Title
Briefing on Downtown Zoning Recommendations
Recommended Action
Committee Recommendation:
On April 20, 2017 the Council's Land Use and Environment Committee guided staff to move forward with a public process to update Downtown zoning and development standards in accordance with the Downtown Strategy.
City Manager Recommendation:
Receive the briefing. Discussion only. No action requested.
Report
Issue:
Briefing and discussion about recommended scope for updates to Downtown zoning and development standards.
Staff Contact:
Amy Buckler, Senior Planner, Community Planning & Development, 360.753.8314
Presenter(s):
Amy Buckler, Senior Planner
Leonard Bauer, Assistant Director, CP&D
Background and Analysis:
One of the first actions recommended in the Downtown Strategy (DTS) is to update Downtown zoning and development standards. This effort is anticipated to occur in 2017-2018. Staff will review the scope of work - a summary is attached.
As part of the process to form the DTS, the planning team compared current zoning and development standards with Downtown goals and character area concepts, and found these to be generally consistent. Most of Downtown is zoned as Downtown Business (DB) or Urban Waterfront (UW), both of which provide flexibility for a variety of land uses. See attached zoning map. In addition to recommending some minor updates and general housekeeping, the scope includes three main areas where changes could be made to be more consistent with the Downtown Strategy:
Consider an Art/Tech Overlay
The overlay would allow for uses desired in the Art/Tech area that are not desired in other parts of Downtown. This area encourages light industrial uses, such as artisan manufacturing/studios and microbreweries, distilleries and wineries. While these uses might fit throughout Downtown, the City may also want to consider limiting these or subsets of these uses to the Art/Tech area only, primarily to contain potential impacts, such as smell, noise or ...
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