Town Council Extends Public Hearing On Changes To Home Building Heights

A public hearing last night for amendments that would change the way Vienna measures building height was extended to March 21 to allow more time for officials to further explore how the proposals would affect different types of lots.

The amendments presented to Town Council on Monday add two new definitions to the town’s existing code and also redefine the point from which the town measures the height of houses. The changes would allow town officials to measure building height from finished lot grade--the “vertical mid-point between the highest and lowest elevation along the front set-back line"--to the top of the roof

Building height is currently measured from the average elevation of the finished lot grade at the front of the building to the highest point on the roof.

“The issue is even though we have a fixed height [requirement], the starting point is a floating point right now,” Planning Commissioner Chuck Anderson said at the hearing. “A developer can come in and if they wish to raise the lot, that becomes the new starting point. Basically  [the proposed method uses] the mid point of the line, which is a lot easier to measure than average of a plane."

The Planning Commission approved their recommendations on Dec. 8 after a series of public meetings in the fall. The proposed changes do not alter the town’s current height limit – 35 feet, or two and a half stories – or basement requirements, which say that a basement must be less than 6 feet above the average grade.

Proposed changes also add a definition for pre-existing lot grade--the height of the lot before any demolition or grading is done to the property--and allow detached, single family homes to deviate from that grade by three feet. 

The amendments come after a more than three-year review of home heights in Vienna, Director of Planning and Zoning Greg Hembree told the council.  The issue first arose in 2007, when expressed concern about a large house being built near his own home.

The changes will help prevent the use of “dirt skirts,” which developers have used in the past to raise the point from which measurements are taken, Hembree said. Developers have also lowered roof trusses to comply with town regulations.

Councilwoman Laurie Cole suggested using the principal front exterior wall as a measuring point instead of the front setback line, to better address up-sloping lots.

Hembree said he would need another few weeks to analyze the “what-ifs" of that scenario.

Cole said it’s important to avoid the “looming effect” that first prompted Lovelace to raise the issue nearly four years ago.

“[Avoiding that is] part of what makes this a desirable place to live,” Cole said. “ We don’t want to do something that is going to allow the [house] to tower over the person looking at the building and create that cramped, claustrophobic feeling. “

Anderson urged the Council to get something on the books as quickly as possible.

“There is no perfect way of doing this,” he said. “If you try to cover 100 percent of all situations, I feel that you’re going to end up with wishy-washy legislation that’s going to be hard to administer.”

Other public hearings set by the Council for March 21 include:

• An amendment that would allow the town
• The Official Town of Vienna Map, which must be approved every five years in accordance with the State of Virginia. Proposed changes to the town map include adding the cul-de-sac in the 500 block of John Marshall Drive Northeast, as well as public walkways in-between public streets or facilities, among other minor changes.