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

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The Chambers historic house. A higher quality older house in the ETN illustrating the positive qualities of using the roof volume for the second floor and breaking down the mass of the building using dormers and other roof elements. The pitch of this roof exceeds 12: 12. II HOUSES WITH CHARACTER The variety of house styles in the ETN- Craftsman, Cape Cod, Queen Anne-are essential to the feel of the neighborhood. The Craftsman bungalows, built in the early 1900's, tend to be the highest quality houses, while the Cape Cod-influenced homes built during the post-ware era tend be of lower quality construction. Most houses built more recendy have weak stylistic associations and have litde distinctive character. What is most important is that new houses have character-they should in fact be charming-in their overall form and in their details. The surest way to achieve this is to work within recognizable styles that are found in the ETN neighborhood. The neighborhood has gone through several shifts in the type, size, and quality of development. The historic Chambers House is a large "extended family" size Queen Anne style house. Its lot, a square roughly 100' on each side, is atypical for the neighborhood. The Craftsman bungalows are among the finest older houses in the neighborhood. Despite the building's fairly large footprint the perceived size of the large two-story structure is smaller because the second floor is usually partially or wholly within the roof volume. A large number of very small Cape Cod houses were built during the post-war building booms. These house do not have the higher quality detailing and were typically smaller than some of the older homes. In the 70's and 80's a number of dwellings considered "out of character" with the neighborhood were