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PLANNING COMMISSION REPORT FOR PLANNING COMMISSION DISCUSSION AND ACTION (PUBLIC HEARING HAS BEEN HELD):
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PC Staff Report
08/21/06
ITEM NO. 1: AMENDMENTS TO CHAPTERS 4 AND 5 OF THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN, HORIZON 2020 (DRG)
Consider approval of the amendments to Horizon 2020, Chapters 4 and 5 (Growth Management & Residential Land Use).
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STAFF RECOMMENDATION: The Planning Staff recommends the Planning Commission approve the proposed comprehensive plan amendments to Horizon 2020, for Chapter 4 (Growth Management) and Chapter 5 (Residential Land Use), for the City of Lawrence and unincorporated Douglas County and forward them to the City Commission and Board of County Commissioners with a recommendation for adoption of these chapter amendments. |
CPA-2006-01: Hold a public hearing on proposed amendments to the Comprehensive Plan, Horizon 2020, Chapters 4 & 5. The amendments are: to ‘Chapter Four – Growth Management’ and ‘Chapter 5 – Residential ’ which pertain to the development criteria for rural residential development in the Unincorporated Area of Douglas County. Associates with text changes in these two chapters are two maps, Map 4-1 and Map 4-2 which depict the criteria that will be used in the evaluation of rural development within the Lawrence UGA, Service Areas 2 through 4, and within the remainder of the Unincorporated Area of Douglas County. Initiated for public hearing by the Board of County Commissioners on January 25, 2006. This item was tabled from the May 24th Planning Commission meeting.
PROPOSED CHANGES
In each chapter, all proposed changes are shown with either blue text or as a double strike-through text. The blue font text represents new language to be added to the chapter. Staff changes to the proposed wording in each chapter are shown as [bracketed blue font] text. Existing text to be removed or replaced has the double strike-through marking. Text not shown with any of these identifiers reflects the existing adopted language in each chapter.
In addition to the text changes, two new maps are proposed for inclusion in Chapter 4. The first map, Map 4-1, depicts land use assessment criteria and shows the classification of roads. The intent of this map is primarily to illustrate some of the criteria to be considered when evaluating a land use proposal in the Lawrence Urban Growth Area. The second map, Map 4-2, is a similar map to the first one except this map depicts all the unincorporated portions of Douglas County. The purpose for this map is to illustrate some of the criteria to be considered when evaluating a land use proposal in the Rural Areas of the County. The Douglas County road classification system represents what was recently approved as part of the Horizon 2020 amendments to Chapter 8 – Transportation.
STAFF REVIEW
Accompanying the staff report are the proposed amendments to the current Chapter 4 (Growth Management) and Chapter 5 (Residential Land Use) found in Horizon 2020. The proposed amendments initiated by the Board of County Commissioners were drafted by the previous Planning Director, Linda Finger, in response to a growing interest in providing additional policy direction and recommendations for appropriate rural residential and non-residential growth in the unincorporated areas of the County. Ms. Finger worked with the Douglas County Commissioners, responding to their issues and concerns, for the initial drafting of these chapter amendments.
These chapter revisions incorporate many of the concepts and ideas that were presented by members of the Rural Planning Committee (RPC) last year during their presentation of a proposed new chapter, “Chapter 13 - Rural Planning and Development,” to Horizon 2020. Only after it became evident that the RPC document did not have the support of a majority of both governing bodies, who are key stakeholders in the adoption of amendments to the comprehensive plan, did the endeavor to amend the existing Chapters 4 and 5 in Horizon 2020 commence. The goal is to update these existing chapters within the comprehensive plan through adding additional policies, text recommendations, guidance and directions for how rural residential and non-residential development should occur in the unincorporated areas of the County and within the designated Urban Growth Areas of each incorporated city in Douglas County.
The two chapter amendments for Horizon 2020 have been on three previous Planning Commission agendas where the public has been given an opportunity to comment on the proposed changes. The two chapter amendments first appeared on the March 15th agenda; then, on the next two regular meeting agendas in April and May. In addition to these opportunities for public comment, the proposed chapter revisions have been posted on the Planning Office website since late January so people could view the documents and submit written comments to the Planning Office.
The Planning Commission also has discussed these amendments at the April 12th, May 8th, 10th and 15th Mid-Month Meetings. Additionally, the Rural Issues Committee appointed by the Planning Commission Chair following the May 24th Planning Commission meeting, met on June 13th, 16th, 20th and July 6th to discuss the package of proposed rural regulations and draft alternate text to what was initiated by the Board of County Commissioners in January. Based upon all of those meetings, staff modified the initial text changes in both chapters to better reflect the actions of the Rural Issues Committee.
While reviewing the proposed amendments for Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 in Horizon 2020 along with the proposed new Subdivision Regulations for the City of Lawrence and the Unincorporated Areas of Douglas County, staff found a consistency issue with how these documents refer to the areas lying outside the urban growth area. In the draft Subdivision Regulations, the area beyond the urban growth area is referred to as the “rural area”. Rural area is a defined term in the proposed new Subdivision Regulations. Existing text found in these chapters as well as proposed new text changes used the term “rural service area” although there was an occasional reference made to “rural area”. Staff suggests these documents adopt the use of the term “rural area” to refer to the areas outside the urban growth areas of the incorporated cities, since it becomes a defined term in the subdivision regulations. This terminology has been incorporated throughout each chapter so they are consistent throughout to avoid any confusion.
Staff reviewed these amendments based upon the comprehensive plan amendment review criteria listed below [identified in Chapter 13 (Implementation) of Horizon 2020].
A. Do the proposed amendments result from changed circumstances or unforeseen conditions not understood or addressed at the time the Plan was adopted?
The proposed chapter amendments are a result of the changing circumstances that have occurred since the comprehensive plan was first written. Issues identified during the review of a number of recent rural residential development projects in the County have resulted in an increased awareness of the weaknesses in the comprehensive plan and the existing County zoning and subdivision regulations that limit the ability to effectively regulate where it is appropriate to allow this kind of development. The proposed amendments are intended to provide additional policy direction for staff, the planning commission and governing bodies when new development requests are submitted for evaluation and action.
B. Do the proposed amendments advance a clear public purpose and are they consistent with the long-range goals and policies of the plan?
The proposed amendments are an advancement of a clear public purpose and they are consistent with the long-range planning goals and policies of the community. One purpose for the amendments is to expand and further define the concepts for how rural residential and non-residential growth outside the incorporated cities may be accomplished. The amendments reinforce the concept that rural residential growth should be directed to the Urban Growth Areas of the cities; and, planned from the onset for an urban density build out as these cities annex and expand.
Clearly, there are areas within the unincorporated portions of the County that have physical features, environmentally sensitive areas, or perhaps some cultural or historically significant element that may limit the appropriateness for development. In addition, the rural road system may not be designed to accommodate significant increases in traffic volumes resulting from development. The amendments promote the concept of clustering development on portions of a site to stay away from these potential site constraints and to maintain the natural and rural character of the unincorporated County to the extent possible. The concept of establishing minimum road frontage standards for parcel divisions based upon the road classification is also presented as a way to promote safer travel along our existing rural road network and minimize the number of access points on the arterial and collector road system.
It is important for these goals, policies and recommendations to be adopted into the community’s comprehensive plan. Upon these goals, policies and recommendations, a framework is established whereby the regulatory provisions [i.e., zoning and subdivision regulations] used to implement the policy directions in the comprehensive plan are based. The proposed amendments help to further the goals and policies for residential land use and growth management while staying consistent with the overall intent of Horizon 2020 and the goals and policies of the other chapters of the comprehensive plan.
C. Are the proposed amendments a result of a clear change in public policy?
As previously discussed, there has been an increased awareness of the concerns and issues associated with rural residential and non-residential development in the unincorporated areas of the County since Horizon 2020 was adopted in the late 1990’s. The proposed amendments to these two chapters are in response to this heightened awareness of how unrestricted development beyond the corporate city boundaries can cause costly problems for the County and for our incorporated cities to solve in the future. The conclusion is that it is both desirable and necessary to provide additional policy direction and recommendations in Horizon 2020 to address these issues.
PROFESSIONAL STAFF RECOMMENDATION