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LAND DEVELOPMENT CODE CHANGE - AIRPORT FACILITY DISTRICT (B)
Ordinance No. 0-06-76, Petition No. 56TCH-06PB
An ordinance of the City of Gainesville, Florida, amending the "Airport facility district (AF)" regulations and requirements; amending section 30-76 of the Land Development Code by adopting a list of uses permitted by right and related development requirements; adopting limitations and conditions on development on the Airport; providing revised requirements for rezonings and the airport facility zoning map; providing requirements for a Development of Regional Impact; 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
STAFF REPORT
This petition proposes various amendments to the provisions of the Airport Facility (AF) zoning district (Section 30-76 of the Land Development Code). This section currently does not list what uses are permitted in the district and instead refers to an airport layout zoning map that has not been established. The changes proposed by this petition and the airport facility zoning map proposed in related Petition 55ZON-06 PB, will provide a codified standard for review by the City staff of future development plans at the airport. The text changes that are proposed in this petition (and the separately proposed airport facility zoning map) were developed by the applicant with input from the Planning Division, which consulted with the City Attorney's office during the drafting of the proposed ordinance(s).
The amendments to Section 30-76 include a table that describes the type of development, infrastructure or facility that can occur within identified sub-areas (Airport Development Area, Airport Infrastructure Area, and Non-Development Area as shown on the proposed airport facility zoning map) of the AF zoning district. The sub-area entitled Airport Development Area lists the amount of existing and proposed development, and specifies the Standard Industrial Code (SIC) classification for each listed use. The SIC list proposed at the time of the July 24, 2006 public hearing was in a separate table of permitted uses applicable to the entire AF district. Since that public hearing, the SIC list has been refined and has been limited to the distinct use categories within the Airport Development Area. Other post-July 24th revisions to the proposed Airport Development Area include: a decrease of 5,000 square feet (from 20,000 square feet of development) for the proposed Air Traffic Control Tower; addition of 10,000 square feet of miscellaneous development (e.g., membership sports & recreation clubs); increase in proposed fuel storage from 250,000 to 350,000 gallons; increase in proposed aviation-related development from 300,000 to 325,000 square feet; and, specification of the previously proposed 500,000 square feet of Revenue Support into 100,000 square feet of office development, 100,000 square feet of retail, service and wholesale development, 50 acres of limited industrial development (motor freight transportation and warehousing), and 100 hotel rooms. The current code requirement for principal or accessory buildings and their approximate square footages to be shown on an adopted zoning map, is proposed for deletion and replacement with the provisions described above.
Other proposed revisions to the AF zoning district requirements include establishing required minimum building setbacks, deleting the requirement to show taxiways and aprons on the zoning map (due to the occasional need to reconfigure them, which would require rezoning as now codified), dropping redundant provisions pertaining to parking and landscaping exemptions, updating the objectives subsection of Section 30-76, and revising the development plan approval subsection to specify that wireless communications facilities, in accord with Article VI, are subject to review and approval by the Development Review Board or by the City Plan Board. Wireless communications facilities that are to be used exclusively for aeronautical purposes to serve the Airport are subject to development plan approval by the Airport Authority.
The proposed changes, if approved, will establish fundamental parameters for what has been an insufficiently defined zoning district, and will result in more substantiated review of airport development projects by City staff.
The Plan Board heard the petition and recommended that it be approved.
Public notice was published in the Gainesville Sun on May 31, 2006. Letters were mailed to surrounding property owners on May 30, 2006. The Plan Board held a public hearing June 15, 2006. The City Commission held a public hearing on July 24, 2006 and directed the City Attorney to prepare an ordinance.
CITY ATTORNEY MEMORANDUM
The City Commission, at its meeting of July 24, 2006, directed the City Attorney's Office to prepare and the Clerk of the Commission to advertise the proposed ordinance. If the ordinance is adopted on first reading, it will be heard on April 23, 2007 on Second Reading.