Commission to consider code changes
The planning and zoning commission will consider approving changes to the city’s landscaping regulations on Tuesday night that will offer incentives to developers who use environmentally sustainable practices and make some current environmental standards more stringent.
If approved, the code changes would amend section 102 of the city municipal code, which largely consists of provisions that outline lot coverage requirements for property developers, according to a city staff report. The maximum lot coverage for a project is the total surface area of a lot that a property developer is permitted to build or lay an impervious surface on.
Amendments would include reducing the total lot coverage for any large-scale development from 85 percent to 80 percent, and would mandate that the remaining 20 percent be green space consisting of grass or trees, according to a city staff report. The amendments to this section would also specify the amount of green space a development is required to have in relation to the amount of parking spaces it has.
Currently, the section requires that if a development has 12 or more parking spaces, that at least five percent of that parking space must have green spaces such as parking lot islands with trees or shrubs in them, according to a city staff report. The proposed amendments to this part of the section would require any development with 12 to 50 parking spaces have at least six percent green space, that any with 51 to 150 have at least eight percent and any with 151 or more have 10 percent.
The proposed code changes would also add chapter 53, or
the “Landscaping Code,” to the city municipal code, according to a city staff report. This chapter would help to consolidate landscaping requirements into a single place and covers a number of topics, such as what is needed on a developer’s landscaping regulatory application, what types of zones the rules apply to as well as exempt areas.
Moreover, it aims to incentivize property developers who seek to preserve green space. For example, its provisions state that a developer can reduce his or her parking requirements by one parking space or receive a five percent discount on their development permit application fee for every 100 square feet of irrigated flower beds they include on a given property; similarly, developers are also offered the same incentives for every 10 shrubs they plant, according to a city staff report. Developers can also be offered certain incentives for doing things such as planting certain plants that are native to the area.
If approved, the code changes would not affect individual homeowners and would only apply to large-scale, residential and commercial developments. The planning commission also has a few other items on the night’s agenda, which are summarized below.
• The decision to table the consideration of lot split development permit for a property located at 14975 S. Hwy. 59 until the planning commission’s Nov. 13 meeting.
• The decision to approve a preliminary plat development permit for a 24.43 acre property located on the 2300 block of North Mount Olive Street.
• The decision to approve a final plat development permit for a 14.25 acre property located on the 23000 block of Lawlis Road.