08-15-2016 Planning Commission Packet

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� � 16-3855 August 10,2016 Page 2 of 9 past proposals or sketch plans for the property. Absent any apparent market desire for office uses in this area, coupled with the clear directives of the Orono Community Management Plan (CMP) that retail uses should not extend west of Willow Drive, the proposed senior housing use may be a reasonable alternative. It also has the potential to assist in meeting residential urban density goals in order to allow continued development of Orono's sewered lakeshore areas as intended. The property is currently zoned RR-1B PUD, One Family Rural Residential. The intent of this zoning was functionally a `holding' zone, with the property originally anticipated to be rezoned to B-6 PUD at the time of approval of a specific commercial development on the site. For the proposed residential continuum of care use, rezoning to RPUD would be most appropriate. The property has been located within the Metropolitan Urban Service Area (MUSA) since 1980, and would be served with municipal sewer and water, for which connection charges are spelled out in the PUD No. 4 Agreement. Review Parameters The proposed residential development is a depariure from the CMP guiding of this site for commercial office use. For this reason, staff recommends that the Planning Commission's review should proceed by considering the following two basic questions: L Is this property a location where the City should depart from the current Comprehensive Plan guiding, and allow for high density residential development? 2. If so, what are appropriate standards for such a development? Planning Commission's primary focus should be on whether the proposed type and density of development is appropriate for this specific property. Conformity with the Orono 2008-2030 Community Management Plan The net development density based on 48 Independent and Assisted Living units would be 13.8 units per acre. The proposal to re-guide the site for High Density Residential in the defined range of 10-15 units per acre would be appropriate. Met Council and Density. In approving Orono's 2008-2030 CMP, Met Council took into account that Orono guided specific properties for higher density sewered development(3-7, 7-10,4-15 and 10-15 units per acre) in order to offset the long-planned sewered development at low densities in the Shoreland areas. In effect, the higher-density guiding of a select number of strategically located properties established a numerical `buffer' which allowed properties previously added to the MUSA and guided/planned for 2-acre minimum lot sizes, to be developed as historically planned. Problematic for the present is that in recent months two of those properties guided for higher density development have been re�uided via amendments of the CMP to lower densities, and in fact the `buffer' established in the 2008-2030 CMP has functionally been eliminated. In order to re-establish the buffer,Orono must reguide additional property for higher density. In the meantime, any new proposed developments at a density of less than 3.0 units per acre involving connection to or extension of the sewer system, will not be approved by Met Council. Reguiding of the applicants' property for residential use at high density would be a substantial step forward in re- establishing the necessary density buffer. Conformity with RPUD Zoning District Requirements