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PRESENTATION OF THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE NORMAN 2025 LAND USE AND TRANSPORTATION PLAN
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BACKGROUND: Since the 1997 adoption of the Norman 2020 Land Use and Transportation Plan (Norman 2020), and its successor, the Norman 2025 Land Use and Transportation Plan (Norman 2025), adopted in 2004, the Planning and Community Development Department staff has produced an annual report on the status of development in the City of Norman. This year’s report summarizes development activity for calendar year 2017. Staff provides this annual report to Planning Commission and City Council members to allow comparison of the pace of growth anticipated by the land use plan and its companion document Norman 2025 Land Demand Analysis (Land Demand) to the actual rate of development that has occurred in the community.
This report consists of nine sections. Each section describes different aspects of development and planning that has occurred in the City of Norman during 2017. The section begins with a narrative and is followed by maps and tables that include statistical summaries of the amount, type, and location of development and construction in Norman for Calendar Year 2017. Several tables include information dating back five years. These tables put the current year’s development into a temporal context and illustrate trends and changes that have occurred in recent years.
DISCUSSION:
SPECIAL PROJECTS:
Center City Form Base Code
The Center City Form Based Code (CCFBC) public hearing process was conducted in the first half of the year. There was a pre-development meeting held on March 23rd, the Planning Commission public hearing on April 6th and City Council adopted the CCFBC on May 23rd. In 2017 staff issued four Certificates of compliance for projects within the CCFBC.
The Center City Form Based Code was nominated for an Oklahoma ULI Impact Award as a project that exemplifies best practices in the responsible use of land and in creating and sustaining thriving communities through a project’s contribution to the built environment and the public realm. The Planning Director made a presentation to the awards committee on December 11th in Oklahoma City. At the awards ceremony on February 9, 2018, the City of Norman was announced as the winner based on the Center City Form Based Code.
Comprehensive Plan
The preparation of PlanNorman was well underway in 2017. The consultants visited Norman five times between January and August and during those visits held five Steering Committee Meetings, two Community Meetings, participated in one intercept event at the August 2nd Friday Art Walk and presented updates on the Plan to City Council in January and June and to the Planning Commission in May. Staff held two additional Steering Committee meetings in November.
A draft Plan was prepared for staff review in November and a revised draft Plan was then distributed to the Steering Committee and staff in December. Comments were collected and collated by staff and sent to the consultants for inclusion into a final draft that was available in late January, 2018.
Central Norman Overlay District
In early 2016 the Community Planning and Transportation Committee began discussion on possible regulatory measures for minimizing higher-density residential development impacts in the Core Area of Norman. The discussion continued intermittently through 2016 ending in early 2017 with staff reporting back to present information on various ways to amend the Zoning Ordinance to discourage off-campus student housing that operates more as a student dormitory rather than housing for three or fewer unrelated people. The Council Committee directed staff to move forward with an overlay district for the residentially-zoned properties in the Old Silk Stocking Neighborhood and the area south of Miller Historic District, currently zoned R-3, Multi-Family Dwelling District.
The Central Norman Zoning Overlay District (CNZOD) was approved by City Council on June 27, 2017.
Priority Greenbelt Trail System
The Greenbelt Commission first proposed the Priority Greenbelt Trail System in 2015. It went through several Community Planning and Transportation Committee meetings, a City Council Study Session and City Council Public Hearing in 2016 and the City Council meeting on November 28, 2017 where the Priority Greenbelt Trail System was adopted as an addendum to the Greenways and Parks and Recreation Master Plans.
The overall purpose remains to develop these trails as an essential framework and foundation for a more extensive system throughout urban and rural Norman and emphasizing the following points about the proposal:
1. The proposal will have positive benefits for Norman with respect to quality of life, families and attracting more people to Norman, which is also important for business.
2. Repeatedly in surveys, Normanites have requested more opportunities for walking and biking.
3. The proposal is conceptual with stated visions of trail alignments and is meant to provide guidance but not supersede the design process as specific parcels, easements and rights-of-way are acquired. Public-private partnerships will be necessary to achieve buildout.
4. This will serve as the foundation or backbone for future connections of trails throughout the community. These priority trails allow for multiple trail loops in the community, and they integrate with existing trails and projects.
5. Selection of greenbelt priority trails considered, among other things, existing trails, ongoing capital investments, adopted master plans, and comments of elected officials and citizens.
AMENDMENTS TO THE CODE OF ORDINANCES
Municipal Uses
The City of Norman has many projects underway that are “municipal uses, public buildings or public utilities”. These projects include Norman Forward projects, the new Emergency Communications Center and associated facilities, the new Central and East Norman Libraries, the Sewer Treatment Plant upgrade, etc. The locations of these projects do not always correspond to the underlying zoning of the properties; however, the locations are those reviewed and discussed in City Council and committee meetings regarding these projects. In order for the City to have the greatest flexibility to locate municipal and other public facilities in appropriate locations throughout the City, staff prepared a Zoning Code amendment that allows “municipal uses, public buildings and public utilities” in all zoning districts as a Special Use.
Simple Planned Unit Development
Over the last few years there has been discussion about bringing forward an option to the PUD, Planned Unit Development Ordinance for areas smaller in size than the typical 5- to 20-acre proposals. In addition, there has been concern over the “2 acres” language currently included in the Zoning Ordinance for a PUD.
This zoning code amendment establishes a Simple Planned Unit Development (SPUD) zoning district for sites that are less than five (5) acres. Staff researched several other municipalities and there is a trend to establish a Planned Unit Development, PUD which is five (5) acres or larger and a secondary regulatory method to allow smaller developments under a SPUD, which is less than five (5) acres in area.
Distributed (Small) Wind Turbines
A distributed (small) wind turbine is a machine that, powered by the energy of the wind, generates mechanical energy that can be used to directly power machinery or to power an electrical generator for making electricity. The term can refer to windmills, windpumps, as well as wind turbines.
Distributed (small) wind turbines raise many of the same issues as midsize wind energy conversion systems and wind farms. However, with their small size and their use as an accessory to a residence, they are more readily accepted than their larger counterparts. It is important to protect the property owner and neighbors from the potential hazards of a tall structure in a residential setting. The intent of this zoning ordinance change was to allow distributed (small) wind turbines in the RE, A-1 and A-2 zoning districts where the acreage will allow for small towers that would not be intrusive on neighbors.
Small Communication Towers
Prior to the adoption of this amendment the Zoning Ordinance did not address the use of internet towers, only Commercial Communication Towers (i.e. cellular phone communication towers) and Television and Radio Broadcast Towers.
These small internet towers provide an important service to the more rural areas of East Norman whose residents may not have any other access to internet service. For that reason, this amendment to the Zoning Ordinance allows for the internet towers to be an allowed use in the rural residential areas. The Zoning Ordinance amendment allows these towers in the RE, A-1 and A-2, commercial and industrial zoning districts.
CONSTRUCTION
2017 was a very strong year for construction in Norman with a value of $300 million. While down $100 million from 2016, 2017 was more than double the value of construction in the next highest year of the five-year reporting period. The lack of any major multi-family projects contributed to the drop in values from the previous year. In the non-residential column there were several permits with values in excess of $5 million including a $29 million Norman Public Library Central Branch, an addition to the Water Treatment Plant, the Hampton Inn and Suites and Evans Enterprises. There were several large addition/alteration projects including additions to Johnson Controls, the Christian Community School’s football field, and renovation to Chi Omega and McDonalds.
The value of single-family permits is up $6 million from 2016 and the average value of the individual unit remains in the mid $270,000 for the third year in a row with an average unit value of $274,645. The number of single-family permits issued is up slightly from 2016.
The majority (86%) of all residential units were constructed in the Current Urban Service Area. Units constructed in the Suburban Residential and Country Residential Growth Areas account for the other 14%. The largest numbers of single-family units were permitted in Wards 5 and 6.
LAND USE PLAN AND ZONING AMENDMENTS
The City of Norman accepted 7 applications for amendments to the Norman 2025 Land Use and Transportation Plan in 2017. All were acted on by City Council totaling approximately 55 acres, the largest of which converted approximately 20 acres from industrial to mixed use for the Tecumseh Road Business Park.
The City of Norman acted on 21 applications for rezoning during 2017. The largest of these were the adoption of the Center City Form Based Code and the creation of the Central Norman Zoning Overlay District.
RECOMMENDATION: Staff presents the Annual 2017 Status Report on Development and the Norman 2025 Plan for your review and information.