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405.3 Building siting and orientation – multi-family and non-residential sites and structures
405.3.1 Applicability
These requirements do not apply in the C-V (Commercial Village) district.
405.3.2 Retail villages
In shopping centers and developments with multiple buildings, buildings must be oriented towards either the perimeter streets, or an internal drive or road network that recreates a village street, rather than orientation only to internal parking lots.
405.3.3 Plazas
Commercial buildings must be placed in a way that creates plazas and pedestrian gathering areas that are large enough to buffer pedestrians from traffic and circulation areas.
405.3.4 Views
Commercial buildings must be oriented to promote views through and into each commercial development.
405.3.5 Orientation to streets
The primary façade and pedestrian entrance of a building must be oriented towards the public right-of-way when not facing an internal village street.
405.3.6 Orientation to walkways
One or more main building entrances must open directly onto a connecting walkway with pedestrian frontage. Sides of a principal building facing a public street must have one or more customer entrances. When a principal building faces more than two public streets, this requirement will apply only to two sides of the building.
405.3.7 Clustering
Clustering of buildings in larger master planned and multiple building projects is strongly encouraged. Minimum building setbacks may be waived or modified to promote clustering.
405.3.8 Perimeter wall spacing from driving surfaces
Building walls must be placed ≥10’ (3.1 m) from drive aisles and parking areas around the entire building perimeter. This buffer area may be breached for loading areas and garage access.
405.4 Pedestrian circulation
405.4.1 Sidewalks.
Sidewalks ≥6’ (2 m) wide must be provided along lot sides abutting a public or private street. An undulating sidewalk and ≥8’ (2.5 m) wide must be provided along West Colonial Drive. A continuous internal pedestrian walkway ≥6’ (2 m) wide must be provided from the perimeter public sidewalk to the primary public entrance.
405.4.2 Internal walkways
Sidewalks extending the full length of a building must be provided along any façade or wall featuring a customer entrance and along any façade abutting public parking areas. Such sidewalks must be placed ≥6’ (2 m) or more from the façade or wall along ≥30% of its length, to provide beds for foundation landscaping, outdoor seating and patios, and building articulation. Sidewalks are not required in service areas.
405.4.3 Pedestrian connectivity
Connecting walkways, ≥6’ wide, must link sidewalks with building entries through parking areas, all points in the development, and buildings on adjacent parcels. Circulation patterns must be as obvious and simple as possible. All likely pedestrian routes must be considered in the design phase of a development to prevent shortcuts through parking and landscape areas.
405.4.4 Conflict points
Internal pedestrian walkways must be distinguished from driving surfaces through use of pavers, bricks or textured and painted concrete to emphasize conflict points and enhance pedestrian safety.
405.4.5 Aggregation of plazas
Pedestrian areas and plazas should be aggregated, and not distributed in low impact areas such as building peripheries, areas behind structures, or where they are barely visible.
405.4.6 Orientation of plazas
Pedestrian areas and plazas should be oriented to views of activities, architectural landmarks or distinctive natural land forms wherever possible.
405.5 Signature elements
Sites must include at least one signature element, used to highlight primary vehicular entrances to businesses, office parks, shopping centers, and/or prominent intersections. A signature element may include:
Public art, with a theme unrelated to the primary use(s) of the site.
Water feature, sich as a water fountain or waterfall.
Clock tower.
Town identification monument sign.
405.6 Public transit facilities
Public transit facilities must be accommodated in major commercial developments that could generate high volumes of transit use. Transit facilities must be provided in a way to make transit an attractive mode of travel for both employees and patrons.
Transit routes, access points and shelter locations should be addressed along major roadways in and on the perimeter of such projects. Bus stop areas and bus shelters must be placed close to significant clusters of buildings.
There must be an uninterrupted durable pedestrian path connecting transit stops and/or shelter with the nearest sidewalk or pedestrian path.
405.7 Service areas
405.7.1 Orientation
Service entrances, loading docks, waste disposal areas and similar uses must be oriented toward service roads and away from the public right-of-way and residential areas, unless adequately screened.
Service areas must not be placed where they will be readily visible from adjacent buildings or where they will have a negative impact on important or identified view corridors.
405.7.2 Screening
Service entrances and trash dumpsters must be screened from public streets, pedestrian gathering areas and primary entrances with fencing, walls and/or landscaping, the design of which is compatible with the architectural theme of the host building.
405.7.3 Coordination of service area locations
Service area location must be coordinated with adjacent developments wherever possible, so shared service drives can be used.
405.7.4 Access routes
Service circulation in a development must be designed to provide safe movements for anticipated vehicles.
The design of individual parcels to accommodate truck access must meet requirements for turning radii without sacrificing other important goals and policies of the Land Development Code.
Routes for service, emergency and utility access must be clearly marked.
405.7.5 Blind areas
Site planning should avoid the creation of “blind areas” that are difficult to patrol by police or security staff.
405.8 Water bodies and retention areas
405.8.1 Shape
Manmade water body shapes, including wet retention ponds, must be designed to appear natural by having edge alignment offsets that are ≥10’ (3 m) and spaced ≤50’ (15 m) apart.
405.8.2 Project incorporation
Natural and manmade water bodies ≥20,000’2 (1,800 m2), if placed adjacent to a public right-of-way, must be included into the overall design of a project in one of the following ways:
Provide a walkway ≥8’ (2.5 m) wide, with trees on average 50’ (15 m) centers, and shaded benches or picnic tables every 150 linear feet (45 linear meters).
Provide a public access pier with covered structure and seating, and appropriate pedestrian access.
Provide a plaza or courtyard, ≥200’2, (20 m2) with shaded benches and/or picnic tables adjacent to the water body.
405.8.3 Slope
Retention basins must be designed with 5:1 side slopes to 2’ (.6 m) below the normal water line.
Fenced retention basins will only be approved in extreme situations, and will be placed to the side and/or rear of the parcel as far from the public right-of-way as possible.
405.8.4 Fencing
Metal decorative fences may be used to fence manmade water bodies and retention basins, per Land Development Code fence requirements (§409).
407.5 Commercial, office, public, institutional, and mixed use architecture
When the Land Development Code was written, most commercial development in the Town was initiated by small “Mom and Pop” developers. The limited resources of small developers or the leniency of zoning in adjacent municipalities does not justify a waiver from any of the Town's architectural and site planning requirements.
407.5.1 Intent
Architecture and site planning dictated solely by corporate standards, cost efficiency and ease of vehicular movement will have a destructive effect on the Town’s character and sensitive visual environment, turning what was once a distinctive place into “Anytown USA.” Formula architecture, buildings that act as billboards; and “big boxes” with blank and windowless façades, flat roofs, lack of architectural detail, and miniscule entries are both boring and potential eyesores.
The Town's commercial buildings should not be considered disposable money-makers, but rather built to age gracefully and maintain their functionality, with the intent of being a future landmark worthy of preservation efforts decades after construction. These standards are intended to ensure new development is compatible with the built environment, and respects and reinforces the Town’s values, unique character and “sense of place;” while creating a built environment attractive to prospective consumers, thus resulting in a healthy and desirable business climate.
407.5.2 Character and image
Building design must contribute to the Town's sense of place by using predominant materials, elements, features, color range and activity areas tailored specifically to the site and its context. Standard formula or prototype building designs must be modified if necessary to conform to Land Development Code design standards; cookie-cutter architecture is unacceptable. In shopping centers or multiple building developments, individual buildings must include predominant characteristics shared by all buildings in the development so the development forms a cohesive place.
407.5.3 Form and mass
A single, large, dominant building mass must be avoided in new buildings and projects involving changes to the mass of existing buildings. Changes in mass should be related to entrances, the integral structure and/or the interior space organization and activities, and not just for cosmetic effect. False fronts or parapets create an insubstantial appearance and are prohibited.
407.5.4 Exterior walls
407.5.4.1 Pattern
Façades and walls must include a repeating pattern with:
• an expression of architectural or structural bays through a change in plane ≥1’ (.3 m) wide, such as an offset, reveal, pilaster, projecting ribs, fenestration patterns, or piers (a);
and two or more of these elements:
• color change (b);
• texture change (c);
• material module change (d).
One or more of elements (b), (c) or (d) must repeat horizontally. All elements must repeat at intervals of ≤30’ (9 m).
407.5.4.2 Base
Façades and walls must have a recognizable "base" with (but not limited to):
• thicker walls, ledges or sills;
• integrally textured materials such as stone or other masonry;
• integrally colored and patterned materials such as smooth-finished stone;
• lighter or darker colored materials, mullions or panels; or
• planters;
and a recognizable "top" with (but not limited to):
• cornice treatments, other than colored "stripes" or "bands" alone, with integrally textured materials such as stone or other masonry or differently colored materials;
• sloping roof with overhangs and brackets;
• stepped parapets.
407.5.4.3 Four sided design
All walls must include materials and design characteristics consistent with those on the front. Lesser quality materials for side or rear walls is prohibited.
407.5.4.4 Long walls and façades; projections and recesses
Walls ≥100’ (30 m) long must include wall plane projections or recesses having a ≥3% depth of the façade length, and extending ≥20% of the façade length.
407.5.4.5 Street facing walls
Walls must not have a blank, uninterrupted length >30’ (10 m) without including two or more of these features: change in plane, change in texture or masonry pattern, windows, or other equivalent elements that subdivide the wall into human scale proportions. Side or rear walls facing walkways may include false windows and door openings defined by frames, sills and lintels, or similarly proportioned modulations, only when actual doors and windows are not feasible because of the building use.
Changes in plane add visual interest to what would be a blank wall
407.5.4.6 Street facing façades
Façades and walls facing streets, parking lots (excluding parking lots at rear loading docks), and/or connecting pedestrian walkways must be divided and proportioned using features such as windows, display areas, entrances, arcades, arbors, and awnings along ≥60% of the façade.
407.5.4.7 Primary building entrances
Primary building entrances must be clearly defined and recessed or framed by a sheltering element such as an awning, arcade or portico to provide shelter from the sun and inclement weather.
407.5.4.8 Retail building entrances
Anchor stores, ≥50% of the stores in a shopping center; and freestanding, single-use buildings, must have a clearly defined, highly visible customer entrance with four or more of the following design elements:
• Arcades.
• Arches.
• Canopies or porticos.
• Details such as tile work and moldings integrated into the building structure and design.
• Display windows.
• Integral planters or wing walls that include landscaped areas and/or places for sitting.
• Outdoor patios.
• Overhangs.
• Peaked roof forms.
• Raised corniced parapets over the door.
• Recesses and/or projections.
407.5.4.9 Awnings
Awnings may be as long as a single storefront.
407.5.4.10 Transparency in shopping center buildings
• Front and side façades and walls of retail spaces with less than 20,000 square feet in shopping centers and multi-tenant buildings must be transparent between 3’ (1 m) and 8’ (2.4 m) above the walkway grade along ≥60% of the façade or wall.
• Front and side façades and walls of retail buildings and spaces with ≥20,000’2 (1850 m2) must be transparent between 3’ (1 m) and 8’ (2.4 m) above the walkway grade along 50% or more of the façade or wall.
• Casement frames and mullions are included in the calculation of transparent frontage.
407.5.4.11 Transparency in single use commercial buildings
• Front and side façades of single use commercial buildings with <20,000’2 must be transparent between 3’ (1 m) and 8’ (2.4 m) above the walkway grade along 50% or more of the façade.
• Front and side façades of commercial buildings and spaces with ≥20,000’2 (1850 m2) must be transparent between 3’ (1 m) and 8’ (2.4 m) above the walkway grade for ≥40% of the façade length.
• Casement frames and mullions are included in the calculation of transparent frontage.
407.5.4.12 Garage doors
Garage bay doors must be segmented, with windows covering ≥50% of the garage surface. Roll-up garage doors are prohibited. Garage doors must be recessed ≥2’ (.7 m) behind the building façade.
407.5.5 Building roofs
407.5.5.1 Roof form design
Roof forms must correspond to and denote building elements and functions such as entrances, arcades and porches. Roof forms should relate to adjacent buildings or developments.
407.5.5.2 Required features
Roofs must have one of the following features:
• Overhanging eaves, extending ≥1.5’ (.5 m) past the supporting walls.
• Sloping roofs that do not exceed the average height of the supporting walls, with an average slope ≥1’ (.3 m) of vertical rise for every 3’ (1 m) of horizontal run and ≤1’ (.3 m) of vertical rise for every 1’ (.3 m) of horizontal run.
407.5.5.3 Roof lines
The continuous plane of a roof line may be ≤100’ (30 m).
407.5.5.4 Mechanical equipment screening
Rooftop and ground mounted mechanical equipment must be screened (visually and acoustically) so it is not visible from the public right-of-way.
407.5.6 Materials and color
407.5.6.1 Building materials
Predominant building exterior materials must be high quality, and used in their natural context and color. Masonry, brick, wood, and stone are examples of appropriate building materials. Concrete masonry units, smooth-faced concrete block, painted brick and masonry, tilt-up concrete panels, and prefabricated metal panels and buildings are prohibited. Stucco and textured concrete are permitted only on buildings evoking Spanish or Mediterranean design themes, or above a base of masonry, brick or stone that visually anchors the building to the ground.
407.5.6.2 Roof materials
Roof materials must be high quality, durable and consistent with local architectural themes. Acceptable roof materials include concrete tile, high profile asphalt shingles, metal shingles and split seam metal.
407.5.6.3 Building colors
Building colors must be low-reflecting, muted and neutral or earth-toned. Roof colors must be muted and compatible with the dominant building color. High-intensity colors. bright primary colors, metallic colors, black or fluorescent colors are prohibited. Shiny, glossy or reflective materials, or brighter colors may be used on building trim and accents with a cumulative surface area of ≤0.25% (1/400th) of a wall.
407.5.6.4 Material or color changes
Material or color changes must occur only at a change of plane or reveal line. Material or color changes at the outside corners of structures that give the impression of “thinness” and artificiality are prohibited. Piecemeal embellishment and frequent material changes are prohibited.