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461 Atlantic Boulevard ZVAR17-0012 Staff Report CITY OF ATLANTIC BEACH COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BOARD STAFF REPORT   AGENDA ITEM 3.A CASE NO. ZVAR17-0012 Request for a variance as permitted by Section 24-64, to increase the maximum distance for off-site parking from 400 feet as required by Section 24-161(f)(2) to 1600 feet allowing for shared parking agreements at Atlantic Beach Subdivision “A”, Lots 817-822 and 842-844 (aka 461 Atlantic Boulevard). LOCATION 461 Atlantic Boulevard APPLICANT Atlantic Beach Yard Real Estate, LLC. DATE January 9, 2018 STAFF Derek W. Reeves, Planner STAFF COMMENTS The applicant is Atlantic Beach Yard Real Estate LLC, the entity proposing the construction of a new barbeque restaurant at 461 Atlantic Boulevard. This will be a full service restaurant selling beer, wine and liquor for on-premises consumption. The property is a vacant lot within the Commercial General (CG) zoning district with frontage on Atlantic Boulevard and Sturdivant Avenue. The plan is to construct a 150 seat restaurant with 15 parking spaces on site, including two handicap parking spaces. A total of 38 parking spaces are needed to meet the code minimum of one space per four seats as required by Section 24- 161(h)(15). In order to provide the remaining 23 required parking, the applicant has entered into a shared parking agreement with the Beaches Town Center Association with lots as far as 1,600 feet away. A variance is required for the City to be able to recognize and accept the shared parking agreement because Section 24-161(f)(2) requires off-site parking to be within 400 feet of the property. Section 24-161(f)(2) specifically states the following; “Parking spaces for uses other than residential uses shall be provided on the same lot or not more than four hundred (400) feet away, provided that required off-street parking shall in no case be separated from the use it serves by arterial streets or major collector streets, or other similar barriers to safe access between parking and the use. A shared parking agreement shall be required where offsite parking is used to meet parking requirements. In such cases, the uses sharing parking must demonstrate different peak-hour parking needs.” Recognizing deficiencies in the code related to shared parking and in anticipation of this project and others coming forward, staff has been working on a policy to define shared parking and how staff will administer it in the future. It should be noted that the attached policy is a draft and has not been reviewed by the City Attorney. Staff’s policy requires that all related properties must be located within the City of Atlantic Beach. This gives the City the direct ability to know about any changes to parking and enforce the agreement. This ties into the term of the agreement, which staff believes should be permanent unless changes or the Page 2 of 4   cancelation of the agreement are approved by the City. These together prevent the City from having to reduce the usability or even close a business because it no longer has access to its’ required parking. Section 24-161(a) states, “Off-street vehicular parking spaces required by this section shall be provided at the time of the construction or expansion of any building for the uses listed in this section… Required parking shall be maintained for the duration of the use it serves.” This further enforces the need for shared parking agreements to be permanent as it clearly requires parking established at the time of construction must be maintained for as long as the use is present. If one party to a shared parking agreement decides to lower its use and thus lowering its parking requirement then the City could allow the shared parking agreement to be modified or canceled as appropriate. To answer some of these issues, the president of the Beaches Town Center Association provided an affidavit. As seen in the affidavit, the Town Center currently has a total of 487 parking spaces under contract to utilize as shared parking throughout the Town Center. These parking spaces are available at different times of the day and week depending on what the respective property owner agreed to. The Town Center has provided a table indicating how many parking spaces are available to be part of a shared parking agreement by the hour of the day and day of the week. They provided another table identifying the number of parking spaces the Town Center currently has under an agreement, including the proposed agreement. The final table shows the total number of parking spaces available after considering all agreements. The fewest number of parking spaces available is 177 during morning and early afternoon hours. The presented shared parking agreement with the Beaches Town Center Association features five properties with defined hours and days of the week that the parking may be used as also defined in the previously mentioned tables. The list of properties is comprised of the Community Presbyterian Church in Atlantic Beach; and the Bank of America on 3rd Street, the Ameris Bank on Atlantic Boulevard, the former K-Mart on Atlantic Boulevard and the Baptist Church on 3rd Street all in Neptune Beach. Two of these properties, Ameris Bank and K-Mart, are problematic even though they are among the closest to the proposed restaurant due to the fact they are located across an arterial street, Atlantic Boulevard, which is prohibited by the code. The applicant has proposed to use these lots as valet and/or shuttle lots. The affidavit signed by the applicant’s representative states that they have a contract with a valet service. A diagram was provided to show how valet parking could work with some of the sites. The applicant also provided information on the shuttle service available through Beachside Buggies and how that system works. The affidavits and supporting documents have not been reviewed by the City Attorney and may be modified to strengthen the City’s position in accepting the agreement as a shared parking agreement. The applicant has also entered into a shared parking agreement with the neighboring office building complex at 447 Atlantic Boulevard for the use of its 15 parking spaces. The hours for use of those spaces are from 6 PM to 2 AM Monday through Saturday and 6 AM to 2AM Sunday. Under the City’s shared parking policy, this would mean the restaurant has a total of 28 spaces available during these times. Two spaces would be held out for the office complex as there may be employees/tenants that work odd hours. This results in only 10 parking spaces actually needed from the Town Center Association during these hours. An added benefit to the agreement with 447 Atlantic Boulevard is that it covers most of the require parking during what is typically the most demanding hours for a restaurant. When considering the City’s shared parking policy, restaurants use 70% of their required parking during weekday middays and 80% of their required parking during weekend middays. This would suggest a need of 27‐31 parking spaces during midday hours resulting in only 12 to 15 needed from the Town Center Association during those times. Page 3 of 4   ANALYSIS Section 24-64(b)(1) provides that “applications for a variance shall be considered on a case-by-case basis, and shall be approved only upon findings of fact that the application is consistent with the definition of a variance and consistent with the provisions of this section.” According to Section 24-17, Definitions, “[a] variance shall mean relief granted from certain terms of this chapter. The relief granted shall be only to the extent as expressly allowed by this chapter and may be either an allowable exemption from certain provision(s) or a relaxation of the strict, literal interpretation of certain provision(s). Any relief granted shall be in accordance with the provisions as set forth in Section 24-64 of this chapter, and such relief may be subject to conditions as set forth by the City of Atlantic Beach.” Section 24-64(d) provides six distinct grounds for the approval of a variance: (1) Exceptional topographic conditions of or near the property. (2) Surrounding conditions or circumstances impacting the property disparately from nearby properties. (3) Exceptional circumstances preventing the reasonable use of the property as compared to other properties in the area. (4) Onerous effect of regulations enacted after platting or after development of the property or after construction of improvements upon the property. (5) Irregular shape of the property warranting special consideration. (6) Substandard size of a lot of record warranting a variance in order to provide for the reasonable use of the property.   The applicant stated in their application that they can only accommodate 15 parking spaces on their  property and need to work with other properties in the area.                                          Page 4 of 4   REQUIRED ACTION The Community Development Board may consider a motion to approve ZVAR17-0012, request for a variance as permitted by Section 24-64, to increase the maximum distance for off-site parking from 400 feet as required by Section 24-161(f)(2) to 1600 feet allowing for shared parking agreements at Atlantic Beach Subdivision “A”, Lots 817-822 and 842-844 (aka 461 Atlantic Boulevard), upon finding this request is consistent with the definition of a variance, and in accordance with the provisions of Section 24-64, specifically the grounds for approval delineated in Section 24-64(d) and as described below. A variance may be granted, at the discretion of the Community Development Board, for the following reasons: (1) Exceptional topographic conditions of or near the property. (2) Surrounding conditions or circumstances impacting the property disparately from nearby properties. (3) Exceptional circumstances preventing the reasonable use of the property as compared to other properties in the area. (4) Onerous effect of regulations enacted after platting or after development of the property or after construction of improvements upon the property. (5) Irregular shape of the property warranting special consideration. (6) Substandard size of a lot of record warranting a variance in order to provide for the reasonable use of the property. Or, The Community Development Board may consider a motion to deny ZVAR17-0012, request for a variance as permitted by Section 24-64, to increase the maximum distance for off-site parking from 400 feet as required by Section 24-161(f)(2) to 1600 feet allowing for shared parking agreements at Atlantic Beach Subdivision “A”, Lots 817-822 and 842-844 (aka 461 Atlantic Boulevard), upon finding this request is not consistent with the definition of a variance, or it is consistent with one or more of the grounds for denial of a variance, as delineated in Section 24-64(c), described below. No variance shall be granted if the Community Development Board, in its discretion, determines that the granting of the requested variance shall have a materially adverse impact upon one (1) or more of the following: (1) Light and air to adjacent properties. (2) Congestion of streets. (3) Public safety, including traffic safety, risk of fire, flood, crime or other threats to public safety. (4) Established property values. (5) The aesthetic environment of the community. (6) The natural environment of the community, including environmentally sensitive areas, wildlife habitat, protected trees, or other significant environmental resources. (7) The general health, welfare or beauty of the community. Variances shall not be granted solely for personal comfort or convenience, for relief from financial circumstances or for relief from situation created by the property owner.