Memorandum

City of Lawrence

Planning & Development Services

TO:	David L. Corliss, City Manager
FROM:	Planning Staff
CC:	Scott McCullough, Director of Planning and Development Services Sheila Stogsdill, Assistant Planning Director
Date:	June 14, 2011
RE:	Text Amendment Initiation to revise standards in the Land Development Code related to how parking is calculated for Congregate Living and Multi-Dwelling Structures

The attached request was made by Candice Davis to initiate a text amendment to the Land Development Code to revise recently adopted standards related to how parking is calculated for Congregate Living and Multi-Dwelling Structures.  

Recent code amendments require .5 parking spaces per bedroom for the Congregate Living and Multi-Dwelling Structure uses when a structure is 3,500 sq. ft. or larger and when the lot the structure is located upon is 8,775 sq. ft. or smaller.  The intent of the amendment was to recognize that large structures, especially in the Oread neighborhood, may be under-utilized and that they were worth preserving as either a congregate residence or multi-dwelling structure, but that area for parking on small lots impedes the highest use of many large structures.  The applicant asserts that this standard permits too many structures to employ the .5 parking space requirement and proposes code language that would limit the use of the .5 space standard.

The application is attached for your reference.

Action requested:  Consider initiating a text amendments to various sections of the Land Development Code – Code of the City of Lawrence, Kansas regarding the parking standards for Congregate Living and Multi-Dwelling Structure uses.