Recently, legislation was introduced that would amend the Zoning Code by altering the requirements and the procedure for obtaining a rezoning to Planned Unit Development, or PUD. The proposed ordinance amends Sec. 656.340, titled Planned Unit Development-PUD. The pertinent additional language states that “a Planned Unit Development, or amendment thereto of existing and future Planned Unit Developments, shall not be allowed to authorize uses, reductions of parking, reductions in buffers or landscaping, enlargement of signs, aggregation or subdivision of lots, or the relaxation of any requirement, standard, criteria, regulation, or the purpose and intent of any zoning overlay if those uses or standards are restricted from being modified through a PUD in the overlay.” This additional language would allow for zoning overlays to restrict the uses of PUDs in the many ways listed.
As stated, the amendment would also make some changes to the procedure for obtaining a rezoning to PUD, found in Sec. 656.341. The changes are with regards to the requirements for the written description. In addition to some organizational adjustments to this section, it would add a provision requiring that the written description provide “[a] description of specifically how the proposed [PUD] differs from the usual application of the provisions of the Zoning Code, including but not limited to any departures from the requirements of the following Parts: Supplementary Regulations; Off-Street Parking Regulations; Nonconforming Lots, Uses and Structures; Alcoholic Beverages; Excavations, Lakes and Borrow Pits; Regulations related to Airports and Lands Adjacent Thereto; Adult Entertainment and Service Facilities; Landscape and Tree Protection Regulations, and Sign Regulations.” (emphasis added). This revision appears to require significantly more detail than that currently required under the Zoning Code.
The Planning Department has also begun implementing a new policy requiring the submission of a JEA Availability Letter with all rezoning applications, including PUDs. It is unclear whether this new policy will be incorporated into the proposed changes as well.
