Can You Add a Second Story to a Sunnyvale Eichler? Single-Story Districts, Block by Block

Short answer: it depends on the block. Sunnyvale has two tools that shape what you can do with an Eichler: Eichler design guidelines that apply in its Eichler neighborhoods, and single-story zoning districts that many Eichler blocks have adopted, one block group at a time. Here’s how each works, which Eichler blocks the city lists, and how to check a specific house.

The Eichler design guidelines

City staff reports describe Sunnyvale’s Eichler Design Guidelines as adopted by the City Council in 2009 and used in support of the zoning code where fixed standards don’t fit. Design review decisions in Eichler neighborhoods have to be compatible with them. The guidelines don’t ban second stories on their own; they shape how additions and exterior changes look.

How a single-story district works

Sunnyvale’s single-story combining district took effect on January 1, 2001 (Sunnyvale Municipal Code 19.26.200). A district adds an “S” to the base zoning, as in R-0/S or R-1/S, and limits homes inside it to one story. Owners start it themselves. The code calls for:

• at least 20 homes in the proposed district;
• signatures from at least 55 percent of the owners;
• a boundary that follows a street, stream or tract line where feasible;
• a decision by the City Council.

Eichler blocks with single-story districts

The city’s list of single-story districts (updated August 15, 2017) includes these Eichler areas, with the dates the city gives:

• July 31, 2001: 54 Eichler homes on Wright Avenue, Edmonton Avenue and La Salle Drive, Sunnyvale’s first single-story district.
• May 15, 2007: 116 Eichler homes between Fremont Avenue and Ticonderoga Drive and between Pome Avenue and Mary Avenue.
• April 19, 2016: 36 Eichler homes on Dartshire and Devonshire Ways.
• August 9, 2016: 48 Eichler homes between Vanderbilt Drive and Torrington Drive.
• October 4, 2016: 37 Eichler homes between West Remington Avenue, Templeton Drive, Spinosa Drive and Tangerine Way, and 28 homes south of Vanderbilt Drive to Conway Road.
• December 6, 2016: 59 lots near Hollenbeck Avenue and Sheraton Drive.
• January 24, 2017: a 54-lot block bounded by Carlisle Way, Mallard Way, Dartshire Way and Panama Park, and 25 lots at Torrington Drive, Sesame Drive and Snowberry Court.
• June 20, 2017: 63 lots bounded by West Remington Drive, Spinosa, Hollenbeck and Sheraton.

Two more Eichler tracts applied in 2017: Primewood (Tract 4721, 35 lots), where an owner poll that September showed 24 in favor and none opposed, and Fairbrae Unit 1 (79 lots), which was headed to the City Council in January 2018. We haven’t confirmed how either vote went, so check their current zoning.

Eichler neighborhoods without a district

Not every Eichler block has one. An Eichler publication describes Rancho Sans Souci as a designated Eichler neighborhood under the guidelines, where exterior changes need a planner’s approval and second stories are discouraged but not banned, with no single-story district. Blocks like that are governed by the base zoning plus design review.

How to check a specific house

• Look up the zoning. An “/S” on the parcel’s zoning (R-0/S, R-1/S, R-2/S) means a single-story district applies.
• Ask Sunnyvale Planning whether the Eichler design guidelines apply to the parcel and what design review an addition would need.
• Check the date. Districts are added over time, so a block that allowed a second story when a house last sold may not today.
• Read the disclosures. Ask for any permits and plans for existing additions, and whether a second story on the block predates its district.

See every Sunnyvale tract we’ve documented in our Silicon Valley Eichler tract index, homes for sale on the Sunnyvale Eichler page, and the neighborhood guides for Fairbrae, Fairwood, Rancho Verde and Primewood. In Palo Alto? Read which Palo Alto Eichler tracts have a single-story overlay, or compare single-story overlays in other cities.

Planning an addition or weighing a purchase? Book a call with a Property Nerd and we’ll pull the parcel’s zoning with you.