The Planning Commission later this month will consider a request by the Lafayette-based developers of the River District, a planned mixed-use development on Nicholson Drive, to exempt the project from the overlay zoning district that governs the area. The nearby Water Campus—up for approval this month as well—also plans to ask to be removed from the district, which is called the Old Town Redevelopment Overlay.
An overlay district is a special zoning district in which additional standards are superimposed over existing regulations to protect the character and feel of an area. The Old Town overlay district was created 10 years ago to help preserve the Nicholson corridor.
Attorney Charles Landry, who is representing both projects on the matter, says because both projects are large planned unit developments, or PUDs, they already are subject to their own set of stringent design guidelines regulating such issues as setbacks, parking and landscaping.
“An overlay district is a law that has design criteria,” he says. “A traditional neighborhood development or PUD is also an ordinance with design regulations so you don’t want to have two conflicting ordinances governing a project. This is simply a way to clarify things so that only one law is governing each project.”
Planning Director Frank Duke says the matter amounts to little more than a technicality. The Old Town overlay district was never intended to regulate large developments like the River District or Water Campus, he says. Rather, it was created to regulate small, infill projects and ensure they fit in with their surroundings.
“The Water Campus and River District are by no stretch of the imagination infill developments,” Duke says. “They’re big PUDs and when you have a PUD you basically write the ordinance for what you want it to be. You set your own standards for setbacks, parking, landscaping. You’re designing the uses you’re going to have.”
It remains to be seen whether developers of smaller projects within the overlay district will oppose the move to exempt the River District and Water Campus from the regulations that have, in some cases, hamstrung their projects. Also unclear is whether they might try to push to repeal the overlay district.
Marc Blumberg, who is trying to develop the River House multifamily complex on Nicholson Drive at the site of the old Prince Murat Hotel, says he isn’t sure yet what position he’ll take. He just learned of the proposed exemptions late Wednesday. But Duke says the existing overlay district serves a good purpose in regulating small infill developments and should remain in place as is.
“People may say it’s unfair that if you’re small you have to meet these standards but if you’re big you don’t,” he says. “But if you’re big you’re going to be spending more money and you’re going to be defining your own character for an area through a PUD ordinance, whereas if you’re small you need to fit in with the surrounding area.”
—Stephanie Riegel
