Last night, after the “neighborhood meeting” on the Edgewater, a bunch of us (neighbors, activists, planning staff, etc) were standing around wondering how that Plan Commission discussion went on the Alder Mark Clear amendment to eliminate the waterfront set back requirement for commercial properties so the Edgewater doesn’t have to get a variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals. So, I did my best to find out at 9:30 last night.
Many, many thanks to Michael Basford for this update.
And discuss it we did. We spent a bit a time on Satya’s question about including the Yahara River and Starkweather Creek in these rules and asked staff to explore that for our future meetings. We also, of course, discussed the “Residential-Zoned Lakefront Properties” section and the implications for excluding commercial- and institutional-zoned properties from these rules (all that University land as well as the Edgewood campus and Mendota Mental Health would all be exempt as well). I first suggested just striking “Residential-Zoned” from the text but Matt brought up that the new building bulk limitations would probably not fit for commercial and institutional buildings. I agreed with that and we asked staff to come up with a possible section for non-residential lots. So, although this was a work session and no votes were taken, my sense is that the “Residential Only” issue is not settled as far as the Plan Commission is concerned.
Here’s the document that was provided to them explains the changes in the old code and the Clear amendment.
