Agenda #8
memorandum
to: Mayor and Town Council
from: W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager
subject: Response to Petition from the Mason Farm Neighborhood Association
date: November 21 , 2005
The purpose of this report is to respond to a petition from residents of the Mason Farm neighborhood requesting designation as a Neighborhood Conservation District and requesting immediate protection (please see Attachment 1).
The attached resolution would authorize the Manager to request proposals from consultants in July 2006 to develop a Neighborhood Conservation District for the Mason Farm neighborhood.
On October 24, 2005, representatives from the Mason Farm Neighborhood Association presented a petition to the Council requesting that it be designated as a Neighborhood Conservation District. The Neighborhood Association also requested that the following be prohibited during the period when the petition is under consideration: 1) the subdivision of lots; and 2) the construction of new units/remodeling of existing units that would create more than one dwelling unit on a single lot, including duplexes, except for accessory apartments expressly permitted by the Chapel Hill Land Use Management Ordinance.
Neighborhood Conservation District Designation
The Land Use Management Ordinance adopted by the Council on January 27, 2003 includes a provision for creation of Neighborhood Conservation Districts. Purposes for creating a Neighborhood Conservation District include preservation and protection of unique and distinctive older in-town residential neighborhoods or commercial districts which contribute significantly to the overall character and identity of the Town. As stated in the Land Use Management Ordinance, a Neighborhood Conservation District is created as an overlay zoning district by enactment of an ordinance to designate the district.
The Land Use Management Ordinance provides three ways to initiate a Neighborhood Conservation District development process:
· at the direction of the Town Council; or
· at the request of owners representing 51% of the land area within the proposed district; or
· at the request of 51% of property owners in a proposed district.
We are in the process of evaluating this petition to determine if 51% of the landowners or property owners within the proposed district in the Mason Farm neighborhood signed the petition.
On February 23, 2004, the Town Council established the first Neighborhood Conservation District in the Northside Area. The work took eleven months from initiation of the process to enactment of the ordinance. The process included the Council appointing a citizens’ advisory committee which included representation from the Planning Board.
On June 15, 2005, the Council adopted a resolution to engage Clarion Associates to prepare and complete four Neighborhood Conservation Districts by April 2006. The four neighborhoods are: Pine Knolls, Morgan Creek/Kings Mill Road, Coker Hills, and Greenwood. The process for considering designations as Neighborhood Conservation Districts is currently underway.
We expect that Clarion Associates will complete its portion of the Neighborhood Conservation District process in April 2006. Upon completion of Clarion’s work, we anticipate that the Council would schedule public hearings to receive citizen comments on the proposed boundaries and guidelines for the Neighborhood Conservation Districts prior to consideration of adopting overlay zones. We believe that the process should be complete by June 2006.
In order to consider designation of the Mason Farm neighborhood as a Neighborhood Conservation District, the Council could consider budgeting funds for professional contracted services to complete this Neighborhood Conservation District. If the Council wishes, we could contact consultants and obtain estimates for the cost of completing a Neighborhood Conservation District for this neighborhood. Given that we are currently working with a consultant on four Neighborhood Conservation District’s, we recommend that if the Council chooses to contract services that work begin in July 2006.
Request to prohibit development during consideration of petition
The petition submitted by the Neighborhood Association requests that the following be prohibited while the Neighborhood Conservation District is under consideration: 1) the subdivision of lots; and 2) the construction of new units/remodeling of existing units that would create more than one dwelling unit on a single lot, including duplexes, except for accessory apartments expressly permitted by the Chapel Hill Land Use Management Ordinance.
1. Subdivision of Lots
The Council’s Comprehensive Plan Goals call for preservation of existing neighborhoods. If the Council agrees with the Neighborhood Association petition, we believe it would be consistent with Council objectives to take steps to help preserve the character of this neighborhood. A neighborhood rezoning could consider changing the existing Residential-1 designation (17,000 square foot minimum lot size) to a zoning district which requires a larger minimum lot size such as Residential-Low Density 1 (one-acre minimum lot size) or Residential-1A (25,000 square foot minimum lot size). We believe that we could perform an analysis of the neighborhood and any potential impacts of a rezoning of this type for the Council by January 9, 2006.
A rezoning was recently enacted for the Greenwood neighborhood for similar reasons. In February 2005, the Council received a petition from the Planning Board asking the Council to consider initiating a Neighborhood Conservation District process for the Greenwood neighborhood. At that time, we advised that an action the Council could take to protect the character of the neighborhood was to change the zoning designation of properties to another existing zoning district with larger minimum lot sizes. On April 25, 2005, the Council enacted an ordinance to amend the Town’s Zoning Atlas to rezone properties in the Greenwood neighborhood from Residential-1 to Residential-Low Density 1.
A rezoning can be considered and acted by the Council, and would remain in place until the Council is able to make a subsequent decision regarding zoning and/or Neighborhood Conservation District plans for this neighborhood. Rezoning the neighborhood to a larger-lot zoning district may create nonconforming lots, because there may be lots in the Mason Farm neighborhood that are smaller than what would be the new minimum, such as a one acre minimum. We do not currently know how many lots are less than one acre in size, but would have that information available in a January 9, 2006 report.
2. Construction of new units/Remodeling of Existing Units
As stated in the Land Use Management Ordinance, the creation of more than one unit on a lot through new construction or remodeling is not permitted in the Residential-1 zoning district. Duplexes are not a permitted use in the Residential-1 zoning district. Accessory apartments are permitted if sufficient lot size is available. We believe that the rezoning proposed above would address many of the concerns raised by the Neighborhood Association.
We recommend that the Council adopt the attached resolution to authorize the Manager to request proposals from consultants in July 2006 to develop a Neighborhood Conservation District for the Mason Farm neighborhood.
We believe that a rezoning could address some of the current concerns about the subdivision of lots. We recommend that the Council consider initiating a rezoning of the neighborhood that would be similar to the rezoning process used in the Greenwood neighborhood. We will return to the Council on January 9, 2006 with an analysis of the neighborhood including the number of lots that could potentially be subdivided, potential impacts of a rezoning, proposed schedule for proceeding with a rezoning, and the effect of a rezoning on existing uses.