07/22/1987 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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V. CITY COUNCI L MINUTES OF DINNER/WORK SESSION AND MEETING OF JUNE 8, 1987; MEETINGS OF JUNE 10, 1987, AND JUNE 17, 1987 e Ms. Ehrman moved, seconded by Mr. Holmer, to approve the City Council minutes of June 8, 1987, June 10, 1987, and June 17, 1987. Roll call vote; the motion carried unanimously, 7:0. VI. PUBLIC FORUM CONCERNING SOLAR ACCESS REGULATIONS Assistant City Manager Dave Whitlow introduced the item. Jim Croteau of the Planning Department gave the staff report. He said several organizations have indicated concern about the restrictiveness of the solar access ordinance adopted by the council in August 1986. He said the ordi nance revi sed the solar access criteria used to review new subdivisions, partitions, and planned unit developments and provided a solar access guarantee. Those parts of the ordinance are in effect and have not caused problems. The ordinance also contains solar access setback regulations for new homes and additions to homes and the objections to the ordinance concern the setback regulations. The regulations were to be effective in January 1987 but the council postponed them until October 1987 so that City staff and design professionals could be trained and so that previously designed buildings could be built during the construction season. Mr. Croteau said the public forum was scheduled so that the council could obtain information. He said the staff recommends that the council maintain the October 1 effective date for the setback regulations. He said e administrative rules are being developed to make the regulations easy to follow. Larry Reed, manager of the Building Safety Division, discussed the staff training, the impacts of the solar setback standards, and administrative rules. He said most of the staff was trained in January and February 1987. The training was complex and probably some people were mistakenly told that some plans would not comply with the regulations. He said presentations about the ordinance were made to members of the Home Builders Association in the spring. In addition, City representatives have met with designers every Wednesday since July 29 to discuss building plans that are being prepared. Mr. Reed said plans for 70 to 80 homes are checked by the City monthly. About two-thirds of them involve outside construction to which the solar access ordinance applies. The usual plan check takes two to three-and-a-half hours and the solar access review adds about 15 minutes to the plan check. No solar access problems are found in 80 to 90 percent of the plan checks. Only five to eight plans need to be changed each month because of the solar access ordinance. However, an additional two to three hours is spent explaining the problems and helping customers redesign the plans so they will be acceptable. Therefore, the ordinance increases the monthly work load one to two person days. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 22, 1987 Page 5