Planning board recommends changes to proposed medical overlay zoning; council considers alternatives
Summary
The council reviewed Ordinance 25-124 to amend permitted uses and height limits in the medical zone. The planning board found the version sent to it inconsistent with the master plan and recommended amendments, including protections for senior housing and lower height allowances; council discussed options to accept, defer or formally reject the planning board recommendation on the record.
A second-reading ordinance to amend Chapter 345 (medical zone) drew detailed discussion after the planning board found the ordinance as sent was not consistent with the city’s master plan and proposed amendments.
Staff summarized planning-board recommendations that would adjust permitted uses, preserve senior and assisted-living uses as inherently beneficial, and change height limits in certain lots (for example, reductions described from 10 stories/100 feet down to four stories/45 feet for specified lot widths). The planning board’s recommendations attach a medical overlay rezoning for Greenville and Palisade areas and a staff memo documenting findings.
Council members noted that accepting planning-board amendments now could be a substantial change that would normally require additional hearings; they discussed options to accept the board’s recommendation, defer action to the next council, or explicitly set forth on the record reasons for departing from the planning board’s finding of inconsistency.
No final legislative action was taken during the caucus; staff said an additional attachment would be memorialized by Wednesday and the matter remains on the second-reading calendar for formal action.
