ORDNC-2025-3 : Zoning Amendment to change reference point in determining height of basement under City Zoning Ordinance

Transcript (~3 min @ 1:57:20)

Speakers identified by voice; unnamed voices are numbered within this recording. Auto-caption text — verify against the video.

▶ 1:57:18 Speaker 12: Sorry. Motion to place. Motion to hold. Right? Or

▶ 1:57:21 Mark Garipay: This is a public hearing. So public hearing. It's a public hearing. Um, do we wanna, we have the next order and then we'll open it up for public comment. 'cause the next order I think should be fairly, should be fairly quick. Um, ID, 1, 2, 3, 9, 9 zoning amendment to change reference points in determining height of basement under city zoning ordinance pass on.

▶ 1:57:47 Speaker 6: Um, So our next zoning proposal is a, a quick one. Um, when we did the zoning reification that was, um, passed in October, we changed the way that the, um, the basement height, uh, is regulated of what it's a, what it's considered a story. And, um, with it's, um, allowed for, uh, better regulation with the, the number of stories of, um, single families that have come in. So you can't kind of have a three and a half story, um, to, in getting around the, the way that the zoning is written. Um, but at the same time, we discovered that, um, there could be a loophole with, um, talking about, um, the ceiling of a basement because we had a situation where somebody proposed like an exaggerated drop ceiling. Um, and because of the slope of the land, they were able to get the, um, story to not be considered the basement, to not be considered a story when it really, um, appeared, appeared as a story. So, um, it's an easy change, um, that we wanted to propose to you to, to change, change out ceiling, um, to be the, the underside of the floor drawers for the floor above. So the actual structure of the, the floor, um, in between the basement and the, the floor above, um, to make sure that there isn't a loophole. And, um, this regulation,

▶ 1:59:13 Speaker 2: Councillor ro,

▶ 1:59:15 Speaker 9: Um, is this for like tax assessment purposes?

▶ 1:59:18 Speaker 6: It's for, uh, determining the number of stories in a building.

▶ 1:59:22 Cal Finocchiaro: Okay. But does that have anything to do with assessing the property? No. Okay. Um, so what, what is the purpose of the, the change?

▶ 1:59:30 Speaker 6: So it's, um, when somebody has a, um, you know, for like a, most of our residential districts, we allow two and a half stories. Um, but if you were to, um, build, uh, a basement like super high, then you'd have like the basement level and then two and a half stories above that. Okay. So it's to, um, to limit the ability to do that so that a basement is actually mostly under the earth and then the two and a half stories are above that. Okay. Thank you.

▶ 2:00:04 Speaker 2: Any other questions? Okay.