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P20-0989, Objective Design Standards Planning Commission 10 of 12 14. Garage frontages (Single-family Tract Developments) Page 47 Modify language in Standard B1.4 regarding garages facing public streets and internal streets to be clearer and expressly reference that the percentages refer to lot frontages. 15. Residential floor area above the ground floor (Single-family Tract Developments) Page 47 Modify Standard B1.5 to indicate maximum area of each floor above the ground floor to be a maximum of 75 percent of the ground floor area inclusive of any attached garages and remove reference to building coverage. 16. Garage recess (Single-family Tract Developments) Pages 48, 49 Modify Standard B2.5 (erroneously labeled as B2.3) to indicate that garages accessed from public, frontage, or internal streets must be recessed a minimum of six feet behind the closest fronting building mass on the street. The proposed language provides an exception to this requirement for garages fronting alleys. Planning Commission Recommendation for Potential Future Review and Amendments Following the adoption of the ODS, some members of the Commission expressed an interest in further review and evaluation of the ODS, with comments mostly focused on the standards for higher-density projects over 30 du/ac, and particularly related to development standards such as height, setbacks and FAR. Height, setbacks and FAR are, individually and collectively, the greatest determinant of “building envelope” or building volume.3 Building envelope, in turn, represents the available area to accommodate the building’s residential units, necessary internal circulation (lobbies, corridors, stairwells etc.), service and amenity areas (e.g. trash and mail rooms, resident amenities such as a fitness room or community space), structured parking , and any non-residential ground floor uses (e.g., required commercial space). In terms of design and aesthetics considerations, it is important for height and setbacks in particular, to be set to a standard that will ensure projects will fit with what is around them and avoid creating buildings that could loom over adjacent smaller-scale buildings or create a canyon-like effect. However, from an urban design perspective, where projects are located along wide arterial roadways, placing a building closer to t he street can provide a better-defined edge to the street, and sense of enclosure and scale that contributes to the overall feel and character of the streetscape. More significantly, there is a risk that overly strict standards or limits may reduce building envelopes to the point where the allowable density cannot be accommodated. State law dictates that the City may not adopt standards 3 Similar to the 2012 Housing Standards, the 2023 ODS rely most heavily on setbacks and massing controls such as height limits to govern building envelope for medium and high-density projects (greater than 14 du/ac), and do not include an FAR limitation. For projects of seven du/ac and less, the ODS point to existing FAR limits in the PMC, which range from 30-40% FAR. A FAR limit of 75% FAR is proposed for projects greater than seven and up to 14 du/ac (lots with alley -accessed garages would receive 15% FAR in addition to the 75% FAR).