12/5/1995 - Laserfiche WebLink

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M M BACKGROUND: Recently, a subdivision proposal and a single family home building permit application brought the need for an LDR change to staff's attention. The needed change relates to the setback implications of locating a new subdivision road right-of-way along the border of an adjacent property. To address this need, staff is proposing an LDR amendment that will be processed along with several other LDR amendments. Staff is now requesting that the Board of County Commissioners invoke the pending ordinance doctrine so that staff can begin applying the substance of the proposed change prior to formal adoption of the proposed LDR amendment. ANALYSIS: •Proposed Change Under current regulations, subdivision developers are allowed to locate new road rights-of-way along the border of a property being subdivided (platted) and adjacent property. Where a right-of-way is to be located next to an adjacent property, current regulations require the subdivision developer to provide landscape improvements between the new subdivision road and the adjacent property. The current regulations allow the buffer to be located completely within the boundaries of the new road right-of-way. Staff's experience over the last several years is that the requirement has worked well by resulting in effective landscape buffers. Although these landscape requirements mitigate the visual impacts of an adjacent road right-of-way, current regulations affect adjacent property owners with increased setbacks. Current regulations apply front yard setbacks in all circumstances where a property is adjacent to a road right-of-way. These front yard setbacks apply even where the right-of-way is established via a new subdivision, where the right-of-way contains a landscape buffer, and where the right-of-way provides no access to the adjacent property. Thus, in certain circumstances, a new subdivision road right-of-way established along the perimeter of an adjacent property could change a side yard setback into a front yard setback for the adjacent property owner. Such a change usually results in a setback increase of 101. This increase is beyond the control of the adjacent property owner and restricts the buildable area of the parcel. To correct the negative impact of the existing setback regulations under such circumstances, staff has drafted the following proposed change to the land development regulations (LDRs): 1. For parcels adjacent to existing subdivision road rights-of- way, where the parcel is separated from the subdivision roadway by required landscape improvements and where the parcel cannot be accessed by the subdivision roadway, the portion of the parcel adjacent to the right-of-way shall be treated as a side yard where a side yard would exist absent the right-of-way. 2. For new subdivisions where a road right-of-way is proposed along the border of the property to be subdivided, the required landscaping improvements shall be located in a separate landscape tract (minimum width: 101) established between the right-of-way and the adjacent property. (Note: the result is that the setbacks on the adjacent property will remain the same.) With such changes, the landscaping requirements would continue to be required, while the negative setback impacts would be eliminated in existing and future situations. DECEMBER 5, 1995 3