14-12-030 MASTER PLANNED ZONE: Requirements and Guidelines

An application for a Master Planned Development shall meet the minimum requirements set forth herein. Guidelines are recommendations, but give the applicant and the City a starting point to negotiate a development agreement. Applications which only meets the minimum standards or guidelines will not be eligible for maximum density, and may be rejected at the discretion of the Council. A. Minimum Size A Master Planned Development shall contain a minimum of 120 acres. A master planned development in the mixed use zone shall contain a minimum of five acres. The City Council has the discretion to reduce the minimum acreage requirement by up to ten percent (10%) for particularly well designed projects which provide excellent quality, and upon a showing that the project is unable to obtain the standard acreage. B. Open Space A Master Planned Development shall retain a minimum of fifteen percent (15%) of the acreage as open space. Open space may not include streets or paved parking areas. At the sole discretion of the Council, up to five percent (5%) of the open space requirement may be in sensitive lands (wet lands, slopes over 29%, and other non-buildable lands), improved grass or storm water basins (with the recommendation of the City Engineer). At least ten percent (10%) of the open space area must be in improved lands, such as parks, trails, recreation facilities, and other functional uses, as approved by the Council. A detailed plan showing how any open space is to be improved shall be submitted with the application. C. Infrastructure Applications for a master planned development are required to demonstrate how utility services will be provided, as well as show how proposed improvements will impact existing or proposed city infrastructure, including flood irrigation systems or ditches acting as storm water facilities. City will make available all city GIS information and existing modeling information. This includes, but is not limited to, culinary water pressurized irrigation, sewer collection, sewer treatment, storm water, streets, electrical power, and others as directed by the City Engineer. Given the wide variations and forms that a master planned development may take, the applicant will coordinate design efforts with the engineering department to determine infrastructure needs and formulate a plan for how they will be met and how they will complement existing infrastructure. If the City questions the recommendations of the applicant for the development needs, it may hire an independent consultant, at the applicant’s expense, to review the information. In the event of a disagreement between consultants, the City may, at its discretion, require the larger project service to be installed by the applicant, with no reimbursement. The City may require any service to be oversized in order to accommodate other growth in the area. The development agreement shall address reimbursement for the oversizing beyond what is needed for the project. Deviations from standard street cross sections may be allowed, at the sole discretion of the City, in order to accomplish a superior design of the project. D. Amenities A Master Planned Development shall be required to install a certain portion of the amenities with each phase of the project. The precise amenities and the timing of their installation shall be set forth with specificity in the development agreement. No building permits will be issued until the required amenities are either built or otherwise provided for in a manner acceptable to the City to ensure they will be constructed in a timely manner. Assurance must be provided by the applicant that all the amenities will be constructed according to the plans and the development agreement. Assurance may take various forms, but shall be determined at the sole discretion of the Council, on a project by project basis.