considered significant representations of the handmade house movement, resulting in 8,500 total square feet.)
But the appeal asserts that there are unresolved problems. The Windmill, visible from the Perth Trail, would still surpass the county’s 15-foot height limit for accessory structures; it is also not “clustered with the new residence,” it states. Ms. Caufield said removing it would ameliorate visual and scale concerns. (Mr. Kennings characterized that as a demand to “remove a landmark structure that has existed for over 30 years.”) The scope of the project is also “out of scale” with the neighborhood, the association argued—a point debated at the hearing. Nor does the plan go far enough to avoid harming birds, specifically the northern spotted owl, the appeal states. A couple in the neighborhood wrote in a letter to the county that they have heard northern spotted owls in the direction of the property, and the National Park Service documented one owl in a nearby drainage this year and a nesting pair in the drainage in 2014, according to park biologist Dave Press.
To avoid impacts, the Trainas’ planning team said construction would begin before nesting season, with the idea that the action would dissuade owls from nesting, allowing construction to continue. Ms. Caufield said construction either needed to cease during nesting season or the permit should require a survey before the season to see if the birds are present. The appeal also said the septic plan—which the county’s environmental health department approved—locates the leachfield near the site of a former landslide; a neighbor brought that concern to the initial hearing.
Perhaps the most complicated issue the association raised revolves around the zoning of one of the property’s two parcels. County staff labeled the parcel coastal-A2, or C-A2, but association member Bridger Mitchell said at the hearing that such a label doesn’t exist. Based on his understanding of the zoning history, the parcel was likely zoned for open space in the ‘80s, when the new Local Costal Program necessitated a re-designation of parcels. (A map had also listed part of the parcel as open space for some decades.) Open space zoning would prohibit residential development, and though the Trainas’ home would not be built on that parcel, two existing structures are located on it. Mr. Bridger called for a Planning Commission hearing to make a determination on the zoning to clarify allowed uses on the property.
But the Community Development Agency’s director, Brian Crawford, defended the unique zoning to the Light this week. He said that the property was initially zoned A2, a common rural zoning district in the ‘60s. Although C-A2 is not listed in county tables, the creation of the coastal zone in the ’80s did not alter the underlying zoning. “What that means is that we have one C-A2 zoned parcel” in the county, he said. An appeal hearing is tentatively scheduled for Feb. 13.