City staff suggests changes to Vision 20/20 document

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A memo to the city's Planning and Zoning Commission lists ideas on 20/20 changes|ret||ret||tab|

Revisions to the hotly contested Neighborhoods Element of Vision 20/20 is scheduled to be heard before the Springfield Planning and Zoning Commission at 7 p.m. May 25. |ret||ret||tab|

The following is the text of an April 18 memo to the commission from Brendan K. Griesemer, AICP, principal planner, addressing the various concerns raised at the March 16 commission meeting. Items in parenthesis have been added for clarity.|ret||ret||tab|

At the March 16 Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, staff was directed to come back to the April 13 meeting with recommendations on a process for potential changes to the Vision 20/20 Neighborhoods Element.|ret||ret||tab|

The ideas and concepts outlined in the Neighborhoods Element originated from volunteers of several of the Vision 20/20 focus groups. Some of the ideas in the document have caused concern in several trade organizations in the city. Since this element is a planning component of the city's comprehensive plan and conveys ideas and concepts from the Vision 20/20 focus groups, staff feels that the Planning and Zoning Commission is best suited to determine if any changes should be made to the document and the nature (of) such changes.|ret||ret||tab|

The Commission is familiar with the intent of the element as well as the concerns voiced at the March 16 public hearing. Staff believes the Commission has three options concerning the Neighborhoods Element. |ret||ret||tab|

The first is to send the document to City Council with no changes. The second is to reject the plan and start over and the third option is to recommend changes or modifications to the present plan.|ret||ret||tab|

Staff has reviewed the minutes from the March 16 meeting and has categorized the main concerns expressed at the meeting. These concerns are listed below.|ret||ret||tab|

1. Code Inspection at Time of Sale|ret||ret||tab|

2. Housing Court|ret||ret||tab|

3. Systematic Inspections|ret||ret||tab|

4. Registration of Rental Properties/Inspection of Rental Property|ret||ret||tab|

5. Objective 6 Housing Design|ret||ret||tab|

The following provides an explanation and possible actions that could be taken by Commission to address these concerns.|ret||ret||tab|

1. Code Inspection at Time-of-Sale (Pages 25-29, Action 6, Paragraph 3)|ret||ret||tab|

This action is one of several tools listed that could be used to preserve the City's housing stock. This is merely an example of one method that could be investigated in the future if housing conditions become such that additional action is needed. This paragraph can be deleted without affecting the overall concept.|ret||ret||tab|

2. Housing Court (Pages 25-28, Action 5)|ret||ret||tab|

This action is also one of several tools that could be used to focus attention on chronic housing and nuisance code violators. Deleting this item would not affect the overall concept of providing clear and consistent code enforcement.|ret||ret||tab|

3. Systematic Inspections (Pages 25-28, Action 4, Paragraph 2)|ret||ret||tab|

In 1996, City Council rejected a comprehensive systematic code enforcement process for exterior maintenance. The current policy since 1996 is that enforcement is done on a complaint-only basis. The Plan does suggest reviewing the Project Neighborhood Preservation program that was used in the early 1990s as a method of focusing on health/safety issues. This program focused on sanitary inspections or weeds, trash, inoperable vehicles and surfacing sewage. This program was successful in eliminating violations through voluntary compliance. |ret||ret||tab|

The document does not recommend systematic housing inspections. It recommends focusing on a program that was implemented successfully several years ago. Staff feels that this could be an important component of a successful code enforcement program and should remain.|ret||ret||tab|

4. Registration of rental properties/Inspection of rental property (Page 25-40, Action 2)|ret||ret||tab|

This action refers to the use of rental registration and tenant occupancy permits to address areas of documented overcrowding. The city currently requires all rental property with two or more units to be registered. Two neighborhoods, Phelps Grove and Rountree, have specific regulations requiring rental registration, tenant occupancy permits and inspections for all rental housing (including single-family rentals). These regulations were adopted to address overcrowding problems due to student population increases at SMSU.|ret||ret||tab|

The Neighborhoods Element proposes to continue to use rental registration and tenant occupancy permits as a means to address areas/neighborhoods with overcrowding problems. Inspection of rental properties is not addressed in the Neighborhoods Element. Staff recommends this section remain.|ret||ret||tab|

5. Objective 6 Housing Design (Pages 25-22 through 25-27)|ret||ret||tab|

This objective has caused concern among several trade organizations in the city. Objective 6 makes a general statement about the importance of quality design elements in single-family and multifamily developments. It emphasizes a positive relationship between single-family and multifamily land uses. It promotes multifamily developments that transition into a single-family neighborhood. It focuses on integrating multifamily developments into the larger neighborhood setting as opposed to segregating these uses away from lower density neighborhoods.|ret||ret||tab|

Concepts in this section were based on discussions at the national level concerning development and design of residential housing that the focus groups felt was important to include in Vision 20/20. Concepts outlined in this section are merely suggestions for future development in the community. There are no additional regulations or requirements called for in this section. Design review is not mentioned in this section. |ret||ret||tab|

The actions in this section are meant to encourage quality design elements in new construction rather than requiring them. It would be up to the development community to decide whether these elements can or cannot be integrated into a specific development.|ret||ret||tab|

Staff feels that concepts in this section are integrally linked to one another and that deleting certain items while retaining others would provide a disjointed and confusing objective. Some minor wording changes can be made that would not affect the intent of the focus group. However, any deletions to this section would likely change that intent.|ret||ret||tab|

Staff recommends Commission look at three options for this objective.|ret||ret||tab|

1. Keep Objective 6 as it currently exists.|ret||ret||tab|

2. Delete Objective 6.|ret||ret||tab|

3. Recommend changes to Objective 6 as shown in the Attachment 1.|ret||ret||tab|

(Revisions include eliminating the phrase "Review the proposed layouts of all new residential development," and substituting the word "encourage" in place of such imperatives as "design," "provide" and "locate. For example, "Encourage front and back facades with appropriate levels of formality" instead of "Design the front and back facades with appropriate levels of formality.")|ret||ret||tab|

The changes that are suggested in the third option would not change the intent of the objective or the focus group intentions. These changes would "soften" the language of this objective.|ret||ret||tab|

Staff also recommends the following additional change to Page 25-12, Action 1:|ret||ret||tab|

Street Trees. Trees should be planted in the public right-of-way along every street, including commercially-oriented arterial roads and local residential streets. (The phrase "In residential subdivisions, trees should be installed by the land developer. In commercial areas, trees and other plantings" is eliminated and replaced with "Landscaping along the streets") should be a joint public and private effort and could take advantage of both the public right-of-way and the private setback space. |ret||ret||tab|

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