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City of Homer
Planning &
Zoning
Telephone
(907)
235-3106
491 East Pioneer Avenue
Fax
(907) 235-3118
Homer,
Alaska 99603-7645
E-mail
Planning@ci.homer.ak.us
Web
Site
www.ci.homer.ak.us
MEMORANDUM 05-29
DATE: February 7, 2005
TO: Mayor and Homer City Council
THRU: Walt Wrede, City Manager
FROM: Homer Advisory Planning Commission
BY: Beth McKibben
SUBJECT: Ordinance 05-02
The Planning Commission held a public hearing on Ordinance 05-02 on February 2, 2005. Following the public hearing the Commission held a lengthy discussion on the proposed ordinance. The Commission’s recommendations are as follows:
The Commission’s first recommendation is: “The Commission reaffirms the size caps adopted by Council Ordinance 04-11(A) as amended by Council Ordinance 04-34. The basis of this recommendation is “The presentation of the substitute size of 66,000 square feet contained in Ordinance 05-02 is process subsequent to the Commission’s planning process. In all cases regarding the zoning code, the Commission acts in an advisory manner to the Council. The Commission is cognizant that the Council has the authority to give consideration to the positive and negative financial impacts of zoning regulations, such as but not limited to sales tax, property tax and job loss or creation. However, it is inappropriate for the Commission to give consideration to these same types of financial issues and therefore it has no basis to recommend adoption of Ordinance 05-02.
The second recommendation is: The Commission recommends that the Council seek a legal opinion on Ordinance 05-02 on the issue of adopting a size standard established by Fred Meyer. The basis of this recommendation is “The Commission has concerns for the Council to consider with regards to the source of the proposed size of 66,000 square feet. The overriding concern is that the City avoid exposure to possible legal action by adopting a size standard proposed by Fred Meyer Corporation. In response to Fred Meyer’s initial plans to construct a 95,000 square foot store on CIRI property, the Council had adopted a moratorium of 20,000 square feet and tasked the Commission to adopt standards to address large retail/wholesale businesses. During the period of the moratorium, formal and informal discussions were taking place between representatives of the City and Tom Gibbons of Fred Meyer. The size of 66,000 square feet was provided by Mr. Tom Gibbon of Fred Meyer as the smallest store size that Fred Meyer has constructed and, at the time, the smallest that they would consider constructing in Homer.
Subsequent to this dialog between City representatives and Fred Meyer, the University of Washington students, under the auspices of the Homer Chamber of Commerce, were studying the Town Center Project. Because the large retail/wholesale issue had a potential impact on the Town Center concept, due to Fred Meyers/CIRI property being located within the proposed Town Center site, the U of W students were asked to “model” large retail/wholesale store sizes limited to the graphically representing how these different size developments would fit in the Town Center. Their work did not include any evaluation of the appropriateness of these sizes. The fact the number of 66,000 appeared in the U of W student’s final report has been a point of some confusion for many people whereby it has been misconstrued that the City of Homer has hand this size “evaluated”.
Should the Council give consideration to a size cap larger than the current standards, the Commission encourages the adoption of a size other than the proposed 66,000 square foot.
The Commission refers to attachment 1.
The third recommendation is: The Commission recommends that the Council give consideration to the appropriateness of different size caps that correspond to the unique characteristics of each commercial district and sub-districts. The basis of this recommendation is “In establishing the size caps contained in Ordinance 04-11(A), the Commission gave extensive consideration to the unique characteristics of Homer’s commercial districts and the Comprehensive Plan. Some of the characteristics include, but are not limited to, size of the district, viewscape, proximity to wetlands and other sensitive areas. As a result of these efforts, the Commission created the following sub-districts within the GC1district: GC1 Ocean Drive, GC1 Scenic Gateway, GC1 East End Road – East of Alder Lane, and established a corresponding size cap.
In general terms, when amending the zoning code, it is important to have consistent treatment of the zoning districts in order to avoid committing an improper action. The concept of “consistent treatment” is not synonymous with “doing the exact same thing”. Ordinance 05-02 attempts to treat the affected zoning districts equally by applying 66,000 square foot standard. While this treatment may or may not help avoid an improper action, it is the Commission’s opinion that it is not appropriate and does not take into consideration the unique characteristics of the districts. When the Council adopted 04-34, their action retained different size caps according to the district.
Should the Council choose to adopt Ordinance 05-02 the Commission further recommends the following amendments to the ordinance.
The second “whereas” would read as follows: WHEREAS, the Task Force, the Commission, and the Council held over a dozen public hearings of those 24 months on the standards and size limits and the issue received extensive media coverage, and the majority were in favor of a size smaller than 66,000 square feet, and
The third “whereas” would read as follows: WHEREAS, the City Council has already received the Planning Commission’s recommendations concerning the size limits of wholesale and retail stores in the affected districts of sizes ranging from 20,000 to 45, 000 square feet, and
The fourth “whereas” would be amended to read as follows: WHEREAS, in culmination of this zoning ordinance process an initiative was circulated and was passed by the voters with 984 yes votes and 717 no votes, to amend the size limits, and