For several years, residents of The Oaks and members of the Oaks Homeowners Association (OHA) Board have been concerned with out-of-scale development in our neighborhood – new houses that are much larger than the existing homes around them.   We presented the issue to our membership at the OHA’s Annual Meeting a year ago.  After discussions with City Council District 4 and the Planning Department, we soon found out that there are no existing city regulations to protect our neighborhood from these out-of-scale developments.

Since that time your Board has taken a more active role in understanding and coping with the massive new development taking place all over our neighborhood.  In the spring of 2006, we embarked on a detailed survey of the existing conditions in the neighborhood: the sizes of homes, the sizes of lots and so forth – in order to document what gives The Oaks its character as a neighborhood.  Using data from the city’s own records we compiled data that showed the average home size and the average floor-to-area ratio (the ratio of a home’s size in square feet to its lot size in square feet or FAR) of all the homes in The Oaks.  

We have since taken this comprehensive survey to the City’s Planning Department in an effort to work with them to create a set of regulations that protect the existing character of the neighborhood. We have limited our discussion of “character” to out-of-scale developments -- homes that are much larger than that of the neighborhood while also being on smaller and often steeper lots. Our goal has been to create a simple set of regulations that allows everyone to build a new home or add to an existing home, but within the scale of what exists in The Oaks. Our goal has also been to limit the possibilities of overscaled homes by making sure that when large homes are built, they are built on large lots.

Because of the lengthy legislative process the formulation of these new guidelines will take, and in recognition of our need for a timely solution, the Planning Department suggested the implementation of an Interim Control Ordinance or ICO (as we reported to you in a June, 2006 article on the OHA’s web site, www.oakshome.org).  An ICO, which would last for one year (and could possibly be renewed for a second year) would put a temporary stop to out-of-scale development by instituting a floor-to-area ratio (FAR) limit for new development.  The ICO might also specify acceptable setbacks from the street, but in general it would be very simple – only two or three points – and it would in no way attempt to regulate architectural style or other aesthetic matters. 

Currently the Planning  Department, at our request, is writing a proposal for an ICO for The Oaks.  When we gather at the Oaks Annual Meeting on Monday, March 12th, representatives of the Planning Department will be in attendance to answer your questions and to hear your thoughts on how the ICO ought to be constructed.   We hope you’ll attend and let us know what you think. 

I think everyone can agree, it’s important that we preserve the character of The Oaks -- the generous open spaces between houses, the lush cover of oak and pine trees, the balance between buildings and landscape.  These are the things that drew all of us here and why so many of us stay here for decades.