Planning Commission Regular Meeting/Work Session

Frederickstafffrom commercial retail to commercial urban while retaining the architectural control overlay district special use permits for permit for an upper story residential mixed use building special exceptions for height and density special exceptions may be required based on the application once we receive an application we'll have a idea of what are the additional exceptions may be required the applicant will be seeking approval of a general development plan and also a major certificate of appropriateness for landscaping and architecture the next steps the applicant will be there will be a city Council pre-application meeting September 1st with the applicant and then followed by any potential land use applications and starting a development review process.

Paul Naphtistaffapplications, we end up with developers having to request special exceptions in order to be in line with the recommendations of the small area plans. And it also puts the onus on the city to result or resolve in significant negotiations with developers in achieving some of the amenities plans. So with this understanding, the city with the adoption of the Fairfax Circle Smaller Plan in 2024, which was the last of the four, the city began an effort of updating our zoning ordinance to be more in line with the adopted small air plans. This process began in the middle of 2024 with a phase that resolved around gathering information about getting feedback from various stakeholders on the types of issues that we're facing with

Another key element of the zoning structure is a section for alternative compliance. Alternative compliance is something that we are introducing to this district as another way of accommodating special exceptions. Special exceptions in the zoning ordinance are broadly applied to any of the dimensional standards and any of the site development standards. The idea for alternative compliance is that within the activity center district, it would only apply in certain situations and would have limitations to how it can be supported. We're not going to go through all these right now. As we get through each of these topics in the presentation, we'll explain the alternative compliance that's included.

Paul Cunninghammy discussion a short while ago with the previous applicant who was here as to what value are we adding to the city by increasing the number of people tremendously, increasing the density, clogging the roads. We're bringing in residential, but I don't see us bringing in any jobs. So the people have to work everywhere. where we're going to have more than our surplus of people. And in all of these things, as we're getting bonus density and all of the special exceptions to pack more stuff in, what's the vision for the city? What's our goal in doing all of this? Is it to stay economically vital? vital? Is it to maintain a commercial tax base that will help offset the burden on the real estate tax base to provide for all of the goods and services that the residents want while still

James FeatherOthers? A few things. We've lamented for a long time the fact that we've had small area plans and we never had the zoning ordinance keep up with it. Now we've got the zoning ordinance keeping up with it and we're complaining that the small area plans are wrong. And we shouldn't do that to all the others. We need to create the framework that we're talking about here so that we can move forward and get to the next step. We don't have the capacity to do both at the same time. I think that's a reality. So what do we want to do? If projects come through, loads of special exceptions, the optics are terrible. So trying to create the framework that we can work from today going forward, and I think we need to continue on this path.