Some Almond Grove homeowners are actually jacking their homes up, digging a basement and then plopping the house back down. Page says that's not the intent of the building restrictions. They help keep the mass and the scale of these huge houses in tune with the community. Burying square footage reduces how big the house looks on the outside. Lyons says the town's long-range goals are to maintain the historic character and the small town ambiance of Los Gatos.
Basements are a win-win.
There're a couple of other benefits to the homeowner who's had to put part of his home underground. Basement square footage is tax-free, and at four feet below ground level the temperature of the ground is a constant 55 degrees. Saratogan Bill Brown, a general contractor who specializes in concrete construction and builds many basements, says he thinks the kind of planning restrictions we are seeing today began in Palo Alto about four years ago. For a while, Brown says, you couldn't do anything to a Palo Alto house over 40 years old. That's when he first found himself burrowing under a house to put in a basement.