Agenda Item Name:
Title
Request to Advertise: Unified Land Development Code Amendment to allow adaptive reuse of motels and hotels for multifamily housing in BH zoning and to allow Funeral Homes in BR zoning.
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Presenter:
Jeffrey Hays, AICP
Description:
An amendment to the Unified Land Development Code (ULDC) to allow for the adaptive reuse of hotels and motels for multifamily housing in BH zoning and to allow Funeral Homes in BR zoning.
Recommended Action:
Recommended Action
Direct staff to advertise an ordinance to the Alachua County Unified Land Development Code to allow Funeral Homes in BR zoning and to allow adaptive reuse as a limited use in BH.
Alternative Recommendation: Direct staff to advertise an ordinance to the Alachua County Unified Land Development Code to allow Funeral Homes in BR zoning and to allow adaptive reuse as a special exception in BH.
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Prior Board Motions:
NA
Fiscal Consideration:
Fiscal Consideration
NA
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Background:
The Alachua County Comprehensive Plan includes Housing Element Policy 2.4.6 which directs the County to, Amend the land development regulations to allow for adaptive reuse to facilitate the repurposing of existing vacant structures for affordable housing for very low and extremely low-income households. Although many vacant structures may be appropriate for adaptive reuse, Staff is of the opinion that existing hotels and motels are particularly well suited to serve as multifamily housing and are a logical first extension of this policy. There are two potential ways to address this in the ULDC. Staff recommendation would be to allow multifamily as a limited use in the BH zoning district. The limited use standards would allow reuse of hotel/motel structures as multifamily housing with some ability for expansion and require that they are served by centralized water and sewer service. There are eleven (11) hotel/motel properties in the County that would fit these criteria. Most are located along the I-75 interchange with two located along SW 13th Street. If the Board would prefer, adaptive reuse could be allowed in BH instead through the Special Exception process where the Board would have the approval authority and be able to potentially condition the use.
Additionally, Staff is including the allowance for Funeral Home to be allowed within BR zoning in this request to advertise. This is an issue that was discussed during the recent ULDC update process but was left out of the final ordinance process. Funeral homes would not be out of character with other uses allowed in BR.