Zoning - Southeast corner of Howard St & St Peter St

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fY Although the bookstore presently exists on a portion of the property, it is a nonconforming use. If this nonconforming use is granted commercial zoning, then the Commission and Common Council should be aware, that there are numerous other nonconforming uses in the area that could request equal treatment . • One of the objectives of the City's Zoning Ordinance and the neighborhood rezoning program has been to encourage and protect the single family areas of the City. The rezoning of this parcel "flies in the face" of that objective and would transfer the responsibility of protecting the neighborhood from the City to the low and moderate income families living near this site and to the Northeast Neighborhood Organization. This would be unfair to the people of the area. The private library for which a building permit was erroneously issued for the Notre Dame-Howard site had approximately half the square footage of the building now being proposed., Also, since the library was originally proposed to be built under the existing "A" Residential zoning, it would not have made the land use decision for commercial zoning in the area and would have had less of a detrimental effect on the neighborhood than the present proposal . The Common Council should be aware that they are not simply making a decision of whether or not a bookstore is a good use for the area, but rather they are making a land use decision that commercial zoning is appropriate for this site and therefore for other similar sites in the area. The decision to zone this site commercial is one that the residents will have to live with for many years. The end cost to the City in terms of lower property values and reversal of the trend to renovate this area could be much greater than allowing the construction of a private library. In addition to being detrimental to the area, the proposed use is also too intensive for the site. Even if this petition is granted, an Exception will have to be granted by the Board of Zoning Appeals to allow parking on a non-contiguous residentially zoned lot . Variances will also be needed in order to increase the width restriction for a street separating the commercial use from the parking area from the allowable 30 feet (the Howard Street right-of-way is 82.5 feet) , and to reduce the number of spaces required by 63 percent from 32 down to 12.