Triangle district height ordinance updated
By Grace Lovins
After months of discussions at Birmingham’s Planning Board level, city commissioners approved several updates to the Triangle District Overlay ordinance during the Monday, November 25, meeting, changing multiple provisions that allowed developers to obtain bonus building stories.
City planning director Nick Dupuis said the changes were a band aid, or short term fix, to what the planning department and planning board felt was a gap in the current zoning ordinance. Prior to the commission’s approval, the ordinance allowed additional bonus stories for buildings in the triangle district if they met certain criteria.
The city’s planning board and planning department took up consideration of amending the triangle district height provision several months ago with the hope of making changes that would benefit the city and align with the district’s current needs. These short term fixes are phase one of a two phase plan, said Dupuis, the second phase being long-term fixes.
Dupuis explained that the planning board has multiple short-term fixes relating to the bonus height provision criteria. The first change was eliminating LEED certification as a way to obtain additional stories. According to Dupuis, staff and board members felt that the LEED certification was too low of a bar to offer additional stories, but they are in favor of looking into a different sustainability approach in the long-term phase.
The second update related to the provision for a public plaza. Dupuis said this change clarified the language in the ordinance and broadened it to suggest applicable master plans rather than just the Triangle District Urban Design Plan adopted in 2007.
Additionally, all provisions related to payment-in-lieu of parking were removed, said Dupuis. The city struggles all around with parking, especially in the Triangle District where no public property is owned. Dupuis said the short-term approach would be to encourage developers to build parking on their site for additional stories.
To finish off the changes, Dupuis explained that the planning board created a retail frontage boundary which creates a standard for commercial square footage. There were no standards in place for the square footage or placement of commercial space in the district, but the amendment requires commercial space where the retail frontage boundary sits in order to gain the bonus stories.
With little discussion from the commission, commissioners voted 6-0 to approve and adopt the ordinance amendment.
