Memorandum
City of Lawrence
Planning & Development Services
TO: |
David L. Corliss, City Manager
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FROM: |
Scott McCullough, Director
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Date: |
For January 17, 2012 City Commission Agenda
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RE: |
Boarding House Text Amendment – TA-6-17-09 – Post Adoption Information
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On October 4, 2011 the City Commission considered information related to the text revisions adopted on January 25, 2011 that revised certain development standards for Boarding Houses and Multi-Dwelling Structures. At issue is how staff interprets the size of a structure as it relates to complying with standards related to expansion and parking; and, whether the size of a structure able to use the .5 parking standard under the current interpretation is appropriate. See November 14, 2011 Planning Commission packet and PC minutes as background.
At their October 4, 2011 meeting, the City Commission directed staff to submit land use information to the Planning Commission (PC) to discuss the following items related to the code amendments.
1. Analyze the basis for using 3,500 sq ft as one criterion to be eligible for .5 parking spaces per bedroom requirement and whether basements and attics should be used when calculating the structure size.
2. Review new data compiled by staff and confirm whether the outcome/implications of the code amendments are desired.
3. Review other structure sizes (ex. 4,000, 5,000, 6,000, etc) to determine if the outcome on the Oread neighborhood of using a different structure size is more or less desirable compared to the current 3,500 sq. ft. code standard.
The November 14, 2011 Planning Commission minutes are attached for review. The PC discussed the items requested of them by the City Commission and reviewed the entire record provided to them. While several elements of the code were discussed, it was the general consensus of the PC members on the commission at the time of recommending the code standards that the PC did not intend to include unfinished basements and attics nor did they intend that such a high number of properties (83 net) would be eligible to receive the parking standards of .5 spaces per bedroom. The new members of the PC studying the issue for the first time concurred with the other commissioners.
The comments from the PC suggest that staff’s interpretation to include basements and attics should be changed to exclude basements and attics and that a text amendment to clarify the code is in order.
The City Commission options include:
Staff recommends that the City Commission implement option 4 and make the following motions relative to this issue.