8/9/1988 - Laserfiche WebLink

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M M Attorney Bruce Barkett of the firm of Collins, Brown & Caldwell, came before the Board representing Ronald Kutschinski and speaking in favor of the proposed amendment of the PRO Ordinance. Attorney Barkett felt the amendment is required for two reasons - first, because the ordinance is not clear at all right now, and second, because as it is written now, it doesn't fill its potential as a zoning tool because it excludes medical offices for no reason. He pointed out that PRO is meant for professional uses and quoted the following from staff's memo of July 21, 1988, on PRO District uses: Included within the zoning code is a table entitled "Classification of Commercial Uses", _found on pages 1486.13 - 1486.19 of the Code Book. As with the SIC, this table contains major use categories with specific uses or subcategories listed under each heading. This table is an easy reference for quick determinations. When a use is not "specifically found ,in this table, staff either determines which listed use is most similar to it, or refers to the SIC. However, in the case of offices where the major heading is General Office and`Financial Services; the subcategories clearly differentiate between medical and professional office use. Therefore, since each of the uses are specifically listed, they are considered separate and individual uses within the same major use category. Because the PRO district was adopted. separate from the overall zoning code, the PRO district was not included in the summary table. However, allowed uses are determined for the PRO district in the same manner as for other districts. If the district regulations list only the overall category, that indicates that all subcategory uses under that category are allowed. If under the overall category certain subcategories are listed, those listed are permitted and those not listed are not permitted. In the case of the PRO district, the overall category of "General Office and Financial Services" includes professional offices (as differentiated above), and insurance and real estate services as permitted sub categories of uses. Other unlisted sub categories not permitted in the PRO district include banking and financial services, health services, medical related offices, and optical firms. Attorney Barkett contended that by the nature of your district you can control the type of use that goes in there. Chairman Scurlock asked about the case of a small office starting out and then expanding like the Doctor's Clinic, and Attorney Barkett pointed out that each time it expands, it has to go through site plan approval, and if you make it a Special Exception, you have control over each expansion. He, therefore, would like to ask the Board to put this back in as a Special Exception, which is how the Planning 8 Zoning Commission approved the ordinance. L- 15 BOOK. 16 P,�Ut •,66