11/09/1999 Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

.? a_ ordinance. If the overlay goes through the City will be able to do what they want without the citizens having a say so. Mr. Dubelko commented that the overlay district is a concept that has been used in zoning for at least 20 years around the State. What it enables a City to do is zone land in a different way then what is traditional. Traditional zoning is called Euclidean zoning. In Traditional zoning, district go from the least to the most restricted zoning, which is residential. That is how zoning has traditionally been, but overlay departs from that by allowing a City to iinpose this overlay district on top of the existing Euclidean zoning -- often times governed by geographical locations spread though out the City. It is like spot zoning, but is based on pursuit of a governmental interest and often times determined by the geographical characteristics of land. The City's first overlay district that hasn't passed yet took place last year. In the telecommunications district, what areas in the City, which were determined to be appropriate for telecommunication towers were those which were expected to have the least impact on residential areas. He feels that the City is proceeding in the same manner with the proposed overlay district for governmental uses by looking for areas that are appropriate for government buildings throughout the City. It wouldn't fit doing it in the traditional way of going from least restrictive to most restrictive classifications because government facilities could be located in all different districts throughout the City. The nice thing about overlay regarding these parcels is that it is not being rezoned out of single family into a commercial or other less restrictive zone. It is being kept as single family with the understanding that the overlay zoning is being placed on top of it to permit only governmental uses in addition to single family. The residents should not get the impression that the overlay ordinance allows the City the ability to do what ever it wants to do. Ms. Metter suggested that she was bothered by the word imposed and government, rather than what the people want. How does the fact that 3 board members are absent tonight effect the ability to vote on the issues? An unidentified audience member indicated that he felt that in order to get an RTA park and ride in a fashion that we feel has an acceptable outcome as far as noise, traffic, air and other pollutants and other hard ships. He feels that the resident's best leverage is clearly that it is currently zoned residential and RTA it is not allowed in that zone. Therefore we have as layman a better chance of fighting the argument and turning this threat maybe not the next threat but this threat that we want to detour. The only leverage we have is the zoning and once we give that away then as the board says itself we come to a different set of criteria. Now is our only time of bargaining and while our voices will not be completely taken out of it our will, will. We will be at the mercy of what the boards can enforce through the other ordinances and what RTA is willing to give us and once those go to court it is out of every ones hands. Once the Planning Commission opens the door for an overlay district our positions as citizens is severally weakened. The City is giving away the horse before we even have anything that is a respectful response to previous aired concerns. We haven't gotten any response from the City on how to address this and we have asked. Mr. Dubelko indicated that this is part of the process. You cannot put the cart before the horse. The first obligation is for the City to take a position as to whether or not it desires to have RTA build a park and ride here. The process has begun in favor of that by proposing to rezone the property to permit it, which is the first stage of the process where the citizens have input with respect to what are the requirements for the overlay district, for example, the front yard setbacks and rear yard setbacks as minimums of the code as he indicated earlier. Each chapter of the zoning code creating a district has certain restrictions for any use that goes in, and those are minimums that any proposal that would come after rezoning would have to meet. Our code requires that once a proposal is submitted the developer is 11