07-23-2025 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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STAFF REPORT TO: Mayor Fischer and Members of the City Council FROM: Ben Harrington, AICP, Community Development Director DATE: July 23, 2025 RE: Planning Case 1438 – Driveway Code – Ordinances 915, 916, and 917. ACTIONS TO BE CONSIDERED To approve and adopt Ordinances 915, an ordinance amending Chapter 915 of the zoning code of the City of Little Canada relating to driveways, parking, storage, and pedestrian access. To approve and adopt Ordinance 916, an ordinance amending chapters 904, 905, 906, and 907 of the zoning code of the City of Little Canada revising required driveway and parking setbacks. To approve and adopt Ordinance 917, an ordinance to amend definitions related to driveways, pavement, and parking. BACKGROUND As part of the city’s ongoing effort to modernize and clarify the zoning code, staff is proposing to modify our driveway, residential storage, and off-street parking standards. The proposed updates mirror the approach used during the city’s recent sign and fence code updates, which focused on simplifying regulations, removing redundancies, and improving ease of interpretation. Staff have found that the current regulations for driveways, residential storage, and off-street parking to be confusing, disorganized, problematic, and sometimes directly in contradiction with themselves. Additionally, while working on modifications to these code sections, staff found that Little Canada’s pedestrian walkway and bicycle parking standards were essentially non-existent. At the direction of the Planning Commission and to work towards the goals of walkability/cyclability outlined in the city’s Comprehensive and Strategic Plans, city staff has proposed new standards, largely mirroring the best practices found in communities in the Metro. The proposed changes to these code sections have been reviewed by the City Attorney. The Community Development Director has also communicated the proposed ordinance changes to the DPW Director and City Engineer to ensure their approval and support. To visualize the current code and the proposed changes, Staff created the diagrams shown in Attachment 1. The first diagram shows the standards under the current code and the following two show compliant examples under the proposed code. From the car icons to the lot sizes, the diagrams are reasonably proportional and scaled. All three lots shown in the visuals meet the minimum lot requirements for area, width, depth, and show a standard amount of right-of-way. The majority of lots in Little Canada are significantly larger than the ones shown.