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Council considers 'Big Box' ordinance By BILL CHOY Ashland Daily Tidings The city's "Big Box" ordinance may finally be approved at Tuesday night's Ashland City Council meeting. After going through several modifications, the ordinance would limit buildings in the city to 45,000 square feet. The council previously held a public hearing on the issue Aug. 5 and continued the discussion at its Aug. 19 meeting. Ashland City Manager Gino Grimaldi said the ordinance is an important issue for the city and its residents. "We're talking about the character of the community,'' he said. "The physical size and mass of the building has an image on how people perceive the city. ... It's an issue for the community to decide and evaluate.'' Revising the ordinance on building size was raised during the approval of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival 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. The original ordinance was approved in 1992 and was originally meant to apply to commercial buildings outside downtown, but language to that effect was not included, city staff said at the time. Major changes to the ordinance include not excluding residential areas from the total gross floor area of the building, only excluding parking that is in a basement, and not allowing expansions of non-conforming buildings. Rooftop parking has been explicitly stated in the new ordinance to count towards the gross floor area of the building. The council has several options regarding the ordinance. They include adopting the changes; postponing adoption of the second reading, allowing time for staff and the housing commission to provide incentives for affordable housing downtown; and adopting portions of the ordinance relating to large scale development outside of the downtown area and deferring adoption of the downtown portions. The council will also deal with: an ordinance to limit the maximum house size in the historic district; a proposed advertisement to encourage input on the Mount Ashland Ski Area expansion environmental impact statement; a public hearing and decision on the 2002-2003 Consolidated Annual Performance Evaluation Report; and a public hearing and determination of the reallocation of unexpected Community Development Block Grant funds. 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 -