|
PLANNING COMMISSION REPORT Regular Agenda -- Public Hearing Item |
|
ITEM NO. 5: TEXT AMENDMENT TO CHAPTER 20 DEVELOPMENT CODE (JCR)
TA-05-08-08: Consider amendments to Chapter 20, Article 8 of Lawrence City Code and Chapter XI of Douglas County Code (Subdivision Regulations) that define “Easement, Cross Access”, clarify the process for creating such easements, and provide minimum construction standards for access drives within such easements. Initiated by County Commission April 14, 2008.
|
|
RECOMMENDATION: Staff recommends that the Planning Commission forward a recommendation for approval of the proposed amendments [TA-05-08-08 to Chapter 20, Article 8 of Lawrence City Code and Chapter XI of Douglas County Code (Subdivision Regulations)] to the Lawrence City Commission and the Douglas County Board of County Commissioners.
|
|
|
Reason for Request: |
The Douglas County Board of County Commissioners initiated this amendment at its April 14, 2008 meeting to define Cross Access Easements and to provide the process for creation of such easement and standards for access drive construction.
|
|
RELEVANT GOLDEN FACTOR: · Conformance with the Comprehensive Land Use Plan is the relevant factor that applies to this request. Adoption of new regulatory tools, one of which is the zoning regulations, is an implementation step in Chapter 13 of HORIZON 2020, the City/County Comprehensive Land Use Plan.
|
|
|
PUBLIC COMMENT RECEIVED PRIOR TO PRINTING · None to date.
|
|
|
KEY POINTS · The intent of cross access easements in Cluster Development property divisions is to consolidate access points from the development to a public road with the intended purpose being to hold the boundary of the development to compliance with the minimum frontage requirement in the Access Management Regulations. · The easement functions as a service drive to provide individual Residential Development Parcels internal access to other parcels in the development and to the public road system without individual access to the public road system. · The easements are intended to be dedicated as public road right-of-way after a development is annexed by a city. · A gap exists between the regulatory language and the intended purpose of the Cross Access Easement. The regulations do not provide the direction needed to carry out the intended purpose [i.e. a legal instrument establishing the cross access easement is required but it is not required to be filed at the Register of Deeds, the legal document review is required by the County Counselor and is not reviewed for acceptability by the city’s legal staff and, there are no minimum standards established for the construction of a road within the cross access easement.]
|
|
|
OVERVIEW OF REVISIONS PROPOSED The County Commission has initiated a text amendment to the Subdivision Regulations that propose to add language defining cross access easements and establish a process for their creation as well as to provide construction standards for access drives. The amendment is necessary because Cluster Development property divisions in the county require all properties created as a result of the division(s) to take access from an access drive located in a cross access easement. Despite this requirement, there is no code language specifying the process for dedicating such easements or standards governing the construction of such access drives.
Cluster Development property divisions are a type of property division available to owners of property within Lawrence’s Urban Growth Area. They require that individual properties created as a result of the division be clustered to take access from an access drive instead of directly from the public road.
|
|
|
CONFORMANCE WITH HORIZON 2020 Horizon 2020 promotes clustered rural residential development in the urban growth areas of Douglas County and encourages the development pattern to anticipate future extension of city services and future resubdivision for urban densities following annexation by a city. Individual residential development parcels may be clustered if they take access from an access drive. This policy is reflected in the Subdivision Regulations, as cross access easements are required for Cluster Development property divisions, but standards and specifications are not provided. This amendment proposes providing such language in the Subdivision Regulations.
|
|
|
CRITERIA FOR REVIEW & DECISION-MAKING Section 20-1302(f) provides review and decision-making criteria on proposed text amendments. It states that review bodies shall consider at least the following factors: 1) Whether the proposed text amendment corrects an error or inconsistency in the Development Code or meets the challenge of a changing condition; and The proposed amendment corrects an error in the Subdivision Regulations by providing standards and specifications for cross access easements and access drives. 2) Whether the proposed text amendment is consistent with the Comprehensive Plan and the stated purpose of this Development Code (Sec. 20-104). The proposed amendment is consistent with Horizon 2020. The City’s Development Code is not applicable.
|
|
|
PROPOSED LANGUAGE (see attachment) Section
20-804, Cluster Developments and Section 20-815, Interpretations, Rules of
Construction and Definitions are proposed to be amended. The language
proposed to be deleted is shown with a |
|