Item 5: Public Hearing on Ordinance Establishing Chambers Special Area Zone

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This house was expanded into a triplex. It illustrates many of the issues with maintaining the character of a traditional neighborhood and also allowing infill. Opinions vary, but generally this feels too dense to most ETN residents, even though it attempts to mitigate some potentially negative qualities. This development of six tri-plexes at the edge of the ETN has shifted the character of the area. The development is entirely devoted to serving the automobile II DENSITY The term density, used by planners, is usually used as an abstract measure of dwelling units per net acre. But here we are talking about how density interacts with housing types and neighborhood character. As density levels rise, housing types change in order to fit more units on a given piece of land. In the ETN the dominant housing type is the detached dwelling. The is an essential characteristic of the neighborhood. If density levels are to rise in the ETN because of metro land use policies, they should rise only so far as to retain the prevailing housing type and character of the neighborhood. This limit for neighborhood density could be termed "carrying capacity," the maximum density that the neighborhood can absorb without losing the single-family detached housing character. The ETN was zoned for duplexes in the 30's and has since had many modifications to the zoning regulations, all of which permitted higher densities than one house per lot. The actual built character, however has always been one "main" house per lot. Successful duplex developments in the area are modest in size and do not emphasize the "dual" aspect. Later duplexes broke with the tradition of single unit appearance, and stand out in the neighborhood as less compatible. Generally there is one primary dwelling on each lot, and in some cases there are small houses, cottages, or "granny" flats in the rear yard, especially on lots with alleys.