HISTORY
On September 13, 2017, at the request of Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, the City Commission approved a dual referral of the subject Ordinance to the Land Use and Development Committee (LUDC) and the Planning Board for consideration and recommendation (Item C4J.)

On October 30, 2017, the LUDC discussed the proposed Ordinance, and recommended that the Planning Board transmit the ordinances to the City Commission with a favorable recommendation.

PLANNING ANALYSIS
The attached draft ordinance is proposed by a religious institution located in the RM-1 area of Belle Isle. The proposal would modify Sec. 130-32 of the City Code, pertaining to off-street parking requirements for newly constructed religious institutions in the RM-1 zoning district. Currently, religious institutions require Conditional Use approval from the Planning Board when they are proposed to be located in an RM-1 district.

Currently, the City Code requires that a religious institution, or similar place of assembly, provide one parking space per six seats or bench seating spaces in a main auditorium. This often creates the need for a substantial amount of off-street parking, which usually remains unused when services are not being held. Under the proposed ordinance amendment, the Planning Board, through the conditional use process, would be able to waive some or all of the required off-street parking for religious institutions located on properties with an area of less than 8,000 square feet.

Urbanistically, a building setback from the sidewalk and surrounded by surface parking is not ideal, especially if the parking spaces go unused for the majority of the time. Also, in many cases, religious institutions are attended by individuals and families that walk to service, as opposed to using a motor car.

As proposed, through the conditional use process, a new religious institution would be able to present a traffic study to demonstrate the use of vehicles for similar uses at other locations. The elimination of all parking may not be warranted in certain instances, particularly if the congregation uses vehicles, or there are administrative staff and employees that may need parking. In this regard, the operational needs of the individual establishments would be evaluated on a case-by-case basis through the conditional use process, and a determination would be made by the Planning Board as to whether some or all of the required parking may be waived.

PLANNING BOARD REVIEW
On November 21, 2017, the Planning Board transmitted the proposed Ordinance Amendment to the City Commission with a favorable recommendation.

UPDATE

The subject Ordinance came before the City Commission for First Reading on December 13, 2017. Due to the length of the agenda, the item was deferred to the January 17, 2018 meeting. The Ordinance was approved at First Reading on January 17, 2018, with instruction to the item proposer to engage in additional outreach with the residents of Belle Isle. The proposer has indicated that they have initiated outreach efforts and will report the findings to the City Commission.

On February 14, 2018, Second Reading of the proposed ordinance was deferred to March 7, 2018.