Title
COLLEGE PARK SPECIAL AREA PLAN AMENDMENT (B)
Ordinance No. 0-05-12; Petition 158TCH-04 PB
An ordinance of the City of Gainesville, Florida, amending Appendix A, section 3, of the Land Development Code, relating to the College Park Master Plan and Regulating Plan for New Construction; amending paragraph (2) of the subsection on building height for new construction, by allowing a greater building heights and number of stories under certain prescribed zoning and land use conditions; providing directions to the codifier; providing a severability clause; providing a repealing clause; and providing an immediate effective date.
recommendation
The City Commission adopt the proposed ordinance.
explanation
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT STAFF MEMORANDUM
This petition requests a text change to the College Park Special Area Plan (College Park SAP). The intent of the Plan is to protect and promote the traditional, walkable character of this neighborhood. Largely, this intent is to be achieved in the proper design and placement of buildings, streets and sidewalks in the neighborhood to create high-quality street spaces that are pleasant, safe and convenient for pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users and motorists.
In addition to the preservation and promotion of a neighborhood design that is welcoming (particularly to pedestrians), the Special Area Plan finds it essential that residences, offices, retail and civic uses be compactly laid out so that their proximity makes walking between them convenient-a traditional design known as "mixed use."
Similarly, the purpose of a planned development (PD) is to provide a method for landowners or developers to submit unique proposals that are not provided for or allowed in the City's zoning districts. Planned development provisions allow unique design characteristics and a mix of residential and non-residential uses that are otherwise not accommodated in the land development regulations.
Current language in the College Park Special Area Plan does not provide for an exception to height requirements for Type I buildings. In order to accommodate the intended mixture of uses in an aesthetically appealing fashion, the petitioner is requesting a text change to the College Park Special Area Plan, to allow a Planned Development (PD) to exceed the SAP's limitations for maximum height and maximum number of stories. Any proposed development would also require amending the Comprehensive Land Use Plan to Planned Use District (PUD).
In the College Park Special Area Plan, building height is based on a maximum number of stories. For Type I buildings the maximum height is 65-feet, with a maximum of five (5) stories and a first story minimum of 10-feet from floor to ceiling.
If approved, a development could exceed the maximum height and maximum number of stories ordinarily allowed. The unique and often complex nature of a PD requires specialized review, as established in Section 30-211 of the Land Development Code. Section 30-211 allows a PD, in conjunction with a PUD land use plan change, to set its own dimensional requirements.
Staff recommends a text change to the College Park Special Area Plan to clarify this omission, by allowing greater building heights and number of stories through the PD rezoning and PUD land use plan change process, so long as the first story, minimum 10-foot floor to ceiling height requirement is retained.
The Plan Board heard this petition and recommended that it be approved.
Public notice was published in the Gainesville Sun on November 2, 2004. Letters were mailed to surrounding property owners on November 3, 2004. The Plan Board held a public hearing November 18, 2004.
The City Commission, at its meeting of December 13, 2004, held a public hearing and approved this petition.
CITY ATTORNEY MEMORANDUM
This ordinance requires two public hearings. Should the Commission adopt the ordinance on first reading, the second and final reading will be May 9, 2005.