Central Street Master Plan Zoning - The Final Vote - Monday 1/28 8:30 pm City Council Chamber

Attendance of residents and merchants at this meeting is critical to assure enactment of the proposed zoning, which has been recommended unanimously by the Plan Commission and is the result of many hundreds of hours of work and participation in many meetings with city staff and the members of the Plan Commission and its zoning committee by the Central Street Neighbors Association.
Although we did not get everything that residents wanted, the proposed zoning has many important provisions and new ideas that implement the residents’ and the adopted Central Street Plan’s primary objectives of preserving the village character of the corridor and sustaining and enhancing it as a location for diverse, unique, small-scale, pedestrian-oriented retail shops, services, and restaurants.

The Highlights:

While the proposed zoning contains major upzoning of the commercial areas on Green Bay south of Central Street and at the west end of Central Street, by rezoning them as business districts allowing four-story mixed use development, the maximum allowable height in the business districts along Central has been reduced from 45 feet to the lesser of 3 stories or 35 feet.
The maximum allowable total floor space in all the business and office districts has been reduced, with a limited provision for more floor space only in return for provision of underground or public parking.
There are new requirements for significant stepbacks of upper floors (with multiple stepbacks starting above the first floor in the “crown jewel” area between Hartrey and the northern extension of Prairie); minimum sidewalk, pedestrian area and alley widths; facade articulation and fenestration; bicycle parking spaces; and active retail or restaurant use of at least a 50-feet depth of the ground floor.
The maximum height in the R5 residential areas along Central has been reduced from 55 feet to the lesser of 4 stories or 45 feet, and there is a stepback requirement of the rear of the building for any height above 35 feet to protect adjacent residential areas. An especially important and critical provision eliminates the ability of developers to obtain discretionary approval of greater heights and density than the maxima specified in the zoning. The proposed rezoning of portions of the Dyche Stadium parking area to allow mixed-use development has been eliminated.