Public Hearing, Consideration and Adoption of Resolution No. 2015-38: A resolution of the City Council of the City of Flagstaff, Arizona, amending the Flagstaff Regional Plan 2030 by amending Map 25 of the Plan and Establishing an effective date.

City staff has prepared an application for a Major Plan Amendment to Map 25: Road Network Illustration (Map 25) and related text in the Flagstaff Regional Plan 2030. The Planning and Zoning Commission recommended the amendment for adoption after holding two public hearings in September and October. The purpose of this major amendment is to bring Map 25 into compliance with Arizona Revised Statute 9-461.05 and to resolve inconsistencies between the Land Use and Transportation Chapters and other parts of the City Code related to Map 25.

After adoption of the plan amendment, the Comprehensive Planning program will incur the cost of providing replacement pages for hard copies of the Flagstaff Regional Plan 2030, approximately $500.

COUNCIL GOALS:
7) Address key issues and processes related to the implementation of the Regional Plan

REGIONAL PLAN GOALS:
Goal T.8. Establish a functional, safe, and aesthetic hierarchy of roads and streets.
 

 

City Council endorsed the strategy of carrying forward Map 25 as the first of several rounds of plan amendments to resolve errors and needed clarifications in FRP30 on June 6, 2015.  Each amendment is meant to incrementally improve our ability to implement FRP30. For details about the scope of upcoming plan amendments, see Attachment 1: Future Plan Amendments Briefing Paper.

The text amendments being processed along with the change to the map amendment are severable from the decision. They could be processed as a part of a later minor plan amendment. Staff elected to process them together to clarify how Map 25 was intended to be used based on meeting and project management notes from the FRP30 process.

This amendment is proposed to resolve the following issues in the Flagstaff Regional Plan 2030:

• ARS 9-461.05.C.2 states that a General Plan must include, “A circulation element consisting of the general location and extent of existing and proposed freeways, arterial and collector streets, bicycle routes and any other modes of transportation as may be appropriate, all correlated with the land use element of the plan."  Map 25 is included in FRP30 to meet this requirement but it does not display all of the existing and proposed arterial and collector roads.
• Some of the roads that are displayed on Map 25 are not categorized in a way that logically corresponds to the explanation of these categories on page X-18.
• It will replace the "Urban Network” designation and language describing the distinction between regional and neighborhood corridors with text that better describes corridors and their networks by area type. This term appears only on Map 25 and has no corresponding explanation in the Plan’s text.
• Better explain the terminology around future routes, especially “Capacity Study Pending” and conditional roads.

These changes are being processed as a major plan amendment because they are related to the major amendment category of “Addition of a Corridor or Great Street” on page III-9 in the FRP30.

This amendment is one of several that will be proposed to make clarifications and correct errors in the Flagstaff Regional Plan 2030. The scope of this amendment is not meant to change the intent of the original Regional Plan but to clarify which roads should be considered  commercial corridors, the characteristics of corridors and their relationship to road functional classifications, and most importantly, to complete Map 25. Changes to major and minor plan amendment categories, descriptions of Great Streets, and the location and interpretation of activity centers are related topics that will be addressed in future amendments.

The public will benefit from these changes because the Regional Plan will meet legal requirements and the direction for future land use and transportation coordination will be clearer. These amendments are not intended to alter the intent of the plan as adopted and ratified by citizens. Instead, they are designed to correct errors, resolve inconsistencies, remove legal vulnerability and improve the readability of the document. It is staff's hope that this will improve the City’s ability to implement the land use and transportation policies in FRP30.
 

 

Inform and Consult: The amendment was made available for a 60 day public review in June and July 2015. Staff notified approximately 250 residents who live in the Southside neighborhood and Mt. Elden Hills about an open house held on June 29th at City Hall. As a result of the open house two routes were changed from "Access" to "Residential Access." For a summary of the discussion at that meeting, see Attachment 2. Record of Proceeding for Open House. The Transportation Commission held a discussion and recommended the amendment in July 2015. The Planning and Zoning Commission held a work session and two public hearings, which concluded on October 28, 2015. The Planning and Zoning Commission made a "motion to forward to City Council for approval Map 25: Road Network Illustration Major Plan Amendment with the recommendation to Council to prioritize updating the table of Major and Minor Plan Amendments on Page III-9 as the next highest priority for the Comprehensive Planning Program work plan and to add the word “commercial corridors” above the first three classifications of road on the road network on the map Moved by Commissioner Carpenter Seconded by Commissioner Dorsett. Motion carried unanimously."