Timing

is everything as the Fayetteville Planning

Commission considers a proposed new zoning

category during its business meeting Tuesday.

Commissioners

will consider a proposed new PCD (Planned

Community District) zoning category that would

allow mixed-use, master-planned developments like

The Village (see related story), without each

segment having to be zoned separately.

If

approved by both the Planning Commission and City

Council, the new category would replace the

city's PUD (Planned Unit Development) category.

In

its original form, developed in the `60s and

`70s, PUD zoning was designed to provide for

master planning of communities, city planner

Maurice Ungara told the Planning Commission

during a work session last week. But over the

years, that original purpose has been perverted,

he said.

"It's

basically been used to replace the variance

process," he said, "for projects as

small as five acres."

The

proposed PCD category, he said, will allow

developers flexibility so they can be more

creative in designing large developments, with

the trade-off that the city will have more

control. "The zoning is attached to the

property and includes anything associated with

that development," he said.

"It

would require everything to be documented.

Natural resources, historic resources, etc., all

have to be taken into account," he added.

Commissioners

weren't quite convinced. "This is an

ordinance written for a project," commented

commission member Allan Feldman.

Feldman

said he is concerned that the proposed ordinance

doesn't limit the density of developments. PUD

zoning is tied to a given residential category,

so that the overall number of homes in a project

doesn't exceed the number allowed under that

zoning. A mixture of lot sizes is allowed, but

the average must meet the zoning.

Under

the proposed PCD, Feldman said he is concerned

that the final density would be left up to

wrangling between developers and the Planning

Commission.

"You

would wind up in a battle royal over this

thing," he said. "What was wrong with

the old PUD?"

But

Ungara said the commission would still have

control over density as part of the design

approval process. "PCD is not something that

you breeze through," he said. "A great

deal of work is done by staff, the commission and

City Council" to control the final design,

he said.

City

leaders could, for instance, limit the number of

homes to what would be allowed under the previous

zoning, or use the land use plan as a guide, he

said.

"I

want something that would be ironclad as far as

density is concerned," said Feldman.

Several

commissioners said they would meet individually

with Ungara to try and understand the ordinance

better before they vote on it Tuesday.

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