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PLANNING COMMISSION REPORT Regular Agenda -- Public Hearing Item
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ITEM NO. 17: AMENDMENTS TO SUBDIVISION REGULATIONS (MKM)
TA-06-11-08: Consider amendment to Section 20-804, 805 and 806 to include requirement that RDPs must comply with the lot requirements in Article 18, County Zoning Regulations. Initiated by County Commission June 23, 2008. |
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RECOMMENDATION: Staff recommends that the Planning Commission forward a recommendation for approval of the proposed amendment [TA-06-13-08] to require that RDPs comply with lot dimensional requirements in Article 18 of the County Zoning Regulations. |
Reason for Request: The Subdivision Regulations are silent on the dimensional requirements of Residential Development Parcels (RDPs) which are created through the Certificate of Survey Process. This text amendment will clarify that RDPs are subject to the dimensional standards in Article 18 of the Zoning Regulations to promote orderly development.
RELEVANT GOLDEN FACTOR:
· Conformance with the Comprehensive Land use Plan is the relevant factor that applies to this request. Amending regulatory tools, one of which is this amendment to 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
No public comment was received.
OVERVIEW OF REVISIONS PROPOSED
The Subdivision Regulations provide the minimum area required for a Residential Development Parcel (RDP) created through a Cluster Development [Section 20-804(c)(1)(i)] and a Large Parcel Land Division [Section 20-805(c)(1)(ii)]. RDPs created through the Parent Parcel Division are required to comply with the minimum area requirements in the County Zoning Regulations [Section 20-806(d)(1)(i)]. The Subdivision Regulations do not require that RDPs created with a Certificate of Survey comply with other dimensional standards listed in the County Zoning Regulations; however, the Regulations do require that platted lots be laid-out and designed to comply with all applicable zoning district regulations [Section 20-810(2)(i)].
Through the implementation of the Subdivision Regulations and the processing of Certificates of Survey, Staff identified the lack of guidance regarding the dimensional requirements of the RDPs with the exception of the minimum area. The County Zoning Regulations were recently revised to include ‘minimum lot width at road right-of-way’ and ‘90% of minimum lot width’ standards for lots. Applying these dimensions to RDPs would result in development that will be able to accommodate urban development patterns in the future.
This amendment would add the wording: ‘RDPs shall be laid-out and designed to comply with all applicable zoning district regulations listed in the County Zoning Regulations’ to Section 804(c)(1)(ii), Section 20-805(c)(1)(ii), and Section 20-806(d)(1)(i).
HOW TO READ THE AMENDED TEXT
New text is identified by bold,
italic typeface whereas deleted text is identified by double
strikethrough
The purpose of this Section is to allow for an alternative
administrative approval procedure to Large Parcel Property Divisions in the
Urban Growth Area for rural residential development. The clustering of
development parcels within the Urban Growth Areas on parcels that are at least
20 Acres but less than 40 Acres is intended to mitigate strain on
infrastructure and public services and to anticipate future development
patterns for the remainder of the property after annexation.
(1) A division of a parcel of land that is less than 40 acres in area, but at least 20 acres in area, and that is located in Service Areas 2-4, of Lawrence’s Urban Growth Area or in another City’s Urban Growth Area, may be approved according to the Cluster Development provisions of this Section.
Lands divided pursuant to this Section shall be developed as a Cluster Development and shall contain an Immediate Development Area and a Future Development Area in accordance with the following requirements.
(1) Immediate Development Area.
The Immediate Development Area of a Cluster Development shall not exceed 60% of the total acreage of the proposed development. Residential Development Parcels and the cross access easements serving these parcels shall be located only in the Immediate Development Area. Individual Residential Development Parcels shall only take access from the cross access easement and shall be laid out in a manner that minimizes adverse impacts to the Future Development Area. Development of the Immediate Development Area, to the greatest extent practicable, shall conform to the following requirements:
(i) Minimum Parcel Acreage and dimensional standards. Residential Development Parcels shall be laid-out and designed to comply with all applicable zoning district regulations listed in the County Zoning Regulations. The minimum Residential Development Parcel size shall be 3 acres.
20-804 Cluster Developments in the
Urban Growth Areas
The purpose of this Section is to allow an administrative approval procedure for divisions of land to accommodate rural residential development on large land parcels that are located within the Urban Growth Areas of cities in Douglas County. The procedure contemplates that forethought and design considerations will be employed to identify the ultimate urban density residential development of the large land parcel prior to any division occurring, and that based on these considerations, 3 acre or larger Residential Development Parcels may be created when they allow for future divisions through a ‘Build Out Plan’ of the Residential Development Parcels, at some future time, to create urban density lots. These regulations will result in Residential Development Parcels that retain their rural character for the immediate future, but will also allow for more efficient transition to urban density development as subsequent circumstances dictate.
A division of a parcel of land, that is 40 acres in area or larger, that also is located in Service Areas 2-4, of Lawrence’s Urban Growth Area, or in other Cities’ Urban Growth Areas, may be approved pursuant to the provisions of this Section.
Large Parcel Property Divisions of land made according to this Section shall consist of two components; Immediate Development Area and Future Development Area and shall be made in accordance with the requirements of this sub-section.
(ii) Minimum Residential Development Parcel Area and dimensional standards. Residential Development Parcels shall be laid-out and designed to comply with all applicable zoning district regulations listed in the County Zoning Regulations. Each Residential Development Parcel must have a minimum area of:
3 acres when fronting onto a Local road;
5 acres when fronting onto a Major or Minor Collector road,
10 acres when fronting onto a Minor Arterial; and
20 acres when fronting onto a Principal Arterial or Freeway.
Horizon 2020, the
Comprehensive Land Use Plan, strongly encourages that residential development
be located in the Lawrence Urban Growth Area or within the Urban Growth Areas
of the other incorporated Cities’ in the County. Horizon 2020 also recognizes
the need for suitable residential development in the Rural Area of
Douglas County.
When used in this Section, the following terms have the following meanings:
(1) Original Tract – shall be composed of a parcel or a combination of all adjacent parcels under a single ownership [not separated by public right(s)-of-way] that share common boundary lines, from which a Parent Parcel is created.
(2) Parent Parcel – a surveyed area, site or land division created for the sole purpose of a residential development action.
(3) Residential Development Parcel – a parcel created by the division of a Parent Parcel for the purpose of construction of one single-family residential dwelling unit and permitted accessory uses, buildings and structures.
(4) Rural Area – the area of the County lying outside the Urban Growth Areas of Lawrence, Baldwin City, Eudora and Lecompton.
Land located within the Rural Area may be divided into individual Residential Development Parcels according to the following requirements:
(1) The owner of the land must identify a tract of land, which shall be a minimum of 20 acres and take access to a full maintenance road, in accordance with this Section. The tract identified for division according to this sub-section shall be known as the “Parent Parcel”. The land from which the Parent Parcel is identified shall be known as the “Original Tract”.
(i) For purposes of determining compliance with the 20 acre minimum tract area, entire half of a quarter-quarter section (e.g. West ½ of the Southeast ¼ of the Southeast ¼) shall be deemed to be a 20 acre tract.
(ii) In calculating the size of a tract, the tract size shall be deemed to include ½ of the adjoining road right(s)-of-way or easements if such inclusion is necessary for the tract to conform to the applicable minimum tract size.
(2) To initiate a division of land according to this Section, the owner must submit an application to the Planning Director, on a form provided by the Planning Department accompanied by an original and 3 copies of a Certificate of Survey prepared in conformance with Section 20-807(d). The Certificate of Survey shall illustrate and identify the Original Tract on the location map. The Parent Parcel and Residential Development Parcels shall be identified by legal description and show all environmentally or geographically sensitive areas or sites of historic landmarks or historic features [refer to Section 20-810(j)].
(1) A Parent Parcel may be divided to create either 2 or 3 individual Residential Development Parcels. If the Parent Parcel is bounded on only 1 side by an existing full maintenance road it can have only one division, creating 2 individual Residential Development Parcels. If the Parent Parcel is bounded on 2 or more sides by existing full maintenance Local roads it can be divided 2 times, creating 3 individual Residential Development Parcels, only when the Planning Director finds: the property is being subdivided for single-family residential purposes; the division does not involve or result in the creation of any minimum maintenance or full maintenance new Roads or road rights-of-way or easements; and, the division is made in accordance with the requirements in this sub-section.