Orinda Planning Commission, Oct 13, 2026
The commission approved a special design review for an addition at 499 Dalewood Drive and approved a design review for a 1,432-square-foot addition to an existing residence by a 3 to 1 vote.
1 h 07 min in session · date on the body’s own agenda listing
Plays here, from the first word spoken (11:48). Every chip below jumps the video to its second.
Posted as “Planning Commission Meeting - October 13, 2026”
The meeting, in short
The commission approved a special design review for an addition at 499 Dalewood Drive and approved a design review for a 1,432-square-foot addition to an existing residence by a 3 to 1 vote. 22:27
Written by one AI reader from the transcript and checked against it by a second, which read every line it cites. An independent reader checked 122 summary lines from across the site against their full meetings: 122 were right.
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What members said, in order
I would just say I'm just curious the need for the exemption, like what's driving needing the 284 square feet.Marian Jelinek · Commissioner31:40
A very large amount of square footage. And what I hear is not necessarily what we see in the plan of cottage and charming. Like, I think the definition of a cottage is like 1,000 to 2,000 square feet.Marian Jelinek · Commissioner1:05:34
Another item to just add, I guess, for context is, and I'm sure the city can speak to this as well, is we don't see a lot of applicants with the FAR asking for exception to that. And I think just for context, it is a very large ask that comes to the commission because it does set precedents.Marian Jelinek · Commissioner1:09:48
Were there reasons submitted? Historically, we've seen sometimes for FAR exemptions, there is context behind it of either the site was really challenging, there was no other location this was required. Like, there was some reasoning behind asking for it. Is that the case here, either technically or Or was it just a want from the applicant?Marian Jelinek · Commissioner1:11:09
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Members we named
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Of the speech we named for Kumani Armstrong here:
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Of the speech we named for Marian Jelinek here:
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Of the speech we named for Kevin Schmidt here:
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