Agenda - Planning Commission - 02/07/1995

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THE ZONING REPORT Page Two whose site layout and design often is suffici- ently complex that significant impacts and problems might be created by the proposed development on the site. Zoning codes might authorize a special review for any site plan not requiring special review if the proposal is deemed sufficiently complex or suggests unusu- al development problems. In special site plan review, only the configur- ation and layout of development on the site is questioned; the use of the property is not questioned. The public often is confused~ be- lieving that a site plan review is a use review. There is no public notice or hearing for any site plan review unless required to be reviewed by the CPC as an agenda item, upon which the public can comment. Many codes place the re- view before the staff plans coordinating com- mittee, whose meetings are not advertised and are conducted informally, not as a hearing. The scope of discretion granted to the decid- ing authority in reviewing special site plans' is to the minimum possible standard or condition imposed by the zoning code. Site plan discre- tionary standards are technical, to be judged by expert staff, such as the public engineer, police and fire chiefs and the traffic engineer --hence review by a staff committee rather than by a citizen board such as the CPC. Dis- cretionary standards are for storm drainage, environmental degradation, traffic control and congestion, location, design and capacity of site infrastructure, stabilization of soils, steep slopes and shorelines, and adequacy of walls, fences and landscaping as screens and buffers. Use by right with qualifications This type of special review is imposed on spe- cific uses listed by right in specific zones. In the use listing, the use has one or more devel- opment standards described with the use. The standards, as qualifications to allow the use by right in the zone, usually require little discre- tionary review. The qualifications can be site standards or performance standards. Site stan- dards modify or supplement the bulk and devel- opment standards required for ali uses in the zone, often requiring a larger lot area and width, greater setback and zone yards and re- quiring the use to be contained within a fully enclosed building. Performance standards might require a prior non-zoning, license such as a liquor permit, a prior approval non-zoning ap- proval such as a state or federal environmental sign-off~ or a supplemental plan or narrative proposing how a special possible adverse im- pact will be mitigated. The'qualifications apply to a use just in the" zone for which the use is listed. But if all uses by right in the zone are carried forward as a single line by-right listing to the ne×t more intensive zone,, the special qualifications also carry forward. But in the most intensive zones, the qualifications might be meaningless in rela- tion to the uses that establish the character of the the zone (such as churches qualified by right in single-family zones but carried forward to industrial zones). Thereby, some codes sepa- rately list in each zone all uses by right having special qualifications. These uses are carried forward individually to more intensive zones but their qualifications are modified to match the character of the zone or are deleted as unnecessary. Typical uses requiring qualifications are: gas stations and carwashes for setbacks, location of pumps, canopies, street yard landscaping, freestanding signs~ setback of carwash from R zones and screening along lot lines; trailer and vehicle rental and auto repair as accessory uses with gas stations; neighborhood-scale dry cleaning and laundries for prior approval of cleaning solvents and chemicals in the cleaning process; bars and taverns for a liquor license granted by a non-zoning authority; hospitals and clinics for any state-mandated heaIth plan- ning agency approval; churches, schools, parks~ golf courses, country clubs and community cen- ters in R zones for larger minimum area of site and larger setbacks; and home daycare and small group homes subject to state standards and special standards of screening, loading, daycare play areas, and spacing from one an- other in~ a neighborhood. January 20, 1995 issue