3A Public Hearing 2012 0221 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Excerpt of Draft Planning Commission Regular Meeting Minutes of .fanuary 19, 2012 Page 3 (?/'6 Commissioner Rennie said that he's very appreciative of the way the proposal has been set up, for staff and residents alike, and noted that sometimes tables are a better way to present information than text alone. In response to Commissioner Fitzsimons, Senior Planner Barros said that setbacks for a primary structure are 20 feet in the front, 15 feet in the rear and 5 feet on each side. Chair Collier suggested that the section on height and setbacks for accessory structures specify where the height is to be measured — at the midpoint between the ridge and the eave. She said that the Uniform Building Code and the International Building Code no longer provide that information. Senior Planner Barros said that because there are so many styles of roof, including some with no ridges, the proposed language refers to another section of the Zoning Code. She said that roof heights are very explicitly defined, along with graphic depictions of four different types. She said that at the permit counter, staff routinely flip to those definitions when working with residents. Chair Collier said it was not her experience at the Building Permit counter, where she spent nearly 30 minutes waiting for four employees to find the appropriate section of the Code. Noting that Building staff even sent her to the library, which doesn't have an updated version of the Building Code, she said the information about roofs should be readily available, perhaps as a handout. Senior Planner Barros said that the planning department has an accessory structure handout, and can add the appropriate section of the Code regarding height to that handout. 3) Fences in the Residential Single- Family View Preservation Overlay District (RS- VP): Senior Planner Barros noted that the Bay -O -Vista view preservation district overlay was created in Zoning Code amendments in 2001. She pointed out the area on a map, indicating that it encompasses the area south of Lake Chabot Road, Estudillo Avenue and north of the unincorporated area that is included in the View Preservation Overlay District. She noted that the residential single - family neighborhoods in the flat area north of Estudillo Avenue around Chabot Park are not part of it. In the RS -VP District, all additions are subject to design review. In 2007, a change in fencing regulations in Bay -O -Vista required any fencing above three feet to be made of glass. The proposed change would make that regulation more flexible because certain fencing proposals in some RS -VP areas — particularly around Benedict Drive and in the hills where homes on a ridge are all side -by -side — have no view implications at all. Rather than requiring homeowners in this situation to go through the time, expense and hearing involved in obtaining a fence - modification permit, she said the proposed change would enable the ZEO to look at the context of the home, and if there are no view issues, authorize solid fencing without glass at the top. Commissioner Dlugosh asked how the situation would be handled in homes that might have views on the sides rather than straight out from the property. Senior Planner Barros said that all of those views would be considered viewshed. Commissioner Dlugosh said that when the glass fencing issue in Bay -O -Vista was under consideration, the Planning Commission was not addressing side -yard fences, but only view fences. Senior Planner Barros suggested that the side -fence application was an unintended consequence, but the change now proposed would make it less problematic. Commissioner Fitzsimons asked about the test for whether a view is involved — a neighbor complaining or a staff decision? Senior Planner Barros said that the City generally would learn about the problem if someone puts up a fence and a neighbor complains about it, but sometimes people come to the permit counter saying they want to build a fence. She added that a Benedict Drive resident is holding off on fencing plans