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design it to just what the standards are. Unless there's some unique circumstance and <br />I'm not seeing that testament here. <br />So, we discussed height earlier, but after that preface, my question for Ms. Hardy <br />specific to FAR, is there any way you would be able to help us meet the standard of <br />40% without having a major impact on your development. I think it's a nice development <br />and it deserves to be there personally, but is there a way you can work with us on that <br />so we don't have that being used as a precedent of 45% or have other homeowners <br />come and say you forced us to 40 %, why is this project at 45 %? <br />Hardy: Thank you Commissioner Allen. The Commissioner and I have had <br />conversations about FAR on other projects as well so I'm familiar with Nancy's <br />comment, and I'm going to answer your question but I also again want to reiterate that <br />you know because it is a PUD, I don't see the .45 as necessarily being a deviation or <br />modification or fudging or anything like that because I think these are appropriate given <br />proportion and scale to the size of the lots on the site. Now, having said that, our <br />development standards table with the exception of lots 1 -5 which we pre - plotted and <br />committed to the Cindy Way neighborhood, shows a combination of the various plans <br />and on Plan 2 with and without the bonus room, and what those resulting FARs would <br />be. That gives us the ultimate flexibility when we go to plot and we consider lots of <br />things about variation, streetscape, buyer preferences and things like that, and just <br />getting a good overall mix of the plans. <br />I'm doing some quick numbers here while listening to and anticipating your question, we <br />could plot the houses in the first phase, the total of the 16 lots, again, setting aside the <br />Lots 1 -5 that are committed for, and using all of the plotting to achieve an overall .40 <br />FAR. We could do that. But then again, I would also add too that again, this is a little <br />unique and I think staff said it as well, is even on the zoning ordinance, it defines FAR <br />as being the relationship of habitable floor area to your gross parcel area. In this case, <br />there was a guideline established I think by a previous Commission to include a portion <br />of the garage that is over 600 square feet in area. We're taking non - habitable floor area <br />and applying that, just like you would with habitable area, to result in the FAR. So, <br />maybe it's not unique in some of the projects that have preceded this one in the last <br />couple of years, but just be mindful of that as well. Again, we have looked at some <br />plotting. We think we put in a good mix that would work with us and still not achieve an <br />overall FAR to exceed .40. <br />Commissioner Allen: Thank you. <br />Commissioner Nagler: Could I just ask, what would you change in order to have it <br />calculate? <br />Hardy: Just to get down to planning, we went through each one of these lots and said, <br />well, does a Plan 1 work here? Does Plan 2 or 2X work here? And does it meet what <br />we need in terms of our overall mix based on our budget? Does it fit with a good variety <br />of streetscape, you know, is it a good match of house size to the lot. We've done all of <br />that and we think we have a workable mix here. It's not ideal, but it's doable. <br />PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, March 23, 2016 Page 15 of 46 <br />