PD159-CS 970220 (2) PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION MEETING
FEBRUARY 20, 1997
EXCERPT FROM TOMMY KLINE'S TESTIMONY ON PD-159, ASBURY MANOR
"The gentleman, I didn't catch his name, that answered first, there isn't a 6-foot grade
difference, there's a 15-foot grade difference. This elevation right -- the existing elevation --
this little peak right here is 490; the backside of this alley is 475. We will be moving some
50,000 yards of dirt on this 12-acre site -- it's one of the reasons it hasn't been developed sooner
-- it's a difficult site, but a lot of that dirt will come down to even the site out -- build this up
and level here. We will have to export dirt, okay? Now, I was not around when Cottonwood
Creek was developed. It appears to me that this general area flows back this way to this creek
and down. For whatever reason, the Cottonwood Creek people decided to take their drainage,
which, no problem, they can grade on-site whatever way they want to, but they take it here and
down this way, okay? So their elevations of their lots are high here and Iow here. Now these
people have, I think, some legitimate concerns. I mean, I wouldn't want people looking in my
backyard, either!! But I tried to, I think, to have the engineer to take a real close look at it and
basically, these two lots right here -- there's not a house built here and to my knowledge, there's
not a house built here yet, okay? This lot -- these two lots are 3.8 feet higher than the alley --
than the finished floor of this house when it was built -- I came to the City and got all the
finished floors of all these lots that back up here. But these two lots will be front entry -- they
won't be rear entry, so this will have a fence, you know, out of here and there really won't be
any access back on these two lots here. Now, then, these lots coming around here to this lot
right here are a foot-and-a-half, our lots, are a foot-and-a-half to about two-and-a-half feet higher
than these existing -- and this is finished floor house to finished floor house, okay, so you've
got a little dip here and you have a little dip here as the backyard goes down to the alley. Both
Sowell and we're taking, is that correct? -- we're taking half drainage back here? Yeah, we're
taking half drainage back here coming down the alley in just this part up here and coming down.
Our front is all flowing with the topography of the ground. I mean, we're going to take this --
we're going to take 13 feet off this hill. So this whole site is going to come down and be all
but about two feet higher. Now, as we come across the site from this lot right here to this lot
right there, there's less than a foot of difference in finished floor to finished floor. Now, then,
from this lot here -- those 7 lots -- they're almost 3.6 feet lower here so these people are going
to be looking into our backyards!! So I think really a fair compromise here is if these people
are concerned that come down to this point right here, I've had our engineer do a little site plan
of an 8-foot fence which is allowable in the City -- build an 8-foot fence, a man standing 6 feet
high, his a line of sight, can't look into a window of an opposing house. I'll pass some of those
out in a minute. And we'll take care of an 8-foot fence if our customers so desire on these lots
right here. These lots here shouldn't have any complaint. I mean, I think that's fair. I mean,
that hill was out there when those people bought the house! I mean it's pretty obvious -- it's a
BIG hill!! (Pause) If you wouldn't mind passing those out -- it's a pretty simplified drawing,
but what it shows to scale is two houses with a man being 6-foot tall looking out a window,
basically in our subdivision, looking over an 8-foot fence, and you see his line of sight, given
the backyards and the alley separation that we have, you can't see in somebody's back window
with an 8-foot fence! If ya'll would like some of these, I'll leave some of these up here. Any
questions?"