Burlingame 'McMansion' baffles neighbors (By Mike Rosenberg, Daily News Staff Writer)
Some Burlingame residents are questioning the effectiveness of the city's crackdown on oversized residences after officials this week approved a new house that will appear considerably taller as a result of the city's design review.
A new 3 -story, 6,100-square-foot, elevator-equipped house at 2843 Adeline Drive won a height exception and general design approval from the Burlingame Planning Commission this week. The height limit for the currently vacant half-acre parcel is 30 feet, but the house will be constructed on a steep hill and thus rise 63 feet above the street level of Adeline. The property owner originally applied for a home at the base of the hill but was forced by the city to move it up the slope to comply with a code requiring a certain amount of space between the street and the home.
Neighbors of the future home, several of whom live in adjacent unincorporated Burlingame Hills, say the design will block sunlight and views and lower property values. They say the commission's actions prove it's still possible for developers to construct the so-called "McMansions" super-sized homes the city tried to limit years ago by implementing a design review process.
"This McMansion thing is just absurd," said Art Labrie, who has lived next door to the vacant property for the past 28 years and was one of six residents who protested the project on Monday. "All the neighbors are just totally upset about it. I feel it's being shoved down our throats."
Burlingame property owners must undergo a rigorous design review process for new houses, additions and other projects. They must comply with a 12-page list of regulations and an 80-page "neighborhood design guidebook" drafted in 2000 to, among other things, provide caps on home sizes. But the codes sometimes conflict with one another. In the case of the Adeline Drive home, the planning commission's design review forced the property owner to comply with street setback requirements, which in turn moved the house up the hill and made it appear considerably taller from the street and surrounding properties.
The neighbors said they were happy with the initial proposal a year ago to build the house at the base of the hill. Delays resulting from the review process cost the property owner nearly a year's worth of progress on the home, which has been mired in the planning stage for six years.
"It's a tedious process and it's also disappointing because if we built this several years ago it would have been an entirely different economy," said Robert Van Dale, the Adeline home's applicant and an architect with San Francisco-based EDI Architecture. "It's taken forever."
The planning commission was aware there was no way to satisfy both the height and setback requirements given the terrain of the hillside property, forcing a "trade-off," said Community Development Director Bill Meeker. Meeker added that massive houses on small lots are more of a concern, as opposed to the half-acre plot on Adeline.
Council Member Jerry Deal, who helped write the design review code as a planning commissioner, said the review process was designed as a "middle-of-the-road" approach to accommodate neighbors who want caps on home sizes and families who need more space, hence the possibility for variances. "The fact is, design review has worked in an excellent manner," he said. "The houses that are being developed are much smaller than the houses that were being developed before."
Council Member Terry Nagel, who before getting elected organized residents to push for the design review code, said she was not sure whether the regulations have had an effect on the number of McMansions in the city. She said some architects have found clever ways to circumvent the guidelines, such as adding a basement because it does not count toward the home's square footage cap. Nagel said city leaders may discuss updating the code at a joint city council-planning commission meeting slated for March 21."I think we are overdue on our update of design review guidelines," she said.

– Written by Fiona