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Planning Commission ti Lands of Gorman&Cheng(lot 22) March 11, 1998 Page 3 -_ would make the residence highly visible from Stonebrook Drive and from other homes to the west. Exterior colors have not yet been chosen, although the plans indicate that the roofing would be dark gray. Staff will review proposed colors for conformance with the Town's adopted color board,prior to acceptance of plans for building plan check. Square Footage The applicants are proposing to use a recycled material called "Rastra" for the walls of the house. A brochure about the material has been included for the Commission's information. Rastra is thicker than most walls, providing better energy efficiency. The Zoning Ordinance states that everything within the exterior walls is floor area. Since the Rastra material combined with the stucco finish is 11 inches thick, the applicants have requested that they be allowed to calculate the floor area from the centerline of the exterior walls rather than including the entire wall (see Attachment 9). A typical wall thickness for standard construction would be about six inches. The proposed floor area is at the maximum allowed for the property based on slope density calculations. If the entire wall thickness is counted, the total "floor area" would exceed the allowable limit. This is an unusual circumstance and one which staff has not encountered before. The thicker walls would add to the massing of the structure and the Code requires floor area to be counted from the exterior walls. If the Commission determines that the entire wall thickness should be counted as floor area, condition #1 should be modified to require revisions to the floor plans to keep the project within the allowable floor area of 5,943 square feet. Neighborhood and Architectural Committee Concerns The architectural review committee for the Stonebrook Subdivision(J. Lohr Properties) is concerned about the proposed exterior materials, the second story massing and the low roof pitch of the proposed residence. Jerry Lohr's letter of February 24, 1998 points out that the exterior siding is entirely stucco, and that many of the other homes in the subdivision have used stone, brick or wood in place of or to break up stucco. Also, the two other homes at the entrance to the subdivision have all stucco exteriors. The Planning Commission has expressed concern about the number of houses with stucco siding in the Stonebrook Subdivision in the past. The Design Guidelines state that a mixture of materials can create interest and details, and that texture and well designed detail added to wall surfaces helps minimize the impact of large wall surfaces. Staff has included wording in condition #1 requiring the applicants to add stone or brick as an accent to the exterior of the house. If the Planning Commission decides that this is not necessary, this language should be deleted from the condition. While there are no other homes with metal roofs in the subdivision, there are residences in the Town that have used this material. There are no code provisions prohibiting the use of metal roofing. The Commission has been concerned about the reflectivity of metal roofing with other applications, and staff has included wording in condition #2 requiring the material to have as non-reflective finishing as possible. Condition #8 requires the color of the roofing to be dark enough that it has 40% or less reflectivity. As mentioned in Jerry Lohr's letter, the low roof pitch does place more emphasis on the walls of the house. The height of the walls is greater since the roof does not comprise much of the overall height of the structure. Suggestions were given to reduce or break up the wall in front of the garage and the two-story stairwell. The project architect believes that the low roof pitch minimizes the overall massing of the house. The architect's