Dear Mayor Wolosin and City Council members,
As you are aware I am a former Environmental Quality Commissioner (2-time chair) and am a co-founder and Board Chair of Menlo Spark. I am grateful to you, to Staff, and to the EQC for addressing unforeseen issues in our city zoning regulations that are inhibiting the ability of residents to adopt all-electric water heaters and heat pumps. With one relatively minor edit, I believe that the recommendations from staff do an outstanding job of optimizing the discretion of residents for installing these appliances in their garages should that prove to be the optimal (or in some cases the only feasible) location on their property.
The EQC’s original recommendation (passed unanimously was to “not put any restrictions in the garage at all for electrification equipment.” The notion behind this was that it makes the most sense to let homeowners decide how to optimize their own garage/parking space. The city can still keep its “no overnight parking on the street” by messaging and ticketing, as is the current practice.
I’ve learned from some neighbors that allowing up to two 3x3 feet encroachments is doable in the garage, albeit just barely, as they’ve been told by installation experts that 3x is the minimum space needed for HPWH tanks. An ideal policy would be to not enforce the 3x3 limit, thereby allowing homeowners to configure their space as best fits their needs.
As a modest change to the staff language, I recommend removing the requirement that 3x3 encroachments also be on the “back” wall defined as the wall opposite the vehicle entry). It seems to me that this requirement adds more restriction and therefore administrative burdens at permitting. Again, I’d like to see homeowners having the chance to make their own space optimization decisions free from these proposed constraints.
Please consider these changes to the text from the staff report:
“Staff reviewed the Planning Commission recommendation to provide additional flexibility for equipment installed in garages and incorporated changes to the proposed ordinance (Attachment A) to allow up to two three-foot-by-three-foot encroachments for electric equipment anywhere along the wall opposite the vehicle entrance to the covered parking (“back wall”). The back wall was identified as a way to generally maintain vehicle parking, while providing additional flexibility to account for a variety of existing conditions (e.g., doors, water heater, windows, etc.) and limiting administrative burden during permit review.”
Thank you very much for doing everything you are able to ease the conversion of our existing homes to all-electric.
Mitch Slomiak
29-year Menlo Park resident
_________________________________
Mitchel J. Slomiak
Chair, Advisory Board
Menlo Spark
[FFD72D53-DF9C-4392-B6B3-71E5E73ED950[50].jpg]
Achieving Climate Neutrality as a Community
