VARIANCE JUSTIFICATION ROOMS TO GO US 19 NEW PORT RICHEY

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Rodger McBride
5 years ago
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1 RECEIVED VARIANCE JUSTIFICATION ROOMS TO GO US 19 NEW PORT RICHEY PASCO COUNTY DEVELOPMENT RWlW Logan Port Richey Associates, L.P., Ltd. is the owner of a parcel of land located on the west side of US 19 at Tacoma Drive. The site presently contains a 16,381 s.f. Rooms To Go store. The owner, wants to expand the existing store by 8,201 s.f. The use will remain a furniture showroom. Logan Port Richey is seeking a variance in order to reduce the amount of land that has to be dedicated along their entire US 19 frontage, as required under the Transportation Corridor regulations adopted by Pasco County. A second variance is being sought in order to reduce the buffer width and the overall amount of landscaping required in the landscaped buffer along US 19, consistent with the width being dedicated and the existing trees along US 19. It is felt that this request for a Transportation Corridor dedication reduction and a buffer width and landscaping reduction is reasonable and appropriate as related to the variance criteria specified by Pasco County for the following reasons: Criteria 1: The strict application of the land development regulation creates an unreasonable or unfair non-economic hardship or an inordinate burden that was not created by the variance applicant. For Variance 1 : Transportation Corridor Dedication, Section 3 19, LDC The strict application of the County's Transportation Corridor regulations to this expansion would result in an inordinate burden being placed upon the property owner. As a hrniture showroom, Rooms To Go generates an extremely small amount of traffic. There are no truck deliveries made from the site and only potential furniture customers and a few employees generate any vehicular use of the site. A traffic analysis was performed by Gulf Coast Consulting. It shows that the expansion will add approximately 3 additional pm peak hour trips to the entire road network. This represents 0.052% of the road capacity for US 19. The site does not have any direct access onto US 19 and the 3 additional trips are considered to be de minimus under the County TIS regulations. The property is long and narrow and has approximately lineal feet of US 19 frontage. The strip being requested is approximately 13.5 feet deep and encompasses the area where the required 15 foot landscape buffer needs to be installed. There is no access onto US 19 along this strip of land. The taking would result in a 1 % foot landscape buffer remaining along the US 19 frontage. The site is long and narrow which limits where additional landscaping could be placed to mitigate that lost along US 19. The applicant is currently losing 97 existing parking spaces (43 percent) in order to expand the building and bring the site into conformity with current land development regulations.

2 If required to comply with the Transportation Corridor regulations, the applicant would lose an additional 41 spaces, or 32 percent of the existing spaces. The owner's representatives discussed the need for the additional dedication with FDOT District 7. District 7 does not have any current projects or any projects in their 5 year Transportation Work Program that would necessitate the use of the Rooms To Go land. The FDOT recently completed a continuous right turn lane at this location. A PD&E study was completed in 2008 and it shows that no additional right-of-way is needed along this portion of US 19 through the year This study included drainage needs for US 19. The County's Transportation Corridor regulations state that the intent, in part, is to promote orderly growth, to meet concurrency requirements and to maintain the integrity of the corridor. It also states that the regulations were implemented to ensure adequate transportation facilities to accommodate the citizenry of the county now and in the future. The addition of 3 pm peak hour trips does not have any significant impact on the county road network and may not have any impact on the US 19 corridor that is the subject of the preservation. The request for the dedication of a strip of land that is approximately feet by 13.5 feet is not roughly proportional to the impact of the project on US 19. As stated earlier, there is no access onto US 19 from the site. It seems like the citizenry of the county would be better served, and the applicant treated more equitably, if the required landscape buffer were installed along US 19 rather than the dedication of the land where the landscaping would have been installed, especially since there is no documented need for the land. A worksheet, comparing the relative costs per net trip for this furniture showroom dedication compared with two high traffic generators is attached. It shows that the full dedication would result in a cost per net trip for the furniture store that was in excess of the proportionate impacts of the development on the road system. Additionally, a calculation provided by the County using its methodology, also indicates that the dedication of the entire strip is disproportional to the value of the land and that the proportional amount of dedication is 6 feet. A third calculation, using the County's methodology, but replacing the Property Appraiser's value of the strip with the value indicated in a 2009 appraisal for this site, indicating that only 2.28 feet of dedication is appropriate is also attached. Section (D)(5) of the ordinance adopted in November of 2006, amending the County concurrency regulations, states, "Pursuant to Section (16)(c), Florida Statutes, for purposes of meeting its concurrency obligations, a development shall not be required to pay more than its proportionate share, nor shall the fair market value of the proportionate share mitigation for the impacted facilities differ regardless of the method of mitigation."

3 Additionally, Rooms To Go does not have a concurrency problem that would necessitate the dedication of land or other improvement to mitigate a concurrency problem. Under Florida's growth management regulations, a developer of property does not have to provide concurrency mitigation if they are able to meet concurrency. They will be paying transportation impact fees to Pasco County, as appropriate. The payment of the impact fees should adequately mitigate the 3 additional pm peak hour trips that will be generated. Despite this, the applicant is willing to provide the amount of land indicated under the County rough proportionality methodology but seeks a variance for the remainder of the corridor dedication. For Variance 2: Reduction of Landscaped Buffer and Plantings Therein, Section 603, LDC, There is an existing landscaped buffer along US 19 that contains some mature trees. The applicant is seeking a variance to permanently reduce the buffer width along the US 19 frontage to 9 feet. The request includes the inclusion of existing vegetation in the calculations for required landscaping within the strip and the elimination of any berms that might have been required. The applicant is seeking this reduction in order to be consistent with the first variance request, which would reduce the amount of the transportation corridor dedication for the project. As stated above, the dedication of the entire transportation corridor width would result in a disproportional impact on the property. This dedication area overlaps existing buffer area along US 19. The granting of the first variance request would result in a remaining buffer area outside of the dedication area that is 9 feet in width. The applicant feels that a variance to reduce the buffer to this width is justified above and that the application of the entire buffer width and all of the plantings that would be required therein would not be feasible given the taking for the transportation corridor and the width of the parcel. Inclusion of the full buffer width would result in the loss of the parking along US 19, which constitutes 32 percent of the existing parking. The. landscaping of this buffer will provide trees as required but will take credit for the trees in the existing buffer. Since the County and FDOT desire the corridor dedication, despite evidence that it is disproportional to the project and there is no programmed need for the land, it creates the need for a buffer width and landscaping variance along US 19.

4 ROOMS TO GO EXPANSION US 19 COMBINED FEES COST/NET TRIP The cost per net trip for the proposed 8,201 sf furniture showroom is calculated and compared below to two very high traffic generators: fast food and high turnover sit-down restaurant. Net tripsl1,ooo sf of use was derived from the County's transportation impact fee assumptions by taking the gross daily vehicular tripsl1,ooo sf. and multiplying that by the percent new assumption in the ordinance. This net tripl1,ooo sf factor was then utilized to calculate the cost per net trip for the County transportation impact fees, the US 19 surcharge, and the $1 50,000 value of the strip of land being requested by the County for US 19 dedication. As noted below, the cost per net trip for the proposed Rooms To Go expansion is 7600% greater than the codnet trip for fast food and more than 2700 % greater than the costlnet trip for high turnover sit-down restaurants. Therefore, the total costs being assessed by the County for transportation impacts for the Rooms To Go expansion are not roughly proportionate to the impact. County Transportation Impact Fee Trip Generation Assumptions: Furniture Store: 5.06 vtd11,ooo sf with 54 % new trips = 2.73 net tripsl1,ooo sf High Turnover Sit-Down Restaurant: vtd/1,000 sf with 71% new trips = net tripsl1,ooo sf Fast Food Restaurant: /vtd/1,000 sf with 60% new = net tripsl1,ooo sf. County Transportation Impact Feemet Trip Furniture Store: $1,72711,000 sf or $632.60/net daily trip High Turnover Restaurant: $30,05911,000 sf or $344.70/net daily trip Fast Food Restaurant: $80,52111,000 sf or $256.78/net daily trip Relative Cost Based on Net Trip Rates/1,000 sf for Land Subject to Dedication Waiver (Appraised Value = $150,000): Cost of Dedication at appraised value based on net trip rates (i.e., $1 50,000 value divided by net trip rate per use): Furniture Store: $54,945.05/net trip High urn over: $1,670.19/net trip Fast Food: $478.36/net trip Total Combined Relative Costs Based on Net Trip Ratel1,OOO sf (impact fee net trip rate plus relative cost net trip rate): Furniture Store: $55, High Turnover: $2, Fast Food: $735.14

5 ROUGH PROPORTIONALITY METHOD For 3 19 Corridor Preservation Dedication ROOMS TO GO ADDITION GENERAL INFORMA TION Parcel ID Parcel Zoning C-2 Total Parcel Size ac = 123,275sf Proposed Use - Furniture Store /8,20 1 sf add. Land ValueIPA- $762,252 x 15% =$876,590 Land Valuelsf = $ Corridor Reqd.= 235 ft (208 A existing) Corridor Taking = 13.5 ft x 590.4ft = 7970sf Full (Option 1) Transportation Impact Fee = $4.71 Olsf (2009 dolars) Actual (Option 3) Transportation Impact Fee = $1.62/sf (2009 dollars) Corridor Value -7,970sf x $7.1 llsf = $56,695 = a Option 1 Total Impact Fee - 8,20 1 sf x $ = $38,545 Actual Total Impact Fee - 8,20 1 sf x $1.62 = $13,286 Difference $25,259 = b If b > a, then dedication is presumed to be roughly proportional to the transportation impact of the developed site. $25, $56,695 = =44.6% Amount of Corridor R/W to be Dedicated to County = 44.6% of 13.5 ft or 6 ft.

6 VERSION 2: ROUGH PROPORTIONALITY METHOD FOR US 19 USING CURRENT PROPERTY APPRAISAL VALUES ROOMS TO GO EXPANSION NEW PORT RICHEY General Information: Parcel ID: Zoning: C-2 Total Parcel Size: 2.83 acres or 123,275 sf Proposed Use: Furniture Showroom: 8,201 sf addition Land Value (PA): $762,252 x 15% = $876,590 or $7.1 1/sf Corridor Required: 235 feet (208 existing) Corridor Taking: 13.5 feet x feet = 7,970 sf Full 2009 Option 1 Transportation Fee: $4.71 9/sf ~ctual Option 3 Fee Transportation Fee: $1.62/sf Corridor Value: $150,000 based on attached appraisal Total Option 1 Fee: $4.71 x 8,201 = $38, Actual Fee: $1.62 x 8,201 = $13, Difference: $25, Ratio: $25, divided by $1 50,000 = 16.89% 16.89% of 13.5 feet = 2.28 feet

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