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Memo to Planning Commission/OA 01-01 February 13, 2001 Page 3 • The ordinance could also be amended to eliminate the cluster option in the Al district. This would limit open space development to the RI District south of County Road 33. Quality of open space One way to preserve higher quality open space would be to include a certain percentage of"buildable area" as open space. Buildable area is defined as gross land area less the land that includes floodways, hydric and restrictive soils, lands with slopes greater than 33%, wetlands, and areas that can not accommodate septic systems. Currently the percent of open space is based on "eligible land". Eligible land includes all land except type 3, 4 and 5 wetlands, street right-of-way and areas occupied by streams, rivers or lakes. Eligible land is much less restrictive than buildable land. When determining percentage of open space at least a certain percentage (25% -50%) of the total open space must be buildable area, the remaining could be eligible land. The ordinance could also be amended to give the City the option of requiring that shoreland and areas along streams be included as preserved open space. Architectural Theme • We need to better define what type of standards the city would like included as architectural themes. As an example of what other developments are doing, I have attached the design standards for a cluster development in Stillwater called "Liberty on the Lake". Another method to address the issue of architectural standards is to make them a requirement and eliminate them as an optional bonus feature. Front Yard Setback This issue is related to the architectural theme. Often, when designing open space developments, a pedestrian friendly environment is desired. This can be made more difficult with the standard 30 foot front yard setback, which is what is currently required in our ordinance. In order to allow more flexibility and allow for additional tree preservation, the front yard setback could be reduced to 20 feet. This would bring the house closer to the street while still allowing adequate space for off street parking. Density Bonus Calculations It is currently not clear how the 5% density bonus should be calculated, whether it is based on zoning district density or the open space density. The • S:\PLANNING\SCOTT\OA0101.DOC