Interim Amendments [Comprehensive Plan & Land Development Code]

Currently, the City requires annexation of lands adjacent to the municipal boundary of the city when served by city water, sewer, and reclaimed water. The proposed amendments to this section address timing and procedures for annexations. The amendments would require undeveloped lands abutting the city limits to apply for annexation and be developed or improved to meet all existing city regulations prior to either water, reclaimed water, or server service being provided. In lieu of this requirement, property owners can choose to enter into a binding annexation agreement with the city that will allows connection to city utilities and be developed under the applicable regulations of Pinellas County. Once the development is certified as complete by Pinellas County the property owners will be required to annex into the city.

Certain development projects may require multiple applications in order to receive development entitlements, however, the currant regulations do not provide guidance on the order of processing when multiple application types are necessary for a project. The proposed amendments provide direction on application process order.

The city has extensive lands located within the CHHA that are also increasingly vulnerable to inundation during coastal storm events, especially in consideration of future sea level rise. Therefore, the Board of Commissioners directed staff to evaluate all current policies and regulations related to development within the CHHA. The proposed amendments provide clarity to existing regulatory language, as well as the addition of two new sections addressing CHHA development regulations and design standards.

The current regulations allow conditional uses to be processed independent of site plan review. However, it is in the City's interest to require site plan approval and conditional use approval to run concurrently when the site plan contents would further inform a decision on the associated conditional use. The proposed amendments allow the City Manager, or designee, to require the site plan to run concurrently with the conditional use in these situations. Additionally, the review standards are proposed to be modified to consider the public health, welfare, and safety for conditional use approval.

The current mobile food vending regulations do not allow mobile food vending in residential or commercial areas in association with special events on private property, such as birthdays, weddings, grand openings, etc. The proposed amendments would allow, on a limited basis, mobile food vending as a temporary use.

The Special Area Plan allows for special hotel height allowances within various character districts, which are currently allowed by right (unless specified). The proposed amendments to the SmartCode would now allow for the special hotel heights by conditional use.

Currently, the allowable ADU size in the SmartCode is a maximum of 500 square feet. This standard is inconsistent with both the Special Area Plan and the Land Development Code, which allows ADU's to be up to 600 square feet in area. The proposed amendment adjusts the maximum ADU size to 600 square feet.

Currently, the CG and CL future land use categories allow residential uses by 'conditional use'. Typically, conditional use provisions are regulated through the Land Development Code rather than the Comprehensive Plan. The proposed amendments would provide acreage limitations for certain uses within these categories, in lieu of the conditional use process.

The city has extensive lands located within the CHHA that are also increasingly vulnerable to inundation during coastal storm events, especially in consideration of future sea level rise. Therefore, the Board of Commissioners directed staff to evaluate all current policies and regulations related to development within the CHHA. The proposed amendments provide clarity to existing policy language and references to the proposed new CHHA development regulations and design standards in the Land Development Code.