Planning Commission Minutes 1995 04 25

Home Browse Search

Commissioner McAvinew - We are not specifically talking about solar panel access. We are addressing the issue of light. Paul Wood - We could barrow that 25 % contiguous open space to the north property line. That dictates somewhat as to where the usable space is. That may be a good compromise. Chairperson Boulet - I think the F.A.R. would naturally give some solar access to neighboring properties. Commissioner Puryear - If you use 1237 Lincoln as an example you would only be getting the portion of the roof along the north that is outside the limits of the bulk plane. The draw back might be is you would see people turning the gables and having homes starting to look the same. In some cases you may end up with a loss in sunlight if it is configured to max out the F.A.R. and the bulk plane. While the bulk plane might give you some solar access I am not sure it will get you the desired effect. Commissioner VanNostrand - Does the issue of solar access come up very often at the Board of Adjustment, that a neighbor is concerned about blocking of solar access? Peter Kernkamp - In the two years I have been here I can recall one case where the neighbor was concerned. If I recall when the analysis was done it was a small amount of the time that was impacted. That was a case where the ridge line was going front to back of the lot. Betty Solek - Would it be possible to have the bulk plane apply on the east west direction to address the solar access? Commissioner Lipton - I think almost all of the policy objectives that we stated earlier can be met by F.A.R. or lot coverage guidelines. If we are looking at the bulk plane to only to address the issue of solar access it is probably not the best mechanism to use. It may address that issue some of the time. I think we are getting to the point of over complicating this and we may end up inadvertently creating other problems and issues. To be very simple about this I would favor lot coverage and F.A.R. as my preferable approach to dealing with the issues in Old Town. If we want to deal with solar access issues we want to do it separately and perhaps look a different approaches that could be applied not only to Old Town but in other parts of the City. Commissioner Puryear - If you will recall one of the reasons for this was to make it easier for people to build a garage or storage shed, or make modifications to their home. I think a three tiered approach makes it more complicated for the home owner. The F.A.R. is not perfect but I agree that it might be the best solution. Rex Renfrew - I don't have a problem with the bulk plane if it is purely for addressing the solar access. If there is another method where we can achieve the solar access objective then 10