A road frontage waiver application has unsettled some residents in the quiet Ardsley neighborhood off San Jose Boulevard.
Ryan Davis, owner of residential and commercial construction company Piper Homes, is under contract to purchase the vacant parcel at 4526 Mundy Drive South, which, by right, could currently accommodate two single-family homes.
Davis wishes to subdivide the parcel into three separate lots and build three single-family homes on each parcel. The Mundy-facing home and the middle home would be approximately 2,500 and 2,800 square feet, respectively, while the riverfront residence would be the largest at approximately 5,500 square feet. Davis and land-use attorney Cyndy Trimmer each plan to occupy the two smaller homes with their respective families while the riverfront property would be placed on the market.
A waiver of road frontage application has been filed to allow for the creation of a shared driveway, in order to grant access to the second and third homes that would otherwise be inaccessible from Mundy Drive, as they’d be situated behind the first home directly off Mundy.
This plan has faced significant pushback from Ardsley neighbors, who have expressed concerns surrounding property values, traffic, and safety.
District 5 City Councilmember Joe Carlucci hosted a Town Hall meeting at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church on Thursday, March 26, to facilitate a conversation on the issue. Because this is a quasi-judicial matter, Carlucci is unable to comment publicly on the project.
Davis and Trimmer shared details about the project, fielded questions, and listened to neighbor concerns at the meeting, but made little headway toward reaching a compromise with their prospective neighbors.
Ardsley resident Tori Race, joined by many other residents, has significant safety concerns, particularly because the neighborhood is home to many children under the age of 16 who play in the streets, given that Ardsley is an older neighborhood without sidewalks.
Race lives across the street from the parcel in question. With four young children, she said she is extremely concerned about the safety implications of this proposed plan.
“I can only press upon you the fact that I am not sleeping at night because I envision you running over my children,” Race told Trimmer and Davis at the meeting. “And it’s not because I think you’re a bad driver and I’m a reckless mother, but it’s just the way they [children] have come to love our neighborhood.”
Not all neighbors are opposed to the proposed plan, however. Hillary Almond, joined by her husband Eric at the meeting, spoke on the vetting process the project would go through and the approvals it would require before progressing to the build.
“One of the things we love about Ardsley is we’re not an HOA; we are not somebody who tells somebody else what they can and cannot do with their property as long as they are following the letter of the law,” Almond said. “This will go through so much vetting so that traffic will be safe; the driveway will have some setbacks that absolutely must be met. It’s not going to be willy nilly, just shove in the driveway and everybody’s going to be unsafe.”
At the meeting’s conclusion, Race also expressed a desire to negotiate with Davis and Trimmer “in good faith.”
“We would love to have you as neighbors, and truly, I hope it does work out for everybody involved,” Race said.
Carlucci recommended the neighbors form a smaller focus group to facilitate a conversation with the applicant. In a March 27 phone interview, Trimmer said she’d be willing to meet with neighbors “tomorrow” to start those discussions.
“This is what I do for a living, and I really do take seriously understanding that you’re asking a neighborhood to accept change, and I don’t take for granted that that is what you’re asking of people,” Trimmer said.
In a separate March 27 phone interview, Davis said he could consider reducing the number of homes to just two, though that would not be his first choice.
“Conceivably that’s a possibility but I would say that the three houses is one of the most important things to me,” Davis said.
Davis said he hopes to continue a dialogue with the neighbors, whether it be through a focus group or another town hall meeting further down the road.
“It was really helpful and valuable to have gotten everybody in the room together and be able to hear it all at once to really figure out what the obstacles are and start working on solutions for them,” Davis said.
The road frontage waiver application (2026-0177) is next expected to go before the Land, Use and Zoning Committee at its April 7 meeting.
