St. Helena planning commission recommends adding "uncovered" to FAR exemptions after public objections

The City of Saint Helena Planning Commission voted 4-0 on April 15, 2025, to recommend that the City Council adopt an ordinance amending Title 17 of the Saint Helena Municipal Code to insert the word “uncovered” into a list of structures exempt from gross floor-area (GFA) calculations.

Planning Director Maya DeRosa told the commission the change is a clerical clarification intended to make the municipal code internally consistent with its rules of measurement, and with how lot coverage is calculated. DeRosa said the amendment would add the word “uncovered” in the development-standards exemption that lists balconies, porches and decks and would also add parallel language to the rules-of-measurement section, chapter 17.34.050 A–F.

“Staff finds that the proposed amendments help bring internal consistency to the code and assist the user in understanding the intent of 17.34.050A.1,” DeRosa said during her presentation, which cited the currently published code language and a republished version the city’s code publisher…