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repair type uses which have a small percentage of site area needed for parking. The County's FAR limits are much lower than FARs in metropolitan areas where building height restrictions are looser and FARs may exceed 20, allowing for skyscrapers. For example, in the Miami central business district, the FAR is unlimited. In the case of the County's existing LDRs, for single story buildings in CH, IL, and IG there is a differential between the building coverage maximum (40%) and the FAR of .50 for industrial, storage,and warehouse buildings. For a single story building,that differential is essentially 10%of the total site area. Under the existing 40% building coverage maximum, a 2"d floor building component would be necessary to achieve the maximum .50 FAR. The applicant's request is to make the building coverage and floor area ratio consistent so the FAR can be maximized for single story warehouse and industrial buildings. In addition to the dimensional criteria, other development criteria usually combine to limit a site's maximum building size for a single story building. Those criteria include the amount of required parking, minimum open space, area needed for drainage, and special buffers if such sites abut residential property. Taking into account that combination of factors, certain low parking demand heavy commercial and industrial buildings such as warehouse/industrial buildings,which are located away from residential areas (no special buffer requirements), would be able to exceed the current 40%maximum building coverage if the building coverage limitation was increased to match the.50 FAR, as requested. As structured, the proposed amendment does not affect the amount of required green open space, landscaping, or buffering on a warehouse or industrial site/lot but will allow an increased ground floor building footprint for a single story warehouse/industrial building if all other LDR criteria (parking, drainage, setbacks, landscaping/buffering) are met. Meeting those criteria and taking advantage of the proposed building coverage increase will be possible based on project design, especially on lots within industrial subdivisions where stormwater management facilities are located on common tracts rather than on individual lots. In addition, the LDR amendment will allow the same amount of floor area to be built at the ground level as currently allowed by a building with a 2"d story component, which can be less efficient, especially for most warehousing and industrial facilities. CONCLUSION: If adopted, the proposed change will accommodate more single-story warehouse and industrial building area on properties zoned for the highest intensity non-residential use(CH,IL,IG)on sites separated from residential areas, and will eliminate the existing code's"incentive" for multi-story components of warehouse/industrial buildings on such sites. In staffs opinion,the increased ground floor building area will allow for greater and more efficient use of appropriate heavy commercial and industrial sites while meeting all other development standards including setbacks, open space, landscaping,stormwater management,and parking requirements. Allowing greater design flexibility and use of such sites will accommodate economic development and allow more efficient use of the County's existing CH,IL, and IG zoned properties for single story warehouse/industrial buildings. 132 F:\Community Development\CurDev\BCC\2015 BCC\911 ch,il,ig bldg coverage.rtf 3