FW: [OldNorth] 539 E Street cottage--why 2 bathrooms, how many onsite parking spaces

[Z Smith]

Old Northers,

I've mailed this reply to Valerie, Dan, Peter, and Xzandria with PDF
attachments (plans and sections), but rather than clog everyone's inbox with
attachments-- anyone who'd like to see them, please e-mail me and I'll send
them to you directly.

-----Original Message-----
From: Z Smith [mailto:zesmith at hotmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, December 28, 2004 8:21 PM
To: 'Valerie Vann'; 
Cc: 'Peter S. Gunther'; Xzandrea Fowler
Subject: RE: [OldNorth] 539 E Street cottage--why 2 bathrooms, how many
onsite parking spaces

To answer Valerie's questions:

The 200 SF basement in the main house is a storage area. It would not be
legal as a bedroom because it does not have an egress window.  It shows up
in the documentation because its floor area gets counted in the overall
floor area but not in FAR, because basements area, by City code, is not to
be included in FAR calculations.

The cottage is designed with the 1 bedroom downstairs, with an en-suite
bathroom, and a 6'-4" x 7'-2" nook with a sofabed at the main level to allow
a grandchild or other guest to visit & stay over.  It did not seem
appropriate to require dinner guests  to walk through the owner's bedroom to
use the bathroom, so there is a bathroom at the main level as well.  

FYI:  A legal bedroom by code is at least 70 SF, at least 7' in both
directions, enclosed by a door, provides a closet, has a ceiling height of
at least 7'-6", and provides a legal egress window (5.2 SF clear area when
opened).

When I stated that the main house is 2 bedrooms and the cottage is 1
bedroom, I meant it.

To answer Dan's question about onsite parking:

The required onsite parking for a single family home of up to 4 bedrooms is
2 parking spaces, one covered and one uncovered.  In this case, these 2
spaces are arranged "tandem" (one in front of the other), one "covered"
space(pergolas, carports, and garages all satisfy the "covered"
requirement), and one uncovered. I've located them at the lot edge between
the cottage and the adjacent Church (which has frosted glass windows) so
they are out of sight.
    R-2CD zoning states that the parking requirement for an accessory
dwelling unit is 1 space per bedroom, with the number of required spaces
reduced by one space if all spaces required for the primary dwelling unit
are provided.  So in this case, the cottage requires 1-1=0 additional onsite
spaces.  With the new parking district, this lot will have either 1 or 2
street parking permits available (depending on whether the cottage gets its
own address).  So this means that for a total of 3 bedrooms on the lot (2 in
the main house plus 1 in the cottage) there will be 2 spaces onsite plus 1
or 2 street permit spaces.  This would seem to even the most car-happy
people enough spaces.

Z


-----Original Message-----
From: Valerie Vann [mailto:valerie at vanngroup.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 28, 2004 5:25 PM
To: Z Smith; Old North Neighborhood Assoc.
Cc: 'Peter S. Gunther'
Subject: Re: [OldNorth] 539 E Street cottage-- it's actually 480 SF
aboveground


Z Smith wrote:
> When complete, there will be the existing home (2 BR, 1 BA, 1420 SF 
> above ground, 200 SF basement) and this cottage (1 BR / 2BA, 480 SF 
> above ground,
> 303 SF basement).  So when it's done, the lot coverage will be just 
> 32%, and there will be a total of 3BR and 3 BA on the site between the 
> house and the cottage.  The overall FAR is just 32%, well below the 40%
limit.

Out of curiosity, why does a 1 BR cottage need 2 bathrooms?

What are the basements in both houses used for? additional bedrooms?

Valerie Vann