PURPOSE

  1. To create a predictable and clear approach to measuring and regulating height of buildings.
  2. To allow and encourage new pitched roofs that correspond to traditional building forms.

APPLICABILITY

  1. Applies to all new buildings or modifications to existing buildings that increase the overall height of the structure.

STORY HEIGHT

  1. Building height in this Code is measured in stories.
  2. Story height is measured vertically, as follows:
  3. From the surface of any finished floor to the surface of the finished floor above it.
    1. If there is no floor above, from the surface of the finished floor to the top of the exterior wall plate.
    2. For buildings with a gable, mansard, hipped, or gambrel roof, habitable space is allowed within the roof structure and is not considered a story.
  4. A building that has more than one floor contained within the structure of a pitched roof must count all but the top floor as a story.
  5. A habitable floor within a pitched roof must be counted as a story if the roof rafters intersect the wall plate or top of the exterior wall frame at a height more than 2 feet above the finished floor of the space.
  6. Basements are counted as a story when:
    1. 4 feet or more of an exterior wall located within the frontage zone is exposed above the average grade.
    2. an exposed basement exceeds 50% of the width of the building along the primary frontage. A basement story exposed along a side or rear building wall, such as a walkout basement, is not counted as a story.
  7. In the event that floor heights vary in different parts of the same building, such that multiple stories in one area equate in height to one story in another, the shorter floor-to-floor height should be used to determine number of stories, provided that none of the floors are mezzanines.
  8. Interior spaces may be configured to include multiple stories within the same interior volume, as long as all of the following criteria are met:
    1. If a story exceeds the maximum height permitted for that building type, then it should be counted as multiple stories, as measured according to maximum floor height, but may not exceed the maximum number of stories permitted for that building type.
    2. Windows must appear from the outside to be related to the measured number of stories.    ****

HEIGHT EXCEPTIONS

  1. Maximum height standards do not apply to mechanical equipment; vents or exhausts; solar panels or skylights; flagpoles; chimneys; parapets; or other non-habitable architectural features.
  2. The maximum heights of roof decks, towers, turrets, cupolas, and penthouses are regulated in Components.
  3. Maximum height standards for Amateur (HAM) Radio Equipment are regulated in Additional Structures.