Picture coming home after a long days’ work, pouring a glass of
your favorite beverage, going outside, dropping into a favorite
lounge chair and slowly sipping your drink while counting the
various colors in the western sky
– purples, blues, oranges, yellows, grays and pinks as the sun
sinks down in the west.
Picture coming home after a long days’ work, pouring a glass of your favorite beverage, going outside, dropping into a favorite lounge chair and slowly sipping your drink while counting the various colors in the western sky – purples, blues, oranges, yellows, grays and pinks as the sun sinks down in the west. Oh, the enjoyment of Gilroy summer evening sunsets viewed from your own backyard over an open field to highlight the effect. How relaxing. How calming. How wonderful. How subject to change without notice!
For some long time Gilroy residents, that beautiful picture is now in the annals of memory lane, for they’ve recently seen the last of those beautiful sunsets enjoyed for so many years. Within the last month, as roof construction has been completed on the new two-story houses located on the east side of the new Warmington Homes development community (being built off of Kern Avenue) the “coffin lid” as it were, has been nailed down on that once-upon-a-time beautiful sunset view. Now it’s gone forever.
I can verify the fact that it’s gone forever. I took a personal tour at sunset to see for myself, after an invitation from Crystal Mickler, one of the property owners affected by these new homes. And I discovered there’s no doubt about it, these new homes have a definite sunshine impact on the existing properties just as Mrs. Mickler wrote in her letter to The Dispatch on July 15. And since these new homes are so high and so close to their property, the Micklers will also get to experience the noise from these new homes bouncing into their backyard. I only hope for the Mickler’s sake, that their new neighbors aren’t fans of loud music.
Now some people might say about the Mickler’s situation, too bad, tough break, or it’s just a sign of Gilroy’s growing pains – and if you don’t like it, sell your property and move somewhere else. But that seems too harsh and fast on the draw, especially when you’re not the one who has to bear the brunt of this mess.
After all, it seems reasonable that somebody in the Gilroy Planning Department might have done some ‘out-o-the-box’ thinking about the shadow implications of building new two-story homes on substantially elevated landfill (thus becoming as it were the height of a three-plus story home), especially when these new homes are packed as far up to the back property line as building code allows. Was there any kind of an environmental impact study done by the city regarding this new Warmington Homes community? Was there any kind of meeting where the neighbors could voice their concerns and questions, or find out more information about this new development? From what I can gather, there was not.
While Mrs. Mickler wrote that she personally visited City Hall and the Planning Department, where “one very important City of Gilroy employee, said something like, ‘I don’t think we took into consideration the impact of what it would do to your homes!’ ” that’s hardly any consolation now.
So my question is, will the fact of this situation be a wake-up call for the Planning Department to do their homework for future new housing developments of two-story homes in the middle of existing one-story homes, and establish a sun shadow policy? Or will it be business as usual, with no clue to even considering any kind of sun shadow impact? In this day and age of being so environmentally correct, doesn’t it seem reasonable for our city to have some policy in place regarding sun shadow effects?
By the way, in case you can’t guess, a sun shadow study generally produces a document that provides a visual model and written description of the impact of shadows cast by a proposed development on adjacent streets, parks and properties.These studies are done to evaluate the impact of shadows at various times of day, through the year.
Searching the City of Gilroy’s Web site, I found nothing about sun shadow studies. The only “shadow” reference is under demographics, stating that Santa Clara County a generation ago, was an area that stood in the economic and cultural shadows of its northern neighbor, San Francisco.
So beware, all you Gilroy home owners who have vacant west-side land next to your property. In Gilroy’s growing housing market, you too might find that your sunsets will soon vanish into the realms of memory, thanks to a new two-story house coming to your neighborhood.
