Dream home just needs a phone call, owner says

He began a protest Feb. 20 in front of City Hall about delays that leave him unable to live at the home that includes an accessory dwelling unit that also remains unoccupied. 

Sukhovitsky spoke about the city condition that required him to provide a 120-foot-long section of 8-inch diameter water pipe at a cost of $150,000 with the added necessary roadwork.

Redwood City officials seem complacent about the water supply that he needs to live in his Bayview Way home, he said.

“They’re not in any hurry to solve the problem,” Sukhovitsky said. 

It used to be the county that was hard for builders to deal with, Sukhovitsky said, but the roles have reversed and now Redwood City spurs headaches.

“You know what to expect,” he said of San Mateo County. “Things get done.” 

Redwood City Mayor Diane Howard said the Bayview Way house is outside the city limits and the Local Agency Formation Commission has to act for water to be provided to Sukhovitsky.

“He considers it a technicality,” Howard said. “That’s not the case.”

The city staff directed Sukhovitsky in 2018 to contact LAFCo about water supplies, the mayor said.

“I think he believes the city can check the box,” Howard added. “We can’t.”

“You have to get certain permits,” she said. “You can’t just let something go.”

“There’s not much we can do,” said Howard. 

Rob Bartoli, a management analyst with the Local Agency Formation Commission, said the panel can take up an outside service agreement for the Bayview Way property if the Redwood City Council passes a resolution requesting such service.

The seven-member commission that governs LAFCo could take up the matter at its May 20 meeting, Bartoli said.

Sukhovitsky, 53, a native of Ukraine who came to America in 1989 with only $20, said hard work and persistence pay off here. Opportunity, not the oppression of his native country, is America’s hallmark, the Redwood City resident and American citizen said. 

“You have a green light,” Sukhovitsky said.

The Constitution protects individuals and the American legal system affords rights that he appreciates after life in Ukraine.

“The rights of individuals are equal to the rights of society,” he said.

But government administrative measures can undercut that, Sukhovitsky said. Government should be subject to the people — not the other way around, he said.

His protests about municipal bureaucracies have included Mountain View and Campbell. Sukhovitsky also protested at PG&E’s offices in San Carlos before moving on to the utility’s headquarters in San Francisco.

The obstacles builders face haven’t extended to the highrise boom in downtown Redwood City, he said, where big corporations got their permits in less than six months.

Smaller, local developers like himself have no such easy road, he said — and the result is the city eliminates competition for major developers. 

Fulfilling one city requirement only brings another demand — a cycle of “hoops and loops,” he said.

Municipal bureaucracies can be slow and indifferent to delays, Sukhovitsky said, who noted no one wants to get on the bad side of city officials.

But as he’s shown with other municipalities, it’s not Sukhovitsky’s style to submit.

“You have to take a stand,” he said.