In Association for Protection Etc. Values v. City of Ukiah (1991) 2 Cal. App. 4th 720, the City of Ukiah concluded that a Class 3 categorical exemption for construction of a single-family residence applied to a particular project, and that it was not trumped by a challenger's claim of "unusual circumstances" justifying application of the "unusual circumstances" exception. On appeal, the appellate court agreed that there were no "unusual circumstances": "Neither the size of the house (2,700 square feet), nor its height, nor its hillside site is so unusual in the vicinity as to constitute the type of unusual circumstance required to support application of this exception. The house would have been exempt as a ministerial project (requiring only a building permit and no exercise of discretion by the City) but for the narrowness of the lot. Association argues that the project was unusual because the lot was nonconforming so that a site development permit was required. The lot width at the building set back line is 51 feet instead of the minimum 60 feet required by the Ukiah City Code. The lot exceeds the minimum single-family residential lot size in the City by more than 2,000 square feet and complies with side yard setback requirements. (Ukiah City Code, 9019.) A site development permit was required only because the lot is nine feet narrower than the minimum lot width. Objections raised by the Association, however, relate to the height of the house and not its width. The potential environmental impacts which Association posits seem to us to be normal and common considerations in the construction of a single-family residence and are in no way due to 'unusual circumstances.' " (Id. at p. 736.) In Association for Protection etc. Values Ukiah v. City of Ukiah (1991) 2 Cal.App.4th 720, the agency held a public hearing concerning the issuance of a site development permit, as it was required to do under the city ordinance. (Ukiah, at p. 729.) During that public hearing, the agency also determined the project was subject to a categorical exemption. (Id. at p. 725.) Because no statute or ordinance required the agency to hold a public hearing prior to determining the project qualified for a categorical exemption, the court held section 21168.5 governed the action. (Ukiah, at p. 730.) The court concluded as follows: "It makes sense to review the grant of a categorical exemption under section 21168.5, whether made in the context of issuance of a building permit, a site development permit or an application for some other type of governmental approval or entitlement, unless local ordinances expressly require a public hearing on the exemption decision. To hold otherwise might discourage agencies from combining and coordinating their approval processes as recommended by CEQA. Further, our decision is consistent with CEQA's encouragement of environmental review at the earliest feasible stage and conforms to the definition of a the 'project' as 'the whole of an action' and the focus upon the 'activity which is being approved' and not each separate government approval. " ( Ukiah, supra, 2 Cal. App. 4th at p. 731.)