May 13 — The Planning Commission discussed proposed changes that would allow accessory structures across the city to rise to 28 feet when the second story provides habitable space (commonly used for accessory dwelling units, or ADUs). Planning staff said the current practice is generally 15 feet and that previous conditional pathways permitted taller accessory residential uses only under a set of qualifications; the draft simplifies and expands where taller accessory structures may be built.

Staff described the change as intended to make garage‑top ADUs and similar configurations more practicable while preventing the construction of oversized nonhabitable structures disguised as future ADU space. “If you have a walkout, the lower two corners are going to be lower than the upper two. The grade plane is going to be the average,” a commissioner asked; staff replied that finished grade in the draft refers to the building base and the measurement will be clarified.

Commissioners raised several substantive issues: whether a 28‑foot accessory structure could be placed within required setbacks; whether the 28‑foot allowance should be treated as the same bulk as a principal dwelling (and therefore require principal‑structure setbacks) or remain an accessory structure with smaller setbacks (the city has previously reduced a side setback to 5 feet); and whether a two‑story accessory building necessarily implies two separate dwelling units. Staff responded that the draft intends to allow a single ADU over a garage (one unit spanning two stories), retained the one‑ADU‑per‑property rule, and that the commission could either treat 28‑foot accessory buildings as allowed where a principal house could be placed or allow a conditional‑use path to reduce setbacks.

Staff said they would tidy the language to make explicit that “two habitable stories does not mean two units,” to fix duplicate language that existed in the code, and to add cross‑references in the height table about accessory exceptions. No formal vote occurred; staff will revise the draft for a future meeting and public review.