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MEMORANDUM <br />DATE:May 13, 2013 <br />TO:Honorable Mayor and City Councilmembers <br />Patrick Klaers, City Administrator <br />FROM:Jill Hutmacher, Community Development Director <br />SUBJECT:Country Financial Zoning Amendment and CUP <br />Background/Discussion <br />Country Financial, located at 2 Pine Tree Drive, has applied for a Zoning Code amendment to <br />allow higher education uses in the B-2 zoning district with a Conditional Use Permit. The <br />property includesa 5-story, 227,138square foot multi-tenant office building. Country Financial <br />has vacated much of the building and is currently marketing the building for sale or lease. <br />Approximately 62% of the building is currently vacant. <br />Country Financial has received a request for leased space from Bethel University. Bethel would <br />like to lease 26,000 square feet for administrative offices, general and specialized classrooms, <br />meeting rooms, common spaces, and other general educational and related purposes. Most <br />classes will be heldbetween 5:30 pm and 10:00 pm, Monday through Thursday. The tenant will <br />also have limited use of the leased space during the hours of 8:00 am to 10:00 pm Monday <br />through Friday and 8:00 am to 4:00 pm on Saturday. <br />According to information provided by Country Financial, Bethel students, guests, faculty, and <br />administration will not exceed 4 per 1,000 rentable feet leased during normal business hours and <br />no more than 8 per 1,000 rentable square feet after normal building hours. The property <br />currently has approximately 4.29 parking stalls per 1,000 building square feet, and the applicant <br />does not propose to add parking due to this use. <br />The City approved a similar zoning amendment request on May 22, 2006(minutes attached) that <br />was brought forward by Rob Davidson for property owned at 1212 Red Fox Road in the B-4 <br />District. In that case, the City Council determined that higher education and special education <br />uses were consistent with the purpose of the B-4 District, and a special use permit was approved. <br />The Community Development Department, with the assistance of the Economic Development <br />Commission, has been working on an analysis of commercial and industrial property in Arden <br />12 <br />Page of <br />