Council moves ahead with hillside cap

Alex Coolman

CITY HALL -- The City Council on Tuesday introduced a measure that

would temporarily freeze steep-slope hillside development, a move that

pleased some homeowners and angered would-be developers.

The ordinance would halt for 45 days new home building on lots in some

hillside zones with difficult building conditions. It will go into effect

if approved by a four-fifths vote of the council at its Jan. 2 meeting.

Lots with average slope in excess of 50%, narrower than 80 feet or

requiring more than 1,500 cubic yards of fill would be affected.

Assistant Planning Director Jim Glaser said the temporary measure lays

the groundwork for the creation of a permanent ordinance controlling

hillside development. The permanent cap could be approved as soon as

March or April of 2001.

That’s good news to people like Chevy Chase Homeowners Assn. Vice

President Dick Murray, who spoke to the council on the subject of

hillside building.

“It’s fair to the developers and fair to the homeowners” to codify

what the city’s requirements are for erecting homes on steep lots, Murray

said.

But not everyone is thrilled.

Development consultant Marlene Roth, speaking Tuesday night,

characterized the city’s move as “really a rather drastic measure.”

She said existing design review measures, such as requiring

conditional-use permits for steep lots, are adequate to preserve the

character of neighborhoods.

“You don’t need to change the rules, you need to do better

enforcement.”

On the other hand, Roth said, if the city is pushing for a stricter

development policy, it may be best to have that policy clearly spelled

out.

“If [existing rules] don’t reflect what the City Council feels should

be approved and people are misled into filing applications thinking

they’ll get an approval, then the regulations should reflect what the

City Council wants,” she said.

Ramon Ter-Oganesya, a medical student, told the council he’s caught in

just the situation described by Roth. He owns hillside property in

Glendale on a lot with a steep slope, and hopes eventually to build and

settle there.

“It’s all we can afford,” he said. “I have worked too hard and exerted

too much energy for someone to stand in front of me and my American

Dream.”

Though steep-slope development has been the target of much abuse at

recent council meetings, it is hardly unusual in the Glendale hills.

Chevy Chase area streets such as Cascadia Drive and Saint Andrews

Drive are lined with homes whose steep lots are girded by extensive

retaining walls or propped up with networks of stilts.

Kennington Drive features more than one home that seems to plunge off

the edge of a cliff. One roof line in the area is set at street level,

with the home itself sprawling down into the adjacent ravine.