1976-10-26 - Laserfiche WebLink

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• October 7, 1976 TO: The Honorable Mayor and Members of the New Brighton Council FROM: Gene Fisher SUBJECT: Zoning Variances & Council Resolution ##17.71 Gentlemen: It seems that there was some confusion in regard to Resolution No. 1771. The purpose of this memo is to clarify the intent of that resolution and to indicate future requests I will place before the City Council regarding zoning variance policy. As you all know, the New Brighton Zoning Code contains two basic types of regulations: 1. Regulations indicating limits as to how much land use is allowed. I will call these Primary Zoning Regulations. 2. Regulations indicating how the land use is to be allowed. I will call these Secondary Zoning Regulations. The primary zoning regulations include the floor area ratio, the green area requirement per apartment unit, etc. Generally speaking the primary zoning regulations depend on how many acres of land the applicant owns or how many living units he can legally construct, or has. The secondary zoning regulations include setbacks, buffering requirements, etc. Generally speaking the secondary zoning regulations depend on how the particular property is situated with respect to the street or adjoining property. To some extent the secondary zoning requirements also tend to determine how much land use is to be allowed. This topic will become an area of intensive discussion as we proceed. My first endeavor is to seek a series of policy positions regarding variance to the primary zoning requirements. (The discussion of Resolution No. 1771 will serve as an example.) Primary zoning requiremmnts are in fact a legislative statement as to the fair share of land use allowed. They directly determine land values. This is particularly true on commercial and industrial property where value is determined, to a large extent, by the ability of property to produce cash flow.