Attention – February 18, 2010 6 P.M. Commission Meeting

Here is the agenda for the important Commission meeting, tomorrow February 18, 2010 6 P.M.:

1. AMENDMENTS TO SITE PLAN PROCEDURES – Second Reading and Public Hearing of Ordinance 10-708.

2. CHAPTER 90 – Internal Traffic Circulation and Access.

Agenda item #1 is very important. Among other things, Ord. 10-708, if adopted, will amend Sec.74-350 through 358 so that final site plan decisions will be the duty of the City Commission. The P&Z Board will be the recommending body. This will be a reversion back to the way things were prior to July 26, 2007.

Agenda item #2 is also very important. The City Commission will finally attend to Chapter 90. This item was not reviewed at last week’s Feb. 11th joint P&Z Board and Commission work session due to time constraints.

Click on ‘read more’ to learn why Chapter 90 is so important to the City of Anna Maria!

The purpose of Chapter 90 is to provide standards to create an efficient, safe and balanced system of on-site and site-related traffic circulation accommodating vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians, and providing for adequate parking and loading.

What do you want for our City??? What do the people of Anna Maria want our City to look and feel like? Do we want safe traffic circulation?
When you drive down the narrow main streets of our city, along Pine Ave. and Gulf Dr., do you want to see the tail ends of parked cars backing out onto the street across the entire frontage of commercial properties along the length of the business district?
OR
do you want to see a limited number of driveway openings leading to small parking areas on the business properties (like the Sun Plaza at Magnolia and Gulf) where there is a proper driveway leading to on-site parking with a pretty hedge safely separating cars from a safer and more ‘walkable’ pedestrian sidewalk.

Here are key parts of Chapter 90 which applies to all districts in our city:

Sec. 90-2. Access and circulation.
(b) Vehicular access standards.
(2) Curb cuts.

a. No lot with less than 75 feet of frontage on a street shall have more than one two-way driveway opening or curb cut, or two one-way drives, on that street. Corner parcels on collectors shall provide access by way of the intersecting local street.

b. Lots which have 75 feet or more of frontage on any street may have two driveway openings or curb cuts on that street. Corner parcels on collectors shall provide one of the accesses by way of the intersecting local street.

c. Driveways shall not be located closer than five feet to a property line except when the drive is jointly used by the adjoining properties, or located with its centerline within 50 feet of the centerline of a street intersection. Driveway flare shall be no wider than two feet on either side of the driveway and shall not infringe over the extended property line of the adjoining property.

d. Driveways for all other uses shall not exceed 24 feet in width at the property line.

Sec. 90-3. Off-street parking requirements.
(m) General design standards. All off-street parking areas, including all areas for maneuvering, shall be located solely on the subject property, shall not use public rights-of-way, shall have vehicular access to a public street, and shall be designed to provide safe and convenient circulation in accordance with commonly accepted traffic engineering practices.

Don’t you think the above means that parking should be contained in on-site parking areas accessed by driveways? Recent site plans for development have been approved without driveway access. Hopefully this meeting will resolve this issue.

You can read what our entire Chapter 90 code says by clicking here, then scrolling down the left side of the page to Chapter 90 and selecting it.

Hope to see you at the meeting tomorrow Feb 18th at 6 p.m.!