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05-09-06 Community Character Workshop MinutesMINUTES OF THE COMMUNITY CHARACTER WORKSHOP FOR ATLANTIC BEACH CITY COMMISSION AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BOARD HELD IN COMMISSION CHAMBER ON MAY 9, 2006 AT 5:00 PM City Commission Members present: Donald M. Wolfson, Mayor J. Dezmond Waters, III, Mayor Pro Tem Mike Borno, Commissioner Sylvia N. Simmons, Commissioner Jamie Fletcher, Commissioner (arrived at 6:26 pm) Community Development Board present: Sam Jacobson Carolyn Woods Dave Maclnnes Chris Lambertson Craig Burkhart Ad Hoc Committee present: John Fletcher Fred Parvey Brian Sexton Woodie Winfree David Boyer Staff present: Jim Hanson, City Manager Sonya Doerr, Community Development Director Donna L. Bussey, City Clerk The meeting started with an overview provided by Sylvia Simmons concerning the history of the Community Character discussions since the start of the process and she spoke about all of the public meetings they have had so far. 1. Area to be included. Commissioner Simmons stated the homes on Beach Avenue are different in character than the homes in other parts of the city. Carolyn Woods stated both sides of Beach Avenue should be separate from the rest of the city and she wanted the area to be included up to the area of 16~` Street. Brian Sexton agreed Beach Avenue was unique. Woodie Winfree agreed the area to be included should go up to 16~' Street. Commissioner Simmons and Carolyn Woods both concurred. Ms. Winfree discussed the applicability in the future to other areas of the City. Chris Lambertson noted the Selva Marina subdivision was very different from the rest of the City, due to the large lots. Discussion ensued about the possibility of East Coast being the western boundary, north of 12~' Street. David Boyer stated "uniformity is not necessarily a good thing .. . that this will lead to uniformity". Chris Lambertson also stated these regulations will tend to lead to uniformity. Sam Jacobson thought the main threat was south of 16~' Street and believes it is a question of economic elitism by not applying the same standards west of Mayport Road. Minutes -Community Character Workshop May 9, 2006 Page 2 Mayor Wolfson was opposed to looking west of Mayport Road. Mr. Jacobson was in favor of going to 16"' Street for the north end of the project. Mayor Wolfson was in favor of a questionnaire relating to the size. Commissioner Simmons was opposed Brian Sexton supported a survey of those north of 11 ~' Street to see if they wanted to be included or not. The consensus, expressed by Mayor Wolfson, was the area would be bounded by l l a' on the north, Seminole on the west, Ahern on the south and Beach on the east. The Committee discussed the possibility of extending the north boundary line from 11~' Street to 16~' Street at a later time. 2. Nonconforming Provisions 'There was no opposition to including some nonconforming provisions as stated in the agenda, i.e. anything made nonconforming by these regulations can be built back in existing size and design in compliance with State codes and coastal regulations. 3. Lot Coverage Chris Lambertson stated 35% would force houses to go up. If people wanted gone-story house instead, he noted you would have 48% building coverage if they went all setbacks on a 50 x 130' lot. John Fletcher stated his present house is over 40% by coverage and is opposed to the proposed lot coverage of 30% by buildings and stated there is a need for special consideration for smaller lots. Sam Jacobson discussed a different percentage of lot coverage for one, two and three-story houses. Carolyn Woods expressed a concern about whether there would be a tree canopy for any homes above atwo-story height. David Boyer questioned where you consider a house to betwo-story, relating to whether or not there would be different lot coverages for one, two and three-story homes. Mr. Jacobson liked the 35% lot coverage limit. John Fletcher stated he had 1,560 s.f. on the first floor. 4, Size of Homes Fred Parvey questioned why both the FAR and other limits are proposed. Woodie Winfree was in favor of the FAR concept. City Manager Jim Hanson proposed a solution that you could put a 6,000 s.f. limit for the minimum FAR size on small lots, i.e. if lots were less than 6,000 s.f. you would consider them to be 6,000 s.f. for the purpose of the FAR calculation. Dave MacInnes asked if the FAR should include the attached garages or just be limited to heated and cooled spaces. Commissioner Simmons proposed different FAR limits for different streets, i.e. on Ocean at John Fletcher's house you may have a higher FAR than other areas. Carolyn Woods supported the under 6,000 s.f. concept proposed by Jim Hanson. Commissioner Simmons stated she was in favor of the FAR and Jahn Fletcher stated he was opposed to the FAR. David Boyer stated what is the max building setback has now become the minimum and increasing the complexity increases the cost of the house. Dave MacInnes stated he was opposed to the FAR, suggesting we should encourage garages. There was no consensus reached on this subject during this meeting. 5. Wall/Roof Height Brian Sexton wanted the wall plate height to be higher than proposed. There was considerable discussion among the group about the details of that. Sam Jacobson thought it could be a Minutes -Community Character Workshop May 9, 20Q6 Page 3 "regulatory nightmare". Brian Sexton, John Fletcher, and Commissioner Simmons made comments in favor of a roof height limit set at the second story level. David Boyer recommended that carports give a sense of space and he was opposed to the requirement of having aone-story element required in the front of the house. He also stated it limits diversity and stated if you have a FAR and also a lot coverage percentage, the two would be redundant. Craig Burkhart was in favor of a 22' wall plate height limit and the maximum and was opposed to the 28' limit at the setback line. Commissioner Jamie Fletcher expressed some concerns over the one-story element requirement. Chris Lambertson also stated he was opposed to the one- story element. Fred Parvey stated he thought we were essentially designing houses at that point, with the standards being proposed. Mayor Wolfson stated we should focus on the mass issue of the house, rather than the design. Sam Jacobson stated he was still not sure as to what was needed on this item. Commissioner Fletcher stated he was in favor of wall lengths. Commissioner Borno asked that a copy of the Naperville workbook be sent to him and discussed Sonya Doerr's memo dated the 20~'. Woodie Winfree expressed a desire to address mass and scale, which was a concept generally agreed with by David Boyer and Commissioner Simmons. Chris Lambertson stated he was opposed to a max on wall length. Carolyn Woods stated she was in favor of a wall length limit. Ms. Doerr stated one way to compromise would be to do away with the offset requirement but require other architectural treatment to break up the effect of long walls. Commissioner Borno stated he liked the Gulfport, Mississippi ordinance because it was simplistic. 6. Gasses There was a consensus that the garage limits should be put in the design guidelines book and moved out of the proposed ordinance for community character. 7. Landscanin$ There was a general discussion by the group about needing a 4" caliper shade tree versus a 2 '/z" caliper. Commissioner Simmons was in favor of requiring shade trees in the front yard. Chris Lambertson agreed and also agreed that it should be 4". Woodie Winfree was concerned over the requirement that 50% of the width of the lot must be landscaped with plant materials, although she stated she had no objection to the requirement for trees. Commissioner Simmons stated it was okay to do without the SO% and all agreed to put in the tree requirement with no 50% limit. Returning to discussion of lot coverage, Commissioner Simmons wanted to change the setback on a detached garage in the rear to 5' and the group discussed referring this issue to the Community Development Board. Commissioner Simmons also asked if the .54 FAR included the garage up to 500 s.f. David Boyer stated he wanted the garage included in the FAR. Chris Lambertson was opposed to counting the garage if it was attached to the house in the FAR calculation. Discussion of wall plate heights ensued with Chris Lambertson wanting the 22' wall plate height limit and Craig Burkhart wanting to eliminate the 28'. There was a conclusion that the 50% limit for the third floor, compared to the second floor square footage was desired by everyone. Minutes -Community Character Workshop Page 4 May 9, 2006 The general conclusion of this meeting was that the specifics would be debated by the Community Development Board at a special workshop, prior to the regular Board meeting on June 20 when the Ordinance will be referred to the Commission for further action. ATT T: Donna L. Bussey, CMC City Clerk