PLANNING ANALYSIS
At the December 11, 2017 LUDC, some concerns were expressed with regard to parking and neighborhood impacts. Staff was directed to prepare a revised Ordinance for the March LUDC, which allows limited neighborhood commercial uses and incorporates a modest parking requirement.

The Administration has further evaluated the area that adaptive, neighborhood commercial uses make the most sense, as well as the types of uses that would have less of an impact on the established residential character. In this regard, the RM-1 area that is north of 75th Street and east of Tatum Waterway, is one of the few areas of the City not within walking distance of a low-medium intensity commercial district. This is important because most of the RM-1 and RM-2 districts in the City are within easy walking distance to neighborhood commercial districts and uses.

In order to address this shortcoming, a more detailed set of options for both conditional uses and accessory uses that would be allowed as of right, have been developed as part of the draft ordinance attached. The following is a summary of the types of adaptive uses that would be allowed under the proposed ordinance:

Conditional Uses
With regard to ‘Conditional Uses’ (those requiring Planning Board approval), existing apartment buildings located along Tatum Waterway Drive, Byron Avenue, and Crespi Boulevard, which are also located within the North Shore National Register Historic District and which are classified as “Contributing”, may have accessory restaurants serving alcoholic beverages subject to the following:
1. Conditional Use Approval from the Planning Board;
2. The interior restaurant area, inclusive of all seating and back of house, shall be located at the first level of the building and shall not exceed 25 percent of the floor area of the existing structure;
3. Outdoor seating and outdoor dining shall only be permitted in buildings with internal courtyards and all such outdoor seating and dining areas shall be located within the internal courtyard.
4. The maximum number of outdoor seats shall not exceed 30;
5. Exterior speakers are prohibited.

Accessory Uses
As it pertains to allowable ‘Accessory Uses’ (those allowed as of right), existing apartment buildings located along Tatum Waterway Drive, Byron Avenue, and Crespi Boulevard, which are also located within the North Shore National Register Historic District and which are classified as “Contributing”, may have accessory office uses and the rental of non-motorized watercraft, subject to the following:
1. The accessory use areas shall not exceed 25 percent of the floor area of the existing structure;
2. The hours of operation for which the use is open to the public may be from 12:00 pm to 8:00 p.m.
3. No exterior speakers shall be permitted, except as may be required under the Florida Life Safety Code.

Additionally, apartment buildings (new and existing) located north of 75th Street and east of Tatum Waterway Drive and Byron Avenue, would be permitted to have accessory café, retail, office or personal service uses, subject to the following:
1. The minimum distance separation between accessory uses shall be 1,500 feet. However, retail, office or personal service uses may obtain conditional use approval from the planning board to operate at a lesser distance from an accessory use, but in no event shall such use be located at a distance less than 500 feet from an existing accessory use. There shall be no variances from this distance separation requirement.
2. The accessory use areas shall not exceed 25 percent of the floor area of the structure.
3. The hours of operation for which the use is open to the public may be from 7:00 am to 7:00 p.m. Subject to conditional use approval, the hours of operation for any of the above noted uses may be extended to 10:00 pm
4. No exterior speakers shall be permitted.
5. A hall for hire, dance hall, open-air entertainment establishment, outdoor entertainment establishment, entertainment establishment or special event permits shall be prohibited.

As it pertains to minimum parking requirements, staff is concerned with the impact of requiring off-street parking for a couple of reasons. First, since the proposed accessory uses would be within existing structures, there would be no physical way to locate parking spaces within a property. Also, by requiring a parking impact fee, even if it were the less expensive annual fee in lieu, this added cost could be a deterrent to potential operators. Finally, even if parking could be provided on site, the availability of parking storage would be more of an incentive to drive. As demonstrated in the square footage limitations in the draft ordinance, these proposed adaptive accessory uses are intended to serve the area neighborhood, and not be destination establishments.

In order to incentivize and encourage the types of accessory uses proposed in the draft ordinance, staff has included the following modification to Sec. 130-31, pertaining to off-street parking requirements:

There shall be no off-street parking requirement for accessory uses associated with buildings in the RM-1 zoning district that existed prior to December 31, 2009, which are located north of 72nd Street and east of Crespi Boulevard.

The Administration believes that the draft ordinance achieves a careful balance between allowing tangible, neighborhood accessory uses, with protecting the established residential character of the RM-1 districts in North Beach.