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Commission backs Elmar Village parking variance with condition to study trail safety and buffering
Summary
Planning Commission recommended approval of a variance to add parking spaces at Elmar Village (Omar Village) with conditions to study trail proximity and safety, requiring staff and applicant to explore protective options for the adjacent walking trail.
The Planning Commission on July 28 recommended City Council approval of variances allowing additional parking at the Elmar Village commercial site (Elmar Village LLC) and an increase in impervious coverage on the applicant's 2.42-acre parcel. The motion included an explicit request that staff review the walking-trail placement and safety where the new stalls would abut the trail; the commission vote was 5-0.
Sam (city planner) summarized the request: the applicant proposes reconfiguring and adding parking spaces that would be located approximately 2 feet from the east property line along Keats Avenue in a planned unit development that contains five parcels. The applicant's parcel currently holds roughly 155 parking spaces across the development; ordinance-calculated demand for the proposed uses is 184 spaces. The applicant proposes to add 19 spaces (an increase of about 3.4% impervious cover on the owner's parcel) to help meet shared-parking demand for two restaurants and other tenants. Staff said a 2016 variance that approved those stalls had an expiry and the current request seeks permanent authorization.
Staff told commissioners the existing stormwater pond west of Jorgensen Lane was designed to accommodate up to 6.3 acres of impervious cover and that adding the 19 spaces would bring the development to that 6.3-acre figure so no additional mitigation would be required under the current pond design. Commissioners asked about proximity of the new stalls to a walking trail in the right of way; staff estimated the trail would be roughly four to five feet from the property line at its closest point but said that was only an estimate and that curbing and standard parking-lot construction would be required.
Commissioners raised safety and aesthetic options for protecting the trail, including low fencing, bollards or planting buffers. One commissioner asked staff to study trail placement and recommend safety measures to present to City Council; the motion adopted by the commission included that staff-review request. The commission recorded a 5-0 vote in favor and will forward the application and the staff review request to City Council.
