NEW GARAGES AND OUTBUILDINGS
Off-street parking, especially for more than one car, is at a premium in the Village. In recent years many residents have built garages with varying degrees of success in terms of visual impact and compatibility.

When planning a garage or outbuilding, remember that in the Village these almost-invisible buildings are simple and functional. Keep these clearly subordinate structures modest in scale, use inexpensive materials, and add little ornamentation.

Recommendations
1. Garages and other outbuildings should be located where they were historically: at the rear of properties, with access from alleys. Where no alley exists and access is by a driveway off the street, the garage should be set as far back as possible, preferably obscured by the house.

2. Most historic garages were frame with shallow-pitch hipped or gable roofs and simple siding and details. Some new garages are being built with an 8/12 roof pitch (an 8-inch rise in a 12-inch run). Because the 8/12 pitch roof becomes very large when placed on a two-car garage, any multiple-car garages should have flat roofs. Other historic roof examples also provide a variety of appropriate design possibilities.

3. New garages and outbuildings should "read" as secondary structures, as they did in the past. Avoid large structures that overwhelm or compete with the house-keep roof ridges well below those of the house. Consider a flat, sloping roof rather than a gable roof; avoid mansards and other high roofs; and keep overall dimensions as small as possible.

4. Use two single garage doors rather than a single double door. This maintains the scale and rhythm of older structures, making even a two-car garage seem smaller and more modest.

5. Build in frame, not brick, because relatively few garages and outbuildings were of brick. The most appropriate siding for garages is horizontal beveled wood siding. Garages and outbuildings, and their doors, should be painted. Stains and varnishes on doors are not appropriate. See Drawing 21.

6. The zoning ordinance requires new residential construction on vacant lots to have two off-street parking spaces per unit, unless a variance is granted. Careful location of these spaces can ensure that the traditional streetscape pattern of dominant houses, and not garages, is maintained. Remember also that to construct a garage with an apartment above it, your building lot must be at least 6,000 square feet - 9,000 square feet if your lot already has two living units on it. See the Zoning chapter.