Tuesday, we got a crash course in the special districts permitted under the new UDO. The UDO spends a little extra time on three special districts, Manufactured Home Park (R-MP), Campus (CMP) and Planned Development (PD).
R-MP
Christine Darges, UDO project manager with the city, explained that the Manufactured Home Park district has not changed from the current code. Since there are manufactured home parks, which provide adequate living space for manufactured homes, mobile homes and modular homes, already in the city limits, a district had to be made for them.
“We have to be able to accommodate them with a zoning district,” said Darges.
A manufactured home park differs from a residential district because of the statewide building code. Mobile, manufactured and modular homes aren’t allowed in a residential district. Darges said if the city were to annex land from Wake County that had a manufactured home park on it, there would need to be a zoning classification for that district.
CMP
With Raleigh a hub of higher education, the Campus Special District would allow for colleges and hospitals to expand following their own master plan, but still be compatible with and complement the surrounding neighborhood.
While the UDO wouldn’t really regulate what happened on the interiors of the campus, the outer 200 feet of the property would be addressed. If there were to be any development in there would be restrictions on building height and lighting. Any athletic fields built in those areas could not be lit after 11 p.m.
PD
Currently, when a developer comes in to revamp a property, an overlay district would be created. The UDO would allow for a developer to come in and ask for a district to be rezoned to a Planned Development District in order to meet the needs of the plan. But, unlike the current code, Darges said that developers would be required to have a specific master plan outlining all aspects of the new development before it would be approved. Developers would then be required to stick to those specifics listed in their plan.
The planning department will be releasing more information about Planned Development Districts on May 6.
