Orono Ambar - General Concept Plan Appproval

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#2640/2641 Orono Ambar LLC. (cont.) General Concept Plan Review Page 2 of 7 Section 10.53 is the Code section that defines the standards and review process for a Highway 12 PUD and Section 10.52 defines the special requirements for rezoning along the Highway 12 corridor and study area. Those Code sections have been attached as exhibits to this report. General Concept Approval The General Concept Approval is required as part of the Highway 12 PUD rezoning and development plans. A General Concept Approval would be similar to a Preliminary Plat approval without actually giving the Preliminary Plat until other issues have been resolved. A resolution could be adopted by the Council for the Concept Approval with all conditions that must be met by the developer for the Plat approval. The City is not in a position to approve the rezoning or plat until a TIF option is approved by the Council. State laws require notification and public hearings for a TIF that would not be heard by the Council until this Spring. Conditions of the General Concept Approval would include that the financing be approved and the Council adopt the RPUD zoning district with the final development plans. Review of Issues Discussed Previously by the Planning Commission and City Council The primary changes to the proposal since the November review are the total units in the senior building have been reduced from 70 to 62, a trail connection has been added to the plans to provide connections to the regional trail system, the senior building has been relocated further to south to minimize impacts to the residential properties to the north, and the through street has had the two sided parking areas relocated to avoid backing out into through traffic. The applicant has provided site plans for both properties. A commercial site plan review for the office and senior housing properties and buildings will include a full review of the following items: 1) Landscaping 2) Traffic Flow/Road System 3) Parking Arrangement 4) Building Height/Setbacks 5) Review of Architectural Materials/Building Design 6) Lighting 7) Screening I. Preliminary Subdivision/Rezoning/Comprehensive Plan Amendment Uses within the PUD may include only those uses designated by the official Comprehensive Land Use Plan. The 1989 Comprehensive Plan Amendment had guided the property for commercial use. The Comprehensive Plan(CMP)as preliminarily approved by the City Council in September designated several Orono properties as areas that would allow medium density. The density proposed in the CMP does not have an existing zoning district that would allow the types of housing that would be offered by as proposed in this application. The proposed CMP did not include this property as a residential site. In fact it has been guided for commercial use as was the case with 1989 CMP amendment. The entire property has been zoned B-1 since at least 1967, perhaps earlier. To rezone the east property would require changing the land use designation to residential. The 62 unit building on the 4 acre site would provide 15.5 units/acre of senior housing units at a variety of unit sizes and rental rates. The proposed RPUD zoning district would be the appropriate zoning district to provide the units/acre density requested. Section 10.33, Subdivision 5(E) in the proposed RPUD district would allow the City of Orono to provide incentives to encourage projects which are consistent with housing