For the week of March 19 - 25, 2003

Sun Valley may change village zoning

P&Z recommendations to be reviewed today

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By GREGORY FOLEY
Express Staff Writer

Sun Valley City Council members today at 4 p.m. in Sun Valley City Hall will consider a variety of changes proposed for the city’s Commercial Center zoning district.

City Planning and Zoning commissioners Tuesday unanimously approved a set of draft changes to sections of the city’s zoning ordinance that govern developments in the CC district, which is essentially composed of Sun Valley Village and Elkhorn Village.

"I think it’s a pretty well-crafted document," said Commissioner Blair Boand immediately prior to the Tuesday vote on the P&Z draft ordinance.

The P&Z has been conducting regular meetings to rewrite the zoning code for the CC district. City Council members on Dec. 19 approved a 120-day moratorium on new applications for development projects in the CC district, and asked the P&Z to consider how to limit applications that propose only residential uses—rather than the intended mix of residential and commercial uses.

The P&Z’s recommendations to the council include a vast array of changes designed to restore and maintain the commercial viability of the city’s two village centers.

The key changes proposed by the P&Z include:

• Requiring multi-family residential developments on parcels greater than four acres to provide a minimum of 100 square feet of "net usable floor space" devoted to commercial activities for each dwelling unit. The changes call for requiring only 50 square feet of commercial space for every "compact dwelling unit" of less than 1,200 square feet.
  
   
• Reducing the maximum building height in the zone from 64 feet to 44 feet, except for developments that provide designated types and amounts of commercial space or affordable community housing.

Representatives from development partnership CG-Elkhorn—which owns part of the CC district in Elkhorn—participated in the P&Z discussions, but representatives of Sun Valley Co. did not.

 

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