Town Council Work Session
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What is the purpose and scope of the rooftop ordinance presentation?
Let's um call to order tonight's um Town council work session of june twenty fourth, twenty twenty four. Our first item for discussion is the use of rooftops. Mike Watkins.
Madam Mayor, members of Council, good evening. I'm here to talk to you about rooftops. So At your June tenth work session, uh Council made two requests. The first was to talk about the general use of root rooftops. And then secondly was to inquire about a recommendation made by the Board of Architectural Review. For the project at two oh eight South King Street. So the ordinance does by zoning district limit building height. Uh the screen shows a summary of building height limitations by our non residential districts. And then there is a footnote that addresses building uh non residential buildings close to residential. where the building needs to be set back at a one to one ratio uh ratio to that residential lot.
The ordinance also includes how we measure building height. And essentially it's the average grade around the building to the uh top of a flat roof. to the middle of a gabled roof or to the top of a mansard roof. The ordinance does include exclusions to that maximum building height. They're listed on the screen just to give you a flavor. Uh there's barns and silos, chimneys and church spires, mechanical mechanical equipment. It's highlighted in red. uh parapet walls, architectural features, uh and then antenna and radio and television uh television transmission equipment. What I wanted to do was illustrate uh the building height and the exceptions that we have in the ordinance. So the image on the left is just the volume of a building.
The image on the right illustrates how an exception would be allowed for mechanical equipment. Uh and again today the ordinance limits this exception to mechanical equipment only. Some other examples for you uh in the downtown what I tried to illustrate again using that volumetric study is the cube on the top would be that mechanical exception. And there are other um instances where the uh business has created that outdoor rooftop space by subtracting from the volume of the building. The ordinance the zoning ordinance and the building code aren't quite the same. So the zoning ordinance primarily regulates the volume of the building, its height. uh regulates the uh uses conducted within buildings, and then localities are enabled by the General Assembly to more or less enact the planning principles uh in their comprehensive plans.
Whereas the building code, the building code is primarily focused on life safety and structural integrity. uh is subject to the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code. uh by memorandum of understanding the loud loudon county administers the building code for the town. Uh and then lastly, the building code does not directly regulate height or use, but there are components of the code that would affect building height and use. Regarding the BAR's recommendation. Uh when the application was brought forward the elevations did depict a rooftop amenity space. The BAR is very supportive of activated rooftop spaces. However, I could not find in the transcripts that the BAR specifically made a request to include a rooftop venue.
In our staff memo we included um some uh next steps. So if the council desired to move forward with something, um we gave you some recommendations. Uh and I apologize I did not include the last page, but I'm here to answer any questions we have.
Um okay you didn't con you didn't include the potential next steps?
Uh just the in some we usually have a slide at the the end just that says you know that's the end of the presentation. Oh that's the same. This slide shows the the three items from the staff memo.
Okay, could you leave the stuff? Yes ma'am. Okay, thank you. So anyone has any questions on this item? Mr Wilkes?
Yeah, first question. I you know I see Kevin Ash, the developer of this specific project. Uh spent some time to hear from him and
No, uh uh this is a this is our time that we're talking among ourselves. This is not when we bring the public in.
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Agenda
3 items
1
What is the purpose and scope of the rooftop ordinance presentation?
1:58–26:14
2
How did council members question the BAR recommendation and rooftop usage exceptions?
26:14–43:54
3
What are the details of the special‑exception process and height calculations for 208 South King Street?
43:54–1:36:52
Speakers
5 identifiedOfficials recognised by voice; public commenters shown as “Speaker N” unless they state their name.