01/20/2009 Planning Commission Minutes

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NIINUTES OF THE ORONO PLANNING COMIVIISSION MEETING Tuesday,January 20,2009 6:00 o'clock p.m. conditioned on complete execution of the Developers Agreement and plat filing,which has not gone forward. The property is in the MUSA. The applicant proposes to remove the vacant day care building and construct a 46-unit senior assisted living and memory care residential facility consisting of a single two-level building. The proposed use requires the following actions by the City: l. Comprehensive Plan amendment to revise the density limitations that were established within the 2007 amendment, as well as the standards for future use and development that were adopted at that time; 2. Rezoning to RPUD; . 3. Approval of a RPUD development plan,subdivision,if necessary, and development agreement. The applicanYs property was not among those identified for change in the 2000-2020 CMP,but it was the subject o a CMP Amendment in 2007. The Planning Commission and Council took into consideration the Land Use Goals, General Land Use Policies,Urban Land Use policies, and Rural Land Use policies. Future development must enhance the community. Land development should respect and enhance neighboring properties and existing developed character of the neighborhood and the City,preserving the value of the land and the integrity, stability and beauty of the community. In addition, future development must enhance the environment. Further,the existing urban area will not be expanded. Orono's Community Management Plan is not a staged growth plan. The urban service area will not be expanded into the defined rural area and urban services and facilities will not be extended into the rural area for purposes of fostering or allowing increased development density in those areas. Certain factors that suggest such a change is appropriate for Site E include the following: 1. The property is essentially an"orphan",with relatively little relationship to the development that surrounds it; i.e.,it is surrounded on three sides by transportation corridors; it is topographically disconnected from the primarily single family residential uses to the north; and it abuts a cemetery on the south. This lack of connectivity to surrounding residential areas makes use of the site for a family friendly neighborhood unattractive and poorly marketable at best. 2. The potential for non-residential institutional,public or private uses for the site under the current Land Use Plan and low-density zoning, is limited by the size of the site, and vehicular access limitations. 3. Vehicular access to the site has limitations due to existing and future expected traffic patterns and adjacent roadway configurations, suggesting that a low intensity residential use should be favored over potentially higher-intensity uses that might be available via a conditional use pernut. 4. The property is at a location highly visible to traffic entering Orono from the east. Development at this site might be considered as a"main entrance"to Orono, and as such,will inherently set a tone as to the character of the City,and therefore a visually low-intensity use of the site should be strived for. PAGE 4