PLA25-057 Staff Decision - Laserfiche WebLink

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with safety regulations by providing sufficient off-street parking and is the best solution for what could become an unsafe situation. Lastly, the church representative explained that they wanted to purchase less acres from the neighboring property owner, but that the minimum they were willing to sell was the 3-acres proposed. This information provides additional justification for why the proposal needs to occur and how the impact on the land is not as substantial as converting 3-acres of farmland to a parking lot. However, the proposal still needs to be reviewed for the criterion of is this proposed configuration “at least as suitable for commercial agriculture”. Looking at the land use pattern in the local area, many of the existing lots in the nearby vicinity are smaller in size and not typically parcels one would associate with commercial agriculture. The predominant farm operations on these smaller parcels are berry farms, which is what the subject tax lot 900 was previously engaged in. Many of these berry fields are small and are the size of the open farm field area that would remain on tax lot 900 as a result of this proposal. As such, even though tax lot 900 would decrease in size, it would still be suitable for continued farm use matching the historic crop patterns in the immediate area. Additionally, only a portion of the transferred land would be turned into non-farmable parking lot space; the rest would remain open for farming. Lastly, the additional parking area will improve the road safety in the area by allowing an existing use to operate in compliance with parking regulations. Therefore, with this collection of circumstances, the proposed resultant configuration will still be suitable for commercial agriculture to enough of a degree to meet the criterion and still allow the church to operate safely. Therefore, the criterion is met. 4. A property line adjustment may not be used to: a. Decrease the size of a lot or parcel that, before the relocation or elimination of the common property line, is smaller than the minimum lot or parcel size for the applicable zone and contains an existing dwelling or is approved for the construction of a dwelling, if the abutting vacant tract would be increased to a size as large as or larger than the minimum tract size required to qualify the vacant tract for a dwelling; The proposal at hand does reduce the size of a parcel with an existing dwelling which is already smaller than the minimum parcel size for the zone. Additionally, the parcel increasing in size also does not contain a dwelling. However, the parcel without a dwelling will not be increased to a size that would qualify it for a dwelling as the only option for dwelling qualification utilizing an acreage standard requires a parcel size of 160 -acres. Therefore, the criterion is met. b. Decrease the size of a lot or parcel that contains an existing dwelling or is approved for construction of a dwelling to a size smaller than the minimum lot or parcel size, if the abutting vacant tract would be increased to a size as large as or larger tha n the minimum tract size required to qualify the vacant tract for a dwelling; The proposal at hand does reduce the size of a parcel with an existing dwelling and the parcel increasing in size also does not contain a dwelling. However, the parcel without a dwelling will not be increased to a size that would qualify it for a dwelling as the only option for dwelling qualification utilizing an acreage standard requires a parcel size of 160-acres. Therefore, the criterion is met. c. Allow an area of land used to qualify a tract for a dwelling based on an acreage standard to be used to qualify another tract for a dwelling if the land use approval would be based on an acreage standard; or Tax lot 900 was created as part of a subdivision that occurred prior to the adoption of the current system of planning and zoning and similarly the house was constructed prior to the formal adoption of this system. This means the land in tax lot 900 has not been used to qualify a tract of land for a dwelling previously. Since the land has not previously been used to qualify land for a dwelling, this proposal will not allow a section of land to qualify a parcel for a dwelling twice. Therefore, the criterion is met.