RE: Agenda Item 13 Re: Land Use Code Change Section 1.3.4 Addition
of Permitted Uses
Dear Mayor Weitkunat and Council Members,
We are writing to comment on the June 3rd suggested changes
to the Land Use Code. A committee
of our members reviewed the proposed changes to the Code and our comments are below.
We also sent comments on this
issue to the Planning and Zoning Board in May concerning needed changes.
Problem
Protect Our Old Town homes supports the zoning of
residential neighborhoods that allows for fewer land uses and more restrictions
than other zones. Residential zoning protects our homes from
incompatible uses and provides predictability for changes in neighboring
properties. We believe the Addition of Permitted Use (APU) rules,
especially when applied in residential zoning districts, have the effect of
spot re-zoning in that it allows a single property to increase its market value
by upzoning to additional land uses, while likely lowering the adjacent and
nearby residential market values.
Homeowners put their life savings into purchasing their
homes, which are the biggest investment most families make, and they expect
their investment to be protected from incompatible uses by zoning. They also
expect that new uses in their residential zone will be residential uses similar
to their own (e.g. single-family homes).
The adoption of zoning regulations by local governments is intended to
protect residential property values, among other purposes, and to make land use
changes more predictable for land owners and developers alike. The APU current and proposed rules
allow residential properties to be upzoned to a “higher and better use”, which
in turn increases the property value of that single property, and in many
cases, lowers or caps the property values of adjacent or nearby homes for residential
use. In other words, a
single family home next to a commercial or multi-family land use, loses value as
a single family home as a secondary impact of the upzoning allowed by the
APU. The APU process also causes homeowners and neighborhoods to have to maintain
an undesired level of vigilance for every new development, redevelopment, and
infill proposal or change of property ownership in their neighborhood. We believe the APU negates the
underlying purposes and goals of residential zoning and is unfair to
residential neighborhoods.
Protect Our Old Town Homes also believes the elimination of
the applicability of the APU in residential zones would better protect our
historic homes in Old Town by maintaining the residential character of the
neighborhoods and by decreasing the
market pressures to upzone residential lots for higher density
residential or commercial uses. Finally, this issue is not just an Old Town
issue. Eliminating the applicability of Additional Permitted Uses for all
residential zones would also greatly benefit other residential neighborhoods
across the city.
Allowing for
Additional Permitted Uses as is stated in the current and proposed amendments
to the Land Use Code (LUC) negates the underlying zoning, removes the
predictability of future, compatible residential land use developments, infill
or redevelopment, and we believe should be removed from applicability in the
residential zoning districts.
Suggested Changes
POOTH recommends that Land Use Code Section 1.3.4. be
amended to remove the following nine Districts from applicability, i.e. to
apply the Addition of Permitted Uses to all zones except the following
Districts:
·
Neighborhood Conservation, Low Density (N-C-L)
·
Neighborhood Conservation, Medium Density
(N-C-M)
·
Low Density Residential (R-L)
·
Rural Land Use (R-U-L)
·
Urban Estate (U-E)
·
Residential Foothills Development (R-F)
·
Low Density Mixed –Use Neighborhood (L-M-N)
·
Medium Density Mixed-Use Neighborhood (M-M-N)
·
Neighborhood Conservation Buffer (N-C-B).
Finally, Protect Our Old Town Homes believes that if the
Addition of Permitted Uses section is amended to remove applicability for these
residential zones, that this change will protect residential property values,
reduce neighborhood conflict and delays to appropriate
development/redevelopment proposals, and provide more predictability for both
neighborhoods and prospective property owners seeking to
use a property for a particular use.
We ask that the City Council remove the Additional Permitted
Uses applicability from residential districts as part of the proposed Land Use
Code amendments and update.
Sincerely,
Gina C. Janett
Co-Chair
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