City Council OKs Changes to Prevent 'Mansionization' of Fountain Valley

The Fountain Valley City Council passed an ordinance Tuesday night that makes key changes in the building code to close a loophole and prevent the "mansionization" of the city's residential areas.

The ordinance reduces the maximum allowable height for a single-family home from 28 feet to 27 feet, and also allows 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 also limits the height of first-floor ceilings to 10 feet, closing 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. Builders in the past had skirted the old code by building portions of the ceilings on the first floor to the same height as those on the second.

The council also presented a proclamation to the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post recognizing May as Buddy Poppy month. VFW members will be posted at various sites around town during May to pass out the poppies and raise funds for veterans and their families.

In other business, the council:

• passed an ordinance authorizing the city to access state and federal criminal justice records for employment background checks;
• passed an ordinance repealing an anti-solicitation law in response to a ruling by the Ninth District Court of Appeals that a similar law in Phoenix was unconstitutional; and
• approved the city's Community Development Block Grant action plan for the 2012-13 fiscal year.