(A) Ground floor windows and building facade requirements. Long expanses of blank walls facing a street or other public areas detract from the attractiveness to the streetscape and perceived safety of pedestrians using those spaces. The standards of this division are intended to enhance street safety and provide a comfortable street environment by providing ground-level features of interest to pedestrians along streets. These standards also have the purpose of encouraging surveillance opportunities where buildings face abutting streets and public areas, preventing fortress-like facades, and avoiding a monotonous pedestrian environment. These standards also help enhance the economic vitality of a neighborhood by providing the opportunity for merchants to display goods, and advertise their wares to shoppers. By encouraging “window shopping” in Mixed Use Districts the activity on the street is increased along with security. The following design standards shall apply:
(1) Mixed Use building with ground level commercial or office use shall conform to the design standards in § 10.109.080.
(2) All development shall provide ground floor windows on the building facade facing and adjacent to a public street, or facing onto a park, plaza or other public outdoor space required windows shall provide a lower sill no more than three feet above grade; except where interior floor levels prohibit such placement, the sill may be located not less than two feet above the finished floor level to a maximum sill height of five feet above exterior grade.
(3) Darkly tinted windows and mirrored windows which block two way visibility are prohibited as ground floor windows required under this provision except where the closest face of the building to the nearest edge of the sidewalk within a public right-of-way or private street parallel and adjacent to the building is greater than 50 feet.
(4) In all districts, building frontages along streets shall break any flat, monolithic facade by including architectural elements such as bay windows, recessed entrances or other articulation so as to provide pedestrian scale to the first floor.
(5) Where ground floor windows are required by this section on public, institutional office and commercial structures, exterior walls facing a public street, public open space, pedestrian walkway and/or transit station shall have window, display areas or doorways for at least 50% of the length and 50% of the area of the ground level wall area, which is defined as the area to the finished ceiling height of the fronting space or 15 feet above finished grade, whichever is less.
(B) Building step-back requirements.
(1) Step-back requirements help assure a comfortable street environment by preventing fortress-like facades, providing light and air at the street level, and providing features of interest to pedestrians along streets in mixed-use districts. The following design standards shall apply:
(a) Step-back requirements shall be achieved, at the option of the applicant, by one of two methods:
1. Floors above the second floor shall be stepped back a minimum of five feet for the first story above two, and additional five feet for floors above three. The maximum step-back under this method shall not exceed 15 feet; or
2. A building shall be stepped-back by an appropriate amount from the plane of the street so as to maintain an angle not greater than 60 degrees between the top of the building facade fronting on to the street and the back of the sidewalk of the opposite side of the same street.
(b) Upon petition of the applicant, the Planning Commission may waive the building step-back requirements of this section provided that the applicant clearly demonstrates the proposed project:
1. Includes widow treatments, entry placement, facade relief and other architectural treatments to provide visual interest and pedestrian-sensitive design at the street level and to maintain a human scale in the streetscape; and
2. Extends the same architectural features above the ground floor level through variations in design, detail, and proportion, and by avoiding designs featuring a monolithic street facade.
(2) Where step-back requirements are not required, the above design standards shall be adhered to for multi-story buildings.
(C) Architectural design requirements. Good design results in buildings visually compatible with one another and adjacent neighborhoods, contributing to mixed use areas, which are attractive, stimulating, active and safe. The following design requirements shall apply:
(1) Buildings shall promote and enhance a pedestrian scale and orientation on the facade facing the public street. Street-side building facades and dwelling units within all Mixed Use Districts shall be varied and articulated to provide visual interest to pedestrians and avoid a flat appearance. In addition, development proposals shall make provisions and include designs consistent with the following:
(a) All new commercial, public/ institutional, mixed use, and residential buildings constructed within a Mixed Use District shall demonstrate that it promotes and enhances a pedestrian scale and orientation on any facade facing a public or private street and it incorporates discernible and architecturally appropriate features; such as, but not limited to, cornices, bases, fenestration, fluted masonry, bays, recesses, arcades, display windows, unique entry areas or other treatments for visual interest, to create community character and to promote a sense of pedestrian scale. The design shall recognize that the simple relief provided by window cutouts or sills on an otherwise flat facade, in and of themselves, does not meet the requirements of this section; and
(b) All residential dwellings, of any type, constructed within any Mixed Use District shall be constructed with exterior building materials and finishes of high quality to convey an impression of permanence durability. Materials such as, and including masonry, stucco, stone, terra cotta, tile, cedar shakes and shingles, beveled or ship-lap or other narrow-course horizontal boards or siding, authentic vertical board and batten siding/articulated architectural concrete masonry units (CMU), and similar durable architectural materials are allowed. Materials such as and including, T-111 siding, plain or plain painted plywood and strandboard sheets, concrete or cinder block, smooth surface concrete panels and similar quality and nondurable material are prohibited.
(2) Commercial buildings and sites shall be organized to group the utilitarian functions away from the public view. Delivery and loading operations, HVAC equipment, trash compacting collection, and other utility and service functions shall be incorporated into the overall design of the building (s) and the landscaping. The visual and acoustic impacts of these functions, along with all wall-or ground-mounted mechanical, electrical and communications equipment shall be out of view from adjacent properties and public streets, and screening materials and landscape screens shall be architecturally with and not inferior to the principal materials of the buildings and primary landscaping. The visual and acoustic aspects of roof-mounted equipment behind parapets, within architectural screening, roof-top screening and deadening the sound of such equipment.
(1995 Code, § 10.109.080) (Ord. 06-2004, passed 2-21-2006)