Memorandum

City of Lawrence

Planning & Development Services

TO:	Tom Markus, City Manager
FROM:	Scott McCullough, Director of Planning & Development Services
Date:	November 7, 2016
RE:	HERE Parking Options

This memo provides options for the City Commission to consider with regard to a communication received by Kyle Thompson, Chair of the Oread Residents Association, wherein the Association takes issue with the way that two sections of the Land Development Code pertaining to parking were interpreted for the HERE parking lot rezoning application.

At their November 1, 2016 meeting, the City Commission received the Association’s letter and a Staff memo outlining the issues.  The Commission discussed the matter and deferred the second reading of Ordinance Nos. 9300 and 9301 related to this project, CPA-16-00309 and Z-16-00310, to the November 15 regular meeting.  During discussion at that meeting, consensus seemed to be building to support the Association’s request to rezone the project site to the RM12D-PD district for the reasons noted in their letter.  Staff noted that one of the impacts would be that the project would be considered a non-conforming use; however, on further review, Staff believes that if the City Commission grants a waiver to Sections 20-909 and 20-535, then the act of waiving the requirement would render the project compliant with the code and not non-conforming.

Staff has discussed this matter with the applicant and the applicant is indifferent to the underlying zoning of the property as long as the accessory parking lot is permitted in the zoning district, which it is.

Staff provides the following options before the City Commission to decide these items.

Option 1:

1. Uphold the Planning Commission’s recommendation and adopt on second reading Ordinance No. 9300 and Ordinance No. 9301 to revise the Oread Neighborhood Plan and rezone the property to RM32-PD.
2. Initiate a text amendment to sections 20-909 and 20-535 of the Land Development Code to be rolled into a text amendment currently in process that includes comprehensive revisions to Article 9, Parking of the code.

This option requires only a simple majority vote of the Commission (3 of 5) to adopt the ordinances.

Option 2:

1. Waive Sections 20-909 and 20-535 of the Land Development Code, thereby allowing a lesser zoning district to serve a higher zoning district with accessory parking, and move to do the following:
1. Deny Ordinance No. 9300 for Comprehensive Plan Amendment (CPA-16-00309) to amend the Oread Neighborhood Plan.
2. Adopt on second reading a revised Ordinance No. 9301, rezoning the entire subject property to the RM12D-PD zoning district.
2. Initiate a text amendment to sections 20-909 and 20-535 of the Land Development Code to be rolled into a text amendment currently in process that includes comprehensive revisions to Article 9, Parking of the code.

Item no. 1 in Option 2 can only be accomplished with a super-majority vote of the City Commission (4 out of 5) since it is contrary to the Planning Commission’s recommendation.  Item no. 2 can be initiated by a simple majority vote.