A public hearing will be held during the regular meeting of the City Commission on August 26. Resolution 24-383 concerns a text amendment to Division 11 of Article VII, Chapter 102, access management, off-street parking, circulation, and bicycle and pedestrian facilities requirements (PB-2024-20). Among other things, this addresses potential provisions to change uses and/or number of parking spaces required for manufacturing/light industrial, rooming house, boardinghouse/club, and restaurants with drive thrus.
The changes connect to several things, but the major point of discussion is the amendment would add parking requirements for new development. Among other things, the change offers property owners in downtown the benefit of a 50 percent reduction in the normal required parking for new non-residential uses on vacant land. For midtown, the reduction would be 15 percent. The amendment also requires 1.5 spaces per residential unit, with options to lease spaces, or build parking on the ground floor. The proposed amendment carries incentives that encourage parking inside a building by allowing a height increase when parking inside or under a building, and allowing 100% of the parking to be achieved off site or through a lease agreement for up to 20 percent of the total.
The text changes do not affect current property in downtown unless it is completely converted to another use, for example, converting office space to residential space. The amendment would not apply when space is converted from one type of retail store to a different type of retail store.
Some have voiced concern this amendment would be burdensome to current property owners if they wished to, for example, convert use of a second floor above retail space into apartments, but there is no additional space on the property for the required parking. Also, entities that would repurpose a space may avoid relocating to downtown because of parking requirements. Overall, the concerns are the change could make downtown a less attractive option for development, and lower property values.
“People need to attend the public hearing, get the facts of what is actually in the ordinance, and engage in the discussion,” said Bill McDaniel, the City Manager. “That is why public hearings are held. I think that there’s a lot of misinformation circulating about this. It’s a public process, it’s a public hearing, and I encourage everyone who is interested in this subject to attend.”
The reason City government is broaching this amendment is to be proactive to avoid situations that would negatively impact the business environment in downtown and midtown. The City intends to manage parking to avert loss of spaces currently available for businesses during business hours. For example, a large residential project that impacts downtown parking could have ripple effects across the entire environment of downtown. Business parking and event parking could suffer. “I think this is an example of good forethought and planning,” commented McDaniel. “Because you don’t wait until you have the problem to try to deal with it. Again, if people attend the public hearing, see the presentation, and hear the discussion, I think it is going to allay a lot of the concerns. If it doesn’t, people have the opportunity to speak up about those concerns, and have them considered.”