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Council approves modified Heritage Creekside zoning with phased nonresidential requirement and air‑intake stipulations
Summary
The council approved amendments to the Heritage Creekside UMU‑1 district to add residential and entertainment uses and expand the district, adopting phasing requirements for 12,000 square feet of nonresidential development before occupancy of certain multifamily blocks and placing limits on air‑intake locations to protect resident air quality.
The City Council voted to approve a modification to the Heritage Creekside Urban Mixed Use 1 (UMU‑1) development plan after a lengthy public hearing and debate over phasing requirements and building air‑intake standards.
Planning Director Christina Day presented the zoning case (25‑20‑25‑003), explaining the proposal would expand the UMU‑1 district by about 4.1 acres, increase the allowable residential component above previous UMU mixes, and permit certain outdoor commercial amusement uses (miniature golf, game courts and similar attractions) in specified blocks. Day told the council that the Planning & Zoning Commission recommended approval with changes to phasing and air‑intake requirements and that the applicant presented alternate phasing language.
Tim Harris, representing Rosewood Property Company (the applicant), described market conditions that have limited office demand in the corridor and said the developer is seeking flexibility to distribute the required 12,000 square feet of nonresidential shell or permit work across a broader set of blocks (including office blocks) rather than restricting credit to a small set of retail blocks. "We are just asking to distribute the 12,000 [square feet] over more blocks so we aren't forced into doing something that won't work," a counsel for the applicant said.
Opponents and at least one councilor raised policy objections to altering established UMU districts in response to the post‑SB 840 environment and questioned whether the applicant could instead pursue development under the newer state statute. Planning staff and some council members argued the negotiated phasing and mitigation items represent an acceptable compromise that preserves some nonresidential commitments in the district; commissioners had also negotiated mitigation such as 100‑foot landscape buffers or nonresidential building standards in certain blocks.
The council approved the zoning amendment with a motion tying issuance of certificates of occupancy for multifamily in Block F to the issuance (or finaling) of building permits totaling 12,000 square feet of nonresidential space in designated blocks and with stipulations on air‑intake locations: for Block F, air intake must be from the north or interior courtyards; for Block A2 it must be from the east and north (the council’s motion corrected and clarified the intake locations). The ordinance passed 5–2 with one abstention.
What happens next: staff will finalize required findings forms and implement the phased permitting conditions in subsequent development review. The applicant will proceed to satisfy the phasing conditions before receiving occupancy for specified multifamily blocks.
