Agenda - Planning Commission - 12/06/2007

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site plans are prepared by laypersons or profes- sionals who lack proper training. Proposals under review may have poor or impossible circu- lation and parking layouts or lots laid out in cookie-cutter fashion. Instead of throwing in the towel, planners must become educators. As trained practitioners, planners must educate the people preparing the site plans. Community planners do not have the time or authority to create those plans themselves. In order to secure the proper result, the fol- lowing principles should be followed in adopting and implementing a site plan review process: . Good site plan review is not arbitrary. Site plan review should be based on guidelines driven by community land-use policies and reg- ulations. An official site plan review manual that sets forth the community's accepted design practices is an important resource for both the planning staff and interested developers. The preparation of such a manual can smooth the site plan review process and provide strong jus- tification for the review's findings. Photographs and illustrations of the desired end result can only help the process move fOlWard, especially as design and form-based controls are incorpo- rated into development regulations. 74 . Good site plan review involves professionals of many disciplines. Site plan review should not be the sole responsibility of the staff planner. Good site plan review requires multiple techni- cal skills-in addition to planning, expertise in landscape design, engineering, and public safety is necessary. A planner does not have to have all these skills, but should provide leader- ship to the team that does. . Good site plan review provides useful infor- mation to the developer. Site plan review should be a flexible tool for the achievement of community objectives and not a rigid appli- cation of fixed principles. . Good site plan review is conducted from a variety of perspectives. These perspectives include city, neighborhood, immediate vicin- ity, and the site itself, as well as the individual lots or development parcels within the site, if applicable. The following questions might apply to a proposed shopping center: 1. For the citywide perspective, site reviewers might ask: Does the shopping center meet the overall land-use policies of the compre- hensive plan (e.g., is this location planned to accommodate a shopping center of the size and market orientation proposed)? 2. At the neighborhood scale, does the pro- posed layout of the shopping center help to build the overall pattern of commercial development anticipated by the compre- hensive plan? Is the center designed to accommodate transit and pedestrian access as well as auto access? If this is to be a community-oriented shopping center, are the proposed site entries oriented to streets designed to serve community-scale traffic, sed on neighborhDod streets, creating the potential for intrusion of more intense traffic into the adjacent neighborhood? 3. To determine the impact within the immedi- ate vicinity of the site: If the proposed shopping center is part of a larger commer- cial district, is the center designed to be linked to adjacent commercial uses via intemal access roads and pedestrian ways? Have there been discussions with the own- ers of adjacent shopping centers regarding the necessary cross-easements to facilitate this linkage? 4. Review at the site-plan scale also raises questions. As a community shopping center, it may contain a number of outlots to accom- modate freestanding developmentin addi- tion to the shopping center building. Is the intemal site circulation road designed to serve these outlots as a collector street? How will the outlot development be incorporated into the overall commercial area design? 5. Site plan review examines in detail the indi- vidual components of the plan. Do the details of the site plan accommodate safe, efficient, and desirable traffic flow? Is the parking lot landscaped? Is there an overall sign design program, and are the locations proposed for signs clearly visible to the site user? CONCLUSION A properly structured site plan review process can promote the orderly develop- ment and redevelopment of a community. By carefully considering each step of the process-from what is reviewed, to who should review it, to establishing a pre- dictable and reasonable approval process- communities can ensure that development or redevelopment occurs in a manner that is harmonious with surrounding 'properties, is consistent with planning policies"enhances the value of property, and promotes the gen- eral welfare of the community. ZONING PRACTICE 11.07 AMERICAN PlANNING ASSOCIATION I poge 6