5/21/1991 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

MAY 26 1 1991 BU®K 83 FAGS 401 The first two criteria allow the county to approve a request to amend the land use map only if a mistake or oversight was made regarding the property during preparation of the comprehensive plan. While preparing the comprehensive plan, the county looked at each commercial node and determined node size based upon the amount of existing development and potential growth projected through the year 2010 within the general market area of the node. From this research, the county then established each node boundary and specified each node's size. The subject property was considered at that time and was not included in the Roseland Road/U.S.#1 Hospital -Commercial Node. Therefore, there was no mistake nor oversight made in relation to the subject property when preparing the comprehensive plan. The third criterion of Policy 13.3 allows the county to amend the land use map if changes in circumstances affecting the subject property have occurred since the 1990 adoption of the comprehensive plan. Such ,a change could relate to the property itself, such as an unforeseen adjacent incompatible use being established. In this case the subject property is currently surrounded on two sides by vacant land, buffered from a mobile home park on another side, and adjacent to buffered commercial development on one side; 'therefore, no incompatible uses have been established on adjacent property. II Alternately, a change in circumstances affecting the subject property could occur if substantial development took place in the surrounding area since the adoption of the Comprehensive Plan in February, 1990. An example of this would be the approval of several site plans for property within the Roseland Road/U.S.,#1 Hospital -Commercial Node. To date, no site plans have been submitted for review by planning staff for property within this node since the adoption of the Comprehensive Plan in February, 1990; therefore, no change in circumstances affecting the subject property has occurred since the adoption of the Comprehensive Plan in 1990. In fact, Future Land Use Element Policy 1.23 specifically addresses the issue of node expansion in relation to the amount of development in that node. -Future Land Use Policy 1.23 Policy 1.23 of the Future Land Use Element states that no node "'should be considered for expansion unless 70% of the land area ,''(less rights-of-way) is' developed,• approved for development, or .otherwise warranted by the proposed development. The intent of :'Policy 1.23 is to establish specific criteria for node expansion. `.Without such criteria, 'decisions are often arbitrary and inconsistent. The 70% standard then is a measure of whether a node ..needs to be expanded. For that reason calculating the percent of :a.:node that is developed involves determining the .acreage characterized by approved commercial site plans.and then dividing that amount by the total node acreage: :.. .-When the Comprehensive Plan'was adopted, a general calculation.of. ..acreage was made for each node. At that .time the county looked at :each commercial node and established each node's size based upon ;.,the amount of existing development and potential growth projected through the year 2010. The Roseland-.Road/U.S. #1.'Hospital- ,'Commercial Node was established at ±120 acres of land at that time. ,During preparation of the Comprehensive Plan, county staff .did not have the opportunity to determine exact size calculations for each node. At that time the size of each node was set using an estimate of overall node acreage and lessing out right-of-way. When the subject request was submitted, staff needed to determine whether or. not the request met the 70% development criterion to qualify for node expansion. Staff undertook this analysis by compiling a list of all parcels in the node, obtaining the acreage of each parcel from the Property Appraiser's tax maps, and aggregating these acreage amounts. By using this method, staff calculated the node's size to be approximately 129 acres. Since the 129 acres substantially exceeded the original figure of 120 acres established as the node size and because the tax maps are known to be inaccurate, planning staff requested that the County Surveyor calculate the acreage of the node. Using the node legal description, an aerial photo and a planimeter, the surveyor determined the node size to be 122 acres of land. Subsequently, the applicant hired a professional surveyor who confirmed the 122 acre size. 24