Title
Conduct a Public Hearing to Consider/Discuss/Act on a Request by the City of McKinney to Amend Chapter 146 (Zoning Regulations), Appendix G (MTC - McKinney Town Center Zoning District) of the Code of Ordinances, and Accompanying Ordinance
Summary
COUNCIL GOAL: Direction for Strategic and Economic Growth
(1C: Provide a strong economy by facilitating a balance between industrial, commercial, residential and open space)
MEETING DATE: April 2, 2019
DEPARTMENT: Planning
CONTACT: Samantha Pickett, AICP, Planning Manager
Jennifer Arnold, AICP, Director of Planning
RECOMMENDED CITY COUNCIL ACTION: Staff recommends approval of the proposed amendments.
ITEM SUMMARY: As part of the Strategic Goals workshop for Fiscal Year 2019, City Council requested that Staff review and amend the McKinney Town Center Zoning District (the “MTC”) to remove impediments to development. Staff reviewed cases and the Ordinance for common variances, known conflicts, and administrative issues. These amendments are intended to address these issues by providing alternative options for the most common variances and increase the ease of using the Ordinance through non-substantive changes.
Staff began by looking all MTC cases since its implementation and specifically analyzing any of those cases with design exceptions and modifications. Following the preliminary analyses, Staff announced the potential amendments and an open house on the City website as well as through an email memo to all planning applicants in our system. The open house was held on February 13, 2019.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION: In 2006, Staff began a study of downtown that would ultimately help encourage redevelopment and growth, known as Phase I of the Town Center Study. After numerous meetings and workshops with the public, City Council approved the report in 2008, simultaneously launching Phase II of the Study. This phase involved implementing many of the ideas from Phase I, including the creation of a form-based code for downtown. This code was adopted as the MTC - McKinney Town Center Zoning District in 2013 and consists of seven character districts, each with unique features based on their location, which help preserve the character and encourage redevelopment of historic downtown McKinney.
In order to maintain high quality development that is in line with the market and development community, Staff recognizes the importance of reviewing the Ordinance from time to time to ensure that it is still performing optimally. This analysis has allowed Staff to pinpoint the most common deviation requests and propose amendments to the Ordinance that will decrease deviation requests while maintaining the development standards expected for the MTC.
PROPOSED AMENDMENTS: Staff analyzed the cases submitted since 2013 to narrow down those that requested design exceptions. Additionally, Staff reviewed the format of the Ordinance to see if non-substantive changes could be made to improve administration and accessibility. The following amendments are intended to improve the Ordinance from an administrative standpoint and provide alternative variance options for the most common requests.
• Driveway Location: Driveways are currently only permitted from Service Streets unless the site has no adjacency to one. In order to have two points of access and maintain spacing and maneuvering requirements, a variance is typically requested to have a second point located on a non-Service Street. Being able to locate a second point of access on a Pedestrian Priority “B” Street, while maintaining the primary point on a Service Street, increases the accessibility of sites while still keeping the flow of traffic and design of the site in line with the intent of the MTC.
• Transparency: With the current requirement, the first floor along all Pedestrian Priority “A” and most Pedestrian Priority “B” Streets is required to consist of at least 65% windows and doors. While this does ensure the interaction of interior and exterior spaces, there are times when this requirement can be achieved through porticos, patios and other features, or when it is difficult to meet due to a building being a single story in height. As Staff recognizes that there may be alternative ways to achieve this interaction, a minor modification has been added to allow a reduction down to 50% transparency so long as this intent is met.
• Administrative Changes: Currently the Building Design Standards section of the Ordinance blends together a range of requirements, which can be difficult to decipher. In order to improve the readability of the Ordinance for both Staff and applicants, the standards have been organized in order of the Character Districts. This allows someone developing in a specific district to only have to consult one section that contains all the pertinent regulations rather than searching throughout for the applicable pieces.
OPPOSITION TO OR SUPPORT OF REQUEST: Staff has received no emails or phone calls in support of or opposition to the proposed amendments.
BOARD OR COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION: On March 26, 2019 the Planning and Zoning Commission voted 6-0-0 to recommend approval of the proposed amendments.