Commission Agenda Item

MEETING DATE:  4/8/2019

SUBJECT:  Ordinance 19-15, Second Reading; Site-Specific Amendment to the Official Zoning Atlas: A request by PJDJ, Inc., DMR 239 Estates, LLC, and Eric J. Fields, property owners, for consideration of a Site-Specific Amendment to the Official Zoning Atlas (Rezoning) to amend the Official Zoning Atlas from Agricultural (A)(Alachua County) to Agricultural(A) on a ±191.68 acre subject property. Consisting of Parcel Numbers 02975-000-000, 02972-001-000, 02975-003-004, 02978-000-000, 02975-004-000, 02981-000-000, 02979-000-000, 02980-003-000 (Quasi-Judicial Hearing).

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Staff recommends that the City Commission approve Ordinance 19-15 on second and final reading, upon making the following motion:

Based upon the competent substantial evidence presented at this hearing, the presentation before this Commission, and Staff’s recommendation, this Commission finds the application for a Site-Specific Amendment to the Official Zoning Atlas from Agricultural (A)(County) to Agricultural (A) to be consistent with the City of Alachua Comprehensive Plan and in compliance with the Land Development Regulations and approves Ordinance 19-15 on second and final reading.

Summary

The proposed Site Specific Amendment to the Official Zoning Map (rezoning) is a request to amend the Official Zoning Atlas from Agricultural (“A”) (Alachua County) to Agricultural (“A”) on the subject property.

The subject property was annexed through Ordinances 18-09 and 18-10 (adopted July 23, 2018) and is part of a group of annexations for which the application fee to be annexed had been waived (Resolutions 17-11 and 17-19).  Through Resolution 18-03, the City Commission had also waived application fees for Comprehensive Plan Amendment and Rezoning applications for those properties annexed through the fee waiver resolution. This fee waiver was conditioned upon an application being received for a Future Land Use map amendment and rezoning amendment to  a City designation comparable to the existing Alachua County designation. 

The subject property currently has an Agriculture (Alachua County) Future Land Use designation.  A companion application proposes an amendment to the City’s Comprehensive Plan that would amend the subject property to Agriculture Future Land Use designation.

The Agricultural (“A”) Zone District is described as follows in Section 3.3.2 of the Land Development Regulations (LDRs):

The A district is intended to provide for areas primarily consisting of agriculture uses and agriculture support uses and also allow low-density single-family residential development. The maximum residential density allowed in the district is one dwelling unit per five acres, except that homesteaded lots may be developed at one unit per two acres. Residential cluster development is encouraged through the use of the Conservation Subdivision option. (See Section 7.9, Conservation subdivision.)

At the January 8, 2019 Planning and Zoning Board hearing, the Board voted 5-0 in favor forwarding the Site Specific Amendment to the Official Zoning Atlas to the City Commission with a recommendation to approve. 

At the February 11, 2019 City Commission hearing, the Commission voted 4-0 to approve Ordinance 19-15 on first reading.