18 ATTACHMENTS - Laserfiche WebLink

space, and tot lot. He respectfully disagreed with Commissioner Fox that there should be any limitation as to what went into the backyards. He noted that when he first purchased a home, they were six feet from one neighbor and six feet from another. He noted that the front yard was landscaped and the back yard was up to them. He noted that they lived in a community with 35 to 40 homes, and there was never any problems in that respect. He was not keen on having such conditions on what went into someone's backyard and added that there were no CC &R's because there would be a homeowners association. 6. Will the proposed Floor Area Ratios be acceptable? Commissioner Narum noted that she had not done the math, but that 70 percent was not acceptable to her. She stated that she believed it needs to be adjusted either by removing a house or scaling down some of the houses to get more room in the rear, as well as parking. She would like to see the 70- percent FAR reduced. Commissioner Olson stated that to improve the FAR and maintain the same number of units, the square footage of the units should be reduced. He noted that given the parking problem, the current FAR was probably too high. Commissioner Fox would like to see the size of the houses be 1,200 to 1,800 square feet instead of 1,650 to 2,050 square feet, which would lower the 70- percent FAR. She noted that instead of making the smaller lots 2,300 square feet, they should be smaller to go with the smaller -sized houses. She would like to see some of the units be single -story to accommodate seniors who did not want to have two stories. Chair Blank noted that the Planning Commission was not addressing architecture at this point. Commissioner O'Connor noted that rather than discussing averages and because the information was not included on the staff report, he would rather use the applicant's list of square footages. He noted that the FAR seemed to range from 52 percent to 71 percent and that he believed those FAR's were still too high. He noted that there were several ways of dealing with that and that if several lots were eliminated and the size of the homes was to be reduced, space could be freed to decrease the FAR. He noted that these were fairly sizable units and that a smaller square footage may cost less to build and would be more affordable. He indicated that he would like to see the square footages come down to allow for increased setbacks and guest parking and for the FAR's to come down. Chair Blank agreed that the FAR was too high, given the parking and other issues the Commission had discussed; however, he stated that he did not want to dictate how the applicant would accomplish lowering it. 7. Will the proposed architecture be acceptable? Commissioner Narum believed that the proposed architecture was acceptable. Commissioner Olson believed that the proposed architecture was acceptable. EXCERPTS: PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, May 21, 2008 Page 15 of 17