Planning Commission Minutes 2015 08 13

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Planning Commission Meeting Minutes August 13, 2015 Page 20 of 22 of the Draft Ordinance, amending Title 17 of the Louisville Municipal Code to amend the definition of grade. Commission Questions of Staff. Rice says by occupational hazard, I run into problems with statutory and ordinance construction all the time in terms of how they are interpreted, and then the ways the gremlins creep into these things. When I read through this, the thing that troubled me was the use of the word "minimum". The concept here is that if somebody is going to use the finished grade they have accomplished by virtue of adding fill as their means of meeting the height standard, then we will look at grade level a minimum distance of 10' from a structure wall. I do not understand the use of the word "minimum" there because who decides what distance you are going to measure it from? Russ says the reason we do that is because that would require a significant amount of fill which we think is cost prohibitive. Rice says can the City come in and say we're going to measure at 15'. 1 am concerned there is an ambiguity that is created by that use. My thought was that we should make it 10' but then there also is this condition about the property line. If you don't have 10', then you can't measure 10'. You don't have control over what your neighbor is doing with his grade. I would get rid of the "minimum". Russ says we do have control over it. In every building Certificate of Occupancy (CO), before the CO is issued, they have to do a grading certificate for scrapes. They have to demonstrate that the run-off from a site would follow established drainage easements, typically running between the parcels. The philosophy of them raising the site to the property edge is defeated through a drainage certificate requirement. That would not be possible from a drainage certificate for them to build the wall up. We believe this is necessary. I agree with your observation, so if we just say 10' is how we'll measure it, I think that is an excellent improvement to this ordinance. Russell asks which wall? Is it all four walls? Russ says all four walls. Rice says you are taking the average of the highest and lowest corner, correct? Russ says yes. Russell asks why not take the simpler version that says, we are going to go out and establish grade before you do anything, and then that's the starting point of measuring? Russ says we think that would be burdensome to the homeowners and building. That is yet another survey requirement and probably an additional $1500 to $3000. Just as part of the survey. Pritchard says he has a hard time with this as I was directly impacted. I look out from my house and someone brought in several hundred yards of dirt and increased their elevation by a good 12'. That should have been caught from this standpoint. To me, if it costs the homeowner $3000, 1 have no problem with that because that is the price you pay to build a house. Russell asks what is the sense of magnitude of this issue? Is this primarily an Old Town issue? How often does this happen? Russ says the ordinance applies city-wide but we are seeing most impactful in Old Downtown. I think 50% of the projects are impacted. Moline asks about a subdivision that has over -lot grading. Does that become the nature grade? For example, in the last item that we just discussed, they bring in this material from the US 36 project, they spread it over the property at CTC. At this point, what is the natural grade?