Building and Massing Presentation
1: Current and Proposed Height Standards
This is Part 1 of 5 of the Building and Massing Presentation. 16 minutes, 35 seconds.
Dated August 5, 2022. Released to the public August 12, 2022.
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Sections of the Building & Massing Presentation:
- Current and Proposed Height Standards
- Solar Shading
- Proposed Setbacks and Massing Impacts
- Height Ratios and Unit Calculations
- Financial Feasibility of Development
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David Loya
Hi, and welcome to Gateway Area Plan Form-Based Code and Building and Massing. I’m David Loya. I’m the Director of Community Development with the City of Arcata and I invite you to participate in the Gateway Plan on-going engagements to conduct this important planning work for the City of Arcata. I’d like to also encourage you to reach out to me or Senior Planner Delo Freitas if you have any follow up questions resulting from this meeting or if you’re interested in learning how to engage in further detail with us. So without further ado, I’d like to present to you some material that we’ve been working on to help explain how the zoning work that we’re doing, the high-level policy work that we’re doing,.and the Form-Based Code can all be used to create an environment in the City of Arcata that both addresses our future development and growth needs as well as respecting the values and aesthetics that we all have for the City of Arcata.
David Loya 01:26
I’m going to start with the high-level overview of the Gateway Area Plan boundaries, for those of you who are not familiar. The boundaries start in the south on Samoa Boulevard, they run out catch some of the commercial properties and residential properties between 5th Street and Samoa. And then the boundaries zig-zags a little bit to get over to K Street, up Alliance, comes back out O Street, and then out Q Street. It’s about 138 acres of land that includes a variety of different uses currently that we’ll talk about. And what we’re really going to be focusing in on this particular program is how future development can fit within the existing bounds of current development and how it can be limited based on these Form-Based Code.
So right now the zoning in the City of Arcata in this area includes areas that are zoned light-industrial, heavy-industrial — this darker pink. We have some residential high-density properties, some residential medium-density properties, as well as some commercial and finally some residential low. So it’s a real mix of different zoning districts currently in this area. But the one thing that all of this area has in common is that there’s a lot of redevelopment potential within many of the parcels that are included in this area. Within this current zoning you can develop out a certain building elevation, there are standards that limit you to the floor area ratios, the massing that’s allowed within those districts, there are setbacks and various other requirements. One way to visualize these is through these “glass boxes.” The glass boxes, you see in the screen here, a transparent image of the maximum height combined with the setback requirements. So you can see within each of these different districts there are various heights allowed for and various densities development allowed for. Within these glass boxes they show the maximum build-out under current zoning, based just on those two parameters: Height and Setback. There are other standards that we can look at that address reducing the footprint of future development even further within this current zoning district.
David Loya 04:00
So I just want to take a quick look at what the building elevations are that are allowed right now. In general you can build a four-story building within each of these districts. On the industrial limited you can go up to 45 feet, [up to] 45 feet in the residential high-density district. And in the industrial general, it says minimum of 45, but it’s up to the decision maker so it could be greater than 45 feet. Commercial districts you can go 35 and 38 feet with a density bonus and residential-low density or 38 feet in the residential medium-density. So right now you can see there’s a range of different building heights that are allowed for in these districts. But despite those upper limits, very few projects have really maxed out these building envelopes. And again, in part that’s related to market conditions, but in part it’s related to the other standards that we have in our zoning codes. So I want to keep this in mind that the zoning code is built based on both these maximum building heights, as well as these other standards. And we’ll come back to that thing many times throughout this presentation.
David Loya 05:07
Right here I’m showing you the Arcata Gateway area, these glass boxes, if you will, as they’re currently proposed. Now, recall, the Gateway Area Plan is in draft form right now and so this is all subject to the discretion of the decision makers and input from you. So I want you to continue to participate provide us feedback on these. I’m showing you here the four districts that are proposed in the Gateway Area Plan, there’s the Barrel District in this pink color; Gateway Hub or the center part in this blue color; Gateway Corridor, which runs along Samoa and K streets; and then the Gateway Neighborhood. The Gateway Neighborhood is more of a transition zone. And you can see compared to these glass boxes in the background, Gateway Neighborhood provides for lower development potential than the Gateway Hub, for example. So what’s currently proposed? Well, in the Barrel District, 8-stories maximum with a maximum of 90 feet. In the Hub, you have 80 feet maximum that would accommodate 7-story buildings. Corridor, you can build up to 6-stories with a 70 foot maximum, and the transition 60 feet with5-story max on the Gateway Neighborhood. But what the proportion of those properties could actually build out or will actually build out at those densities? I think one of the things that has been a big concern for many community members is the thought of this entire area, looking like this glass box vision here –every property built out to a maximum build out that really maximizes the bulk and mass. That’s not a realistic expectation for development within this area. And it’s not a realistic expectation of how the codes that would be implemented to further regulate development beyond just setback and maximum building height.
So to take a closer look at this, we used a couple of different strategies. One, you’ll see some of these glass boxes have buildings inside of them that are not real buildings. All of these white buildings are three-dimensional representations of actual buildings within this plant area. And so you might see some buildings that you’re familiar with, maybe you see the building that you live in or work in. Then you’ll see these other buildings that that are not in the plan area right now. This is Bud’s Mini-Storage right here, we’ve got a rough model built for Bud’s Mini-Storage showing some features there. There’s the AmeriGas parcel, Car Wash parcel. And so we’re going to use these to visualize how the Form-Based Code can further refine what the development potential is on these sites that goes to limit these to more than just these glass boxes. So just summarizing real quick, you know, current zoning that we have in place right now allows for 45-Foot tall buildings in general. You can build a four-story building in most of the plan area. Maximum building height is much taller in general than what the plan allows for and there’s much — the taller buildings in the draft plan are higher than what’s currently proposed. And then, finally, the Form-Based Code design standards will further limit that future development. So we’re not anticipating a development potential that looks like these glass box visions.
So let’s dig into the design process a little bit to understand how those controls really can affect further limitations on development beyond these glass boxes. I’m going to look into the Car Wash parcel here and use this as an example for many different insights into how Form-Based Code can be used to further refine development. You can see we have this rough model that is housed within the class box, the glass box being somewhat transparent. And then the model, this rough model being darker comprised of different building floors there. We also went beyond that with some of these parcels and added a more refined model. This more refined model takes a look at how building setbacks on the ground floor, on upper floors, and how articulation of the buildings could further enhance both the aesthetics of them and also reduce the impacts of these new proposed buildings. And I want to be real clear at this point that none of these models, none of the glass boxes are fixed. These are just representational so that we can start to understand how the Code would interact. None of these are proposed actual buildings. And so I don’t want anybody to look at this and think that we’ve got it a vision for what buildings might actually be built out right now. These are simply models to help us understand how these building forms would impact on site and off site, existing and future builds.
David Loya 10:11
So again, looking at the Car Wash parcel if we zoom in On an aerial image of it, you can see the Car Wash and then on the other side of the block, the Mini-Storage. This particular property is all in one ownership. You can see that the creek is daylighted through a portion of the property, but not all the way through. And so this property reflects pretty significant potential for redevelopment in the future,. We’re going to take a look at how that might look, how it might impact other buildings around it. Under current zoning, there’s a total glass box volume that is much much larger than the actual build out volume. Again, here’s the Car Wash on the right of the screen and the Mini-Storage is on to the left of the screen. And in fact, you can look throughout the zoomed-in portion of this district and see that none of the existing buildings are built out to that full potential — the total elevation of 45 feet that could be built out to. And looking into the future with the proposal and this rough model, that would bring us up to a total of 70 feet build out potential. This rough model encompasses a portion of the property, you can see the creek is still the daylight a portion of the creek is still there, represented by this green area here. And in this particular build there are five stories with that upper floor setback like we talked about. Because these stories are very tall, you’re only getting five within the 70 feet. This district actually currently allows them to draft for six. So you can imagine this being a five or six-story building.
David Loya 11:46
The more refined model took advantage of some design principles that would help ameliorate impacts. And so you’re seeing as we stepped down from the glass box to the rough model to a refined model, you’re starting to see how we can further restrict the impact of the development, the bulk and mass the way that it feels onto the street, the way that it affects other existing community amenities like the creek, the way that it will impact adjacent neighbors. And so this is to help us understand how we can further refined with Form-Based Code. You can see in this image we have a 60 foot building — now the 60 foot is further to the south of the parcels which would limit the shading impacts of the project. So we can use these kinds of concepts of standards in the Form-Based Code to generate those impacts. You can see upper floor setbacks, as we’ve discussed, about three stories as well as lower floor setbacks. Some of these can be attributed or used for public purposes. You can see some attempt to show how articulation of the building form could affect the massing and reduce the sense of the building. And in addition, we have some site-specific standards that might be applied on particular sites. This Car Wash site, for example, has real potential to allow for daylighting of a creek and so we’ve shown that here. There’s no development on that.
David Loya 13:15
So what are the elements of the Form-Based Code that we’ve just looked at here? For one, there’s placement on the street, there’s the building form, the bulk and massing of it, where it sits on the lot, what are the setbacks. We can affect all of those with this Form-Based Code approach. There’s also the building standards: What do we want the buildings to look like? What types of architectural features, how much window openings? How much glazing? Where do we want the doors? How do we want placement of those public intersections between the private and the public space, how much landscaping and so on and so forth. And then we can also address site design standards, including landscaping, these publicly accessible private open spaces that would be secured through easements and other features of the development that really reflect on to the public Right of Way. You can learn more about this if you’d like if you search the YouTube and search Arcata Form-Based Code, we’ve got some great videos that are primers for this.
So moving back to our Car Wash parcel to dig a little deeper into design. We’ve got this framework now. Okay, so maybe the Form-Based Code only goes so far as to establish this framework upper floor setbacks and these sorts of things, ideas around Bulk and Massing. We would then –for projects of this scale and nature — leave it to the architect’s creativity to bring forward a design that really enhances the site and enhances the public view. So here’s an example where that framework could house something that looks similar to this. This very nice, aesthetically pleasing design could be incorporated onto the site within that framework. And it’s a way of understanding how that framework can then lend to development of projects that really enhance the area. The Form-Based Code could even go as far as defining some of these features, maybe where the balconies land, where the openings, how frequent the openings should be for, you know, for public spaces. This particular site is filled up with basically five story buildings and four-story buildings. And we can define all of that. Obviously the more definition we give to the Code, the more detail there is, the more time and energy and money will have to put into that Code. But if that’s the direction this community wants to go to ensure that it knows what development is going to come out of this, that is an option.
Leaving the framework, a little bit more vague, maybe a little bit more detailed than this, but a little bit more vague, will get us to a Code more quickly. And it will allow for more flexibility and design, leave architects to do their work and create these really nuanced spaces.
David Loya 16:10
So again, just recapping, maximum height and building setbacks are sort of the first layer design, there are several more that can be implemented. The Form-Based Code would further refine setting boundaries on development, including not only the upper floor setbacks but up to and including how much glazing is on the frontage, what those street amenities would be, where the public accessible private open space would be. And the Form-Based Code provides standards on a range of facets for development that go beyond that, including potentially street trees and etc.
