Fountain Valley to Discuss New Building Codes

The Fountain Valley City Council will address several changes to the residential building code at its meeting Tuesday night.

The changes were originally brought up at the council's April 17 meeting, when the proposed ordinance was sent back for changes. The new ordinance would reduce the maximum allowable height for a single-family home from 28 feet to 27 feet, as opposed to the 25 feet in the original ordinance.

The ordinance would also allow for a .01 floor-area ratio bonus for any home with offset second-story windows. Existing building code requires that single-family homes have a floor-area ratio of .50, but certain design incentives can increase that ratio up to a maximum of .60.

The ordinance would also limit the height of first-floor ceilings to 10 feet. The intent is to close a loophole in the city's requirement that the second floor of a two-story home only be 70 percent the size of the first floor. The regulation is in place to prevent homes from looking "boxy," Planning Director Andy Perea said, but builders in the past have skirted it by building portions of the ceilings on the first floor to the same height as those on the second.