§ 27-475.06.05. MARC Planned Community.

(a)

Purposes:

(1)

To promote the optimum use of transit facilities by assuring the orderly development of land in transit station development areas and access, both vehicular and pedestrian, to transit stations;

(2)

To promote the orderly development and redevelopment of land in the vicinity of mass transit rail stations so that these areas will enhance the economic status of the County and provide an expanding source of desirable employment and living opportunities for its citizens;

(3)

To maximize the value of land, infrastructure and buildings by increasing the public and private investment and development potential inherent in the location of the mass transit rail station which might otherwise become scattered throughout and outside the County, to its detriment;

(4)

To promote the effective and optimum use of mass transit rail station;

(5)

To permit a flexible response to the market;

(6)

To provide for the needs of the workers and residents within a MARC Planned Community;

(7)

To provide appropriate flexibility in the architectural design of buildings and their grouping and layout within the area classified as a MARC Planned Community in order to provide an opportunity and incentive to the developer to achieve excellence in physical, social, and economic planning, to stimulate the coordinated, harmonious, and systematic development of a MARC Planned Community, the area surrounding the use, and the Regional District as a whole; to prevent detrimental effects to the use or development of adjacent properties or the surrounding neighborhoods; and to promote the health, safety, and welfare of the present and future inhabitants of the Regional District and County as a whole;

(8)

To afford reasonable flexibility in the design of a MARC Planned Community and its response to the market while phasing out heavy industrial uses; and

(9)

To maximize the value of existing or planned public infrastructure.

(b)

A MARC Planned Community permitted (P) in the Table of Uses shall be subject to the following:

(1)

Requirements.

(A)

The open space facilities shall be planned to be well maintained, easily accessible, and well connected, and shall include:

(i)

Pedestrian circulation to the MARC station from the MARC Planned Community and adjacent neighborhoods; and

(ii)

Green spaces of scale and facilities appropriate for the immediate residents;

(B)

The MARC Planned Community shall provide adequate private and/or public vehicular access to adjacent public rights-of-way to accommodate the traffic generated by the MARC Planned Community;

(C)

The MARC Planned Community shall include each of the following three (3) categories of uses:

(i)

Retail;

(ii)

Office, research, or industrial;

(iii)

Residential.

(D)

Regulations restricting the height of structures, lot size and coverage, frontage, setbacks, density and intensity, dwelling unit types and other requirements of the specific zone in which the use is proposed shall not apply to uses and structures provided in this Section. The dimensions, percentages and development data shown on the approved Detailed Site Plan shall not be inconsistent with the area Master Plan or a Sector Plan and will constitute the regulations for development of a MARC Planned Community.

(E)

Development within a MARC Planned Community shall be situated so that uses generating a minimum of fifty (50) percent of all trips proposed in the entire MARC Planned Community shall be located no further than one thousand three hundred twenty (1,320) feet (1/4 mile) from the center of the mass transit rail station platform.

(2)

Site Plan.

A Detailed Site Plan shall be approved for the use in accordance with Part 3, Division 9, of this Subtitle to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Section. If the first Detailed Site Plan does not include the entire MARC Planned Community area, the applicant shall submit in addition to the other filing requirements, a concept and phasing plan concurrent with the first Detailed Site Plan for the entire MARC Planned Community which shall include the proposed residential density and non-residential intensity. Any future expansion of the MARC Planned Community that was not included in a concept and phasing plan filed concurrently with the first Detailed Site Plan may occur only upon the approval of a Conceptual Site Plan at the sole discretion of the District Council.

(CB-21-2006)