06-28-1995 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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ANALYSIS There are numerous alternative approaches which are utilized by communities in an attempt to protect neighborhood property values through a regulation of structure design. Some of these relate to housing alone, and others relate to all types of buildings. We found no Ordinances which have attempted to regulate house moving only, at least from the architectural standpoint. In our view, this is consistent with the concern that there is no effective difference between allowing a house of a particular size and architectural style to be moved onto a site, or built on a site from the ground up. There are Ordinances relating to the moving of houses which address certain maintenance items, such as siding and roofing. However, as you may recall, the Graf proposal included an intent to re-side and re-roof the house, in addition to an addition and new mechanical improvements. As a result, these requirements alone would not be enough to accomplish the Council's objective. The following is a listing of several alternatives which may address aspects of the community's concern. 1. Appearance Codes: In addressing the issue of aesthetic quality, several non - Minnesota communities have adopted "appearance codes" (Planning Advisory Service Report 379) Such codes regulate the exterior design of multiple family, commercial and industrial uses within the applicable community. Unfortunately, almost all of these appearance codes have made exceptions for single family residential uses. Thus, such a code would not adequately respond to the concerns being voiced by the City. In adapting such a code to Little Canada, it would be necessary to designate a person or board to review compliance with housing appearance, as well as to establish a somewhat objective list of code standards which would guide both property owners and the reviewer. This alternative is on the high end of the comparative complexity of the alternatives discussed. 2. Residential Zoning Districts. In an attempt to promote higher value homes in certain areas of the community, the City of Lino Lakes has established a specialized "Executive Residential Zoning District ". The district specifically imposes minimum outside floor dimensions for various housing styles which are larger than the City's "regular" single family home district. Such dimensions exceed building code requirements and are intended to promote high value home construction. While the Lino Lakes district provisions do not address dwelling unit aesthetics per se, its similar application in Little Canada would address the issue of building size and scale. An alternative approach utilized by some communities is a large lot single family zoning district which is intended to accomplish the same result. This latter option has little applicability to Little Canada in that most of the land in the City is already platted. The development of a new Zoning Ordinance District would require some front end research in determining which neighborhoods would be appropriate for the new District and what sizes to establish. However, its application would be one of the simplest of the alternatives we have found. Page 28