Which Palo Alto Eichler Tracts Have a Single-Story Overlay?

Palo Alto lets a neighborhood ask for a single-story overlay: R-1(S) zoning that limits new building to one story and about 17 feet. Several Palo Alto Eichler tracts have one. Most don’t. Here’s the tract-by-tract list from the City’s records, what an overlay does and doesn’t do, and how to check a specific house.

What a single-story overlay does

An overlay caps height. New homes and additions in the overlay are limited to one story and about 17 feet. It doesn’t stop a remodel or a rebuild, and it doesn’t freeze a house as it is; it controls how tall the new work can be. Outside an overlay, a second story may be possible under the regular zoning rules and the City’s Eichler design guidelines.

Eichler tracts with a single-story overlay

• Walnut Grove: Palo Alto’s first single-story overlay, adopted July 13, 1992. The overlay covers 96 lots.
• Greer Park: the whole tract. Van Auken Circle has been in an overlay since 2002 and Greer Park North since 2015.
• Los Arboles: adopted in 2015 for 83 homes; two corner lots were left out at the owners’ request. Torreya Court next door (Los Arboles Addition No. 2) isn’t in it.
• Channing Park No. 1 and No. 2. Channing Park No. 3 isn’t in the overlay.
• Midfair (Allen Court).
• Meadow Park: the overlay covers 76 lots.
• El Centro Gardens.
• Triple El (the City lists it as “Garland (Elsinore Drive)”).

Eichler tracts without one

Amarillo Avenue, Blair Court, Community Center, Edgewood, Faircourt, Fairpark, Garland Park, Greendell, Green Gables, Louis Road, Maybell Gardens, Middlefield Road, Midcourt, Royal Manor and University Gardens.

Three notes:

• Green Gables is a National Register historic district (listed in 2005), but the City’s 2015 list of overlay zones and its 2015 and 2018 maps show no single-story overlay there, even though one sentence in the 2018 Eichler guidelines says both National Register districts have one.
• Royal Manor owners applied for an overlay in 2016 (202 properties); it wasn’t adopted, and the City’s 2018 map shows none.
• Blair Court sits just outside Triple El’s overlay on the City’s maps.

How to check a specific house

This list follows the City’s June 2015 list of single-story overlay zones and the maps in its 2018 Eichler Neighborhood Design Guidelines. Overlays can be added later, so check the current zoning map or ask Palo Alto Planning for the parcel before you plan a project or write an offer. Original deed restrictions can matter too: Greer Park’s, for example, allowed one detached single-story house per lot, according to a City staff report.

For years, lot counts, architects, streets and live sales in each tract, see the tract pages above or the Palo Alto Eichler homes page. Outside Palo Alto, see our Silicon Valley Eichler tract index, the guide to Sunnyvale’s single-story districts, and how single-story overlays in other cities work.

Sources: City of Palo Alto, Eichler Neighborhood Design Guidelines (2018); City Council staff report on single-story overlay zones, June 29, 2015; City staff reports on the Los Arboles and Greer Park North overlays (2015) and the Royal Manor application (2016).

Thinking about buying or selling an Eichler in one of these tracts? Call the Boyenga Team at (408) 373-1660 or (650) 383-8606. Commissions are negotiable, and we offer bundled services, so ask us what’s included.