Lawrence Douglas County Metropolitan Planning Office

Memo

To:      Lawrence Douglas County Metropolitan Planning Commission

From:  Planning Staff

Date:   January 11, 2006

Re:     Fairfield Farms East Addition Rezoning Summary

The total project known as Fairfield Farms East Addition includes approximately 119 acres and proposes a range of residential and non-residential land uses represented in five rezoning requests and a preliminary plat. As part of the December Planning Commission Agenda the Commission acted on the preliminary plat (recommended for approval subject to conditions) and two of the five rezoning requests.

Z-06-40-05, a request for 37.58 acres from A to RS-2 (Single-Family Residence) District and Z-06-38-05, a request for 35.35 acres from A to RM-D (Duplex Residential) District were recommended for approval by the Planning Commission on December 12, 2005 and forwarded to the City Commission for their consideration. The applicant has requested that the zoning consideration be deferred until January 24, 2006. [Because of the number of items on the agenda it may be further deferred to a February meeting]

The City Commission will also reconsider the annexation of the original 119-acre parcel along with the two rezoning cases when rescheduled. The property was considered for annexation in 2004. The City Commission voted 4-1 to approve the rezoing of 119.9 acres know as Farmland Northeast on April 13, 2004 subject to the following two conditions.

1.      Provision of a revised legal description to include the adjacent public rights-of-way of E. 23rd Street/K-10 Highway and O’Connell Road/E 1600 Road; and

2.      Adoption of an Area Plan that includes the subject property prior to publication of the Annexation ordinance.

 

Publication of the annexation has been deferred pending the adoption of an area plan. The applicant is seeking a request to re-approve the annexation without the condition related to the adoption of an area plan.  Staff reports for the remaining three rezoning requests evaluate the land uses proposed for this Fairfield Farms East development project.

The purpose of the following summary is to provide a single source of information that is applicable to the entire development by land use category for comparison.

 

City Staff worked with the Planning Commission Comprehensive Plans subcommittee (CPC) to prepare an area plan known as The Southeast Area Plan. The original consideration of the area included two alternative versions. One version included residential uses to the far east area of the study boundary; the other included a more limited residential approach. The original boundary of the Southeast Area Plan included E. 23/K-10 Highway on the north, the Wakarusa River on the south, O’Connell Road/E 1600 Road on the west and Noria Road/E 1750 Road on the eastern boundary. The study area can be divided into thirds using Franklin Road and Kitsmiller Road as prime north-south designations. The area to the west of Franklin Road was not altered substantially in the two land use plan options. The area to the east of Franklin Road posed multiple questions about appropriateness for various land uses.

The mix of land uses proposed in the Fairfield Farms East project  (which is located in the western third of the study area) has not deviated throughout the application process or through the conceptualized area planning exercises for the Southeast Area.

The Southeast Area Plan was forwarded to the City and County Commissions in February 2005. Neither Commission recommended approval of the area plan and the Planning Commission was directed to reconsider a new plan for an expanded Southeast Area. The conditions of the annexation are not fulfilled at this time.

Extension of Utilities:

Generally public and private utility infrastructure can be extended to serve this area. The details of utility extension are addressed in the public improvement plans and will include both private and benefit district financing. A specific concern for this area has been the construction of sanitary sewer main lines consistent with the City’s master plan. The City Utility Department review included an area larger than the subject property for consideration known as Fairfield Farms East. The development of the Sanitary Sewer Study required the applicant to make specific land use assumptions for a total area to project the amount of affluent that would be generated within the boundary of the “study”. The following comments summarize some of the results of the Utility Department’s review of the Fairfield Farms East Addition Sanitary Sewer Study completed by Peridian Group and dated 10/28/05.  Several comments are technically specific to actual plan requirements and were/will be further addressed as part of the subdivision plat review and public improvement plans.

 

-        The Fairfield Farms East Addition Sanitary Sewer Study dated 10/28/05 covers a total of 885 acres and is based on gross land use assumptions outside the area controlled by the developer.  It should be noted that the purpose of this review is not to comment on the proposed land uses, but to focus on the proposed sanitary sewer facilities to accommodate the land uses as presented in the study. The sanitary sewer flows calculated for the indicated land use are based on the design parameters presented in the 2003 Wastewater Master Plan.  While the land use, and resulting populations, presented in the study do not comply with those used in the 2003 Wastewater Master Plan, the sanitary sewer facilities proposed to accommodate these flows are consistent with the previous Southeast Area Sanitary Sewer Plan submitted by Peridian and Black & Veatch.  These two plans recognize their differences from the 2003 Wastewater Master Plan recommendations and provide reasonable approaches to accommodating those differences.

-        The proposal requires acquisition of property and easements outside of the developer’s control.

-        The developer and their engineer need to provide plans for the extension of electrical service, water service and acceptable road access to the proposed EL2PS1 pump station site.

Zoning staff reports evaluate the land uses proposed for this project. Staff concludes that the arrangement of land uses proposed is appropriate and is generally consistent with the recommendations of Horizon 2020 and both versions of the Southeast Area Plan drafts. Reports are amended from the December version based on City Commission actions concerning the relationship of the annexation to the zoning request. It should be noted that publication of any rezoning to a city classification is dependant upon first publication of an annexation ordinance.

Summary of Proposed land uses

Zoning

RS-2

RM-D

RM-2

M-1

C-5

TOTAL

Title

 

Single-Family Residence

Duplex Residential

Multiple-Family Residence

Research Industrial

Limited Commercial

 

Case

Z-06-40-05

Z-06-38-05

Z-06-39-05

Z-06-41-05

Z-06-42-05

 

Area

37.580

35.835

12.329

17.889

28.833

119.896

Total Lots

151

87

1

1

5

245

Tracts

0

2[1]

2.8

.05

0

1

4.06

0

3

6.91

ROW

13.68

11.94

1.80

6.259

8.50

24.813

Net Area 

23.90

21.05

10.52

7.57

20.33

80.383

Min. Lot Size

7,200

9,000

10.52

7.58

1.29

--

Max. Lot Size

15,093

16,988

NA

NA

14.80

--

Avg. Lot Size

8,091

10,564

NA

NA

1.3[2]

--

Density/Acre

6.3 units

8.2 units

21 units/acre allowed

Residential use not allowed

43.5 units/acre allowed

 

Planning Commission Consideration

Approved on 12/12/05

Approved on 12/12/05

 

1/23/06

 

1/23/06

 

1/23/06

 

City Commission Consideration

Scheduled

for 1/24/06

Scheduled

for 1/24/06

Scheduled

for 2/14/06

Scheduled for 2/14/06

Scheduled for 2/14/06

Scheduled for 2/14/06

 

 



[1] RMD area includes Tract B = to 2.7 acres for drainage and Tract D = 272 SF for pedestrian access

[2] Excludes large commercial lot