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January 29, 2000 Old North Neighborhood Workshop

On January 29,2000 over 40 people participated in a design guidelines workshop for the Old North neighborhood in the Council Chambers. The workshop objectives included:

  • Define Character Areas
  • Identify neighborhood design features the community values
  • Establish a preliminary set of design principles

Character Mapping: Old North should be viewed as a neighborhood

The workshop participants prepared maps that illustrated the various areas of the Old North with distinctive character. The maps reflected two general observations. First, Old North is a neighborhood of which adjacent commercial, institutional and park areas are an integral part. Secondly, from a physical character perspective, it has three areas with distinctive character. These include the G Street commercial area, residential blocks in the center of Old North Davis, and school buildings in the southwest corner.

Workshop Summary

Character Mapping: Old North should be viewed as a neighborhood

The workshop participants prepared maps that illustrated the various areas of the Old North with distinctive character. The maps reflected two general observations. First, Old North is a neighborhood of which adjacent commercial, Institutional and park areas are an integral part. Secondly, from a physical character perspective, the area has three areas with distinctive character. These include the G Street commercial area, residential blocks in the center of Old North Davis, and school buildings in the southwest corner.

Question #1: What are the three most important streetscape features that should be conserved in your neighborhood?

Street trees, front yards and the area's informal landscaped alleys were viewed as Old North Davis' distinctive streetscape features.

Question #2: What are the predominate lot and site patterns in your neighborhood that should be conserved?

Workshop participants identified the small lot patterns with their "cottage scale" homes, street-oriented front doors, and unpaved rustic alleys as distinctive patterns in Old North Davis.

Question #3: What are the desirable architectural design features in the neighborhood that should be conserved?

In terms of architectural features, participants said Old North is a predominately single story neighborhood with decorative variety. Other architectural features included the use of natural materials and lack of front yard fences.

Question #4: What types of changes or threats do you see to desirable design features in your neighborhood?

The participants identified a variety of conservation issues facing Old North Davis. These include the increasing amount of traffic, parking impacts from under-parked rental property, and identifying opportunities for quality reinvestment in Old North's small-scaled lot and building patterns. However, the primary concern involves the future of the neighborhood's alleys.

The alleys have traditionally had secondary structures such as garages and small cottages. The zoning ordinance's R2 standards has parking and site coverage requirements that result in two-story structures for second units. In Old North Davis' small lot and single story housing stock, two-story alley buildings are at-odds with the traditional pattern of secondary structures being subordinate to the primary house. As a result, the Planning Commission has rejected recent proposals for two-story structures because of the concern that they invade the privacy of neighbors.

Planning Team Summaries

The workshop participants worked as members of four planning teams. Individual team summaries follow:

Team 1

Question #1: Streetscape

  • Street trees-trimmed
  • Few driveways
  • Open front yards
  • Houses/landscape in good repair

Question #2: Patterns

  • Roofs pitched-not flat
  • Alleys-unpaved
  • Median strip

Question #3: Architecture

  • Decorative variety
  • Bungalow style homes/cottage style
  • Natural materials

Question #4: Conservation Issues

  • Re-zoning
  • Traffic-speeding
  • Parking
  • Difficult to renovate existing homes
  • Investment buying

Team 2

Question #1: Streetscape

  • Broad streets
  • Mature trees
  • Alleys
  • Sidewalks
  • Front yards
  • On-street parking

Question #2: Patterns

  • Front yard setbacks
  • Alley cottages
  • Consistent lot coverage and open space\Small lots
  • Granny flats

Question #3: Architecture

  • Little 2-story
  • No front yard fences (or low)
  • Landscaping
  • Variety

Question #4: Conservation Issues

  • Clear guidelines for alley development
  • Neighborhood-wide communication
  • Increased traffic and speed-traffic calming

Team 3

Question #1: Streetscape

  • Mature trees
  • Wide streets
  • Open lots (no-small fences)
  • Set back houses
  • Few garages

Question #2: Patterns

  • Consistent lot sizes
  • Homes face street, not garage doors

Question #3: Architecture

  • Porches
  • Mixed-use of facades (brick, wood stucco)
  • Houses fit one another on the lot to produce a block which is diverse, yet in harmony and proportion

Question #4: Conservation Issues

  • High density-too many units
  • Parking-increased traffic makes neighborhood unsafe/congested
  • Loss of small-scale- "modern high-rise" or "trophy houses" volume of house too big and/or design is not architecturally pleasing
  • Vinyl siding (negative)

Team 4

Question #1: Streetscape

  • Canopy of trees
  • Houses setback; low/no fences between
  • Transition between public and private space

Question #2: Patterns

  • House proportion to lot
  • Rustic alleys (not paved)

Question #3: Architecture

  • Front porches
  • Conserve traditional architecture

Question #4: Conservation Issues