[Vision2020] Schools as CUPs in CBD 01

[Kit Craine]

Mayor Comstock and members of the Council

I'd like to address one point that was discussed during the June 27, 
2005 appeal of the Board of Adjustment's reversal of the Zoning 
Administrator's decision that New Saint Andrews College is an allowed 
use in the Central Business District. That is the idea that Educational 
Institutions were inadvertently left out of the CBD when Schools, 
Commercial Schools, and Educational Institutions became conditional 
uses in residential zones (Ordinance 99-38).

Ordinance 99-38 changed a use by right—schools in residential 
zones—into a conditional use. The intent was to solve a problem in the 
code which had an adverse effect on a neighborhood.

The code revision was prompted by the location of a Charter School 
(Renaissance) at the end of a cul-de-sac—a location that was totally 
inappropriate for a number of reasons. At the time, the City could do 
nothing to keep the school from being constructed because it was a 
primary use. The code was revised so the City would have some control 
over the location of schools (K-12, commercial, and educational 
institutions) and thus provide some protection to the neighborhoods.

Schools and Educational Institutions (as defined by code) in commercial 
zones—particularly the Central Business District—were not included in 
the discussion because they were not part of the problem; they were 
deliberately removed as allowed uses in 1990.

As with 99-38, the 1990 exclusion of Educational Institutions in 
commercial zones was intended to solve a problem—specifically to 
protect the community from the University creeping into valuable 
commercial space, taking it off the tax rolls, and interfering with 
what the community wanted to be a business-focused area.

The point of a zoning code is to protect the community—especially the 
immediate neighbors—against incompatible uses. The question for the 
community at this time is not what past Councils may have intended or 
overlooked. It is whether this proposal will solve a problem an 
inappropriate use imposes on the community in such a way that the 
community—particularly the neighbors—are protected.

Kit Craine