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Erie council authorizes start of Erie Town Center PD amendment to add live-work units and clarify standards
Summary
The council voted to authorize staff to submit a land-use application to amend the Erie Town Center planned development, adding live-work units in some commercial areas, allowing select civic uses and parking structures up to 45 feet in limited zones, clarifying frontage and parking rules, and adding trail linkages; councilors sought clarifications about heights and market demand.
The Erie Town Council authorized staff to initiate a land-use application to amend the Erie Town Center planned development (PD), a package of zoning and text changes intended to make the town center more flexible for mixed uses and to address development challenges reported by applicants.
Deborah (last name not provided), presenting what she described as her last presentation to council before retirement, outlined the amendment's scope. Planning staff said the amendment would: add live-work units in the Erie 4 Corners commercial area; preserve some pure commercial zones while allowing greater mixed-use flexibility in other parcels; permit certain civic buildings and parking structures up to 45 feet in specified areas while keeping a 35-foot maximum elsewhere; clarify frontage build-out calculations to exclude vehicular access drives and pedestrian walkways; set a parking maximum at 125% of the standard (consistent with the UDC) and allow adjustments (for hotels and grocers) based on parking studies; and add a trail linkage from Creekside neighborhood over to County Line Road.
"We're proposing that we would also allow that kind of mix of uses on the 3 parcels that are vacant," the presenter said, explaining staff had spoken with developers who reported difficulty fitting national retail models into the frontage requirements. Sarah Nirmala, Planning and Development Director, noted the proposal arose from project implementation experience and developer conversations.
Council members asked whether a 45-foot allowance would materially change building massing and sought examples of applicants who had been unable to build under current standards; staff said the 45 feet would apply only to a few specific uses (hotels, parking structures) and that live-work units would remain at a standard 35-foot height.
After questions and comment, the council moved and approved the packet-listed resolution cited during the meeting as "26 0 3 0" to authorize submission of the PD amendment application. The amendment will proceed through the normal land-use review process including neighborhood meetings, planning commission public hearing, and ultimately a council public hearing and final decision.
