Agenda - Council - 12/22/1981 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I :1 I I I I I From this brief analysis, it can be seen that both the Comprehensive Plan and past actions of the city officials related to proposed commercial developments, strongly encourage any commercial development to locate in the southeastern portion of the city in the 1990 Urban Area. Thus, to the extent that this proposal encourages additional concentrated commercial development in an area designated for residential development it is not in conformance with the pro- posed Comprehensive Plan. Mr. Schmidt has indicated in a letter to the city officials that the area adja- cent to Highway #47 and 167th Avenue is more viable as a commercial center than the area further south as designated in the Comprehensive Plan. If the city officials agree with this assessment, then the Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Ordinance should be amended at this time to reflect this. However, this still would not deal with the issue of how public utilities such as sanitary and storm sewers could be extended to this area if the area starts to build up as as a major commercial center.. The likelyhood of this area becoming a major commercial center is very real since the granting of the rezoning request could establish a precedent for additional commercial developments in this area. Thus, one of the problems which the city officials should be aware of if this proposal is approved is how public utilities could be extended to this area and how the utilities would be paid for. I I I I I Relationship of the Proposed Project to the Zoning Ordinance. The area of the proposed project is currently zoned for R-l Residential and the developer is requesting a rezoning of the area to B-1 General Business. Some of the criteria for the granting of a zoning amendment (rezoning) as either to reflect a change in policy of the city or the Comprehensive Plan or to correct a mistake in the original ordinance. If the city officials agree with the developer that this area should be designated as the area for future commercial development rathern than the area to the southeast (Urban Service Area),then the Comprehensive Plan should be amended to reflect this and this in turn would be a legitimate.reason for granting the rezoning request. However, as was indicated previously, the granting of the rezoning could establish a precedent for additional requests for rezoning for commercial development in the same general area. This could eventually lead to the area growing as a major commercial center which again raises the issue of how public utilities could be extended to the area. I I I I I I One potential way of dealing with the problem of the area expanding as a major commercial center through the granting of the current rezoning request is to attempt to establish certain conditions as part of the granting of the rezon- ing such as only allowing select commercial uses or only allowing the rezoning for a certain area. However, this in essence amounts to "contract zoning" which may be challenged on legal grounds. If the city officials wanted to specifically contain commercial development in the area to a neighborhood con- venience center, the zoning ordinance should be amended to add a zoning dis- trict specifically designed for a neighborhood conven~ence center where the type of commercial uses is restricted. This could serve to limit the expan- sion of the area for additional commercial development in the future.