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Council reviews proposed R-4 small-lot residential district; staff to return with maps
Summary
Planning staff presented an R-4 single-family district (4,000 sq ft lots; 1,300 sq ft minimum house) designed to address legal nonconforming lots; the district would be adopted into the zoning code as an option and only applied to property through rezoning and public hearings.
Council heard a work-session briefing on a zoning rewrite that would add three optional districts to help implement the Hampton Community Plan. Caroline Butler, planning staff, described the first of the three districts, the R-4 single-family district, and said adopting the district into the ordinance does not apply it to any property without a rezoning process.
"The R4 district is recommended for specific circumstances," Butler said, explaining that the district targets contiguous areas of legal nonconforming lots and includes a use-permit track to reduce lot sizes to 3,000 square feet where appropriate. Under the proposal, the minimum dwelling size would be 1,300 square feet with no administrative reductions allowed.
Council members pressed staff for data: how many lots in Hampton would be eligible, how adjoining lots under common ownership would be treated (merging rules keyed to a 1989 nonconforming ordinance), and whether the change would encourage absentee-owned 'shotgun' houses. Staff said maps and counts exist and will be provided to council as follow-up materials. Several members requested the advisory committee membership list and asked staff to analyze the geographic distribution of small lots by neighborhood.
Councilors also raised implementation questions for later work: driveway widths and parking pads (concern about on-street parking and emergency access), pervious versus impervious surfacing to reduce runoff, and the role of pattern books and design standards if rezoning is requested. Butler and other staff said the R-4 is an optional tool and that a rezoning route gives the city more design review and public input than the permit-by-right route that currently allows building on many small legal nonconforming lots.
Staff will return with the requested maps, numeric breakdowns and a candidate schedule for formal public hearings before the planning commission and council.
