Zoning Code Amendment - Planned Developments

Consider this an amendment to my first long winded Comment that focused on Hillside Regulations, the additional proposed changes to reduce conflicts in the code between PD's and other regulations; the allowances of changes to bulk standards, the ability to increase a Phasing Schedule ...all are valid changes being requested.

I support these changes as well.

Ted Ciavonne- user of Hillside Regulations since the beginning. I support the proposed changes to allow a PD Zone to modify the existing regulations.

Briefly, the current regulations state that up to 10% slopes your lot sizes can be anything you want; 10% to 20% the lot size must be a minimum of 100' wide and 10,000 SF (or 100' x'100' minimum); 20% to 30% the lot size must be 200' wide and 15,000 SF (or 200' x 75'). There are a number of weaknesses, or unintended outcomes from these existing Hillside Regulations. The three biggest are:

- Forcing Product Type. When a minimum lot size is 100' by 100', the home size is very likely at least 3000 SF (ground floor); few, if any will be putting a 1400 to 2000 SF home on a lot this size ... and so you end up with a demographic that can afford $500,000 homes. There is very little diversity of product; product type is dictated by code.

- Strict Interpretation of Hillside. The current code is strict with regards to slope. A 30% slope, which is approximately a 3 to 1 slope, is considered too steep to build on ... yet it is flat enough for a riding lawnmower to traverse ... it is not that steep. In most mountainous areas you cannot find real estate that is under 30%, and so homes are constructed on much steeper terrain. I do not know if this helps to visualize, but 30% (3 to 1) is about 13.5 degrees, and a 100% slope, which is a 1 to 1 slope, is 45 degrees. Building does occur on 100% slopes in mountainous areas.

- Strict Enforcement of Slope. So any size of lot can be on a 10% slope ... but at 10.01% the lot size must be 100' wide and 10,000 SF; and I can have a 10,000 SF lot all the way up to 20% slope ... but at 20.01 the lot must be 200 feet wide and at least 15,000 SF; and i can have this 15,000 SF lot all the way up to 30 % slope ... but at 30.01 I am not allowed to build. There might be some logic in something that ratcheted up, but strict cut-offs like these defy logic.

- Lot Width. On 10% to 20% slopes the lot size must be a minimum of 100' wide and 10,000 SF (or 100' x'100' minimum); on 20% to 30% the lot size must be 200' wide and 15,000 SF (or 200' x 75') ... who is going to plan for a 75' deep lot? Take off probably 20' front and 15' rear setbacks and you have 40 remaining for house depth, but wit 10' side setbacks it can be 180 ' long. Is this practical, or desirable? And on a hillside you have just constructed a drainage nightmare.

Summary - It is all about drainage, as it should be. If I can get a modest 1400 SF home on a 40' to 50' wide lot that is 90' to 100' long, and do so on a 40% slope ... this should be acceptable IF I can show that the drainage works. And now I can have mixtures in product types, products that respond to economics, and a diversity of purchasers within a community. Furthermore, I can take an expanse of undulating grades and increase the efficiency by sensibly (and sensitively) leveling the terrain.

Please approve allowing PD's to modify the current Hillside Regulations.