Building Height, Explained

Illustration of the three height limit options considered as a part of the Connect the Junction TOD Plan — As part of Connect the Junction, the City studied how much housing each height option could accommodate. The 9+1 option that Council adopted would create capacity for up to 2,008 new homes in the project area, about two-thirds of the City’s mid-range target of 3,061 new homes by 2050. That target comes from the 2025 Housing Needs Assessment and the region’s housing allocation.

Height is the most common question about this proposal. Here’s what the code does and doesn’t do.

The maximum building heights were set as part of the Connect the Junction plan, which the City Council adopted in December 2025 after an extensive public engagement process. During that process, the community weighed several options, from keeping existing height limits to allowing significantly taller buildings. City Council ultimately chose to allow a maximum of nine stories, with one additional story allowed only for affordable housing developments.

Public input on height varied. In-person participants showed strong support for taller buildings, while online respondents leaned modestly toward keeping existing limits, though many still expressed openness to more height as a way to address the housing shortage. This range of input informed both the height decision the City Council adopted and the form-based code now proposed to manage that added height.

The form-based code doesn't reopen that decision. Its job is to carry it out, and to do so with clear standards that manage how height appears at street level.

A results graphic from the Connect the Junction public engagement, showing responses to the question of maximum building height for the Village Center and TOD Districts. A table of in-person votes shows the most support at 8, 9, and 10 stories, with 87 percent of in-person respondents favoring 8-to-10-story height increases. An inset photo shows a dot-voting board from the “Meet Me on Main” community event. — Community input on building height during Connect the Junction. In-person respondents strongly favored greater height, with 87% supporting 8-to-10-story limits.

A few things worth knowing:

The tallest heights apply only in specific areas. Height limits are set by subdistrict, chosen with local context in mind. The maximum does not apply everywhere.

Most buildings won't reach the maximum. Because of the code's street-proportion rules and the simple economics of construction, most new buildings are expected to be well below the cap.

Height is managed, not just allowed. Where buildings are tall relative to their street, upper floors step back, and larger setbacks and landscaped buffers are required next to lower residential neighborhoods.

Read the details in the draft code: building height and street room standards are in Section 604.E / 608.E; height limits by subdistrict are shown on the district maps in Section 604.D / 608.D.

The nine-story maximum was established through the Connect the Junction plan. It is an upper limit for the most permissive areas, not a typical building size, and not a height allowed citywide.

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