Lawrence ∘ Douglas County Planning Department

Memorandum

To:       City Manager and City Commissioners

From:    Linda M. Finger, Planning Director

Date:   4/8/2004

RE:      Ordinance No. 7755: PCD-2 to PCD-2, NW corner 6th & Wakarusa  

The question was raised at the March 30th City Commission meeting as to the Planning Commission’s intent with regard to allowing “Department Store” as an allowed use in the list of uses permitted for this rezoning [     or zoning map amendment].

Staff has contacted Planning Commission members to gain a fuller understanding of their intent (than is represented in the February 25/March 3 meeting minutes) when the motion was approved to recommend the rezoning of the existing PCD-2 with restrictions at 6th and Wakarusa to a PCD-2 with a different set of use restrictions.   The comments received back from Planning Commission members validate that: 1) the Commission understood the new PCD-2 zoning would include or allow the use of “department store” and, 2) the size restriction placed on the total square footage of a single structure [80,000 SF]  ameliorated the concern that a department store would be an allowed use on the site. Individual Commissioner responses to my email for clarification are below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


The Planning Commission’s action on this rezoning request was taken before the revisions to Chapter 6, Commercial Land Use, in HORIZON 2020 were published, therefore, the relevant text of Chapter 6 in HORIZON 2020 used to support this rezoning recommendation was the language in effect on March 3rd, 2004. The description of Community Commercial Centers on page 92 of HORIZON 2020 at that time was:

Community Commercial Centers

 

A community commercial center provides goods and services to several different neighborhood and development areas.  It typically requires a site or area of approximately ten to thirty acres to accommodate buildings, parking, and open space areas.  While it may have a food or drug store, it also includes a range of retail and other uses, and is usually anchored by a small department store type tenant.  Community centers typically contain a gross leasable area of 150,000 square feet, but may contain 100,000 to 450,000 square feet.  Community commercial developments should be located at the intersection of arterial streets and be easily accessible from the surrounding community. 

 

The revisions to Chapter 6, Commercial Land Use, in HORIZON 2020 were published on March 16th and took effect upon publication. The new description of a Community Commercial Center does not include any reference to department stores types of uses, instead the more generic form of store used in the Standard Industry Code of a “general merchandise” store is used. This new language is consistent with the proposed revisions to the zoning code and use categories that have been recommended by the Planning Commission and forwarded on to the City Commission for approval.   The new Chapter 6 language that took effect on March 16 regarding Community Commercial Centers of 200,000 SF or less, which is consistent with this intersection’s classification, is:

 

 

Community Commercial Center (under 200,000 square feet) CC200

 

To insure that there are a variety of commercial uses and that no single store front dominates the CC200 Center, no individual or single store should occupy more than 100,000 gross square feet.  A general merchandise store (including discount and apparel stores) that does not exceed 65,000 gross square feet in size may be located in a Community Commercial Center.  The sum of the gross square footage for all stores that occupy space between 40,000 and 100,000 cannot exceed 50 percent of the gross commercial square footage for the corner of the intersection where it is located.  To provide adequate access and adequate circulation, CC200 Centers shall be located at an arterial/collector street intersection or arterial/arterial street intersection.