The purpose of this chapter is to establish standards and requirements for physical development in the R-1 single-family residential district. To implement the General Plan and the Coastal Land Use Plan, the following design objectives for the R-1 district are established.
A.
The Urban Forest. Site improvements and the public right-of-way should be designed to preserve significant trees and to perpetuate the established urban forest in each neighborhood where it exists. Each site should contribute to the urban forest or other vegetation characteristic of the neighborhood, by harboring an appropriate number and mix of trees and/or shrubs consistent with the neighborhood context and the neighborhood streetscape.
B.
Neighborhood Design. Each site shall contribute to neighborhood character including the type of forest resources present, the character of the street, the response to local topography and the treatment of open space resources such as setbacks and landscaping. It is intended by this objective that diversity in architecture be encouraged while preserving the broader elements of community design that characterize the streetscape within each neighborhood.
C.
Site Design. Good site design is essential to good building design. Site improvements shall be compatible with, and sensitive to, the natural features and built environment of the site and of the surrounding area. Design solutions should relate to and take advantage of site topography, vegetation and slope. Designs shall recognize the limitations of the land and work with these limitations, rather than ignoring them or trying to override them.
D.
Mass and Bulk. Residential designs shall maintain Carmel's enduring principles of modesty and simplicity and preserve the City's tradition of simple homes set amidst a forest landscape. Buildings shall not present excess visual mass or bulk to public view or to adjoining properties. Large box-like buildings and buildings with large, continuous, unrelieved surfaces can appear massive. Designing building and roof planes with just a few, simple forms and keeping floor levels and plate heights close to grade help reduce mass and bulk. The use of natural materials such as wood or stone and the creative use of landscaping can also help to avoid excess mass by introducing texture, variety and screening.
E.
Scale. Buildings shall relate to a human scale in their forms, elements and in the detailing of doors, windows, roofs and walkways. Oversized design elements make structures appear dominating and monumental. This out-of-scale character represents a poor fit to the human form, vitiates the more intimate, rural charm and village character of Carmel-by-the-Sea and shall be avoided.
F.
Boxed-in Neighbors. Designs should preserve reasonable access to light, air and open space for surrounding properties when considered cumulatively with other buildings in the neighborhood. Designs incorporating tall or bulky building elements located near an adjoining site that is already partially boxed-in by previous development should be avoided.
G.
Privacy. Designs should respect the privacy of neighbors. The placement of windows, doors, balconies and decks should be sensitive to similar improvements on neighboring properties.
H.
Open Space. The design of structures shall be coordinated with open space to enhance the park-like environment of the City. Open space should be distributed around buildings to provide visual relief from structural bulk and a distinct separation from buildings on adjacent sites. Open space is a shared community resource and some front yard open space on each site should remain visible from the street when this is consistent with the context established by neighboring sites.
I.
Landscaping. Designs should coordinate structural elements with landscaping to achieve a pleasing overall site design. Landscaped open space on-site can help enhance the urban forest, or other vegetation characteristic of the neighborhood, by coordinating with open space on neighboring sites and roadside vegetation. Landscaping also can aid in achieving other design objectives such as breaking up mass and bulk and protecting privacy, but such use of landscaping should not substitute for good building design.
J.
Public Views. Buildings shall be located and designed to preserve significant coastal views from the public right-of-way in conformance with Section 30251 of the California Coastal Act. The protection of public views should not prevent reasonable development of the site, yet development shall not preclude reasonable protection of any significant coastal view.
K.
Private Views. Designs should respect views enjoyed by neighboring parcels. This objective is intended to balance the private rights to views from all parcels that will be affected by a proposed building or addition. No single parcel should enjoy a greater right than other parcels except the natural advantages of each site's topography. Buildings which substantially eliminate an existing significant view enjoyed on another parcel should be avoided.
L.
Solar Access. Designs should preserve the rights to reasonable solar access on neighboring parcels. Excessively tall buildings, particularly those near a north property line, which would block the free passage of the sun onto neighboring solar collectors or south-facing windows on neighboring sites, should be avoided.
M.
Equity. Design controls and conditions of approval should be reasonable and fair.
(Ord. 2004-01 § 1, 2004; Ord. 2004-02 § 1, 2004)
