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PZC ACTION At its April 23, 2015 meeting, the PZC conducted a public hearing and considered the proposed ordinance. The PZC voted 7-0 to recommend that the BCC adopt the proposed ordinance (see attachment#2). The BCC is now to conduct a public hearing,consider the proposed ordinance,and approve,approve with modifications, or deny the proposed ordinance. ANALYSIS The County's LDRs establish size and dimensional criteria for each zoning district. Those criteria include items such as lot size, lot width, setbacks (front, rear, and side), minimum open space, maximum building height,maximum building coverage,and Floor Area Ratio(FAR). The criteria are applied to development proposals for uses allowed within a given zoning district and combine to shape the physical design and extent of development on a project site. The county's existing maximum building coverage requirements have been in place for many years and apply to the ground floor footprint of a building(area within the building walls)on a site,while the floor area ratio (FAR) limits the cumulative floor area within a building (all stories added together)that can be placed on a site. Thus,the two criteria control the building area on a site with maximum ground floor building footprint area controlled by building coverage and total combined floor area for single and multi-story buildings controlled by the FAR. The building coverage and FAR limitations are in place to prevent excessive building mass in relation to site size while accommodating a reasonable degree of development. With respect to the County's regulations,the maximum building coverage requirement,rather than setback or open space requirements,is a limiting factor on maximum potential ground floor building footprint size.The existing CH regulations illustrate that point. With the CH district's existing 40% maximum building coverage limitation, a 10,000 sq. ft. lot (the smallest lot size allowed in CH) allows for a 4,000 sq. ft. single story building. Given CH setbacks and open space requirements,a 10,000 sq.ft.(100' x 100')lot could accommodate a 5,200 sq. ft.one story building if the maximum building coverage did not apply. Other development requirements, such as parking and drainage standards, can further limit the extent of building area on a site. Under the County's LDRs, maximum building coverage requirements vary by zoning district. Generally,the existing requirements set up a progression of increasing building coverage maximums from the agricultural districts through the industrial districts, with the lowest building coverage maximum being 10%in agricultural districts and the highest being 40%in the heavy commercial and industrial districts. Those higher intensity districts also have the lowest open space requirement, 20%for CH and 15% for IL and IG. The CH, IL, and IG zoning districts are the most intense non- residential districts in terms of the extent of maximum building coverage allowed and the amount of minimum open space required. The FAR dimensional criteria were added to the County's comprehensive plan and to the LDRs several years ago and vary by use between.23 for retail uses(which require a substantial percentage of site area for parking), .35 for office uses, and .50 for industrial, storage, wholesale, and heavy 131 F:\Community Development\CurDev\BCC\2015 BCC\911 ch,il,ig bldg coverage.rtf 2