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P20-0989, Objective Design Standards Planning Commission 11 of 12 that would have the effect of limiting density below that allowed by the zoning or General Plan. With all of these factors in mind, VMWP used the minimum setbacks and heights as proposed in the ODS to evaluate the anticipated yield of housing sites to ensure that the units anticipated could be achieved and the setback standards do no t create an unreasonable obstacle to achieve the requisite number of units. The ODS also include complementary standards to mitigate the appearance of height and bulk, such as requirements for ground floor entries, significant building articulation, upper story setbacks, and site plan requirements to concentrate taller buildings away from lower-scale adjacent residential development and towards the interior of the site and the major street. As noted, proposed changes to the ODS for Housing sites indicate modifications to setback requirements (for all sites), depending on building height, with a larger setback (15 feet versus 10 feet setback required for buildings over 40 feet in height. Such setbacks are in addition to any minimum sidewalk widths and landscape strip requirements within the public right-of-way, which collectively encompass distances of nine to 12 feet back from the edge of curb. Finally, it is important to note that while the ODS may indicate setback requirements, a project must also comply with Fire and Building codes. For example, access to buildings by the Fire Department may dictate that buildings over 30 feet in height may have a maximum of 30 feet from building face to the travel lane of the street on at least one side. For example, if the parking lane is seven feet, the landscape strip is six feet, and the sidewalk is six feet, the maximum the building can be set back from the property line is 11 feet. Or, alternatively, a maximum property line setback of 18 feet would be required if there is no parking but a six-foot landscape strip and six-foot sidewalk. While staff and the professional services team believe the standards are appropriately set in response to requests and comments by the Planning Commission, staff invites the Commission to provide areas of future study and refinement such that these topics could be reviewed by City Council and directed as to whether they should be further evaluated and brought back to the Commission and Council in the future. Staff notes that, although the Commissioner’s comments seemed to point to the concern that height, limits, setbacks and FAR standards might not be strict enough, comments from the public (representing the development community), have expressed concern that some of these standards, including FAR limits in the existing PMC, are too stringent and should be relaxed to allow for viable residential projects. Finally, it is noted that staff is evaluating new State laws, AB 2011 and SB 6 , that come into effect on July 1, and which will allow qualifying residential projects over 30 du/ac to be developed on sites currently zoned for commercial (retail and office) uses. Staff believes that the current ODS provide a sufficiently robust set of design and development standards that can be applied to these types of projects and will likely be coming forward with potential additional minor amendments to the ODS and/or related PMC amendments to ensure such projects can be appropriately regulated. PUBLIC NOTICE AND PUBLIC COMMENTS Notification of this item has been published in The Valley Times as an upcoming agenda item for the April 12, 2023, Planning Commission meeting. This item was also included as