13 - Laserfiche WebLink

Commissioner Allen: It's mainly the mixed use building, one foot on Bernal. You know, and Bernal homes have setbacks; even the business building does, and I believe also Augustine I think has a pretty narrow setback. All the other homes on Augustine are required to have 15 feet. The building next door is 16 feet and I think this is less than that. Beaudin: I'm not going to dispute the ground level setback, but on Sheet A-1, there is a one-foot setback and the first floor of the building is at that setback. The building changes angles on the second floor and actually does step back and the roof does come down at that corner and so where it does get taller there is the setback from the Augustine frontage. So I wanted to share that corner with you so it's clear that it's not 30 feet straight up. Commissioner Allen: I knew it wasn't straight up but I'm just still thinking it's still a big thing and it starts at one foot. Beaudin: And I think that was by design from staffs perspective to bring the building that's supposed to have more of an office flexible use character over time closer to the street so it does set itself apart from what might be more traditional residential character. Commissioner Allen: And I can see part of that, but we're in an Office district which says 20-foot setbacks, and you know, Mike and I had this discussion today—we have different points of view. But, we were talking about setbacks and it's like what will the library look like one day? And I don't know the answer because it's not done, but I would hope it's not a one foot setback to the sidewalk. I would hope there's some greenery, some kind of greenery and softening area. Commissioner Nagler: There's going to be greenery and parking between the street and the building. Commissioner Allen: Well, something. Commissioner Balch: No, there's going to be. Commissioner Allen: I mean that's great! I would hope there would be something that you can feel great about walking down that area and feeling like it's a community and to me right now, there's nothing that's right on the curb, or right on the sidewalk. Commissioner Balch: If I may though, downtown, when you walk down Main Street, what are the setbacks of any of those? Commissioner Allen: So in the guidelines, and that's right on, the guidelines say in downtown you can do that. I mean that's the objective. They're big buildings, big windows. This is not that. I mean, it's only 10% commercial and it's only 1,000 square feet. It's small and it's really a residence. I mean, it's kind of soft; it's a soft one or two person firm. It's not some big office building, but I mean, this says retail, Main Street and even Peters in some cases you can be right on, but it clearly says and has different rules when getting into these neighborhoods. EXCERPT: DRAFT PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, July 13, 2016 Page 14 of 21