HomeMy WebLinkAbout05-03-2016 Item 12, Codron--`;:~- Council Memorandum
DATE: May 2, 2016
COUNCIL MEETING:
ITEM NO,:___ I2�, -
MAY 0 2 2016
TO: City Council
FROM: Michael Codron, Community Development Director
PREPARED: Kyle Bell, Assistant Planner
VIA: Katie Lichtig, City Manager
SUBJECT: City Council agenda item 12
The following memorandum has been prepared to address a question received by a City Council
Member.
The applicant has stated that the exception for the additional height is needed because
without it, the building would be even higher. Please comment.
As addressed in the staff report the building would have to be located closer to the street in order
to eliminate the need for a height exception, effectively making the structure taller as viewed
from Buena Vista, and placed further up the hillside as viewed from Highway 101.
The required front setback under the City's Zoning regulations is 20 feet in the R-1 zone. The
project is proposing a front yard setback of 18.5 feet in order to slightly lower the overall height
of the building from the adjacent grade (as compared to a 20 -foot setback) and provide enough
space for a vehicle to be parked on the property without overhanging the public right-of-way.
By positioning the structure closer to the street and cutting deeper into the hillside the structure
could come closer to eliminating the request for a height exception. Specifically, a structure
would need to be set back 12 feet or less from the public right-of-way to eliminate the need for a
height exception because the structure could be graded further into the hillside. A 12 -foot
setback is the point where the proposed structure would be 25 feet in height under the City's
height standards (measured as the mid -point of the average natural grade).
In summary, the closer the building is to Buena Vista, the lower the height when measured from
average grade, but the taller it appears from Buena Vista. While the hillside development
guidelines encourage structures on hillsides to be located as close to the street as possible, the
regulations also state that grading should be minimized to the greatest extent possible. For this
reason, the ARC adopted finding #11 in its approval, which states that the project site contains
difficult constraints (slope), the exceptions are minor in nature, and while they may have some
impacts, they are the least detrimental to any of the options that allow for reasonable
development of the site.
TACommunity Development\KBELL\Council Memorandum 5-2-16.docx