The purpose of this chapter is to provide regulations for the development of areas in the city that, because of their topography, require special consideration to ensure that they are developed in a way that substantially maintains their natural character and environmental and aesthetic values to implement the general plan, and to provide for the safety, health, and welfare of the public by:
A. Providing guidelines and standards for development in visually sensitive hillside areas to minimize the ad-verse impacts of grading and to promote the goals and objectives of the general plan;
B. Maintaining an environmental equilibrium consistent with existing vegetation, wildlife, soils, geology, slopes, and drainage patterns, and to preserve natural topography and scenic character, including canyons, creeks, knolls, rock outcrops, and ridgelines whenever feasible;
C. Encouraging development proposals that feature water conservation and aquifer recharge techniques;
D. Encouraging development proposals that are sensitive to fire, flood, slide, erosion, pollution, or other safety hazards;
E. Encouraging sensitive development through flexible design and innovative arrangement of building sites by utilizing variable lot sizes, clustering, and setback variations;
F. Utilizing nontraditional design standards for streets and hillside grading where development quality and public safety are not affected;
G. Encouraging developments that incorporate desirable existing features of land (e.g., natural vegetation, viewsheds, topographic features);
H. Protecting significant natural areas for ecologic purposes, educational, and other scientific study purposes; 1. Encouraging the use of drought-tolerant plant material to protect slopes from soil erosion and slippage, preserve natural watershed, minimize fire hazard, and minimize the scarring and deformation of the natural landscape;
J. Limiting the impact of cut slopes on adjacent developed and undeveloped properties; and
K. Providing for appropriate intensity of development (e.g., density, massing, etc.) in hillside areas through a variety of design techniques to ensure that development intensity decreases as slopes become steeper (e.g., lot sizes appropriate for steeper topography and separation of structures sufficient to preserve the viewshed).
(Ord. 182 § 2 (part), 1997)