Zoning panel waives landscaping buffer on Harrison Street to add parking for clinic

The Zoning Advisory Commission voted to waive site design standards for a property on Harrison Street so the applicant can widen a parking area for a proposed physical therapy clinic.

Applicant Wes Waddower told the commission the project would reduce one landscape buffer from 10 feet to 5 feet and extend the existing parking on the north side adjacent to a FedEx site to add a parking space. “Wewe're asking to decrease the landscape buffer from 10 feet to 5 feet,” Waddower said during his presentation.

Assistant Planner Travis Schrobelgen summarized the code requirements: development normally requires a landscaped buffer at the edge of parking lots, including a seven-foot side-yard buffer on the north edge and a 10-foot buffer along Camp Street. Schrobelgen said the applicant requested the narrower buffers to fit an additional parking space and to align the northern parking with the existing lot; he added that the site would continue through the citydevelopment review team and must meet other applicable rules.

Commissioners moved and seconded a motion to waive the site design standards in chapter 13 of the Unified Development Code for the Harrison Street property as submitted. The motion passed on a roll-call voice vote with the commission recorded as voting: Jason (Aye); Froistat (Aye); Lorman (Aye); Russell (Aye); Christ (Aye); Mulligan (Aye).

Commission materials note that the waiver applies only to the buffer dimensions requested; all other zoning and development standards remain in effect and the project must complete the citydevelopment review team process before building permits are issued.