The City's published Notice for a proposed medical clinic, principally dental offices, for the corner of Kearney and Commercial, which includes the former Kwan's site.
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| Clinic building proposed for former Kwans site |
The lot's been scraped and largely cleared now.
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| The site scraped (last week) |
The proposed building would be three stories and fill about a quarter of the total site. Parking and a bit of landscaping would fill the rest.
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| Lots of parking (notes in blue added) |
The building is in a somewhat suburban mode. The main entry of the building faces north over the parking lot, with a 90 degree turn from the street. The entry is not oriented to the street or corner. Several requested adjustments relate to this:
a) Increase the maximum setback for the proposed building abutting Kearney Street S from 0 ft. to 10 ft. (SRC 533.015(c));
b) Allow less than 75 percent of the street frontage of the lot abutting Commercial Street SE to be occupied by building placed at the setback line (SRC 533.015(d));
c) Reduce the minimum required ground floor height of the proposed building from 14 ft. to 9 ft. (SRC 533.015(h));
d) Allow the proposed building to include less than a minimum of 65 percent transparent windows on the ground floor facades facing Commercial Street SE and Kearney Street S (SRC 533.015(h));
e) Allow less than 75 percent of the ground floor facades of the proposed building adjacent to Commercial Street SE and Kearney Street S to include weather protection in the form of awnings or canopies (SRC 533.015(h));
f) Allow the proposed development, which is located on a corner lot abutting a local street, to take access to Commercial Street SE (the street with the higher street classification) rather than solely to Kearney Street S (the street with the lower street classification) (SRC 804.035(c)(2)); and
g) Allow the proposed driveway approach onto Commercial Street SE to be located less than the minimum required 370-foot spacing from the intersection of Kearney Street S and nearest driveway to the north of the subject property on Commercial Street SE (SRC 804.035(d)); and
It's a little disappointing it's not a mixed-use configuration, with housing above the clinic.
It's also interesting to note that part of the proposed parking lot is in Saginaw Street Overlay Zone. It's possible this influenced the proposal and made the greater extent of parking - a kind of "buffer" - more likely. (Also note that eliminating parking minimums is not eliminating parking.)
As part of our debate on the overlays, the City should discuss more about ways that the overlay zones in fact constrain development. Proponents of the overlay zones stress the theoretical possibilities for three-story mixed-use development, but do not grapple with any disconnect between theory and actuality.
If the primary purpose of the zoning is to guide Commercial street development so it has a certain form, looks a certain way, and offers certain kinds of walkable services and amenities, we should think more about why we aren't getting that, whether from the overlays or from something else or some combination.
There probably will be more to say on the overlay zones in another post tomorrow.
Related, see:
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