CC Minutes - 12/10/01 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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Teresa Bishow of the Planning and Development Department said the ordinance before the council was designed to achieve a more appropriate balance between the public benefits gained from the new standards in the code and the burdens placed on property owners. She said the most important aspect of the section of the ordinance dealing with large multi-tenant commercial standards was the standards applied to new commercial developments that fit the definition of new and multi-tenant. Regarding residential flag lot standards, Ms. Bishow said the ordinance was intended to "grandfather in" and recognize the vesting rights of property owners of flag lots that had obtained final plat or legal lot status as flag lots as of the effective date of the updated land use code. Ms. Bishow clarified that the setbacks and height standards did not apply to flag lots created before August 1, 2001. Mayor Torrey opened the public hearing. Pete Forsman, 1672 Gilham Road, thanked the council for its decision on special setbacks and height restrictions on flag lots. He said the council's unanimous decision to not apply the restrictions to existing lots and direction for further study the suitability of the restrictions was correct and sensible. He recommended that the grandfather date of the ordinance be set to August 1, 2002, so that those with applications pending could still go through. Mike Gansen, Gansen Construction, requested moving back the grandfather date for flag lots to August 1, 2002. He said, often times, applications took as long as 18 months to complete and needed to be handled with the codes that were in existence at the time the application was submitted. Roxy Cuellar, Home Builders Association, requested the grandfather date for flag lots be moved to August 1, 2002. She noted that there were flag lot applications that were still pending that predated the adoption of the Land Use Code Update. She raised concern over too much regulation in the new code that was creating more problems than it solved. Mayor Torrey closed the public hearing. In response to a question from Councilor Nathanson regarding whether the August 1, 2002, date was based on solid data, Ms. Bishow said there were two reasons: 1. There was a reasonable expectation that the council could hear the recommendation of the Planning Commission regarding its re-evaluation of flag lot standards and could establish improved flag lot standards by that date. 2. There was merit in the assumption that some applicants had submitted applications before the adoption date of the new code and were unaware of new standards. Ms. Bishow said December 31, 2001, would be a date that would allow eight to ten flag lots currently under review to receive final plat or legal lot status. Councilor Kelly said he was not in favor of extending an effective date before hearing any new Planning Commission recommendations. MINUTES--Eugene City Council December 10, 2001 Page 8 Regular Session