City officials reconsidering building heights

City officials are wondering whether Shelton really needs a height limit on buildings, whether it should limit height to various construction types in zones, and whether the definition of a building "story" should be removed from zoning qualifications altogether.

Those were the questions bandied about by members of the Shelton City Council and staff members at a work session Dec. 12 at the Shelton Civic Center.

The current height limits in the city are:

■ 30 feet and two stories in neighborhood residential zones.

■ 45 feet in the airport industrial zone.

■ 60 feet in the public services zones.

■ 35 feet in the low-intensity mixed use, medical/educational and valley commercial/residential mix zones.

■ 35 feet and three stories in the downtown/commercial and low-intensity commercial zones.

■ 35 feet and two stories in the general commercial, commercial/industrial mix, industrial and professional office/residential mixed-use zones.

Community and Economic Development Director Jae Hill said he was looking for a consensus from council members on building height limits, and whether the city should remove the story qualification from zoning.

Hill said he also wanted to know whether the council wants to make changes to the roof rules while the city launches into the creation of a new comprehensive plan or wait until the document is done in about a year and a half and then make amendments.

"It changes the calculus for our housing, so if you want to, we can do it now," he said.

"Let's do it now," said Mayor Eric Onisko. "The comp plan is two years out."

As for removing the story qualification from zoning, Hill said, "I'm in favor of that. I can't see good reasons for having it."

"My gut reaction is we don't need the height limit either, but I'd be interested to hear from our public if there's a concern about that," said council member Deidre Peterson.

Council member Kathy McDowell said she disagrees.

"Shouldn't we be ready in case someone wants to build a tall building, instead of waiting?" she asked.

"We need the height limit," McDowell said. "The height limit is good. I think it's good to do it upfront, instead of waiting to see if someone comes in and then change the rules on it. I'm not sure about the stories."

In his report to the council members, Hill presented the definitions of building heights and stories in the city code.

The "height of building" means the vertical distance measured from the level of the average grade of the building site to the highest point of the roof beams in the case of flat roofs, to the deck line of mansard roofs, or to the center height between eaves and ridges for gable, hip or gambrel roofs.

In the city code, "story" means that portion of a building included between the surface of any floor and the surface of the floor next above it, or if there be no floor above it, then the space between such floor and the ceiling next above it. First story means any floor not over 4½ feet above the established grade, or if set back, above average ground level at the front line of the building.

At the Shelton City Council meeting Tuesday evening, City Manager Mark Ziegler in his report called the comprehensive plan "the city's road map ... it's our guiding document."

As for the work session discussion of building heights, "I think we got a clear consensus on where to go on that," Ziegler said. The council will have another work session on building heights in the new year, he said.