Planning Commission Minutes 2015 04 09

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Planning Commission Meeting Minutes April 9, 2015 Page 12 of 27 Moline asks if this could dilute the amount of commercial Downtown? How would the Planning Department track the viability of the commercial of one of these properties? Russ says the Finance Department of the City and the City Manager's office track the performance of sales and properties taxes. There are aggregate summaries and individual summaries of tax performance. In terms of economic diluting, in terms of upper floors and back portion of a site, the street front in this ordinance can be retail or office. The front and most vibrant part of the building is saved for commercial activities. Staff does not feel the upper floors are viable for retail. Brauneis asks from a water savings perspective typically, the closer the feedback loop to the occupant, the better the water savings. If people living a space know how much water they've used the previous month or over the course of a year, there will be more water savings rather than hidden within one bill to a landlord. A way to minimize the fees associated with it is probably what is driving a lot of the concern. Separate meters for two very different occupant types are more appropriate. Russ says Staff will bring this concern up as the ordinance is still being drafted and reviewed by the Finance Director and the Public Works Director. The intent of this is the owner is the same person seeing the bill. The reality is we can't discriminate that aspect in Chapter 17 of who rents and who owns. Can we make sure that the tenants of the buildings somehow receive the bill? Staff will work with it while still lowering the fees. The commercial rates are based on water usage. They believe office use is comparable to a residential use. The rate may not be different on this scale of investment. If a restaurant were to go in, they would be very different commercial rates because they are scalable on the commercial side, but not the residential side. We want to protect the City's water supply by making sure we charge a commercial rate. Moline asks about the maximum parking requirement for the one -bedroom unit? 1.25 spaces? Russ says one space is maximum. Staff is trying to put a parking maximum in Downtown because we don't want to see parking in a pedestrian -oriented environment. For this particular ordinance, he recommends deleting the 1.25 space because it is "odd" for a one bedroom. This was copied out of the Downtown Code where single units are illegal. Staff recommends 2 spaces because most residents have two cars. Russell asks about parking. He wants maximum parking limits. The expectation is that the one bedroom needs one space and the two bedroom needs two spaces. This is on -site parking that will be addressed through a shared parking agreement, shared parking between the commercial and residential unit. Russ says Staff is allowing them to be reduced in a shared parking environment. One space for 500 feet of commercial development. In commercial, there is a 998 square foot waiver for the first 1,000 square feet. If it is a 2,000 square foot building, they would owe two parking spaces. They would also owe the residential parking. If they demonstrate a shared parking agreement, that would give Staff assurance that if the owner of the shop is actually there, Staff would reduce the parking requirement accordingly. Russell asks about the residential portion, when there is tight parking, high turnover really helps. He asks if introducing the Live -Work raises the likelihood that someone will park a car and leave it there. There are some streets where you can't do that. He doesn't know about side streets and residential streets. Setting a maximum for a site only allows a certain amount of parking, so other options will be sought. Are we creating a problem where there isn't adequate parking on - site and people try to find other accommodations for their vehicle in Old Town? Can we mitigate that? Russ says these are the parking standards of Downtown. We are not creating anything different. Russell asks will we accept fee in lieu for parking?