Agenda - Council - 07/23/2002 - Laserfiche WebLink

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,I I I PROPOSED ORDINANCE TO ESTABLISH DENSITY TRANSITION METHODS By: City Administrator James Norman Principal Planner Patrick Trudgeon CASE #: Background: For the past several years, the City has discussed a density transition ordinance to help mitigate the effect that new residential development has on existing residential development. Last year, during several workshops, the City Council worked on language for a new density transition ordinance. The Planning Commission held a public hearing on June 6, 2002 and did not receive any public input regarding the proposed ordinance. The following items are enclosed for your consideration: a) b) Planning Commission Meeting Minutes dated Sune 6, 2002 Proposed ordinance I I I I I I I I I I I I Observations: The proposed ordinance requires the transitioning methods take place when a new residential development is proposed to have a higher density than the adjacent existing residential use. The ordinance outlines several transitioning options that can be done to mitigate the impact to adjacent lower density developments. These options include: a) The use of natural and built features such as hills, wetlands, rivers, County and State roads, or a 300 foot wide undeveloped buffer strip. b) The use of landscape buffering. The amount of landscaping required depends on the difference in density and is outlined in tables within the ordinance. c) The matching of density. In this option, with City Council approval, the developer would need to match the number of lots along the perimeter of the new development with the number of lots contained in the adjacent development. Under this option, the developer would have the ability to make up density in the interior of the development by incorporating smaller lots or setbacks. Developments using the matching of density technique would have to be processed as a Planned Unit Development. d) Other alternatives. The ordinance gives the ability for other transitioning options to be used if they are agreeable to both the City and developer. The transitioning ordinance also requires that every new development will have a traffic generation analysis conducted in conjunction with the approval process. At their regular June 6, 2002 meeting, the Planning Commission recommended approval of the density transition ordinance subject to correcting inconsistencies and ambiguities brought up during the meeting. At this time, staff has only made the corrections to typographical errors and changed the reference to zoning districts within the ordinance to conform to the new Zoning District Map. The other issues raised are policy issues and since there was not a consensus on the Planning Commission on how to address them, staff has left those items unchanged. The Planning Commission minutes attached to this case describe Chairperson Nixt's issues with the proposed density transition ordinance. -189-