Correspondence - PH #34 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Good evening, Council members and Mayor. My name is Sonja Melching. My family has Lived directly adjacent to the south side of the appLicant's property since 2009. From our backyard, we can see nearly the entirety of the applicant's backyard and we have truly enjoyed the artistic and historical beauty they have created to honor their culture. We have had several discussions with the applicant regarding placement of the moon pavilion, and they have been proactive to honor both the impact to us in terms of visibility into and from our back yard. They have worked to honor the demands of the concerned neighbors and, most importantly, they have met the city's requirements. We fully support our neighbor's right to enhance their private property while complying with the city's ordinances, and we believe the Planning Commission and city staff performed their due diligence and correctly approved the CUP. I love our neighborhood, and we have fantastic neighbors all around us. Many of us often use our homes and yards to host friends and have parties that range from pure fun to graduation and birthday parties, to political and non-profit fundraisers, to name a few examples. From the flyer I received from the concerned neighbors, it seems that the focus of their concerns is the traffic generated by the applicant's gatherings and whether some of the gatherings fall under the code for homeowners. Personally, I don't find their gatherings to generate any more traffic than some of the parties my husband and I have hosted in the past. And the applicant's gatherings only happen a couple of times a year during the daytime, so they are not disruptive to us at all. In fact, our neighborhood association fully closes down our street several times a year for parties, and don't get me wrong - I love those events, but I do find the street closures much more of an inconvenience than if someone parks in front of my home to go to the applicant's home. I suggest that if the concerned neighbors feel that the types of gatherings hosted are beyond the scope of what is allowed for all homeowners in the city code, that they pursue working with the applicants to get permits for any non -code compliant gatherings. But as far as this CUP application is concerned, it's approval sets no precedent since all CUP's are reviewed for their own merits, and will only enhance the decorative theme the applicants already have. The city staff and Planning Commission have done their due diligence, and I ask you to trust the judgement of your own staff.