Corralitas Drive: Coming Soon More Construction Hell

Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 19, 2014.  At least they left us access to the communal lemon tree.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Building & Safety issued permits to build a duplex at 2612 - 2614 Corralitas Drive, a substandard, approximately 3900 sq ft lot, cut in 1961. (That's on this side of the Corralitas Public Staircase.)  You're supposed to have a 5000 sq ft lot for a duplex.  No variance was applied for.  No lot tie is indicated with the adjacent lower lot.  Neighbors are extremely concerned about parking on our No Parking on Red Flag Days Hillside Street.  (Inquiries have been made to CD13.)

Photo: Diane Edwardson, October 22, 2014. The lot on the opposite side of the Corralitas Public Staircase was almost completely cleared of trees several weeks ago, including a  spectacular African Pencil Plant, a tremendous, fire resistant, tree-like succulent.  The property was denuded & fenced in, despite no building permits even having been applied for.  And developers wonder why neighbors hate them?  Don't cut down the trees until you're really ready to build.  

So maybe in a couple of years, by the time the first duplex is finished, the second lot will have their permits finalized - if everyone knows what they're doing.  If you haven't built in the hills before - you damn well better hire people who have.  We've chronicled neighborhood stalled development far too often.  It's not something we enjoy living with. 

In the last construction boom on Corralitas Drive, we endured 5 homes under construction at the same time.  Two builders knew what they were doing & completed construction in about 18 months each.  The other 3 homes sat in varying stages of half finished, unsafe, stop & start construction hell for the better part of 5 years.