Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout05-29-18 Zoning and Annexation 4TH&�4O U d I F a x 1865 OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK KAREEMAH FOWLER, CITY CLERK ZONING&ANNEXATION MAY 29, 2018 4:10 P.M. Committee Members Present: John Voorde, Gavin Ferlic, Jo M. Broden (late) Committee Members Absent: Oliver Davis Other Council Present: Regina Williams-Preston, Karen White, Tim Scott Other Council Absent: Sharon L. McBride Others Present: Bianca Tirado, Graham Sparks, Casey Colvin Presenters: Michael Divita, Larry Magliozzi, James Mueller Agenda: Update- Zoning Ordinance: Off-Street Parking- Mike Divita, Community Investment Update- Potential Annexations-James Mueller, Community Investment Vice Committee Chair John Voorde called to order the Zoning and Annexation Committee meeting at 4:10 p.m. He introduced members of the Committee and announced the lack of a quorum, rendering the Committee incapable of taking official action on legislation. He then gave the floor to the presenters. Update- Zoning Ordinance: Off-Street Parking-Mike Divita, Community Investment Michael Divita, Principal Planner for the Department of Community Investment with offices on the 14th floor of the County-City Building, stated, I am here today to give a bit of a heads up on the next couple of Zoning Ordinance changes we are looking at. I will speak to the off-street parking and Larry will speak to the proposed changes to the Sub-division ordinance. So, a few months ago, DCI, Area Plan and the Building Department all looked at some Zoning Ordinance amendments that Council approved. We have seen some good results from that on several projects. They have been able to advance more quickly because of those changes. Since then, we have examined some other areas of the Zoning Ordinance where more changes could be made to achieve the same results. Again,we are looking at places in the Ordinance that people apply for exceptions but always tend to be granted. We are looking for ways to reduce unnecessarily burdensome requirements within the Ordinance. We are also looking at ways to simplify the administration of the Ordinance. Mr. Divita continued, One (1) of the next areas we are tackling is the off-street parking. The Ordinance's current minimum parking standards are really based on a decade's old, suburban calculation on how parking should be. That is not relevant and doesn't match today's reality. The INTEGRITY1 SERVICES ACCESSIBILITY JENNIFER M.COFFMAN BIANCA L.T mADo JOSEPH R MOINAR CHIEF DEPUTY/DIRECFOR OF OPERATIONS DEPuTY/DIRECrOR OF POLICY ORDINANCE VIOLATION CLERIC EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1 227 W.Jefferson Blvd.I South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.92211 f 574.235.9173 1 www.southbendin.gov CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK existing minimum parking counts tend to over supply off-street parking which requires developers to go to the expense of building parking spaces that they will never need. We will be proposing some amendments that calibrate the parking standards based on local tests of current parking needs for various land uses. The proposed amendments will simplify the off-street parking provisions and will provide great flexibility with how property owners and developers meet those off-street parking requirements. You will see more specific language on the First Reading for this which is scheduled for the June 11 th, 2018 Common Council meeting. It goes to the Area Plan Commission for their meeting on June 19th, 2018 and will then come back to Council for action on June 25th 2018. We can delve into more detail as it comes back to you but I am happy to take any questions you might have on that right now. Councilmember Tim Scott asked What is an you example that might see? P Y g Mr. Divita replied, Unity Gardens was filling an educational building that required them to have several hundred parking spots. They got a variance to allow down about sixteen(16). The Armory would have needed to provide somewhere around four hundred (400) spaces. The City worked with them in providing about seventy-five (75). Councilmember Scott followed up, One (1) that will probably come up is the old Fire House Theater. They are wanting to do a restaurant or office and there is no parking. Looking at it, it is a perfect location for street parking all the way around. Mr. Divita replied, That one(1)may be zoned MU,Mixed-Use, so it won't have off-street parking requirements but that is one (1)piece we are looking at. Vice Committee Chair Voorde asked, Have you seen examples of these kind of changes in other cities? Mr. Divita replied, Yes. The larger movement now in more urban districts is to either reduce or even potentially eliminate off-street parking requirements. Some places are actually looking at having parking maximums as there are places with a lot of unused parking. However, neither of those are what we are going to be proposing here. Vice Committee Chair Voorde asked,Are there plans for any downtown parking garages that you know of? Mr. Divita replied, I don't think there is anything immediate but we are tracking the numbers as projects come online. There may be certain locations we find have high demand but, in the very near term, I don't think there are any plans at this time. Vice Committee Chair Voorde then opened the floor to members of the public wishing to speak. Sue Kesim, 4022 Kennedy Drive, stated, I'm curious about the areas that are dense with private homes. Because if you put a business in and then people rely on the street parking for their homes, I think it should be calibrated differently than a business-type street. So I'm just wondering if it would be that. I wonder if parking will be adjusted because a lot of people don't have garages. And now that the alleys have all been closed, where are they going to park, you know? I've just heard people say that now that there is business,they can't find a place to park their car at night. EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1 227 W.Jefferson Bvld I South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.9221 If 574.235.9173 I TTD574.235.5567 l www.southbendin.gov 2 ®CITY OF SOUTH BEND , OFFICE OF THE CLERK Committeemember Jo M.Broden arrived at the meeting at 4:18 p.m. Her arrival initiated a quorum of the Zoning and Annexation Committee. Committeemember Jo M. Broden stated, I apologize. I don't know what all you covered already. Thanks. In terms of the bike components, the bike racks and all of that, how does that situate us with regard to bike-friendly designation as a national rating?Are we looking at best practices from that agency there?Are we meeting or exceeding those? Mr. Divita replied, We are meeting those. What is proposed are very rudimentary changes to the Ordinance to adjust to those best practices. Committeemember Broden followed up, Ok, and your terminology here, bicycle racks, but how do we accommodate for changes such as scooters as an alternative means of transportation?I don't know if they need to lean or not,I don't know.But you know what I'm saying,that is an alternative, right? Mr. Divita replied, The Ordinance speaks to the bikes but I'm sure it could accommodate the scooter. Committeemember Broden interjected, Ok, so that specificity is not going to be a problem going forward? Mr. Divita replied, I don't think it will. Committeemember Broden followed up, I have another question. The units of measurements, you took out employees and seating capacity. Did you address that? I thought in our presentation that was kind of a crazy way that we changed those numbers? Mr. Divita replied, In the current Ordinance, there is the number of parking spaces. In some cases it is based on the script of the building and in other cases it might be based on the number of employees. The new Ordinance is going to base it more on the size of the building. It tends to be a fairly obvious and constant way of measuring that. Committeemember Broden followed up, And then just, I think, two (2) others. Public park or a cultural hot spot. I don't know how to say it. I can think of Kelly Park in my district where it was pretty loud for the neighbors that have a concern about site lines. People coming to and from a centrally located location such as that in a residential area and then filling that space up on that adjacent parking. And then I think about the parks that we just visited on the tour, Fremont Park. There was a preference to actually move parking into the park. That is one (1) of the things we heard. I think I also heard not to have parking on the street to block some of those sight lines where it could be a safety issue for kids going back and forth. Mr. Divita replied,Those are addressed on a case by case basis. Certainly if there are safety issues, the Board of Public Works always has those insights. That is part of the active evaluation of each site to see what the parking needs are. EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1 227 W.Jefferson Bvld I South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.9221 If 574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 j www.southbendin.gov 3 •CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK Committeemember Broden stated, I think I would like that as a concern going forward. I think that is a legitimate concern that neighbors bring to something as sort of a unique situation when you have youth and a common gathering location. We can't always count on an adult being there with them to cross the street. Larry Magliozzi, Executive Director of the Area Plan Commission with offices on the 11 th floor of the County-City Building, stated, The schedule kind of got ahead of me and I wasn't able to get on the agenda. He then passed out a piece of paper which is available in the City Clerk's Office. He continued, This is a quick fix to the Sub-division Ordinance. You folks don't really see Sub- division plats at all but for a long time, actually since 2004, there has been some disconnect between the Sub-division requirements and the new Zoning Ordinance established back then. Councilmember Scott stated,Hold on.How are we talking about this when we don't have it on the agenda? Vice Committee Chair Voorde replied, Because this isn't really up for any action tonig . This is an update so I thought it being part of an update it could be talked about. Councilmember Scott stated Technically, should be listed. But lease, o ahead. > g Y p Mr. Magliozzi continued, In 2015, the Flood Plain Ordinance was totally replaced per the requirements of FEMA. We had some old terminology in the Sub-division section of the Zoning Ordinance so I have to remove those so that there is no conflict between that section and the new Sub-division section. So all the definitions of flood plain come out. On the flip side, we have Zoning Ordinance. In 2004 we added a disconnect between the Sub-division Ordinance and the o g , new Single-Family Zoning District which was SF-2. That has a forty (40) foot requirement and that is not covered in the Sub-division section of the Ordinance. Any time there is a plat that has forty (40) foot wide lots, we have to have the Plat Committee waive the requirements. So we are taking that out because it is, again,covered by the Zoning Ordinance section. That is the same with the second (2nd) item. The third(3rd) item being the depth to width ratio,neither Public Works nor our agency has a problem with that anymore. Item number five (5) refers to Industrial and Commercial Districts. It seems like more of the retailers want to buy their footprint as opposed to being part of an overall leased property. That creates a situation where you have a lot that doesn't have frontage on improved dedicated public right of way. The Sub-division process handles that through easements and,today,they would have to go through a variance in front of the Area Board of Zoning Appeals for zero (0) lot frontage. We are just getting rid of that requirement because it was handled through another process. Councilmember Scott stated,This is the first(1St)time seeing this and I have some questions about this. Update- Potential Annexations-James Mueller, Community Investment James Mueller,Executive Director for Community Investment with offices on the 14th floor of the County-City Building, stated, This will also tie into the next presentation (referencing a presentation available in the City Clerk's Office).Here is a broad overlook at potential annexations we are looking at that may come before you this ye . There is a bit of a timeline. We look at voluntary, where the property owner signs and files a petition. They are looking to utilize sewer EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Bvld I South Bend,Indiana 46601 I p 574.235.9221 If 574.235.9173 1 TTD 574.235.55671 www.southbendingov 4 ®CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK and water, and they will add to the tax base. We want to be strategic about what we annex in the sense that we don't want to build what we aren't able to support with the tax base. It needs to have a positive impact on the City's budget over time. There are also State law criteria. Finally, they have to be approved more than a year before the census. 2019 is the year before the 2020 census. So if we are going to do annexations,we are going to have to do it this ye. Voluntary annexations take about four (4) months to do which puts us in the mid-summer July time line that we need to start moving on this. The three (3) areas we are looking at are here. The first (1St) one (1) is over by the South Bend Chocolate Factory expansion. The second (2nd) one (1) is some fields South West of the City limits. And the third (3rd) is over by SR-23 North of Edison. Mr. Mueller continued, There are three (3) parcels the Chocolate Factory has acquired since they annexed in the pieces in yellow. To do the full development and build out he is looking to annex into the City these remaining three (3) parcels. The South West annexation, as you can see the yellow area, they are vacant fields and we think this is a potentially unique site for our industrial development close to the City. It also fits within if the by-pass is a natural boundary. And then finally, there are discussions with Notre Dame that are ongoing. For example, the Overlook Apartments would generate somewhere between $100,000 and $102,000 a year to the City based off of the development. It has the character of a City that is being built up. We think it belongs in the City. We want to make it make sense. Overall that would be a net benefit to the City. Councilmember Karen White requested a copy of the presentation. With no further business, Vice Committee Chair Voorde adjourned the Zoning and Annexation Committee meeting at 4:36 p.m. Respectfully Submitted, 4J, John or e,Vice Committee Chair EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Bvld I South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.9221 If 574.235.9173 M574.235.5567 jwww.southbendin.gov 5