Date: January 14, 2008
Place: Bradford Public Library
Project: City of Bradford Master Plan
Client: City of Bradford
Time: 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm
MCF No.: 44506002
Attendees:
John Peterson
Deborah Lunden
Chris Wolcott
Rick Esch
David Linden
John Kohler
Jeff Andrews
Sara Andrews
Pete Buchheit
Roberta Sarraf, Zoning/Planning Consultant
Albert Filoni, MacLachlan, Cornelius & Filoni, Inc.
Amy Maceyko, MacLachlan, Cornelius & Filoni, Inc.
Purpose: To discuss commercial districts in the zoning code.
Items Discussed:
1. Ms. Sarraf reviewed the handouts she prepared for this meeting (posted separately) and the MCF team reviewed the zoning maps (posted separately). More comments about them...
2. Ms. Andrews commented that she expects to see further commercial development on West Washington Street to the boundary of the city and for the residences to gradually go away. On the other side of the city border the zoning is residential in Bradford Township. At the border where the city meets Foster Township the zoning is R8 in Foster Township and R6 & M2 in the city.
3. The biggest red flag in the current zoning code is the R-4A section along East Main Street in the city. It's a residential district that allows a number of small commercial functions. It's likely that these functions were added to the code to deal with existing or added commercial functions instead of just grandfathering or granting variances for the outlying uses. This issue is found in other zones in the code as well.
4. There is concern about the depreciation of the houses along East Main Street. Having the R4A designation hasn't helped to solve this problem and businesses tend to cherry pick the better houses, leaving the worse houses to depreciate further.
5. Problems with the street include the past allowances of letting businesses put driveways and small parking lots in front of converted homes. There are also a lot of rentals along this stretch of East Main Street. Ms. Sarraf recommends that the committee start with the needs and uses for downtown first, and then work on other commercial areas from there.
6. Ms. Sarraf reviewed the main types of commercial zoning districts. These are described in terms of general character of development, not specific businesses that are permitted or disallowed.
a. Neighborhood Commercial
1. Pedestrian and vehicle oriented development
2. Accommodates small businesses (floor area limitation) on individual lots
3. Customary minimum lot size = 10,000 s.f.
4. Usually 1-story commercial buildings, 1-2 story office buildings
5. Each lot has separate access to the public street
b. Downtown Business District
1. Pedestrian oriented development
2. May include residential uses
3. Accommodates multiple uses in one building or one lot
4. Usually involves small lots, “zero” side yards, minimal front setbacks
5. Often multi-story buildings
c. Highway / General Commercial
1. Vehicle oriented development
2. Accommodates individual businesses on separate lots
3. Customary minimum lot size = 10,000 s.f. to 21,780 s.f. (half –acre)
4. Usually 1-2 story buildings
5. Every lot has separate access to the public street
d. Shopping Center
1. Accommodates “strip centers” or planned shopping centers
2. Includes multiple businesses on the same site, often includes “outparcels”
3. Designed with shared access, shared parking and shared signage
4. Mnimizes the number of points of access to the public street
5. All parking is provided on site.
7. Downtown typically houses retail of a character that uses small spaces and is in area that has mixed-use buildings with retail on the ground floor and offices or apartments above.
8. The shopping center “district” between downtown and 219 is well established and isn't something that is going to be removed, even if the zoning changes to disallow such conditions. But Ms. Sarraf commented that that commercial segment could be used to encourage passersby to get off the highway and once they are off the the shopping centers can help bring people to downtown.
9. Ms. Sarraf also commented that in the end it will be very important to have the zoning board on the same page as this committee and with the new zoning code. A new code won't mean anything if the will of the board isn't with it. There are at least two popular businesses doing well on East Main Street (Miss Maggie's, The Potting Shed) and both were given variances to open in their location. The committee isn't saying that these businesses are a problem, but wouldn't it be better for everyone if they were in a more purely commercial location?
10. Mr. Buchheit commented that the University's weekend population is going to go up to 500-600 students. This group is going to start to make a bigger impact and will be looking for more weekend activities.
11. Ms. Sarraf about the commercial zoning districts in Foster Township outside of the Foster Brook area. Mr. Wolcott said that there are a number of “mom and pop” shops in areas that are primarily residential. It isn't clear that it is necessary to have these outlying roads allow commercial uses and the manufacturing areas in Foster Township need to be defined better as well. Lafferty Hollow only allows light manufacturing, but maybe it should allow for heavier uses. Derrick Road and Kendall Road are C2, so basically anything can go there. This might not be the best designation. Control of signage and lighting is critical in residential areas, and a C2 designation doesn't provide much control for these attributes.
12. The group will discuss residential districts and parameters at the next zoning subcommittee meeting. There are too many districts and too many other uses allowed in many of them.
With no further items for discussion, the meeting was adjourned. The foregoing constitutes the major items accepted by the attendees. If there are any additions or corrections to these minutes, please notify the Architect.
Respectfully submitted,
MacLachlan, Cornelius & Filoni, Inc.
Amy P. Maceyko, AIA, LEED AP