City Council Minutes 1999 03 02 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mayer asked to verify some dates and City Council actions. He stated that at the August 4, 1998 City Council meeting, the approval for 728 Main Street was postponed. He asked Lehman if that wasn't when the issue of the Commercial Development Design Standards & Guidelines was first discussed. Lehman replied, yes. He stated that this was the first time it was mentioned. He stated that approximately one month later, the applicability of the Commercial Development Design Standards & Guidelines for 728 Main Street was dropped and the project was approved with the language that agreed to provide two parking spaces per 1,000 sf. Mayer stated that he felt this is a fairly important factor in the parties understanding one another. Council received a letter from the City Attorney on August 31, 1998, stating that the Commercial Development Design Standards & Guidelines did apply to downtown Louisville. Mayer stated that it was certainly mentioned during discussions in September that this was the current ordinance in effect. He did not feel that the Commercial Development Design Standards & Guidelines was the best way of handling parking in downtown Louisville and for this reason he brought up the subject of a moratorium. Mayer stated that it was clear at that time, in Council's point of view, that the Commercial Development Design Standards & Guidelines was the governing ordinance on the books. He questioned Lehman's statement that he was completely unaware of this, as he was in attendance for the meetings in which it was discussed. Lehman replied that it was only brought up once and that was during discussions regarding the project at 728 Main Street. He stated that from his review of public records, he found three instances in the past six months that the comment was made by the Mayor and others that the Commercial Development Design Standards & Guidelines could be expected to apply. He stated that two weeks ago, the most conservative direction given for the Council and the City to take relative to how these two ordinances apply to people in the process was: that there is a body of law that might be able to support that anyone who applies during the time new things are being considered are duly served notice that that would be the new ordinance that would be in place that would apply to them. He was told during this entire process that the City was heading towards a parking ratio of two spaces per 1,000 sf. Mayer stated that from his point of view it seems pretty clear that, at least until Council got to the point of adopting new guidelines, Council was going to rely on the Commercial Development Design Standards & Guidelines. He can specifically remember Councilman Levihn commenting that Council did not need a moratorium as they can apply the Commercial Development Design Standards & Guidelines. Mayer then asked Lehman, assuming that two parking spaces per 1,000 sf were going to be required, how that was being shown on his PUD. Lehman replied that they aren't shown at all. He stated that he presented them in his first proposal to Council. The Planning Commission asked that the parking be removed as they felt there was plenty of parking available in the angle-in parking along Front Street. They did not want to approve the PUD showing that this was how parking was going to 16