Highland planning commission to revisit PO-zone text amendment after residents press for one-story, residential look

The Highland City Planning Commission voted March 25 to continue consideration of a text amendment to the city's Professional Office (PO) zone proposed by Patterson Homes and asked staff to draft a standalone PO-zone ordinance that preserves the existing master site plan for the currently developed parcels.

The vote followed more than an hour of staff briefing, commissioner questions and public comment from neighbors who asked the commission to keep Building 3 on the east side of Highland Boulevard as a one-story, "residential-looking" structure and to clarify how building height will be measured.

Rob Patterson, planning staff, told the commission the amendment submitted by Patterson Homes would replace the PO zone's multiple site-plan exhibits (Exhibits A, B and C) with a single new architectural exhibit and revised text. Patterson said the applicant's proposal would "remove all of those exhibits" and replace them with the developer's proposed design exhibit; if adopted, the existing set of PO exhibits that currently govern the site would be superseded by that new exhibit.

Vice Chair Jerry Abbott and several commissioners and residents expressed concern that eliminating the existing exhibits would remove protections that had constrained building massing and ensured a residential appearance for buildings along the east side of…