Item 5 - PH on Laurel Hill Plan - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Eugene Planning Commission September 21, 2004 Page 4 of 7 specifically related to the subject property, the following public needs also support approval of the applications. The recent amendments to the land use provisions of the Eugene Code have generated the public need for additional commercially designated lands in the Laurel Hill area. Attached as Exhibit G are excerpts from the previous EC and the current EC. The prior version of the code, EC 9.546 provided for a net density in the R-1 district to be based upon a minimum lot size of 4,500 square feet, which results in 9.68 units per acre, or 10 upa. The current code, while still providing for a minimum lot size for certain R-1 uses, permits a maximum net density of 14 upa in the R-1 zone. See Exhibit G, Table 9.2750. The Son Blaze Village PUD decision approved 285 units in what is being developed as East Ridge Village. Planning staffhave informed applicants' representative that the density of that development approaches the 14 units per acre maximum allowed by the code. Staff also have indicated that other R-1 proposals have also been coming in at the higher densities encouraged by the amended code. The amended code has increased the residential population in the area beyond what was anticipated when the Laurel Hill Plan was adopted. There has been no corresponding increase in developable commercial area or density requirements. The increased population base creates the need for additional commercial designated areas in the Laurel Hill neighborhood. Consequently approval of this application will help satisfy that increased commercial need. The site, with its proximity to the Glenwood Interchange, to the commercial node, and on the fringe of the residential areas is ideally suited to provide commercial services to Laurel Hill residents, residents of other nearby residential areas, and to tourists in a manner that the Laurel Hill Plan indicates is appropriate for the commercial node. Development plans, adopted after the adoption of the Laurel Hill Plan, have also created a public need for additional commercial designated areas. The approval of the Son Blaze Village PUDs, now being developed as the East Ridge Village, required an extensive re-design of the 1-5 Glenwood interchange beyond what was anticipated in the Laurel Hill Plan. That re-design moved the Moon Mountain Drive-Glenwood Boulevard-Glenwood Drive-Brackenfern Road intersection into areas designated for commercial development. See attached Exhibit D. Furthermore, the realignment of Glenwood Drive and the wider Brackenfrern Road have further debited from developable commercial designated property. Oral testimony at the public hearing noted that ODOT is seeking additional land to properly support the realignment of Glenwood Drive. That land would further debit the land available for commercial development. That commercial debit needs to be replaced with other commercial designated areas. This proposal satisfies that need. Topographic characteristics of the area also lead to a public need for commercial lands available in the near-term future. Much of the commercial node is located in a topographic depression to the east of Brackenfem Road. See Exhibit D and Exhibit A, Images 7, 9 and 10. Development of those parcels are contingent upon not only the construction of Brackenfern Road, but on the resolution of sewer and storm water challenges arising from the geography of IV-37