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All access to the residential portion of the site would be from two points on Street A via Stoneridge Drive. No through access is proposed from Staples Ranch Road. The adjacent neighbors did not want their streets to carry the additional traffic which a 311-unit development could generate and expressed their desire to the developer and staff. The EIR prepared for the project evaluated the impact on nearby streets if access to the new California Somerset II neighborhood were provided from Stoneridge Drive and Staples Ranch Drive. Area streets would experience an increase in traffic volume if Staples Ranch Drive provides through access. The majority of the in-tract project streets meeting the City standard of 46 feet right-of-way would be wide enough to allow parking on both sides of the street. Streets K and L are slightly narrower with only 28 feet of pavement to discourage parking on the side of the street adjacent to the landscape buffer. Within the townhome area, all drive aisles would maintain a 25 foot width. The townhomes provide a one-car garage for each unit with another 85 spaces located in parking areas throughout the site. This results in a parking ratio of 2.06 spaces per unit. Generally townhome projects are parked at 2.5 spaces per unit, but this development is somewhat unique in that it is located on a typical residential street wide enough to accommodate on-street parking on both sides of the street. This translates into 45 on-street parking spaces. ~ The lotting plan was driven by several factors. First, there is a desire to keep the new single-family homes as far from the freeway noise as possible. Second, the lotting plan was affected by the desires of residents in the adjacent California Place and California Somerset I neighborhoods who did not want the rear yards of the new units directly adjacent to their own properties. The applicant is deeding an additional 19 feet of land to the rear yards of the homes along Vermont Place, installing a 9 foot wide landscape buffer along Streets K and L, and placing units on the opposite side of the streets. Third, the developer desired to create lot sizes generally comparable to those of the surrounding neighborhoods. The floor area ratios (PAR) would range from 30 to 42 % . If the largest model is placed on the typical 4,500 square foot lot, the FAR would reach 50%. Staff is comfortable with a FAR of 50% since it is comparable to other housing developments, but notes that allowing PARs at a maximum of 50% would preclude some homeowners from adding to their homes or locating accessory structures on their lots. Staff recommends a condition of approval which would limit the PAR of the primary structure to 50 % but allow aFAR of up to 53 % for accessory structures. Staff is comfortable with the proposed side and rear yard setbacks which are typical for smaller-lot subdivisions. Staff has asked the developer to site the houses closer to the street making the front yard setback between 12-15 feet to the front porch. Staff has no issues with regard to the townhomes, except that the garage depth is one foot short of the standard 20 foot length required for garages. Staff has added a condition that the one-story homes shall comprise at least 20 % of the 231 units and that all elevations of all models must be used fairly equally, with no elevation comprising less than 30 % of the total number of elevations for any particular model. The developer has asked that this be modified to 20-30%. Planning Commission Minutes Page 20 .'ebruary 12, 1997