The City Rules: Development ordinance would restrict plans

Residents' concerns about the erosion of character in the city's older neighborhoods have led the city-county planning department to create an ordinance that sets out guidelines for new residential development.

The ordinance covers how far houses and multifamily buildings can sit back on their lots, the sizes of additions and garages, the placement of housing on narrow lots and the subdividing of property.

The city council is scheduled to hold a public hearing and vote on the ordinance at its meeting on July 7.

"One of the good things about the ordinance is it relates to all neighborhoods. It addresses the character of the old city, the neighborhoods with well-established street patterns before 1950. We have a tremendous amount of older housing stock, much more so than Charlotte or Raleigh," said Glenn Simmons, a principal planner with the city-county planning department.

The ordinance is an attempt to make certain that new houses and multifamily buildings, as well as additions, garages and other features are compatible with the design of the older neighborhoods, many of which were developed in the 1920s and 30s. The ordinance covers everything from modular housing to McMansions, said Kirk Ericson, a project planner with the city-county planning staff. McMansions are those large houses that dominate their lots and are usually identified with suburban development.

The standards in the ordinance are not as rigorous as those in a historic overlay district, such as West End, where residents must get permission to cut down large trees.

Neither are they as exacting as the Neighborhood Conservation Overlay districts, Ericson said.

The Neighborhood Conservation Overlay districts have standards for building width and height, porch enclosures and deck size.

The new ordinance sets guidelines that are more demanding than the city's current zoning ordinance.

For example, garages are not a prominent feature on houses in many older neighborhoods, Ericson said. The ordinance says that generally garages must be no wider than half of the width of the front façade.

The standards would be enforced through the inspections division, which examines blueprints and site plans before it issues a building permit, Ericson said. The board of adjustment may grant a variance from the standards or the city council could grant a special-use district rezoning.

If someone did not follow through as proposed on a blueprint, the city could revoke the permit or refuse to grant a certificate of occupancy, said Charlie Norton, the city's inspections director.

If someone refuses to comply, the city could give a written notice about the violation to the property owner and it can ultimately file criminal or civil charges. The current cost of a civil violation is $100 a day, he said.

The ordinance does not try to set taste standards, officials said.

"Ardmore's a neighborhood that's historic. There's a lot of variety among the houses, but they blend well together. So we're not saying that someone needs to have the exact same taste as their neighbor," said Lonnie Clark, the acting president of the Ardmore Neighborhood Association.77

Julie Magness, who is a member of the Ardmore Neighborhood Association, said that people sometimes fail to realize in older neighborhoods what effect neighbors can have on each other.

When additions gobble up off-street parking space, more cars end up being parked on the streets, she said. In many of the narrow streets in older neighborhoods you can't have parking on both sides of a street and two-way traffic.

She is mostly concerned, Magness said, about the threat of people tearing down the older homes, and replacing them with larger new houses that are out of character with the neighborhood.

Large additions and larger houses can block sunlight for the neighbors, she said.

"Does it look like a cohesive unit? Does it look like a friendly place? When you have interruptions where you don't have unity," she said, "to me it says people want to compartmentalize their lives and they don't want to be neighbors."

■ Mary Giunca can be reached at 727-4089 or at mgiunca@wsjournal.com.

Key changes

Some key elements of the proposed ordinance:

• On narrow lots, the front facade must have a main entrance.

• Garages generally must not be more than 50 percent of the front facade width.

• arking for multifamily housing must be on the side or in the back of the building.