The Northeast Citizens Advisory Council this month received updates on a number of planning projects relevant to their neighborhoods, including the Buffaloe-New Hope Area Plan and a new mixed-use development at the corner of Buffaloe and New Hope Roads.
Doug Hill presented a total of three items to the CAC from a recent City Council agenda.
The first of these was CP-4-15, “Urban Format Amended.” Hill explained that this is a city-initiated amendment that proposes to designate Buffaloe Road and N. New Hope Road as Urban Thoroughfares on the Urban Form Map.
This would be done along the vacant parcels in the northeast and southeast quadrants of the intersection.
The amendment was one of the recommendations of the Buffaloe-New Hope Area Plan.
The second item dealt with an issue many in the Northeast CAC have expressed concern over: the location of gas station convenience stores near their neighborhoods.
Text change TC-2b deals with fuel sales near residential areas, and addresses issues such as canopy height restrictions, vegetation buffers, hours of operation limits, lot size restrictions, and limitations to position relative to an intersection.
Although this change will not impact existing fuel stations, it will limit the development of new ones.
The final item presented by Hill was the recent approval of zoning case Z-12-15.
Bing Maps
The area marked by the blue dot has been the source of much rezoning discussion
The case concerned a 15.7 acre property at the southeast quadrant of the intersection. The rezoning would increase retail and office intensities. The square footage of the proposed structures is capped at 71,000. City staff found the request to be consistent with the comprehensive plan, which calls for increased density around major thoroughfares.
A number of conditions, prohibiting certain uses, were placed on the property: limited hours of operation, limited building height, protective yard standards, tree conservation areas, minimum distance of building from adjacent properties, minimum flour area of all buildings; as well as for any single establishment, the requirement of a fence along the interior of the protective yards, prohibit drive-thrus in certain locations, offer transit easements for New Hope and Buffaloe Roads and require a development allocation covenant.
The developers are calling for a shopping center than would not exceed 70,000 square feet, which would be anchored by a 42,000 square-foot grocery store.
