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Plan Review Detail
Review Status: Approved
Review Details: SPECIAL DISTRICTS REVIEW v.3
Plan Number - SD-0123-00019
Review Name: SPECIAL DISTRICTS REVIEW v.3
Review Status: Approved
| Review Date | Reviewer's Name | Type of Review | Description | Status | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Special Districts Application Completeness | APPROVED | DATE: February 16, 2023, Revised May 19, 2023 TO: Maria Gayosso, Gabriel Sleighter, Amanda Smith, Planners, P&DSD, City of Tucson FROM: Corky Poster, Architect/Planner, COT On-Call Design Professional, comments in red. RE: 1700 East Grant Road Street, SD-0123-00019. Act. #T22CM05317, NPZ-??-?? INTRODUCTION The owners, Livin Real Estate Solutions, LLC, represented by Lu Griego, are proposing to build a new residential “Sleeping Quarters” (620 square feet, 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom, Living Room and ½ Kitchen) in the rear of a lot with a 1,214 Square Foot existing residence. The proposed project is located in the Jefferson Park Neighborhood Preservation Zone (NPZ), at 1700 East Grant Road. The front residence is a “contributing” structure to the Jefferson Park National Register District in the NPZ. It is surrounded by mostly “Contributing” structures (figure 1). Because of its corner location, it will be seen from North Warren. COT GIS Figure 1 The proposed structure is located 26’-7” south of the existing structure, 6’ west of the east property line of the site. The proposed sleeping quarters is a single-story building. The elevation of this new sleeping quarters has no particular relationship to the existing structure or other buildings in the neighborhood. It has a single very low-pitch roof sloping east west, a contrast to the hip roof of the existing structure. The siding is a “primed [vertical] hardboard,” again with no relationship to the existing historic structure or structures within the Development Zone. Quoting from the Jefferson Park Neighborhood Design Manual for the Jefferson Park Neighborhood Preservation Zone: On June 10, 2008, the City of Tucson Mayor and Council adopted the Neighborhood Preservation Zone (NPZ) ordinance (see Appendix A or Section 2.8.11 in the Land Use Code), which enabled the creation of overlay districts designed to preserve, protect, and enhance the unique character and historical resources of established city neighborhoods. The Mayor and Council initiated the Jefferson Park Neighborhood for the NPZ process on October 23, 2007. This process requires the development of a neighborhood design manual. On June 21, 2011, the Mayor and Council adopted the rezoning of the Jefferson Park Neighborhood with an NPZ overlay. The preface “N” has been added to the assigned residential zoning designation for each property within the Jefferson Park NPZ (e.g., R-1 became NR-1). The design manual is a condition of the rezoning (C9-11-01 Jefferson Park Neighborhood Preservation Zone Overlay) and is a required review component of all applicable projects. Applicants must still meet all applicable City Building Code requirements. Purpose of this Design Manual The Jefferson Park Neighborhood Design Manual (Design Manual) provides a process to guide architectural and design requirements to assure development is compatible with the unique character of the Jefferson Park Neighborhood as well as with the character of the project’s Development Zone. Defining Characteristics of the Jefferson Park Neighborhood Projects shall be reviewed in accordance with the Compatibility Review Criteria as provided in Chapter 3. The Compatibility Review Criteria are the defining characteristics of the National Register Historic District as determined by a study of the neighborhood by consultants titled “Character-Defining Elements of the Jefferson Park Neighborhood” (see Appendix B) The following is a summary of the Jefferson Park Neighborhood’s (Neighborhood) defining characteristics. For more details on the defining characteristics of the Jefferson Park Neighborhood, see Chapter 3: Compatibility Review Criteria and Appendix B: Character Defining Elements of the Jefferson Park Neighborhood. • The Neighborhood dates to the late 1890s, growing out of a land claim under the Homestead Act of 1862 (Jefferson Park Neighborhood Plan, page 2). • The Neighborhood is overwhelmingly residential in zoning and land use, with the vast majority of land in low density residential (R-1) (Jefferson Park Neighborhood Plan, page 3) • The Jefferson Park Neighborhood includes nearly 900 single-family houses. About 96 percent of all buildings are singlestory houses; there are only eight historic houses that were originally built with two stories on large lots, and about 28 other two-story structures, including commercial properties, apartment complexes, and additions to single-family houses (Appendix B, page 1). • Almost all of the buildings in the Jefferson Park Neighborhood are single-family houses on a residential lot. Occasionally there are two separate residences on the same parcel, one in the front and one in the back. A few large multi-family residential buildings and apartment complexes are located along the arterial streets. There is minor encroachment of commercial properties on the arterial streets and the boundaries, but this is limited to the area west of Park Avenue. With very few exceptions, the area between Park and Campbell avenues is exclusively single-family homes. (Appendix B, page 12) • Throughout the neighborhood there is considerable variability in lot width, house width, and spacing between houses, but consistent setbacks produce uniform depth of front yards. (Appendix B, page 1) • Predominant architectural styles of the Jefferson Park Neighborhood include Period Revival, particularly Spanish Colonial Revival and Southwest, Bungalow, and Ranch. Most of the houses were built after World War II, and there is broad representation of most of the different postwar Ranch types that have been identified for Tucson. Houses also exhibit broad diversity in design within a particular architectural style. There is one readily identifiable common house design, a Transitional Ranch model that is found throughout the neighborhood. (Appendix B, page 4). I have reviewed the following Application content: 1. Special District Application Filled (1 page) 2. Authorization Letter (1 page) 3. Defining Characteristics & Privacy (1 page) 4. Aerial Photo from GIS with contours, addressing, etc. (1 page) 5. Project drawings (6 pages - site plans, floor plans, elevations for existing and new) 6. Proposed materials (1 page - windows, doors, siding and roof) 7. Photos of existing residence (1 page) 8. Map of contributing Jefferson Park properties (1 page) 9. Map of contributing Jefferson Park properties including Development Zone (1 page) 10. Photos of Contributing Zone properties (6 pages, 3 per page) 11. COT Activity Number (1 page) 12. Zoning comments (1 page) 13. Pima County Assessor’s Parcel Information (3 pages) I have reviewed the revised proposal dated 4/18/22 with revised drawings A001, A002. A003, A004, A005 and A006. In particular, on sheet A006 the applicant has made substantial changes to the elevation design. 3.3: Compatibility Review Criteria – Defining Characteristics and Requirements The designer– Lu Griego - has provided a very short Defining Characteristics list that covers Front yard, Massing, Scale Architectural Style, Landscaping, and Vehicular and Pedestrian Access. A. FRONT YARDS Requirements: 1. The project shall be no closer to the street than the contributing property closest to the street within the Development Zone. Proposed addition is in the rear. N/A. 2. The project’s front yard setback shall not be less than the minimum required setback requirement of the underlying zone. Proposed addition is in the rear. N/A. 3. Porches may encroach into the setback established in #1 above, but shall not be less than the minimum required setback of the underlying zone. N/A 4. Walls and other forms of opaque screening are discouraged where they are not consistent with the defining characteristic of the neighborhood and/or could threaten the contributing property status of a structure. Jogs, offsets, and landscape treatment designed with the wall are encouraged. No new walls or fencing is proposed in this application. N/A. 5. Avoid chain link fencing along street frontages. 6. Low retaining walls should be incorporated into the design when warranted. N/A A. Front Yards Defining Characteristic: B. MASSING: Requirements: 1. The lot coverage shall not exceed fifty (50) percent (Strategy 1.2.1.e: Lot Coverage). This requirement is met. 2. The floor area of the second floor(s) shall not exceed 5.25% of the total lot area. N/A 3. No portion of the roof over the two-story area shall exceed twenty (20) feet in height, as measured for the finished ground floor elevation to the highest point of the roof. In any new construction, additions, remodeling, the height of single story development shall be limited to sixteen (16) feet. N/A 4. Demonstrate how massing design features used by contributing properties within the Development Zone or from contributing properties of similar size within the Jefferson Park National Register Historic District are incorporated into the proposed building or addition. Techniques may include projections and recessions, varied rooflines or stepped parapet heights, porches, and/or gabled roof with dormers. Submit photographs of applicable contributing properties illustrating the design features used. This requirement appears to have not been met. The sheet provided states, “Mass Features: Single story residence. Gable roof with dormers and open front porch.” Neither the existing residence nor the proposed sleeping quarters show any signs of this. This requirement has now been met. C. SCALE: Requirements: 1. The enclosed space on the project site shall not exceed a Residential Floor to Area Ratio (RFAR) of 0.35. RFAR is a ratio expressing the amount of square feet of floor area permitted for every square foot of land area within the site. The total allowable floor area of development includes the existing floor area plus proposed additions and/or new construction. RFAR calculations will be based on the gross square footage of all enclosed space on the site including garages, accessory structures, and permanent storage. Unenclosed structures, including porches, carports, and patios, are excluded from the total allowable floor area calculation; This requirement is met. 2. Accessory secondary structures shall be no more than fifty (50) percent of the square footage of the principal structure; it shall be located in the rear of the lot, behind the principal structure; and it must be either the same height or shorter than the principal structure. In the case of a corner lot, “rear” would be understood to be determined as away from the street frontage on the shorter dimension of the lot. (Strategy 1.2.1.d: Additional Structures from the Jefferson Park Neighborhood Plan); This accessory structure requirement is met. 3. Multistory structures should comply with Section 3.2.12 (Solar Considerations) of the City of Tucson Land Use Code. N/A D. ARCHITECTURAL STYLE Requirements: General Requirements: 1. For additions to existing structures, the same architectural style (including the individual design components) as the existing structure shall be used. N/A 2. For new construction, the project shall incorporate elements of any one of the predominant architectural styles used by a contributing property in the project’s Development Zone. The proposed new structure has none of the characteristics of the existing residence nor any of the characteristics of the 18 structures shown in the example photographs in the Development Zone. New construction should not repeat, copy, or be identical to the architectural style of a contributing property, but rather use it as a design reference. (see above) Individual Design Component Requirements: 1. Exterior Building Wall Materials. Projects must use an exterior building wall material compatible with a contributing property in the Development Zone. This requirement is not met. This requirement is met. 2. Garages and Carports. New project parking will be compatible with existing parking patterns within the Development Zone of a given site. For R-1 properties, group parking in front yards, parking in the back-of-curb area on the street, jumping curbs to park, and parking lot-style parking in the rear of a lot is prohibited in the new development. For existing development, use the current lot coverage requirements of the Land Use Code to strictly interpret front yard and rear yard parking as a lot coverage code violation. In other words, at the time property owners or renters chose to use their front or rear yard open space as parking (whether or not it is paved) without benefit of a permit, they may have violated their requirement to provide only 70% lot coverage. N/A 3. Porches. If a porch is provided, the porch must be compatible with the style of the house and the houses of that style within the project’s Development Zone. N/A 4. Balconies. Balconies are discouraged as they are not historically compatible with the historic district. However, if balconies are provided, they must comply with the objectives of Section 4.5: Mitigation of Privacy Intrusions from Balconies. N/A 5. Roofs. a. Roofs must be historically compatible with a type present among contributing properties in the project’s Development Zone. The pitch of gabled roofs can be no 19 greater than the pitch used by a contributing property in the project’s Development Zone. This requirement is not met. This requirement is met. b. Alternative roof types, such as A-frames, geodesic domes, and Swiss Chalet, are prohibited. N/A c. Alternative roofing materials are allowed as long as the proposed materials are visually compatible with material historically used in the neighborhood. d. Roof types within the same block should vary to avoid redundancy. 6. Windows. a. The type, proportion, and placement of the windows in the project should be visually compatible with those in the Development Zone. The windows match the existing (changed from original) windows of the primary residence but not the majority of the windows in the Development Zone. Windows proposed are acceptable. b. Window materials do not have to be the same as those contributing properties in the neighborhood, but should be visually compatible. This applies also to energy efficient replacement windows. E. LANDSCAPING (REQUIRED OF NEW STRUCTURES ONLY): Requirement: Landscaping in the front yard shall be compatible with the project’s Development Zone. Additional Guidelines: The following are strongly encouraged, but not required: This addition appears to provide no new landscaping. 1. Drought-tolerant, native landscaping that reduces the heat island effect should be used. N/A 2. Organic and inorganic ground cover should be used to mitigate dust pollution from the project site. 3. Use of water harvesting techniques is strongly encouraged. N/A FINDINGS: 1. The applicant, Livin Real Estate Solutions, LLC, represented by Lu Griego, has submitted a complete application. 2. The priority review criteria list (especially Defining Characteristics, Building Walls, Rhythm, Roofs, Scale) has not been carefully considered and the roof line and exterior wall materials, in particular, are not in conformance with the compatibility guidelines of the Jefferson Park NPZ. It is the recommendation of this reviewer that the roof line and the exterior wall material be changed to be more compatible (for example gable roof and stucco exterior) and the application resubmitted. 3. The photos submitted are clearly noted and satisfactory. 4. I recommend against approval of the Jefferson Park NPZ application for 1700 East Grant Road, SD-0123-00019. Act. #T22CM05317. 5. The priority review criteria list (especially Defining Characteristics, Building Walls, Rhythm, Roofs, Scale) has now been considered and the roof line and exterior wall materials, in particular, are now in conformance with the compatibility guidelines of the Jefferson Park NPZ. The new small stand-alone Sleeping Quarters project now has a parapet roof and a stucco finish on the exterior. 6. The reviewer finds these changes responsive to the original February 16, 2023 comments and recommends approval of the revised proposal. |
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| Design Review | PENDING ASSIGNMENT | ||||
| Historic | PENDING ASSIGNMENT |