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Century Farm North 2nd Addition Final Plat page 2 • public streets shall include windows or other architectural features to avoid the appearance of a blank wall." • • The P & Z was concerned about a monotonous appearance to the development. We received new elevations submitted after the P & Z discussion. They include four optional color combinations (A, B, C, D). The new options included different colors for the vinyl siding, shakes, stone, and shingles. The buildings also include windows and several materials on the ends of the structures. The City's townhome building material standards in the zoning ordinance state: Exterior Building Finish: The exterior of townhome dwelling units shall include a variation in building materials which are to be distributed throughout the building facades and coordinated into the architectural design of the structure to create an architecturally balanced appearance. In addition, townhome dwelling structures shall comply with the following requirements: a) A minimum of twenty -five (25) percent of the combined area of all building facades of a structure shall have an exterior finish of brick, stucco and/or natural or artificial stone. b) Except for brick, stucco, and/or natural or artificial stone, no single building facade shall have more than seventy -five (75) percent of one type of exterior finish. c) For the purpose of this section, the area of the building facade shall not include area devoted to windows, entrance doors, garage doors, or roof areas. All four options meet these requirements. However, the options tend to look a bit too busy with all the varied colors. The applicant has made and effort to break up the facades and staff can work out a final color design. It would be better to use one of two approaches. One, keep the same color across each horizontal band of the buildings: the base stone is one band, the walls another, and the upper gable ends the third band. In other words, a base, middle, and top. Another approach is to have a similar color form a vertical visual element all the way up the facade: similar to the Option A front elevation (though the far left and right elements would need to be one color). The point is to avoid monotony, though a chopped up, calico result is not desirable either. Condition #6: The original approval included specific height restrictions to protect air space for the private air park. The applicant is requesting revisions to these. The revised building height plan includes a 7:1 "transitional surface" on the sides of the runway and a 20:1 "approach surface" off the end of the runway. We have discussed the proposed new restrictions with MnDOT Aeronautics. The new restrictions are more complete and more in line with MnDOT recommendations.