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Council declines to permit triplexes in R-1 at workshop; debate highlights trade-offs
Summary
Council members at the Aug. 3 workshop questioned adding triplexes and other missing-middle housing types to the town's R-1 district; the attorney said dimensional standards allow similar forms but members were split, and the issue will return to future deliberations.
Mountain View councilors debated whether to allow triplexes and other "missing middle" housing types in the R-1 district during the Aug. 3 consolidated-code workshop.
Town attorney Austin Pierce Flanagan explained that the draft code regulates form and dimensions in a unified table and that a triplex would generally be subject to the same dimensional standards as a single-family home. "By all sort of intents and means, you're gonna have a similar form for all types of uses in the town," he said.
Several council members said they preferred to keep triplexes out of the R-1 district to preserve the town's low-density residential character; others noted the comprehensive plan encourages more density and said allowing triplexes could make small-scale housing more affordable. There was not a formal vote to change R-1 permissions at the workshop; staff said the question will be reintroduced during subsequent hearings and the adoption process.
Councilors also discussed closely-related topics such as height limits and floor-area-ratio standards that together determine how much usable space a property can carry, and staff agreed to supply visual examples of how the proposed FAR and height numbers translate to houses on local streets.
