2025-02-04 P & Z Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Memorandum Date: January 28, 2025 To: Honorable Chair and Planning Commissioner From: Mark Statz, PE Î City Administrator/Engineer Subject: Downtown Master Plan Changes Background For several months, the Planning Commission has been examining ways to revise the Downtown Master Plan and Development Guidelines in order to be more internally consistent and more consistent with the cityÓs other guiding documents; namely the city Code and Comprehensive Plan, respectively. Attached are a redlined version and a clean copy incorporating those changes. At the last Planning Commission meeting, the group reviewed these changes and asked whether the change, lowering the M-2 DistrictÓs density maximum from 45 units/acre to 30 units/acre would require a comprehensive Plan Amendment. Comp Plan Amendment Needed? After reviewing the situation further, staff has concluded that no change to the Comprehensive Plan is needed. The new density limits of 12-30 units/acre for the M-2 still fall within the parameters set forth in the Comprehensive Plan, for the Central Business District/Mixed Use land use designation (12-45 units/acre). The Comprehensive Plan is the broader umbrella, under which the city code and, by proxy, the Downtown Master Plan, must operate. The Comp Plan requires zoning districts within the CBD/MU land use category to be between 12 and 45 units/acre. As long as all of the Mixed Use zoning districts are within said range, there is no need for a change. If the Commission wishes to lower one of the districtÓs bottom threshold, that would require a Comp Plan Amendment, because that would be out of the range. Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations If the Planning Commission wishes to forward the proposed changes to the Downtown Master Plan to the City Council, it would be appropriate to do so with a set of findings. The following are suggested findings: 1. The current Downtown Master Plan and Development Guidelines contains internal inconsistencies with regard to development density, building height, the number of allowed stories and other such requirements. 2. The current Downtown Master Plan and Development Guidelines contains inconsistencies with the City Code and Comprehensive Plan.