07-27-1988 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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Backgrnund Representatives of St. John's Church in Little Canada have submitted an application for a rezoning of the convent site from P, Public District to R -B, Residential Business District to allow the conversion of the St. John's convent site to a temporary housing facility for refugee families. Residential uses are not allowed in the P District except for housing units provided for persons employed on the premises which is not the case here. With that, the applicant has requested a rezoning of this property from P to R -B to allow the proposed use. The intentions of the Church are to provide the housing rent free with the exception of utilities so that the family can work towards becoming self - sufficient. The property is located at 375 Little Canada Road. Please refer to the attached Exhibits, Exhibit A; Site Location and Exhibit 8; Property in Question. ISSUES AND ANALYSIS All rezoning requests are evaluated against the criteria outlined in the Zoning Ordinance. The Planning Commission shall consider possible adverse affects to the proposed amendment. Its judgment shall be based upon <but not limited to) the following factors: 1. The proposed action has been considered in relation to the specific policies and provisions of and has been found to be consistent with the Official City Comprehensive Land Use Plan. The property in question is located within Planning District 14 as outlined in the Comprehensive Plan. This district encourages and has existing a wide variety of uses including a limited amount of commercial uses, residential, church, cemetery and parks. Although the zoning map indicates that this property should be publicly zoned, there have been other properties in the immediate area that have been rezoned to R -B which are in keeping with the Comprehensive Plan. It should be pointed out that the Comprehensive Plan was completed in 1979 when St. John's convent was still being utilized as such. That situation has changed, therefore, the P classification for this site may not be the most appropriate based on abutting property zoning, particularly properties fronting Little Canada Road. The proposed use is quite similar to the previous convent use, therefore, a new activity is not being introduced into this area. Additionally, the intended uses as outlined in Planning District 14, allow for this proposed single family use. Page 12