Planning to build a garage or storage unit? It may have to match the look of your house

Those looking to build garages, storage units or other accessory structures in the city of Bradenton may soon have more specific guidelines for the appearance of the structures with a proposed amendment to the city’s land-use regulations.

According to city staff, there are existing issues with accessory structures that, while compliant with current city land-use regulations, “proved out of scale and character with the associated principal structure,” or house.

Most of the incidents staff referred to were associated with garages, save one that was a 200-square foot storage building with potential for incompatibility.

In an effort to keep this from continuing, staff recommended an amendment to the land-use regulation that would have accessory structures such as detached storage or garage structures of a certain size essentially aesthetically match the house on the same property. That could include the architectural style, exterior materials, colors and roof.

For example, if the house is made of stucco, a garage being built on the property should be made of the same color stucco.

With this wording added to the land-use regulation, city staff would be able to have some oversight of the design of a proposed structure and possibly reject a proposal not deemed compatible.

Should the amendment eventually be adopted, it would not be retroactive but would apply to those planning to build such accessory structures, said Catherine Hartley, director of the Department of Planning and Community Development for the city.

City council will hear a first reading of the proposed amendment Wednesday and likely set a date for a second reading and public hearing, which could be as soon as July 24.

The proposed change is to a section of the land-use regulation that says: “Accessory structures that are larger than 120 square feet and/or include a wall height greater than 10 feet are subject to conformance with the following compatibility standards….”

The amendment would add the language that “the architectural style, exterior materials and colors match that of the principal structure” and if the height of the structure exceeds 12 feet, the roof pitch should match, too.

However, some members of the planning commission ­– which saw the proposal first on June 19 – balked at the word “match,” and recommended it be changed to being “compatible with,” the principal structure.

Hartley said she prefers the word “match” in order to be as exact as possible, but city council can consider both wordings.

This story was originally published July 9, 2019 at 6:00 AM.