hello, victoria fierce here. CaRLA is collecting data on small projects like this so we know what parts of the state are friendlier to small homebuilders and not. If you've got a few minutes, can you submit your project here?

http://www.carlaef.org/submit/

we'd be happy to look over it and track your city council's actions on this as it moves along.

in particular, it sounds like your project is zoning compliant and follows all the objective standards. at this point there is pretty much no legal reason for the city to hold up your project in design review or even deny it for arbitrary things like "too much glazing" unless they've already sent you a letter explaining--with quantifiable numbers--how much glazing is "too much".