Landscape

Left front

• Camellias are planted behind the transformer housing. They were pruned by the Hotel Cabana gardeners without our permission. There is no additional room behind the transformer.
• There are several Agapanthus planted to the left of the transformer. Most of them are on the hotel property.
• There is a plant in front of the Camellia on the left side of the transformer which is probably an Indian Hawthorn (Rhaphiolepis Indica).
• These plants are well established and rarely watered.
• The doors of the transformer housing can not be blocked. They swing open over the sidewalk.
• There is no room for more plants. The area is 10′ x 9.8′.

Our landscape plan is to simply encourage the Camellias to grow as large as possible. We do not want them shaped like a hedge. They have white flowers when they bloom.

Left Side of Driveway

• There is a Mock Orange (Pittosporum Tobira) on the left side of the driveway.
• It is 14 feet tall, has small white fragrant flowers, and is rarely watered.
• The area beneath the Mock Orange is always in shade and is covered with gravel. The area is 9.1′ x 5.6′

We do not wish to make any changes to this area. It is on the north side of the staircase wall and does not receive any direct sunlight.

Right Side of Driveway

• There are 3 Jade Plants (Crassula Ovata) on the right side of the driveway. There had been a 4th, but two homeless people, that kept sleeping in the handicapped parking area, removed it as they were constantly moving the storm drain grate.
• Although the plants are only about one foot tall, the trunk is roughly 2-3″ in diameter indicating they are quite old.
• A storm drainage pipe for the driveway runs only a few inches below them out to the street gutter. The roots of the Jade Plants do not seem to cause problems. Because of its shallow depth, the drainage pipe would probably prevent most plants from being planted there.
• The Jade plants need water a few times in the summer.

We do not wish to add any plants to this area. The stairway wall is going to be changed to slats to provide better visibility between the driveway and the sidewalk.

Right Front

• There are several well established Agapanthus growing on the right side of the right staircase.
• The area is 9.8′ x 8.2′ and has a northeast exposure.
• The tall bushes against the wall are of an unknown species.
• There is a fire hydrant mounted on the wall near the right edge.
• The red fire alarm is approximately 7′ high. The white sign is approximately 9′ high. The wall behind the tall bushes is 13′ high and has a platform at its top.
• The platform at the top of the wall has 6 large pots (1.5′ tall, 2′ diameter) with various large succulents growing in them. The platform surrounds two sides of the stairway upper landing. It is barely visible from the sidewalk. A passerby would have to intentionally look up to the 13′ plus height to see the plants.

We do not wish to make any changes to the landscaping.

Visibility

• The left side of the small step ladder is 11′ from the property line of 4260 El Camino Real and marks the location of the corner of the new 5 story hotel building.
• 4260 El Camino Real will be hidden behind the hotel until you are nearly in front of it. Our building at 4260 El Camino is 22′ back from the sidewalk. The new hotel will be located right at the sidewalk.
• A city street tree (near the orange sidewalk fireplug) is located directly in front of the right side stairway. When it is leafed out, the top stairway landing is hidden behind it. The street tree apparently hasn’t been there as long as other similar trees to both the right and left of it, which are more than twice as large. It already has branches starting to grow over the staircase.

The large balcony on the left side of our building is the main entrance. It has recessed overhead lights, approximately 2.5′ from the building wall, spaced along its length. The balcony has 12 large pots (1.5′ high, 2′ diameter) located out beyond the overhead roof. Six of the pots have Chinese fringe flowers (Loropetalum chinense). Six of the pots have Boxwood (Buxus sinica). We intend to keep them.

The small balcony at the left rear of our building is basically hidden from view and only accessible from an inside office. We attached several hanging baskets to the wall which will be removed. The baskets are filled with succulents which are already becoming overcrowded. We intend to have many more succulents, probably well over a hundred. We are planning to have the plants in outdoor freestanding plant-shelves, similar to what several of the restaurants in downtown Palo Alto have. The succulents will be divided and new varieties added on a continuing basis.

Branches from the redwood trees in the condominium complex currently grow over this small balcony. A large evergreen broad leaf tree at the hotel Cabana, blocks the view of the balcony.

The nearest branch in the photograph is from one of the condominium redwood trees which is only 5.3′ from our balcony. This particular tree is only about 20′ tall, while many of the others are about 40′ tall. When this redwood reaches a similar height, our balcony will be completely covered overhead by its branches.