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. MINUTES OF THE <br /> ORONO PLANNiNG COMMISSION <br /> Monday,October 16,2006 <br /> 6:00 o'clock p.m. <br /> (#06-3240 City of Orono,Definitions of Basement and Story, Continued) <br /> adjoining ground. Ground level is defined to mean the average elevation of the finished ground surface <br /> measured within five feet of the foundation of a building, except ground level related to height of building <br /> shall be measured at center of building facing the front of the lot and the definition of a walkout basement <br /> is a basement having an entrance at grade level. Building height is defined in the zoning code as the <br /> vertical distance between the highest adjoining ground level at the building or ten feet above the lowest <br /> ground level,whichever is lower, and the top of the cornice of a flat roof, or the deck line of a mansard <br /> roof, or the uppermost point on a round or other arch-type roof, or the average height of the highest gable <br /> of a pitched or hipped roof. Topographic changes that elevate the adjoining ground level above the <br /> existing terrain shall not be considered in deternuning building height. � <br /> The proposed amendment will revise the definition of basement, eliminate the definition of ground level <br /> in favor of a new definition of existing ground level, and adds a definition of story. The combined effect <br /> is to establish a standard method for determining whether the first floor of a building is a basement or a <br /> story. <br /> Gaffron stated one of the problems with the City's functional definition,measuring up from the floor <br /> below,is that it does not take into account variations in basement ceiling heights. The solution that was <br /> reluctantly accepted in the past was to allow the grade at a portion of the low side to be artificially raised <br /> to meet the six-foot coverage requirement by bringing in fill and constructing a retaining wall to hold it in <br /> place, at some undefined distance from the foundation wall. Staff recognized this was not a good <br /> solution,but at the time it was concluded that it should be accepted. Gaffron stated it was not an ideal <br /> solution because of the following: <br /> 1. It caused difficulty in establishing proper drainage around the house due to the wall's proximity <br /> to the side lot line. <br /> 2. It visually still had the potential to make the house seem exceedingly tall because the retaining <br /> wall from a distance could appear as a foundation wall and not a natural part of the grade around <br /> the house. <br /> 3. Neither the buyer nor the neighboring property owner wanted the fill and wall to happen once the <br /> house was completed. <br /> As a result of those issues,the City changed its functional definition to require the six-foot foundation <br /> coverage to be met based on pre-existing grades. This has impacted how architects and others are <br /> designing and situating homes on the lot but has resulted in a number of homes having lower profiles in <br /> the topography than they might have had. <br /> Staff is recommending that the existing code definitions of basement and ground level be deleted and the <br /> following code revisions be adopted as follows: <br /> 1. Adopt the following definition of"story:" Story. That portion of a building included between the <br /> upper surface of a floor and the upper surface of the floor or roof next above. It is measured as <br /> the vertical distance from top to top of two successive tiers of beams or finished floor surfaces <br /> PAGE 12 <br />