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should be placed at the rear of sites. The Task Force recommends that the Specific Plan and Guidelines be modified to remove any uncertainty of whether the garage has to be detached and placed in the rear of the lot or if it could be attached and placed at the front of the home. In its discussion of drafting the new standard, the Task Force felt that there is a point when the lot is too narrow to reasonably locate a detached garage in the back of the lot and retain enough space for the construction of the home while meeting the City's setback requirements. The Task Force discussed various lot widths to use as the cutoff when a detached garage would be required (e.g., 45 ft., 50 ft., 60 ft., etc.) and ultimately selected a lot width of greater than 60 ft. The Task Force felt that a lot narrower than this would not allow one to build a house of reasonable width while also meeting the setback requirements. Exception language was also included to address a physical constraint, such as a heritage-sized tree or topography, that prevented someone from installing a driveway on the side of the house. Below is the Task Force's recommended policy: When a lot exceeds 60 feet in width, detached garages are required and shall be located to the rear of the site. Exceptions can be granted due to a physical constraint that prevents compliance such as an existing heritage-sized tree. The Downtown Design Guidelines were modified to include the same language. While staff supports making the Specific Plan and Guidelines consistent with respect to garage regulations, staff questions whether using the Task Force's recommended greater than 60 ft. lot width would potentially allow more homes to be built with a garage-dominated front elevation in the one area of the city where it would look most out of character with the surrounding homes and conflict with the architectural styles that are desired. The Task Force had originally contemplated using a 50 ft. lot width as the cutoff for requiring a detached garage. The Task Force and some members of the public were concerned about the width of the house that would remain if you were required to place the drive aisle leading to the detached garage on the side of the house. However, staff notes that if a two-car garage was allowed on the front of a house, then you would lose 20 ft. of the house width at the front portion of the house for a 20 ft. wide by 20 ft. deep two-car garage (the minimum dimensions allowed by Municipal Code). On a 50 ft. wide lot (a common residential lot width Downtown), that would result in a remaining width of 14 ft. for the living area of the house adjacent to the garage and a 34 ft. house width beyond the garage after the City setbacks are applied for the RM-4,000 Zoning District (which includes the homes on the east side of First St. and the west side of Second St.). Conversely, a 10-ft. wide driveway on the side of the house with one-ft. wide landscape planters on either side (12-ft. total) results in a 31-ft. wide house after the City setbacks are applied, which is wider at the front of the house than if the garage is attached and only three feet less in width behind the attached garage option. A graphic example of this is shown on the following page. Examples for the two other residential zoning Page 7 of 11