HISTORY
At the request of Commissioner Joy Malakoff, the City Commission referred the following items to the Land Use and Development Committee for discussion and recommendation;
1. May 17, 2017 City Commission: Discussion regarding an Ordinance to extend the northern boundary of Parking District No. 7 from Lincoln Road to 17th Street, as it pertains to hotel uses (Item C4H).
2. June 7, 2017 City Commission: Discussion on applying the recently approved reduced parking requirements for RM-1 and RM-2 zoned apartment uses to apartment uses along Alton Road zoned commercial (Item C4Q).
On June 14, 2017, the Land Use Committee discussed the above noted items separately, and recommended that the City Commission refer both to the Planning Board for consideration and recommendation. For brevity, the Administration has combined both items into a single draft ordinance.
On July 26, 2017, the City Commission referred the item to the Planning Board for consideration and recommendation (Item C4D). Additionally, Commissioner John Elizabeth Aleman became a co-sponsor of the proposed Ordinance.
PLANNING ANALYSIS
The subject Ordinance has been proposed at the request of the owner of the property at the southeast corner of Washington Avenue and 17th Street, as well as the owner of properties on Alton Road. Specifically, the attached ordinance would amend Chapter 130 of the City Code, by extending the boundaries of Parking District No. 7 north to 17th Street, and by amending the off-street parking requirements in Parking District No. 6, as it pertains to apartment uses in commercial zoning districts located on Alton Road.
Currently parking district No. 7 applies to properties on Washington Avenue from 6th Street to Lincoln Road, as more specifically defined hereto:
Parking district no. 7. Parking district no. 7 includes those properties with a lot line on Washington Avenue from 5th Street to Lincoln Road, excluding those properties in parking district no. 2, as depicted in the map below:
The current off-street parking requirements for Parking District No. 7 are as follows (for uses not listed below, the off-street parking requirement shall be the same as for parking district no. 1 or parking district no. 2, as applicable):
(1) Hotel: No parking requirement. For accessory uses to a hotel, the minimum parking is as set-forth in parking district no. 1.
(2) Office: One space per 500 square feet of floor area.
(3) Retail: Retail existing as of the date of adoption of parking district no. 7 shall have no parking requirement. For new retail construction, one space per 300 square feet of floor area.
(4) Cafe, outdoor: No parking requirement.
(5) Approved parklets shall have no parking requirement.
(6) Any building or structure erected in parking district no. 7 may provide required parking on site as specified in parking district no. 1. Such required parking, if provided, shall be exempt from FAR, in accordance with the regulations specified in chapter 114 of these land development regulations.
The above noted parking requirements pertaining to Parking District No. 7 will sunset on September 1, 2020.
As noted above, Parking District No. 7 has reduced parking requirements for hotel and office uses. The proposal herein would only allow for the reduced hotel and office parking requirements to be part of the proposed northward extension of Parking District No. 7. The owner of the property at the southeast corner of Washington Avenue and 17th Street is requesting the proposed amendment pertaining to Parking District No. 7, so as to reduce the number of required parking spaces that have to be provided on site for a new hotel development.
In addition to the proposed amendment to Parking District 7, the owner of property on Alton Road has requested that the recently proposed apartment use parking requirements for RM-1 and RM-2 districts also be applied to apartment uses in commercial zoning districts located on Alton Road, in Parking District No. 6. This particular parking district, which is located along Alton Road from 5th Street to Dade Boulevard, includes a number of commercially zoned properties directly adjacent to and abutting RM-1 and RM-2 zoned properties. Since apartment uses are permitted in commercial districts, this proposal would be an extension of the revised parking requirements proposed for apartment uses in the RM-1 and RM-2 districts.
Finally, the subject Ordinance also includes some minor clean-up changes to Parking District 5 and Parking District 6, to correct previous drafting errors.
PLANNING BOARD REVIEW
On September 26, 2017, the Planning Board transmitted the proposed Ordinance Amendment to the City Commission with a favorable recommendation.
UPDATE
The subject Ordinance was approved at First Reading on December 13, 2017, with no changes.