The City adopted a hillside development ordinance in April of 2006. This ordinance was the culmination of 4 years of Staff work with 2 Task Forces and a paid consultant. The tremendous growth pressure in the region spurred interest in creating a hillside development policy which would allow property owners to develop slopes while implementing best management practices to reduce negative environmental impacts. Implementation of the HHOD was achieved by amending various chapters of the UDC including, 161 Zoning, 167 Tree Preservation, 169 Physical Alteration of Land (Grading), 170 Stormwater Management, and 172 Parking and Loading. An illustrative HHOD Best Management Practices Manual was also developed and adopted. The HHOD BMP addresses environmentally conscious implementation policies which were not approved or codified but were acknowledged as important for people to understand, and hopefully implement on their own. The final component of the HHOD is a boundary map developed with the assistance of the U of A GIS Dept.

Major points of the HHOD UDC Amendments are:

Reductions of the required building setbacks in order to create a larger building envelope. This allows landowners to locate structures in the most appropriate locations, i.e. areas of less slope/benches, adjacent to the street on the downhill side, preserving significant natural features or trees, etc.

Amendments to the Tree Preservation ordinance were designed to preserve existing tree canopy on individual lots at the time of construction. This is the first instance in which the City has required tree preservation on single family lots. An abbreviated tree preservation plan is required before obtaining a building permit. The owner/builder has to show the trees being preserved and is required to fence the tree preservation area off to insure that it is not disturbed by equipment or compressed due to materials storage. The percentage of canopy to be preserved is dependent on the zoning. For example, a single family lot in a RSF-4 zoning district is required to preserve 30% of the existing canopy on the lot. A C-1 zoned piece of property is required to preserve 25%, etc.

The Physical Alteration of Land (Grading Ordinance) was amended to mirror the Tree Preservation changes. All lots in the HHOD are required to do a grading plan illustrating the location and the extent of grading to be done to the site. The maximum amount of grading on a lot allowed matches the minimum amount of tree canopy required to be preserved. The tree preservation fencing is used as the line of demarcation for the extent of grading allowed. The City allows the owner/ builder to use the same site plan for both grading and tree preservation. The overall intent was to minimize the amount of cut and fill on a lot.

• The Stormwater Chapter was amended to encourage stormwater BMP’s to reduce runoff such as rain gardens, permeable pavers, cisterns, etc.

• The Parking and Loading chapter was amended to allow a maximum of 30 spaces per parking pad in the HHOD. Additionally, the City will require a minimum undisturbed area of 15 feet between parking pads. The intent is to screen parking areas with existing tree canopy and to minimize the amount of cut and fill to create parking pads. Excessively large parking areas are not permitted.

• The method which planning uses to measure building height has been amended to encourage structures to “step” up the slope at a height below the tree canopy line (45’).

• The Master Street Plan was amended to allow for narrower street cross- sections to be used in the HHOD. All utilities are required to be located along the street so that utility easements do not disturb and de-forest large portions of the back of residential lots.

• The HHOD BMP Manual was designed to educate land oners and developers on sustainable development practices on steep slopes. The main points included are:

  • Encourage the use of creative storm-water management practices for single family homes such as rain gardens, cisterns, pavers, etc.

  • Encourage street layout to go horizontal to the slope.

  • Encourage homes to be placed near the right of way to minimize the driveway lengths and disturbance on the hillside.

  • Encourage traditional methods of dealing with auto parking such as tuck under garages, bridged driveways, on-street parking, etc.

  • Encourage home-owners to have small building footprints, especially on areas of severe slope.

The Hillside-Hilltop Overlay District data was generated from Fayetteville’s 2004 LIDAR data. The City of Fayetteville used 3D Analysis Software by ESRI to identify areas that were 15% slope and greater, plus all Hilltop areas. The U of A Center for Advanced Spatial Technology assisted the City in developing the model for this analysis.