AgdaPkt 2000-07-24 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

qA~ landscape programs that are established within the next 5 years, is now while the properties are proposed for development. Neighborhoods consist of various activity areas - schools, parks, residences and neighborhood shopping areas. Neighborhood shopping centers should reinforce neighborhood character with appropriate scale and services, such as small-scale shopping and services that are a convenience to the immediate neighborhood. The City's Strategic General Plan describes neighborhood shopping centers as providing services for the immediate neighborhood (page 6-4). The zoning ordinance describes the neighborhood commercial district as "performing a vital service to the neighborhood and becoming integral parts thereof." When offices replace local shopping and services in the neighborhood commercial centers, the centers lose their neighborhood character and cease to be areas of activity for local neighborhoods. c) Industrial land The Architectural Review Committee is concerned that the purpose of the IR and IP districts is being eroded. The purpose of the Industrial Restricted District is to provide a place for selected industries, wholesale establishments, specified retail establishments, and heavy retail uses which can congregate together and be compatible, yet which, because of the nature of their operations, cannot maintain standards as high as those in the Industrial Park District. The purpose of the Industrial Park District is to provide a set of regulations for the development and protection of modern, large-scale administrative organizations, and specified retail establishments of a type where they are a credit to each other and are well designed, landscaped, and maintained. Offices, which are permitted uses in both districts, are becoming the predominant land use. There are public policy questions for industrial districts. Are the IR and IP districts intended to support activity in the General Industrial (GI) district? Are the permitted uses appropriate to the continued vitality of the City's economic base? Does the City want to reserve land for the other permitted uses in order to have a varied economic based and to be self sustaining? The City may prefer to develop this market niche while the opportunity presents itself and modify its development standards, such as parking and landscape requirements, to ensure compatibility with the larger City. d) Fiscal Implications A prudent long-term investment strategy calls for diversifying a portfolio in order to spread the risks of a decline in value at anyone time. The revenues of cities are subject to the business cycle, long-term trends, and the mix of land uses. A city that relied on revenue from mostly car dealerships or hotels will likely do well toward the top of the business cycle, but will suffer during the bottom of the cycle when the demand for these items declines. Cities that rely on predominately one use to generate revenue are vulnerable in two respects: first, the fluctuations of the business cycle and second, the possibility that a sector of the economy may vacate an area for reasons such as poor industry performance, better opportunities elsewhere, the unacceptability of the high cost of doing business in an area during a recession, unavailability of employees, etc. Some public policy questions are: What mix of land uses is desired for the local economic base and if the economic base is one-sided, will it be possible to re-use the buildings in the event that they are vacated? The planning process should be invoked to answer these questions. 4 ,- -, '~--'.T