City Council Recap: Aug. 16, 2016

Notes: This was left on the second reading at the Aug. 2 meeting.

The original proposal was to allow the City Council to grant on a case-by-case basic a variance to the city’s rule that garages on the front face of a single-family home shall be recessed at least 5 feet behind the principal facade if the home has 46-69 feet of street frontage (read that section of city code here).

This rule was put in place in October for safety-related reasons. Since some people use their garages for storage instead of parking, the idea was to make sure there was still enough room in the driveway for residents to park cars without blocking the sidewalks.

Some developers who construct affordable housing – including Mark Marquess of Riverwood Homes, LLC – said this rule increases the price of a home by several thousand dollars – an added cost that is ultimately passed on to the homebuyer.

City Attorney Kit Williams said the current variance process for this rule is handled by the Planning Commission, which must adhere to very strict requirements to determine a need for a variance. Because one of the council-approved City Plan 2030 goals is to “create opportunities for attainable housing,” Williams said he thought the council was better equipped to handle these specific types of variance requests.

Alderman Petty said while he appreciates the intent of the proposal, he doesn’t think it’s the right approach. He said he understands that the Planning Commission has a very limited set of considerations it can discuss when determining the need for a variance, but said Planning Commission members are much better equipped to make design-based decisions. Petty said he would rather see an ordinance that gives the Planning Commission more freedom to grant variances instead of writing a new rule that allows developers to bypass the standard process.

Alderman Kinion agreed, and suggested sending the proposal to the council’s Ordinance Review Committee for further discussion.

The committee met last week and unanimously recommended a change to the existing ordinance that would relax the ordinance’s applicability from lots with 46-69 feet of street frontage to lots with 50 feet of frontage or fewer. The change also states that instead of requiring garages to be recessed behind the front face of the home, they now must be either behind or flush with the front facade, effectively eliminating the construction of a “snout house,” which is the term for a home with a protruding garage. No variance would be required to build a home under the new rules.

Alderman La Tour said he voted in favor of the changes during the Ordinance Review Committee, but called the decision “the lesser of two evils,” adding that the City Council shouldn’t tell developers how to design garages. Instead, he said, those decisions should be strictly between developers and homebuyers.

The amended proposal was adopted unanimously.

Marquess thanked the council and said the change will allow his company to continue building affordable homes

“I know that this might have shocked the system, may have created some controversy and some emotions on all ends, Marquess said. “But I think when we look at what the staff did through their hard efforts…we see that this has worked out for the best for everybody.”

Aaron Wirth a developer with Cobblestone Homes, said he was shocked to hear about the original law that was adopted in October. He said while the amendment was helpful, the ordinance is still frustrating.

“As a developer, it just adds a lot of complication to an already complicated process,” said Wirth.

Alderwoman Marsh asked the other council members to consider tabling the issue until the next meeting to give the public more time to weigh in since the proposal was amended tonight. Alderman La Tour said he thinks the public has had enough time to consider the overall idea. Alderman Schoppmeyer moved to send the ordinance to its third and final reading, with Alderman Long seconding that motion. The motion passed 7-1 with Alderwoman Marsh voting against.

In the final vote, the ordinance passed unanimously.

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Quick Summary: The ordinance passed, but was amended to relax the applicability from lots with 46-69 feet of street frontage to only lots with 50 feet of frontage or fewer. No variance is required.

Notes: Alderman La Tour said he doesn’t like the idea of conserving the land in perpetuity. He said he would rather see an easement agreement that would require renewal at some point to give future generations the chance to decide if the area should continue to be preserved. La Tour was the only alderman to vote against the resolution.