AMENDED
It is the policy of the City of Norman that no person or groups of persons shall on the grounds of race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, age, place of birth, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, familial status, marital status, including marriage to a person of the same sex, disability, retaliation, or genetic information, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or otherwise subjected to discrimination in employment activities or in all programs, services, or activities administered by the City, its recipients, sub-recipients, and contractors. In the event of any comments, complaints, modifications, accommodations, alternative formats, and auxiliary aids and services regarding accessibility or inclusion, please contact the ADA Technician at 405-366-5424, Relay Service: 711. To better serve you, five (5) business days' advance notice is preferred.
CALL TO ORDER
Council Member Peacock called meeting to order at 4:00pm
Present:
Council Member Matthew Peacock
Council Member Helen Grant
Council Member Nash
Others Present:
Council Member Lauren Schueler
Council Member Stephen Holman
Beth Muckala - Assistant City Attorney
Jason Olsen - Parks & Recreations Director
Kathryn Walker - City Attorney
Lisa Krieg - CDBG / Grants Manager
Scott Sturtz - City Engineer
Shawn O'Leary - Public Works Director
Veronica Tracy - Recreation Manager
Kellen McCoy - Athletic Operations Supervisor
David Riesland - Transportation Engineer
Lora Hoggart - Planning Service Manager
Ashlynn Wilkerson - Assistant City Attorney
Olivia McCourrey - Norman Transcript
Lee Hall
AGENDA ITEMS
Councilmember Peacock, I have asked staff to present due to illness and folks being unavailable, and not fully vetted, this is more of an open discussion at this time and not setting policy issues tonight. This will have a chance to come before a Study Session and Planning Commission just want to get the conversation started turning it over to staff.
Lora Hoggatt, General Guidelines - Allow ADU in residential zoning districts and agricultural districts exception for RM-4. Remove 40% building coverage maximum but keep 65% impervious Maximum, 650 Square feet allowed for a ADU living area. Height cannot Exceed Principal Dwelling unit, two unit Maximum per lot in R-1, Mobile homes not permitted to be used as ADU in any district and Connection Fees for utilities cannot be waived. No parking requirements for ADU.
Council Member Peacock, addressing Parking we are not going to require residents to extend their driveways in the suburbs very impractical talking about having parking in the core where you have alley's.
Council Member Schueler, worried about excessive parking on Streets wanting to know if Public Works has any concerns regarding parking.
Shawn O'Leary, we have the same concerns and looking into the best way to handle parking and we are still researching and when we come back to this, we will have more information.
Councilmember Grant would like there to be signs for narrow streets to have parking on just one side and that can be initiated by resident's request when necessary.
Shawn O'Leary, we do have it where if 60% of resident's request on Street restrictions on parking they can petition the City and that has been working well.
Councilmember Nash, if the ADU is for a family member already living in the home it shouldn't be an issue for parking they are already sharing a parking space. Would want to look at mandates for parking if it were tenants and not family.
Councilmember Peacock, we would require these to be owner occupied, so the owner is there overseeing the property so even if it is a rental, it would not be a nuisance to the neighborhood, and we would look at parking in those circumstances.
Lora Hoggatt, Outstanding Items- if you already have garage apartments and guest houses in zoned areas. If you have 2 or more acres you could have a larger Footage allowed. Do we allow up to 3 units in R-2, R-3, RM-2 and RM- 6. Intensity of Use increase density by allowing less square footage lot area unit. Legal nonconforming Lots questions.
Addressing existing Garage apts. or guest houses We are hesitant to take away something already allowed so you can have 900 Sq ft guest house that you are not allowed to rent it out or have a kitchen or you can have an ADU that's 650 sq ft. Next is if you own 40 acres are we going to allow a larger ADU.
Councilmember Peacock, back when he sent ordinance over to staff with a table associated with it depending on Primary home size depends on ADU home size with a cap of 850 Sq ft. and percentage not to go over 65% impervious Maximum, The Idea behind this is to have one set of rules to make it easy on developers and staff standpoint the goal is to get as much density and affordable housing not wanting to create extra sets of rules.
Councilmember Grant & Schueler likes chart with a cap.
Lora Hoggatt, what would you want the cap to be.
Councilmember Schueler, they have to keep it at 65% impervious Maximum.
Councilmember Peacock would like to keep it at 650 sq ft. and if anything, larger than that can be on a base-to-base basis approval.
Lee Hall asked about what mechanisms you are talking about if it were a separate measure that would come straight to Councill under ordinance vs Ordinance of a variance standard, would be the Board of Adjustments for variance of development standard which are you thinking of.
Councilmember Peacock, a variance would be like 5 to 10 percent variation from the rule, you couldn't come with 1300 Sq Ft ADU and say it's a minor variance.
Lee Hall, the Variance standard is actually based on hardship that would limit someone who simply wanted more space for no good reason. So, if we didn't want it to be hardship based and we wanted for flexibility it would have to different mechanism than a BOA variance.
Council member Peacock not sure I have a good answer for you know we will put it on the list. Former member Councilmember Hall have had a lot of discussions because she offers great historical perspective on this, can we have your opinion.
Lee Hall, a lot of things continue to change and evolve and there has been a lot of discussion about taking the next steps with ADU wants everyone to consider how a blanket ordinance is going to have unintended consequences like the owner occupied to start out as you roll out an ordinance, are we talking about developers rolling out ADU's or family units taking that next step as rental property or a studio or different uses. There are a lot of differences between parts of town and in Core Norman I Think we need to realize student housing drives the market so if you open the door to allow investors to do this then it becomes about student housing in the core. Also, love having this discussion in the path forward to allow family units to be able to take the next step in development to modestly start increasing density and having options for family members or rental support, I like the idea a chart and basing it on square footage and is this cap going to be appropriate for the smaller lot sizes in the Core and how it will add to the rhythm of the neighborhood. Having a Proviso service in place is great want to make sure how it's going to be built out in the outer parts of Norman versus how it is going to be built out in the Core is going to be distinctly different and you have to be prepared for that.
Councilmember Peacock, those are great comments and I share your concern about student housing, Councilmember Grant has alluded to this many times that putting them into an existing house and putting them into a ADU can lead to Market compression that opens up a house which we just need more housing stock in general. The last thing we want to do is to displace homeowners for out of state real estate investors.
Beth Muckala in Durham regarding owner occupancy regarding state laws. Courts are looking at should zoning regulate ownership and a lot of courts said no. So, we would want to evaluate the legality of it and is this addressing what we want to address.
Councilmember Peacock, we don't want to get preempted and have our rights taken away.
Councilmember Holman, that we don't allow short term rentals in ADU adding density without overcrowding an area.
Councilmember Nash has concerns if the ADU's are not owner occupied that big companies will come in buy both properties and not have concerns about the neighborhood.
Lora Hoggatt the R-2, R-3, RM-2 and RM-6 already have apartments on them, so we don't necessarily need to add ADU to these areas. We can always go back and add them, and they have to provide parking.
Beth Muckala for reference Durham only allowed ADU's if it were a single family, or a two-family dwelling Durham built in exemption from density they built it into their definition.
Lora Hogatt in core area have a lot of nonconforming lots which they would have to bring them into compliance before they could add ADU. Went back to Garage apartments and Guest house already out there.
Councilmembers agree that it is either/or not both.
Beth Muckala, in Durham they allowed nonconforming guest houses that are already in existence, but moving forward they would have to abide by
ADU definitions rules.
Lora Hoggatt: Summary, allow ADU in R1, R-1A, RE and A-1 would like to bring this to Planning in February and then Study Session on February 20.
Councilmember Schueler are we going to have enough time to answer all the questions before February?
Councilmember Peacock, after discussions, bring it back to BACA in January and we will adjust from there.
cott Strutz, presents Ruby Grant Signalized Crosswalk on 36th Avenue N.W. an evaluation was conducted and completed by October 26, 2023. We assessed the number of residents crossing at this location. We also looked at the different options, like raised pavement markers, rectangular rapid flashing Beacon, Rumble strips and Hawk System. Short Term fix is that we deploy radar feedback trailer on 36th NW routinely. Install pedestrian crossing signage and work with police department to enforce speed limits. Long term solution installing Hawk crossing light system. Staff recommends, that the 36th Avenue NW 2012 Bond Project will include the installation of a Hawk system prior to construction of 36th Avenue NW to fund the Installation. It can be relocated during construction of 36th Ave NW as necessary but will be designed to minimize the need for future relocation. The installation cost are as follows: Design $35,000 Installation $200,000, Sidewalk into Ruby Grant $15,000, and to relocate the Hawk if necessary $25,000 for a total of $265,000. The next steps to move forward would be to amend contract in January 9, 2024, meeting. Prepare Design Documents by March 2024, Bid System by April 2024, Install Hawk System Summer of 2024.
Council members are all in favor of moving forward with this project.
ADJOURNMENT
Councilmember Peacock Adjourned meeting at 5:20pm