06.25.20 City Council/Planning and Zoning Commission Joint Workshop

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City Council Meeting Minutes June 25, 2020 revised parking policies. He can write a memo of related actions what will be outside of the scope of this project. He can anticipate how to make any parking facility more supportive of a walking environment. Mayor Pro Tem Mihalkanin expressed his concern with design and rules of development and how these design standards will incentivize development. We have buildings that are fairly tall. What would stop a developer from buying one side of the square and that is now a lot of increased lot sizes. A large amount of buildings are being torn down and built with a new structure. Is there anything in the rules that would encourage that? In new designs we there is shopping, second floor is sometimes business, and higher floors are residential. In order to do this you are talking about increasing the square footage of these buildings. Mr. Winter noted that a mix of uses adds to the vitality of the area. The code permits a range of building types, including the mixed use building form and this is what we see most. There might be some places that emphasizes townhomes or apartments exclusively and that could be part of what we should talk about. Mayor Hughson asked how are we going to maintain the historic look? If someone wants to build something we want to ensure that the block looks similar to the other blocks, consensus was to ensure the historic look continues. Mr. Winter responded that knowing this desire is helpful, and does relate more to articulation. Commissioner Gleason spoke on rear massing and the alleyways and concern as they are near residential areas. We need to ensure the rear side of buildings is attractive. Council and the Commission agreed that we want new buildings to look similar to the existing historic buildings. Articulation - Existing guidelines are brief and do not provide visual examples on how to accomplish the expression types. The standards expand on the expression tools noted in the guidelines but are limited in how to articulate. Potential updates will expand on the existing list of expression tools and provide further examples in how to effectively and authentically articulate a building. Commissioner Spell noted that there are no visual examples in the old code. Mr. Winter responded that visual examples were not part of the format of that code. Mr. Spell stated that at the recent Real Places conference, it was noted that when the planning documents include visual examples of what a community wants such as articulation, height variation, massing, and setbacks, there is a better understanding of the concepts. Mr. Winter noted that the new code allows for it and visual examples will be provided. City of San Marcos Page 6