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Council clears reading for townhome dimensional code changes, asks staff to review garage requirement
Summary
Council set a public hearing date for Ordinance O-25-12, a Land Development Code amendment changing townhouse lot widths and depths in RM-8 and RM-10 zones and corrected footnotes; members asked staff to evaluate whether garages should remain required in RM-8.
The Sebastian City Council approved a motion to set a public hearing for Ordinance O-25-12, a land development text amendment that would change townhouse dimensional rules in the RM-8 and RM-10 zoning districts and schedule adoption hearings for June 25.
Jim Mann of the Community Development Department presented the amendment, saying the changes respond to recent townhome submittals showing a trend toward narrower lots and longer buildings. Mann said the proposal would reduce minimum lot width from 25 feet to 20 feet, increase lot depth from 75 to 90 feet, and change minimum lot area from 1,875 square feet to 1,800 square feet. For RM-8, he said the proposed side setback would drop from 10 feet to 5 feet while the minimum separation between buildings would increase from 15 feet to 20 feet. Mann described additional administrative corrections to reinstate footnotes added at the 2021 RM-10 code adoption that did not carry into the codified community code.
Several council members asked staff to revisit the code’s garage and parking language. One council member noted that RM-8 currently appears to require a garage while RM-10 allows off-street parking, carports or surface parking. That member said requiring an interior garage raises construction cost and reduces affordability, and asked whether RM-8 could allow other off-street parking solutions. Planning staff responded that “a carport is to be considered a garage” under the code definition but agreed to review the consistency between RM-8 and RM-10 and bring back language that would be cohesive for both districts.
Council members also requested a clearer redline version of the draft showing additions and deletions; staff said the printed packet omitted some footnotes when exported from the code system and that the corrected language would be included before final reading.
The council voted to set the ordinance reading and public hearing for June 25. The city will take public comment at that hearing and staff said it would return with clarified code language addressing the garage/carport definition and the 1- vs. 2-story setback differences between districts.
