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Panel approves open-space changes, narrows parking credit and punts stormwater questions
Summary
The LDRC moved technical open-space amendments to the county board after adopting a 10% maximum parking-credit rule for improved open space and agreeing to revisit stormwater-pond language with stormwater staff and other experts.
The Marion County Land Development Regulation Commission voted to forward revised open-space standards to the Board of County Commissioners while carving out follow-up work on stormwater ponds and natural-open-space definitions.
County landscape staff highlighted new language that emphasizes wildlife corridors and replaces “maintenance” with “management” for natural open space. Commissioners debated whether open-space conveyance should default to Marion County or to homeowners associations and raised questions about counting stormwater facilities toward natural open space.
The commission resolved two measurable items: it set a cap so no more than 10% of an improved open-space area may be counted as parking that primarily serves the open space (the commission framed this as a maximum, not a minimum), and it lowered the recommended minimum dog-park size from a half-acre to 0.25 acre for smaller subdivisions, with staff asked to consult animal control and return with technical guidance. “I would say a 10% maximum of the iOS space can be counted towards the used as parking,” a commissioner said when proposing the change; the board accepted a maximum cap in principle.
Stormwater facilities drew lengthier debate. Several commissioners argued that prohibiting constructed stormwater facilities inside areas designated as natural open space could be problematic because some stormwater ponds also function as flood-storage areas used in FEMA flood analyses and therefore may not count toward open-space credit. Tracy Straub, assistant county administrator and a former county stormwater engineer, explained that when stormwater ponds show up in a floodplain analysis they “do not get to take open space credit,” complicating any blanket prohibition. Commissioners asked staff to bring stormwater experts and to craft clearer definitions (for example, what precisely constitutes “natural open space”) before the Board of County Commissioners hearing.
What happens next: The LDRC approved sending the open-space revisions with modifications to the Board of County Commissioners and placed stormwater/definition language on a staff list for a future workshop to refine the technical criteria and FEMA implications.
