Agenda - Planning Commission - 05/01/2003

Home

MEMORANDUM Hoisington Koeg]er Oroup ]~nc. TO: Ramsey Planning Commission and City Staff FROM: Loren Gordon, AICP SUB.IECT: Chapter 9 - Business, Employment, Public, and Mixed Use DATE: April 24, 2003 Included in your packets are the proposed revisions to the above mentioned districts for public hearing. To assist with your review a summary of each District follows. Business Districts The 3 existing business districts have been consolidated into 2 districts. We believe this 2 district approach is a better representation of current and historical zoning practice for commercial properties in the City. Currently there are only 3 parcels zoned as B-2. The Highway 10 corridor is zoned almost exclusively B-3 and likewise, the Highway 47 corridor is zoned almost exclusively B-1. Our approach was essentially to consolidate the B-1 and B-2 districts into a single business district using the- existing B- 1 district as the base. The permitted use list reflects this merger. A new section in the B-1 district is conditional uses which was added to address specific use types that have high traffic generation or presented other conditions fllat could have negative effects on adjacent residential areas. The CUP process provides the City the ability to review a listed use for its impacts and ascribe conditions necessary to mitigate them. Similar to the landscaping approach in the residential districts, a section for landscaping and buffering is also provided in the business districts. The landscaping section is intended to get a level of site, parking and bufferyard landscape materials on developing or redeveloping sites. A minimum set of standards guide the maturity of installed materials. Employment (Industrial) Districts The industrial districts have been renamed to "Employment" Districts to better reflect the "Places to Work" terminology in the Comprehensive Plan. The Employment Districts are really much more diverse than Industrial as they are currently named in allowing multi-tenant retail uses, offices, and also adult uses. Screening and buffering standards have also been integrated into each District, in keeping with the approach used for the Business Districts. Public / Semi-Public District The Public District was created for public buildings such as city and school administration buildings, maintenance facilities, and other government facilities. Much of the performance standard language was adapted from the business districts. 123 North Third Street, Suite I00, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55401 (612) 338-0800 Fax (612) 338-6838 107