Provide direction to staff on the proposed Zoning Code Text Amendments.

The Zoning Code was adopted by the City Council on November 1, 2011, to replace the former Land Development Code.  Since its adoption, the code has been amended several times to address procedures, add clarity, resolve conflicts, address planning initiatives (accessory dwelling units), incorporate applicant’s requests (West University Drive Entrance Sign District), and to address changes in state law and U.S. Supreme Court decisions (i.e. Reed vs the Town of Gilbert).  In addition, on July 2, 2019 the City Council approved an amendment to the Zoning Code to address a series of technical, conflict resolution, and clarity modifications – as well as the addition of the Seasonal Amusement/Entertainment and Sales, Indoor and related provision to the into the Light Industrial (LI) zone. 

The request for a work session with the City Council is to discuss concepts to amend the Zoning Code (Case No. PZ-19-00123) pertaining to the goals, policies, and implementation strategies of the High Occupancy Housing Specific Plan.  More specifically, to change the allowed building height of the Community Commercial (CC) zone from 60 feet to 45 feet. 

In February 2018, the City Council adopted the citywide High Occupancy Housing Specific Plan (HOH Plan). The plan was developed in response to the community's dialogue pertaining to previously proposed high intensity mid-rise developments that primarily catered to college students and large scale developments near historic neighborhoods The HOH Plan provides direction in the form of goals, policies, and strategies to accommodate a variety of housing options in areas of the city that can support infill, redevelopment, and mixed-use activities.  In addition, the plans' goals, policies and strategies address enhancing and maintaining the city’s character and provide guidance for the future developments that would be considered High Occupancy Housing (HOH).

The goals, policies, and implementation strategies of the HOH Plan address a broad spectrum of topics (Please refer to Chapters 4 and 5 of the HOH Plan).  To address the Zoning Code specific items, staff will break up the implementation tasks into smaller and related topics.  Goals, policies, and implementation strategies of the HOH Plan that are not specific to an HOH development may be incorporated into related amendments. Staff is anticipating that at least four related Zoning Code amendments will be proposed.  It is the intent that these amendments will not be reliant on each other. Each separate amendment is anticipated to address specific items that are closely related.

Proposed Amendment
Case No. PZ-19-00123: Updates to Zoning Code 2019 – Building Heights in the Community Commercial (CC) Zone is a request to amend the Community Commercial (CC) zone’s allowed building height in accordance with the Strategies to be Implemented by 2019 (bullet 5, Page 102) of the HOH Plan.  The referenced strategy is to lower the allowed building height of the Community Commercial (CC) zone from sixty (60) feet to forty-five (45) feet (Attachment 1).

Throughout the community outreach and public hearings for the HOH plan, the areas of the city with the Community Commercial (CC) zone (Attachment 2) were identified as locations that:

• the allowed building height of sixty (60) feet that does not correspond with the lower building heights of existing developments;
• have the greatest overlap of historic small-scale traditional neighborhoods that could be negatively impacted by the influx of large-scale developments;
• have significant overlap with low-income communities that may be displaced by gentrification and redevelopment; and
• contain localized limited utility capacity to support large scale High Occupancy Housing developments.

Community Involvement
On August 14, 2019, a work session with the Planning and Zoning Commission was held. The purpose of the work session was to inform the Commission of the upcoming public open house meetings and to receive initial feedback on the proposed amendment. A summary of the Planning and Zoning Commission comments and questions are:

• Does the Transect zones align with Community Commercial (CC)? Staff's response: No, the Transect zones do not specifically correlate with the Community Commercial (CC).
• If the height of the Community Commercial (CC) zone is lowered to 45 feet, and the Transect zones height in these areas are not adjusted accordingly, modifying the height of the Community Commercial (CC) will not have accomplished anything since these property owners could opt into the transect zones.  Staff's response: It depends on the property’s Transect zone designation since each Transect zone has a different height allowance. Some of the Transect zones have heights equal to, or greater than, 45 feet, and the remainder of the Transect zones have heights less than 45 feet

Public open house meetings were held on August 19, 2019, at 8:30 a.m. at the Murdock Center, and 5:30 p.m. at the East Flagstaff City-Coconino County Public Library. In accordance with the Zoning Code and State statute, the meetings were advertised in the Arizona Daily Sun on August 3, 2019. Persons of interest on file with the Planning and Development Services Department, and the property owners on file with the Coconino County Assessor’s Office of lots and parcels that contain Community Commercial (CC) zoning were notified of the open house meeting via first class mail. Persons on the HOH Plan contact list were also notified. In addition, the open house information was posted on the City’s Zoning Code Amendments webpage. Forty persons attended the open house meetings.

In addition to the open house meetings, public comments were accepted through the City’s Flagstaff Community Forum website from July 26, 2019, to September 15, 2019. The public was notified of the option to participate and provide comments utilizing the City’s Flagstaff Community Forum website through the Flagstaff Community Forum subscriber’s notification, in the Arizona Daily Sun on August 3, 2019, on the City’s Zoning Code Amendments webpage, and on the first-class mailings that were sent to the property owners.  A total of 260 persons viewed the Flagstaff Community Forum website regarding this topic.

A majority of the comments received supported the proposed amendment to the building height. However, there are persons that identified themselves as property owners in Southside and Sunnyside neighborhood areas that are opposed to the proposed amendment. Additionally, several of the individuals that supported the height reduction, encouraged a building height that only allows two stories, which would be approximately 30 feet.

Most all of the individuals that are opposed to the amendment in the Sunnyside neighborhood area did not support the height reduction adjacent to the commercial corridors (North Fourth Street, East Cedar Road, Route 66, etc); but, were supportive of the proposed building heights within the interior of the neighborhood.  As a compromise, a majority of these individuals recommended allowing the 60-foot building height adjacent to the commercial corridors. Their suggested alternative was to have the City rezone the properties adjacent to the commercial corridors to Highway Commercial (HC). This would maintain the allowed the 60-foot building.  A conceptual zoning map of this alternative is included as Attachment 3.

The individuals that did not support the height change in the Southside neighborhood did not provide alternative considerations other than recommending not changing the height.  For discussion purposes, and similar to the proposed alternative in the Sunnyside neighborhood, it may be an option for the City to rezone the properties adjacent to the commercial corridors to Highway Commercial (HC) in the Southside neighborhood and areas north of Downtown. A conceptual zoning map of this alternative is included as Attachment 4.

A summary of the open house and Flagstaff Community Forum comments is included as Attachment 5. Also, comments received via email are included as Attachment 6.

On August 21, 2019, staff attended the ECONA Business Attraction Meeting. At this meeting, staff provided an overview of all of the current amendments proposed and the Zoning Code amendment work program. The attendees were concerned regarding several of the amendments and current zoning allowances. Although, it did appear that a majority of the attendees were supportive of cleaning-up, shorting, and resolving conflicts in the Zoning Code.  A summary of the comments received is included as Attachment 7.

Timeline
The anticipated timeline for this amendment is:

• August 14, 2019 – Planning and Zoning Commission Work Session
• August 19, 2019 – Public Open House Meeting
• October 8, 2019 – City Council Work Session
• October 23, 2019 – Potential Planning and Zoning Commission Work Session
• November 2019 – Potential Second Public Open House Meeting
• November 2019 – Potential Planning and Zoning Commission Work Session
• December 2019 – Potential Planning and Zoning Commission Hearing
• December 2019 – Potential City Council Work Session
• January 2019 – Potential City Council Public Hearing (1^st Reading of Ordinance)
• January 2019 – Potential City Council Hearing (2^nd Reading of Ordinance/Adoption)

Conclusion:
As indicated above, the purpose of the work session is to present concepts to amend the Zoning Code pertaining to the goals, policies, and implementation strategies of the High Occupancy Housing Specific Plan.  More specifically, to change the allowed building height of the Community Commercial (CC) zone from 60 feet to 45 feet. In addition, the work session is to allow interested individuals, residents, and property and business owners to provide comments.  Also, the work session is to allow the Council to ask questions, seek clarification, have a discussion, and offer comments/direction on the proposed amendments.  Additional opportunities for discussion, public comment, and action by the City Council will occur at a future public meeting and hearings - see the timeline above.  No formal action is to occur at the work session.