City Council Minutes 1999 04 06 - Laserfiche WebLink

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The Planning Commission held a public hearing on the ordinance at their March 18 regular meeting. After discussion, they passed, by a vote of 4-1, Resolution 15, Series 1999, which recommends disapproval of the proposed ordinance. The resolution includes a recommendation to City Council, which is stated as follows: "That the City assume a strong leadership role in coordinating downtown parking or alternatively, that approval and adoption of Ordinance 1287, Series 1998 be postponed until the City can develop and adopt appropriate, stronger design requirements for parking facilities and demolition regulations to manage the impact of new parking facilities on the urban environment." That recommendation generally summarizes the concerns of the Commission. The Commission felt that the City should continue to have an active role in the development of and oversight of off-street parking in the Downtown area. They were concerned with unintended negative impacts from multiple private off-street parking lots. From an urban design perspective, there was concern that these parking lots could lead to building demolition and could disrupt the urban form that currently exists. There was also concern that private parking lots would generally be less efficient, in two ways. Because they are private, there is less of an ability to utilize a shared parking concept where different uses have different peak parking demands. Secondly, smaller lots could have a less efficient design and therefore use up more land per space than larger lots, which can be designed more efficiently. The Planning Commission also discussed the issue of whether the parking requirement should be applied on both sides of the RR tracks. Because they are recommending disapproval, they did not specifically provide a recommendation on that issue. However, the consensus was, to be consistent with the adopted Framework Plan, all new downtown regulations should be applied equally to both sides of the RR tracks. They did acknowledge that the Highway 42 corridor, including the Pine Street corridor east of the tracks, would be worthy of additional study. Davidson opened the public hearing and called for anyone wishing to speak on Ordinance No. 1287 - Series 1998 - Amending Chapter 17.20 of the Louisville Municipal Code And The Louisville Commercial Development Design Standards And Guidelines To Require That All Development Within Downtown Louisville Meet Specific Off-Street Parking Requirements. Erik Hartronft, 801 Main Street, Louisville, stated that the first reading was for an Ordinance that went a long way to resolve the downtown parking problems. He felt that there were many good things that have been struck from the Ordinance for the second reading. The Ordinance initially stated that the City was going to take a leadership role in the provision of parking downtown and help to be a leader in solving the problems that may exist. The Council had indicated that the City would be providing, and always had provided, for customer parking downtown. This Ordinance clearly states that the City will not provide customer parking anymore for downtown retail and restaurant other than what currently exists. It also states that the City is getting out of the leadership role in 11