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r three stories and thirty-six feet.high.220 Winchester Street is a 5,526 sf. home on a 18,780 sf. lot in a SR 2 district that requires a minimum lot size of 15,000 sf. for new lots. Under the old ordinance,this home met all of the requirements. Under the new 30 foot height requirement,.a 36 foot home.would not be allowed: In other cases, many of,the "monster homes" receiving attention had,garages on the first floor with two full stories of living-space above (3 Troy Lane).This not only, pushed the structure to'the maximum height allowed, it left an unattractive garage door at the street level. With a reduction in'the allowed height from thirty-six feet. to thirty feet,it is less likely that a developer would commit an entire story to garage space. Exceptions to the height.limits'are chimneys, spires, architectural ornaments,etc. 3.3 Reduce The Number Of Stories That Could Be Built . Accompanying the reduction in measured height was the reduction in the number of stories. If a new home is limited to thirty feet in.height with three stories of living space, a flat roof might be required to fit the,three story home under the thirty foot height restriction. This is exactly what one developer did (example-8 W. yckhAm Road, a three story flat roofed residence).With the proposal to reduce the number of stories from three to two and one-half, a Builder might still build a two story home with a flat roof,but achieve the maximum footage, he would have to.add a sloped roof to gain the extra half.-story. The final version of-this amendment resulted in allowing a third story by special permit, if.the construction . was consistent with the design,.size and scale of other structures in the . neighborhood. In this way,a three story,home could be built-in a_neighborhood of other large homes. 3.4 Add A Definition-Of One-Half Story ". Related to the reduction in the number of stories was the need to define "half-. story.. The proposed limited on the amount of livable square footage in the half- .. story so that a half-story was considered as being less than two-thirds of the square footage of the floor below. This.prevented attic space from being excessive . and encouraged the construction of.sloped roofs: 3.6 Limit The:Amount Of Reconstruction That Could Occur By Right A proposal arose.in an effort to make new building size consistent.with its surrounding neighborhood.A new structure would have a height limitation of either the average height of the'abuttin ' residences or the height of the structure . being'replaced;'whichever-was greater. The idea was to prevent homes from being too large for the neighborhood, while allowing large homes to.occur where appropriate. The proposal had several technical problems including the fact that records.of building heights did not exist in city records and when they did,they were unreliable. Determining heights of abutting structures would put an,undue burden on'staff and to ask the property owner.to do the measuring could lead to biased numbers. Finally, if a home:was placed next to a large homer the new home would be allowed much greater height than the home directly across the street where no "monster home" abutted.'Staff felt that the issue of neighborhood context-was better addressed by allowing.larger homes than zoning permits by special permit with criteria for such a determination. 3.7 Require A Special Permit To Demolish A Home Fifty.Years Old Or Older 3