Downtown Action Committee recommends code change to allow extra stories for Nora District housing incentive

The Downtown Action Committee recommended approval Wednesday of Code Revision Case 2503, an amendment to the Nora District zoning rules that would exempt multifamily or mixed‑use projects using the Downtown Master Plan (DMP) housing incentive from the subdistrict stories limitation and instead measure building limits by the maximum permitted height in feet.

Meredith Lee of Schutz and Bone, representing Joe First and the Place Projects development team, said the change was prompted by a proposed mid‑block, mixed‑use building in the Nora 2‑8 subdistrict. "The amendment before you today is . . . to exempt projects utilizing the DMP housing incentive program from the limitation of incentivized building height by the number of stories and instead . . . ensure that they are still compliant with the maximum foot height that is associated in the building requirements table," Lee said.

The change would apply only to Nora subdistricts and only to projects that reserve at least 65% of gross building area for residential uses and that participate in the DMP housing incentive program. Under the draft code language read into the record, projects meeting those conditions would be exempt from the stories limitation and would instead be measured by the subdistrict maximum height in feet; the amendment also establishes a 9‑foot minimum finished floor‑to‑ceiling height for residential stories.

City staff — represented at the hearing by Chris Kimberly, senior urban designer — recommended approval, arguing the amendment is narrowly tailored to Nora and preserves the district's maximum height envelope. "The projects and the buildings are capped at that 125 feet in this example," Kimberly said. "It's just allowing additional density through stories." He told the committee staff had limited the exemption to projects that are at least 65% residential and that use the DMP housing incentive.

Lee and staff presented an example comparing an 8‑story design to an 11‑story design within the same 125‑foot cap; the team said the taller design produces more incentive gross building area and therefore a larger affordable/workforce housing obligation. Lee said the proposed amendment would increase the workforce‑housing requirement from an example 30 units (in the lower‑story scenario) to 48 units based on a 40,000‑square‑foot obligation and an assumed 850‑square‑foot average unit size.

Committee members asked about micro units, parking and whether the change would alter FAR or other district controls. Kimberly said the floor‑area‑ratio cap and overall maximum height in feet would not change; the amendment only allows additional stories within the existing vertical envelope. He also said the Nora district and the DMP already provide for some micro‑unit standards and that micro units are not precluded by the amendment. Joseph First, representing the development team, described parking plans for the broader Nora area and said the specific project currently in site review includes fully aligned on‑site parking; the district also includes planned off‑site and centralized parking to serve commercial and visitor demand.

A committee member moved to recommend approval and another committee member seconded. The committee voted by voice; the motion carried. The committee’s motion states it relied on the testimony, application materials and the staff report and found the proposed amendments meet the amendment standards cited in the staff report.

Next steps noted at the hearing: the proposed text amendment recommendation will be forwarded per the normal review process; the specific mixed‑use project that prompted the revision will continue through the project's site‑plan and PPRC review, and staff said the forthcoming DMP update process may reevaluate whether similar measures should apply elsewhere in downtown.