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Commercial/Industrial District Minimum Open Snace Required PRO (Professional, Residential, Office) ..................... 35% OCR (Office, Commercial, Residential) ........................ 35°io MED (Medical) ................................................... 301/o CN (Commercial Neighborhood) .............................. 30`;/0' CL (Commercial Limited) ..................................... 25//0 CG (Commercial General) ...................................... 251/1 CH (Commercial Heavy) ....................................... 20% IL (Industrial Light) ............................................. 15% IG (Industrial General) ............................................ 15% In contrast to the 15% to 351//0 range for conventional districts, all P.D. commercial/industrial rezonings, regardless of whether or not the site is an industrial or redevelopment site, currently require a minimum of 25% open space. Such a requirement prevents use of a 15% to 25% open space requirement on certain commercial/industrial sites where such a standard might be appropriate. A 1510 to 25% standard could be appropriate for certain industrial sites and for certain redevelopment sites such as the former Vero Mall site. An example of using the proposed 15°% open space minimum for a large commercial redevelopment site is the Treasure Coast Plaza Shopping Center. Located in the City of Vero Beach and subject to the City's development regulations, this site was redeveloped and upgraded years ago and has only 7.9% open space. Thus, there is local precedent for successfully redeveloping large non -conforming commercial sites with significantly less than 25°0 open space. Staffs proposal is to change the current P.D. open space requirements for newly created P.D. commercial/industrial zong districts to allow the open space standards of such districts to fall within the same open space range as the conventional commercial/industrial districts (15% to 3511'0). By approving this amendment, the county would on a project -by -project basis have the ability to create and approve P.D. zoning districts for special redevelopment and industrial projects that should not be held to a 2511'0 minimum open space standard. The ability to use P.D. districts for such sites is better than the alternatives of relying on variances and conventional rezonings or inadvertently impeding redevelopment or desirable forms of industrial development. P.D. commercial/industrial rezonings are superior to these alternatives because the P.D. process can guarantee and "lock -in" public benefits through upgraded design standards, and provide greater protections by limiting uses. Through the P.D. process, these benefits and protections can be secured while providing necessary flexibility for commercial/industrial land owners and developers. Such flexibility may be an essential incentive for desirable redevelopment or industrial development of certain sites. The proposed amendment would not change P.D. open space requirements for any conservation, agricultural, or residential projects. Also, the proposed amendment would not change open space standards for P.D. special exception applications. Such special exception applications would continue to be controlled by the project site's underlying conventional zoning district. In essence, the amendment will provide the Board of County Commissioners the flexibility to use the P.D. rezoning process as a mechanism to establish reasonable open space requirements for certain redevelopment and industrial sites while guaranteeing quality redevelopment or development of those sites. RECOMIkIENDATION Staff recommends that the Board of County Commissioners adopt the proposed amendment. ATTACHMENTS 1. Draft PSAC Minutes (October 26, 2001 Meeting) 2. Draft PZC Minutes Excerpt (November S. 2001 Meeting) 3. Proposed Amendment Ordinance DECEMBER 4, 2001 -93- J r