Title
Amend the Permitted Uses in the Industrial and Public Facilities Future Land Use Categories (B)
Petition PB-12-134 CPA. City Plan Board. Amend the City of Gainesville Comprehensive Plan Future Land Use Element to change the permitted uses in the Industrial and Public Facilities land use categories.
Explanation
This petition amends the permitted uses in the Industrial and Public Facilities future land use categories described within the Future Land Use Element. These amendments are necessary to improve clarity and to allow more flexibility within these land use categories.
The proposed change to the Industrial land use category will provide clarity by clearly stating that non-industrial uses are allowed when implemented as part of an adopted Planned Development ordinance. The existing Industrial land use category allows non-industrial uses when they are sensitively designed. However, the term "sensitively designed" is not defined within the Comprehensive Plan or the Land Development Code. This creates a lack of clarity for developers and staff attempting to apply this standard to non-industrial uses within the Industrial land use category. The proposed amendment will allow non-industrial uses within the framework of the Planned Development ordinance process, which is intended to promote overall coordinated building and facility relationships and infill development while eliminating the negative impacts of unplanned and piecemeal development. The proposed changes will provide the flexibility for the City to address changing market conditions within the Industrial land use category. As the City continues to develop the Innovation Economy, flexibility will be needed to meet the challenges of an ever changing marketplace.
The proposed change to the Public Facilities land use category expands the category to include private cemeteries, private utilities, and legal arrangements such as a public-private partnership where the land title is vested in a government and the proposed use serves a public purpose. The existing Public Facilities land use category is limited to identifying land used for administrative and operational government functions and does not contemplate lands with private institutional uses such as cemeteries or private utilities. These changes are necessary to recognize existing public-serving uses such as private utilities and/or cemeteries and to provide opportunities and greater flexibility to pursue public-private partnerships which serve a public purpose.
Staff is also proposing amending the 80 percent lot coverage limitation for Public Facilities designated properties which are located within the urban core areas of the city. The urban core generally includes areas designated with the Mixed-Use High Intensity and Urban Mixed-Use 2 future land use categories and within the areas contemplated for Form Based Code T-zones. There are no lot coverage maximums within these core areas, and the proposed change is necessary to create a consistent urban form and ensure compatibility between public facilities that may be located in these areas and the surrounding urban uses.
Public notice was published in the Gainesville Sun on November 15, 2012. The Plan Board held a public hearing on December 3, 2012.
Fiscal Note
None.
Recommendation
City Plan Board to City Commission - The City Commission approve Petition PB-12-134 CPA. Plan Board vote 6-0.
Staff to City Commission - The City Commission approve Petition PB-12-134 CPA and include these changes as part of the Evaluation and Appraisal Update of the Comprehensive Plan.
Staff to the Plan Board - Approve Petition PB-12-134 CPA.