Staff Recommendation
Staff recommends approval with the following conditions:
1) that the garage door openings be two separate ones as shown in the drawings and overhead doors to appear as side-opening carriage house doors. Confirmation of service door type (shown as single-light or single wood panel door on submitted drawings) with specifications for both to be provided to staff for approval.
2) that a sample of brick for foundation and chimney (if constructed) be provided to staff for approval. Staff recommends pricing a masonry chimney stack for the wood stove vent, but the chimney stack is not required as a condition of approval.
3) The garage peak should be made to be more significantly lower than 1 foot than that of the house since no precedent has been discovered by staff or provided by the applicant for accessory structures that are nearly the same height as the main house.
Other staff recommendations for the record:
1) Staff has recommended that the applicant consider constructing two separate accessory structures on the site, one for the garage and one for the workhshop, since more than one accessory structure is not atypical for the district. Accessory structures that have a width and height that are the same as that of the main structure and have more square footage than the main structure, such as the proposed, are not typical in the district.
2) A second option recommended by staff was to attach the garage to the rear or side of the house to provide more mass to the primary structure on the lot, while reducing the mass of the accessory structure. However, the applicant chose not to pursue either of these options.
PRECEDENT: Approval of the proposal as submitted will set a precedent for allowing an accessory structure to have more square footage than the main house and to have greater width as viewed from the street. However, the massing can be required to be broken up under different roof structures, and the roof peak of the garage be at least 1 foot lower than that of the main house as in the current proposal. Additionally, any accessory structure larger than the main house can be required to be at least 36 feet to the rear of the main house as in the current proposal.
