Item 4 - Ord./Johansen-Moody - Laserfiche WebLink

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(b) Possesses distinctive buildings or natural features that require special consideration to ensure appropriate development, preservation, or rehabilitation. In order to be considered distinctive, it must be demonstrated that: 1. The area is characterized by buildings that merit preservation in order to protect their special features; or 2. The area contains natural features that have been identified by the city as worthy of special treatment or preservation. (2) An analysis of the area demonstrates how the uses and development standards of the S Special Area zone ordinance will facilitate implementation of the planned use of the property or the preservation or rehabilitation of distinctive buildings or natural features of benefit to the community. (3) Except for areas zoned S-H Historic Special Area zone, the area to be classified S Special Area includes at least ~ acre in area. (4) The application of the zone to the properties proposed for inclusion in the S Special Area zone and the required provisions of a special area zone ordinance are consistent with the criteria required for approval of a zone change, according to EC 9.8865 Zone Change Approval Criteria. The applicant's submittal addresses compliance with each of the above criteria. Planning staff concurs with the applicant's findings and conclusions and will incorporate those findings along with any Planning Commission findings and recommendations in Exhibit B of the draft ordinance. Planning staff would note that the subject application proposes to codify the provisions of the proposed S-HJM zone and, accordingly, includes and evaluation of the zone for compliance with the code amendment criteria at EC 9.8065. Although Planning staff concurs with the applicant's analysis, the criteria are not applicable to establishment of the zone by ordinance. The City's practice pertaining to the adoption of site-specific regulations for historic properties has been to keep such regulations out of the City's code. The updated land use code provides that site-specific S-H Historic Special Area Zones may be established by ordinance and need not be codified as is proposed in the property owner's application materials. The draft ordinance is provided in Attachment A-1 and it would establish the proposed zone without codification which is consistent with past practice. The provisions of the proposed S-HJM Zone have been further refined and clarified in the draft ordinance based on questions and suggestions from Land Use Management staff, Historic Preservation staff, and the City Attorney's Office. Planning staff recommends that the Planning Commission forward a recommendation to the City Council in support of the draft ordinance in its current form, allowing for any further refinements that may be necessary to be considered by the City Council. Code Amendment: The Planning Commission recently reviewed this type of request when the S- HK Historic Kaufman House Special Area Zone was considered on October 24, 2004. Since the code amendment has not been established by the City Council at this time, this code amendment is repeated in this application. Even though the code amendment may already be in place by the time this application is considered by the City Council, there is the possibility that it may not be in place if the S-HK application is not approved by the Council. 4 4