§ 3.4.5: Non-residential and mixed-use design standards and incentives.
A. Purpose and intent. See § UDC-3.4.5A.
B. Applicabillity. See § UDC-3.4.5B.
C. Elements required on all buildings.
1. Building orientation. Any building within view of a public or private Right-of-Way, street, or common drive access which functions as a street shall either face such Right-of-Way or street or shall have a facade facing such Right-of-Way or street consistent with the character of the front or primary facade.
2. Front facade entry.
(i) A front facade must be articulated and designed to present a distinctive entry presence to the public and to emergency responders, emphasizing the building's entry point along the facade.
(ii) The entryway must be designed so that the primary entrance is architecturally prominent and clearly visible from the abutting street and nearest parking area.
3. Pedestrian shelter. Buildings shall provide weather and sun protection in the form of awnings, canopies, porticos, recesses, or other similar elements integrated with the building form along a minimum of twenty-five percent (25%) of all building frontages adjacent to or facing the street or any abutting parking area, with a maximum shelter height of fifteen (15) feet.
4. Wall and roof articulation. To avoid the appearance of a flat wall or roofline, facade depth and height articulation is required on any facade of a building that faces a public or private Right-of-Way, street, or common drive access that functions as a street, per the following:
(i) Depth articulation of at least three (3) feet shall be required for every thirty (30) feet of building façade length (see
Figure 3.4.5-1). Depth articulation applies only below the roofline. Alternatively, depth articulation of at least three (3) feet may be provided every fifty (50) feet of a building façade length if, in addition to preceding articulation, at least one of the following is provided and the Planning Director determines the building design meets the intent in this subsection 4.
(1) A perceptible change in the primary façade material such that no single material is used on more than two-thirds of the building façade for which the increased length in depth articulation is granted. A change may be achieved by a change in color of the same material (e.g. use of different types of stone); a change in material (e.g. use of sone and brick); or a combination thereof.
(ii) Height articulation for flat roofs of at least five (5) feet shall be required for every fifty (50) feet of building facade length. Pitched roofs do not require height articulation (see
Figure 3.4.5-2).
(iii) Vertical and horizontal articulation should be combined to create a facade with architectural variety and depth (see
Figure 3.4.5-3). The regulations in this subsection are not intended to prescribe a formula for building design but rather to prevent the use of excessively flat roofs and facades.
5. Roof design standards.
(i) All structures shall be constructed with a pitched roof, flat roof (pitch less than or equal to a ratio of 2:12) with a parapet, or combination thereof.
(ii) All flat roof surfaces shall be screened so that the actual roof surfaces and rooftop equipment are not visible from ground level.
(iii) Roofs of stairwells and elevator machine rooms and other similar spaces shall be exempt from roofing design standards so long as they are not visible from ground level.
(iv) For the purpose of this paragraph, "visible from ground level" is defined as capable of being seen at a height of six (6) feet while standing at the highest grade that intersects the property line.
6. Windows.
(i) To provide security, light, and visibility to and from the street, buildings shall provide glazing on a minimum of thirty-five percent (35%) of the linear ground floor frontage and twenty-five percent (25%) of the linear floor frontage for each floor above the ground floor on all sides of a building that face a public or private Right-of-Way, street, or common drive access that functions as a street. The Planning Director may reduce or waive this requirement for buildings with an area less than 500 square feet and for the facade of building adjacent to interior restrooms, storage areas, and other areas where glazing is not appropriate.
(ii) Reflective glass is prohibited; glass shall not have solar reflectance that exceeds twenty percent (20%).
(iii) Glass shall have a character of transparency. Tinted glass may be used, provided the tinting shall not reduce the light transmission to less than thirty-five percent (35%). Spandrel glazing or non-transparent windows shall not be used for more than twenty percent (20%) of windows on a building.
(iv) Windows shall be individually defined with detailed elements such as frames, sills, and lintels and be placed to visually define the building stories.
(v) Curtain wall and other glass systems having the appearance of a full glass wall are limited to sixty percent (60%) of any single elevation and may not exceed twenty-five percent (25%) of a single elevation without interruption by a contrasting architectural element such as a column, pilaster, or other feature having a width equal to at least fifty percent (50%) of the curtain wall or glass wall element.
7. Detached canopies.
(i) Any canopy used for weather protection of a non-residential use, such as gas pump stations, shall display a level of architecture similar to the primary building or buildings on the site.
(ii) At a minimum, the roof supports and roof of the canopy shall match the primary building in its level of detail, construction, and style.
(iii) This requirement does not apply to moveable shade structures such as umbrellas or temporary shade devices used in connection with a temporary event or use.
D. Minimum elements needed for approval. See
§ UDC-3.4.5D.
E. Incentives for providing additional features above minimum required.
1. A development that exceeds the minimum required features in at least two categories may request an additional five (5) feet of maximum height.
2. A development that provides all features in at least two categories may request an additional ten (10) feet of maximum height.
3. Development within the Hill Country Overlay is not eligible for density or height bonuses.
F. High-quality design elements. See
§ UDC-3.4.5F.
G. Site design elements. See
§ UDC-3.4.5G.
H. Sustainability elements. See
§ UDC-3.4.5H.
I. Redevelopment of existing non-conforming building or development.
1. A proposed building or development that replaces an existing legally non-conforming building or development erected or completed prior to adoption of this UDC may be considered compliant with the requirements of
§ UDC-3.4.5D while reducing the respective number of minimum required items for subsections
§ UDC-3.4.5F,
§ UDC-3.4.5G, and
§ UDC-3.4.5H, above, by one (1) item from each.
2. The proposed building or development may eliminate an additional required item in one or both of the following situations:
(i) Reclaiming or recycling at least ten percent (10%) of the existing building or development for use in the new building or development based on either:
(1) The estimated gross tonnage of demolished material; or
(2) The estimated scrap value of demolished material.
(ii) The combined cost to demolish the existing building or development due to required remediation of environmental hazards exceeds one hundred percent (100%) of the total property value.
J. Assurance of mixed-use in MU-N, MU-C and MU-TC Districts.
1. Mix of uses. A use on the ground floor must be different from a use on an upper floor. The second floor may be designed to have the same use as the ground floor so long as there is at least one more floor above the second floor that has a different use from the first two floors.
2. Pedestrian-oriented commercial spaces. Along at least 75 percent of the building frontage along the street, the building must be designed for commercial uses in ground-floor spaces that meet the following standards. A lobby serving another use in the building shall not count as a pedestrian-oriented commercial space for purposes of this section.
(i) Dimensional requirements. Each ground-floor commercial space must have:
(1) A customer entrance that opens directly onto the sidewalk;
(2) A depth of not less than 24 feet; and
(3) A height of not less than 12 feet, measured from the finished floor to the bottom of the structural members of the ceiling.