Agenda - Planning Commission - 05/06/2010

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windows that faces a public way or a large rear court. At a density level much closer to single-family homes than to high rises, town houses should provide breathing space more like single-family houses do. Defining the front an d rear facades of a town house as'those walls that are generally perpendicularto party walls"and "typically the primary sources" of light and aicfor the unit, the ordinance set minimum distances between two rows of town house structures and between town houses and lot lines. The standards varied based on the density allowed by different zoning classifications. For example, properties zoned in RM-4 and RM-q.5 classifications required more separation than those prop- erties inhigher (i.e., denser) classifications like RM-5 and RM-5.5. The actual numbers were based on field observation. We clas- sified andmeasured existing cases,even- tually settling on themedian distance we found in theprojects we labeled "good" (as opposed to "bad" or "really good"). NoMore.BlankFacades Priorto the ordinance, developers and architects came up with some creative reasons whythey chose to design street facades with few or no windows or doors. Some cited the noise ofa busy streeGas j ustification, or the fear of crime. Others simply didn't provide windows on the end wall of a row of units foci ng the street be- causethat would involve a slightvariation in the fiooYplan ofthe end unit. Whatever the reason, these decisions were devastat- ing tothe blocks where these develop- ments occurred. The ordinance dealtwith this problem as follows: "to avoid the appearance of blank walls, building facades that face pub- licstreets must include elements ofa front facade, including doors and/or windows." This was one ofthe weaker provisions of the ordinance. While it expressed the intent of avoiding blankwalls, it proved to be too open-ended. Was one small window per unit enough to cover th a requirement? Planners returned to this issue inzooq as part ofthemuch-needed updating of Chicago's enti[e zoning code. New provi- sions relatingto all residential districts now required "eyes on the street" to be attained by providing pedestrian entrance doors or transparent wi ndows covering at least t7.5 percent of the area of each buildi ng facade facing a street. This percentage represents.. about halfofthe window or door area that habitable rooms would normally generate on a facade. So while this new requirement was an improvement in terms of making neighborhoods safer (allowing residents to see what takes place on the street), it doesn't guarantee that new town house fa- cades will have the amount dF fenestration typical of most residential buildings. Private Yards and Common Open Spaces The town house ordinance was developed at the sametimethat the Department of Planning and Developmentwas studying . how to accommodate new park space to go along with all the new housing being constructed. On a of the resultsbf this as- sessmentwas an Open Space Impact Fee fqr all new residential development. The other was a requirement for private yards and common open space in town house developments, where some ofthe most densely packed new construction was occurring. (Open space requirements for other residential types were added in the zooy zoning code overhaul.) The town house ordinance regdires zoo square feet of private yard space per unit in all but the dehsest districts, where the number is reduced to t75 square feet. We arrived at the figure ofzoo square feet through a combination of factors. Most units we were seeing ranged from i6 to zo feet wide. With the frontyard setback of tz feet required by the ordinance, the yard that could readily be associated with one unit would thus range from i9z to zqo square feet in area. This coincided with the yard sizes in existing [own house develop- ments wehad measured and categorized as "good;' The town house ordinance re- quiredthese yards to be directly accessible firom the unit. Some young professionals who pur- chase orrent town houses might prefer not to have the responsibility of caring for yards, cutting grass, or planting orseeding a yard. However, housing lasts for a tong time, and owners age and mature. The cur- rentowner might not be a gardener, but the next owner maybe. We reasoned that a town house is like asingle-family house and should provide some ofthe experience of one. The common open space requirement kicked in with developments ofgo or more units, which were required to provide t5o square feet per unit. No one qualifying area One of the most difficult things to imagine when reading plans is what an outdoor space is going to look like. This is partly because the details will have a lot to do with . the outcome, and they may not be available at the time of plan review. These details include colors, type and layout of planting, lighting, furniture, paving materials, etc. Beyond this, being able to visualize three dimensions from atwo-dimen- sionalplan is not a common skill. A goodway to get a handle on this is to studythe plans and eleva- tions of a project that has already been com pleted and try to visualize whattheopen space will lookand feel like. Then go out and check your imagination againstthe real thing. Pay particular attention to the heights and shapes ofthe buildings that enclose the space. Study the effect of landscaping. Take note of details that impress you. Take pic- tures! Back in the office, compare your photos with the plans.lfyou . do this often, it should become easier to read plans with greater comprehension. The best examples of common open space follow the classical ap- proach to city building: The outdoor space is considered as a room, a void carved out from the mass of the buildings, orapredetermined shape around which buildings are arranged. Its shape is well defined, and its size is big enough forthe use to wh ich it is put, not just what is left overafterthebuildingsare plunked down. The space is an ac- tiveenvironmentthatshapesthe buildings and is shaped bythem. ZONINGPRACTICE aao AMERICAN PIANNING 0.5aeCIAnoN Pe9P5 C C