11/10/1998 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

ANALYSIS OF REASONABLENESS OF PROPOSED AMENDMENTS Future Land Use Element This is a minor change clarifying that C-1 designated parcels are publicly owned or controlled, and that publicly owned spoil islands in the Indian River Lagoon are designated C-1. This is a minor change that ensures that Policies 1.12 and 1.14 will be consistent with Policies 1.31 and 1.37. Consistent with state law, this policy adds land use intensity standards for the Commercial/Industrial, Public Facilities, and Recreation land use designations. For residential land use designations, land use intensity standards, in the form of maximum densities, are already found in the plan. The generally accepted intensity standard for non-residential development is Floor Area Ratio (FAR). FAR is a measure of non-residential land use intensity expressed as the ratio of building floor space on a parcel to total parcel area. For example, a 10,000 square foot building on a one acre parcel has a .23 FAR (10,000/43,560 = .23). In such a case, a 5,000 square foot second story would increase the FAR to .34 (15,000/43,560 = .34). Although the county has not had an established FAR in its Comprehensive Plan, Future Land Use Element Policy 1.17 and other plan policies require the county to adopt land development regulations that regulate the mass and height of buildings, the amount of impervious surface, the amount of parldng, and the amount of open space. These land development regulations have been adopted and have effectively controlled non-residential land use intensities. Within Indian River County, most non-residential developments generally have FAR's within the 0.1 to 0.2 range. The highest FAR is approximately 0.45, while the lowest FAR is approximately 0.07. Therefore, the county's land development regulations generally result in development occurring at an intensity of less than a 0.45 FAR Different non-residential uses, however, have different impacts on public facilities and services, and on surrounding areas. For example, according to the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), 1,000 square feet of retail uses, 6,000 square feet of general office uses and 14,000 square feet of general industrial uses all generate 98 peak hour trips. Therefore, one FAR limit is not appropriate for all non-residential uses. In fact, to equally limit the impacts of different uses, it is necessary to allow a greater FAR for general industrial use than for office uses, and a greater FAR for office uses than for retail uses. For that reason, the proposed changes to Policy 1.16 set a three tiered FAR limit. Retail uses are limited to an FAR of 0.23, office uses are limited to an FAR of 0.35, and industrial and storage uses are limited to an FAR of 0.50. Policy 1.29 limits development within the Recreation land use designation to an FAR of 0.25. Those levels of intensity are consistent with the low-density, low- rise character of the county. November 10, 1998 47 BOOK PAGE a6