City Council

Business of the Ruston Planning Commission City of Ruston, WA Subject: Ordinances #1428 & 1429 – Dept. Origin: Director of Planning Amendment of Parking Standards – Chapter 25.01.090 Prepared by: Rob White & 25.06 RMC For Agenda of: December 11, 2013 Exhibits: Ordinance #1428 & 1429 Proposed Planning Commission Action: Initial & Date Concurred by Mayor: Hold a public hearing on these ordinances, Approved/form by City Atty: deliberate and make a recommendation to the Ruston City Council. Approved by Planning Director: RRW 12/7/13 Approved by Department Head: INFORMATION / BACKGROUND As infill and redevelopment activities have continued within Ruston it has become apparent that without proper design guidance, parking facilities may be built which would be inconsistent with Ruston’s Comprehensive Plan goals to create aesthetically pleasing pedestrian-oriented developments. Examples of undesirable parking facilities might include surface parking lots which break up continuous commercial facades or parking garages located at the street level with vehicles visible within facades where usable commercial or residential space would be preferred or expected. In order to provide proper guidance within the City’s codes, modification of two separate portions of code will be necessary. First of all, the parking code, (RMC 25.01.090), needs to specify that parking facilities should not be permitted as a primary land use. Rather, they should only be allowed as a subordinate accessory use. The parking code should also be amended to include a reference to Ruston’s design standards where a new section on parking facility design will be added. Please refer to the attached draft of Ordinance 1429 for additional detail. As described above, in order to provide design guidance for parking structures, a new section needs to be added to Ruston’s design standards which addresses both site planning and façade treatment details. As can be seen in the attached draft Ordinance 1428, site planning issues are focused at requiring access to parking facilities from alleyways as the preferred method, with allowance for access to streets, but only when additional design criteria are applied. Façade treatments are also addressed by requiring usable commercial or residential space to be located in front of parking areas upon high priority pedestrian oriented commercial streets, (which are identified by name in the amended code), with additional architectural options for all other streets. 1 To ensure that the goals and purposes of the City’s Zoning Code and Comprehensive Plan are not undermined by inadvertently allowing poorly designed parking facilities, the City Planner and the City Attorney’s Office recommend that these code sections be amended as proposed. RECOMMENDATION / MOTIONS This matter is scheduled for a public hearing, Commission deliberation and potential decision on whether to recommend this ordinance, with or without amendments, to the City Council. Motions for Conducting the Public Hearing: 1. Open the public hearing. 2. After testimony is complete, a motion to close the public hearing will be in order. After Commission deliberation, one of the following motions would be in order: 1. Recommend approval of Ordinance #1428 and 1429 to the City Council, as written, OR 2. Recommend approval of Ordinance #1428 and 1429 to the City Council with the following revisions (list . . . .) 3. Recommend denial of the Ordinance #1428 and 1429 to the City Council. 4. Continue discussion of this matter to the next Planning Commission meeting. 2