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By Frank Ruggiero
Parking, watersheds and sidewalks were on the agenda for Monday’s
town of Boone quarterly public hearing.
Parking Requirements
The first case saw a Boone Town Council request to amend the
Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) as an interim measure to
promote smart growth principles, reducing the number of parking
spaces required for residential and commercial development.
John Spear, director of Boone Development Services, recalled
how a recent smart growth audit yielded numerous recommendations,
with the highest priority being a land-use master plan, the
development of which is currently under way.
“Other recommendations involved incremental steps that
we could take to align the UDO with more of the smart growth
principles we’re striving for, as well as to align the
UDO with the comprehensive plan, which was updated in 2006,
so parking requirements was one of the priority issues selected
as an incremental measure,” Spear said.
The interim language reduces the number of minimum required
parking spaces that are currently required with residential
land uses, also providing for the maximum number of spaces that
are allowed in conjunction with commercial use, in lieu of the
minimum standard, Spear said.
Council member Stephen Phillip said discussion among planning
commissioners centered around residential parking downtown,
in that anyone providing residential housing in that area should
provide some parking.
Spear said there was extensive discussion about downtown parking,
with the parking subcommittee offering input from the Downtown
Boone Development Association.
One suggestion is to see no parking requirements at all in
downtown, he said, while another sees parking based on land
use, rather than geographic locations. The new text controls
parking with a minimum number of spaces versus a maximum, all
based on land use.
Under the new language, single-family residences would require
a minimum of two spaces; two-family residences three spaces;
multi-family residences one space per bedroom unit, one space
per unit for multi-family residences limited to the elderly,
one space per unit for affordable rental units and one space
per unit for affordable owner-occupied units; group homes one
space per four beds; and hotels or rooms for rent one space
per rentable room.
Commercial retail would require five spaces per 1,000 square
feet; commercial wholesale three spaces per 1,000 square feet;
convenience stores five spaces per 1,000 square feet; large-scale
retail five spaces per 1,000 square feet; commercial office
five spaces per 1,000 square feet; industrial uses two spaces
per 1,000 square feet; schools five spaces per classroom; and
churches the total spaces equal to half the seating capacity.
Recreation and entertainment uses would require five spaces
per 1,000 square feet; institutional residence two spaces per
bed; restaurants 12 spaces per 1,000 square feet; car sales
and service 20 spaces per 1,000 square feet for the first 2,000
square feet and 10 spaces per 1,000 square feet for additional
square footage above 2,000; animal services five spaces per
1,000 square feet; emergency services five spaces per 1,000
square feet; dry cleaners five spaces per 1,000 square feet;
open air markets five spaces per 1,000 square feet; funeral
homes 12 spaces per 1,000 square feet; day care three spaces
per 1,000 square feet; and combination uses as applied to individual
uses.
Stebbins Properties LLC
The second case saw a zoning map amendment request filed by
Stebbins Properties LLC to remove a portion of land from the
designated water supply watershed. The land consists of two
acres on Deck Hill Road, undeveloped and adjacent to the town’s
water treatment plant.
Spear told council and commission members that the request
would remove a portion that property owners feel does not drain
into the town’s water supply and therefore should not be
included in the watershed.
Spear provided a brief history of watershed protection in
North Carolina, telling how the Environmental Management Commission
and the Division of Water Quality have administered a water
supply protection program since 1986.
“Initially, the program was administered voluntarily
by counties and municipalities pursuing protective measures
for their water supply watersheds,” Spear said. “The
measures include limitations on the number and type of wastewater
discharges, which were allowed in the water supply watersheds.”
The Division of Water Quality monitored the limits, and local
governments would adopt and enforce land-use control ordinances
to protect the surface waters from non-point pollution sources,
such as storm-water runoff, Spear explained.
In accordance with the state’s watershed protection rules,
the town of Boone simultaneously adopted both the watershed
protection map and watershed protection ordinance in May 1993,
effective on June 30, 1993.
Stebbins Properties hired an engineer to gather topographic
and aerial data on its property, also implementing a software
modeling program to indicate the drainage area and patterns
that exist over the property, Spear said, adding that planning
staff agrees with the engineers’ assessment.
Sidewalk Standards
The final request saw a town council request to amend the
UDO to re-establish guidelines for requiring sidewalks and a
payment in lieu of sidewalk construction.
In 2007, Spear said, there were additional requirements for
sidewalks included in the UDO, and the new language modifies
the requirements by moving them together into one section.
The section incorporates the previous requirements, Spear
said, while also adding a provision that allows for the payment
in lieu option, done in conjunction with the sidewalk priorities
map.
The provision would require sidewalks for all new construction
and in connection with improvements, renovations, additions
or expansions to existing structures in all new major subdivisions,
all new multi-family residential development, all new office,
institutional, commercial and industrial development, any combination
of the aforementioned uses and all existing office, institutional,
commercial and industrial development improvements that increase
the value of the structure by more than 50 percent of its appraised
valuation.
Next Up
The Boone Area Planning Commission will discuss these cases,
as well as the proposed neighborhood conservation district for
the Queen Street area, at its regular meeting Monday, Feb. 9,
at 7 p.m. in council chambers, located at 1500 Blowing Rock
Road.
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