2008-11-17 Regular Council Session

Home Browse Search

October 24, 2008 Staff Report, Re: Conditional Use Permit Application, 6300 Delmar Page 2 of 5 “The minimum right-of-way setback [of 15 feet] may be decreased subject to the issuance of a conditional use permit in accordance with the procedures and standards contained in Article 11, ‘Conditional Uses.’” Staff recommends approval of the setback reduction and approval of the application to erect the building, subject to conditions set forth later in the memo. General Zoning Requirements: The proposed development meets the minimum standards for new development under the Zoning Code. The proposal meets all of the requirements for use, lot size, site coverage and other development standards. Front setbacks in the CC District: The applicants wish to place the building up against the ßà north and east property lines in order to achieve an even streetscape with the building to the west. This maximizes parking while filling in the gaps and setbacks in the buildings and parking lots in that area. The proposal creates a facade that locates the buildings toward the sidewalks and promotes pedestrian traffic in the University City Loop. Since this property is the eastern gateway to the University City Loop, this redesign and replacement is a well needed face lift to this area. Almost all buildings in that area are setback to the front property line (not 15' back). Therefore, Staff recommends that the City Council grant the proposed reduction in setback per Section 34-57.5(2)(a). It will be beneficial to the area in general and is consistent with development in the Loop. Parking Requirements: Since this lot is only 11,000 square feet it has been a challenge to the applicants and the City Staff to properly plan for its development and meet off-street parking requirements. The applicants have been working with the City in order to provide the required amount of parking under the Zoning Code and create a building large enough to be economically feasible to build. They wish to retain ownership of the building and develop it in a creative and aesthetically pleasing way (rather than simply allow a re-use of the existing building there, which would not require any additional parking). This proposal seeks to provide the highest and best use of the property. To that end, the applicants have worked with City Staff and the Loop Special Business District to maximize both building area and parking as much as possible. This final version of the proposed building provides enough parking if the occupancy of the building is limited to retail uses. The Zoning Code requires a total of 24 off-street parking spaces for a new building of this size limited to retail uses with storage areas. The applicants come close to achieving that by providing 16 off-street parking spaces. Staff has agreed to take into account the fact that they are creating 5 new on-street parking spaces (that do not currently exist) by eliminating the Delmar and Limit ingress/egresses from the former parking lot. Therefore, this new development creates 21 new parking spaces. Section 34-131.3(4)(b) gives City Council the ability to “adjust the standards set forth in this chapter when it finds such adjustment will be more effective in achieving the spirit and intent of the chapter. Such adjustments are permitted to be more restrictive or less restrictive, provided that no dimensional regulations or standard shall become less restrictive by a factor of more than twenty (20) percent.” Therefore, in order to