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Council approves size restrictions New ordinance forbids structures exceeding 45,000 square feet, including roof parking By BILL CHOY Ashland Daily Tidings After much debate and revision, the Ashland City Council passed the city's big box ordinance late Tuesday night by a 4-2 vote, with Councilors Alex Amarotico and Kate Jackson dissenting. "After spending so much time on it already, I think it was a waste to go so quickly without spending time on the more minute details," Amarotico said this morning in a telephone interview. "We could have had a better ordinance.'' Several modifications in previous meetings resulted in an ordinance limiting buildings in the city to 45,000 square feet. The council spent much of the meeting debating revisions to the ordinance, including allowing variances to the allowable building size. "It bothers me a bit the ordinance doesn't have any variances,'' Councilor Chris Hearn said at the meeting. "It's highly unusual." The council also recommended city staff look at how the ordinance could affect affordable housing in town. Amarotico said he would have liked to have discussed the possibility of lowering the maximum square footage to 25,000 to 35,000 square feet. He also thought the council should have examined having housing in a basement not count in the building's square footage. In the approved ordinance, only basement parking will not count toward square footage. While Mayor Alan DeBoer was pleased the ordinance passed, he was concerned about allowing variances. This morning, he said he felt the variance was "a loophole" which could allow businesses to build over the 45,000 square foot limit. His other concern was the time it would take city staff to listen to and decide if they would approve a building, which he was afraid would cost the city more money for additional staff hours, "It just takes up a huge amount of staff time,'' DeBoer said. "Now staff has to go though additional hearings.'' Council member John Morrison said at the meeting while he preferred a square-foot limit of around 30,000 square feet, he supported the ordinance. "I'm very lukewarm on this," he said. "But it does reduce the total size of buildings, although I would of preferred a smaller footprint." He added it was a step in the right direction to help preserve the downtown and discourage big box businesses. The original ordinance on buildings was approved in 1992 and was meant to apply to commercial buildings outside downtown, but language to that effect was not included, city staff said at the time. Revising the ordinance was raised during the approval of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's New Theater in 2000. At the time, the council interpreted the 45,000-square-foot limit as applying only to the footprint of the structure, and not the gross floor area of the square footage. Rooftop parking has been explicitly stated to count toward the gross-footage area of the building. Also, automobile parking areas located within the building footprint and in the basement would not count toward the total gross-floor area. In other council action, the council approved a combined first and second readings of an ordinance limiting the maximum size of houses in the historic district. The ordinance, which will go into effect in 30 days, limits structures in historic districts to a height of 30 feet and sets a maximum limit of single family structures to a floor area of 3,249 square feet. LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -