Memorandum

City of Lawrence – Douglas County

Planning & Development Services

To:	Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission
From:	Planning Staff
Date:	For February 25, 2013 Planning Commission Meeting
RE:	Misc. Item #1 - Horizon 2020/Truck Stop Language

Purpose

This memo was prepared in response to direction from the Planning Commission to find all instances that “truck stops” is mentioned in Horizon 2020. 

Staff performed a word search of Horizon 2020 and was able to find only one instance that “truck stops” is mentioned.  The only place staff was able to find “truck stops” mentioned is within the Auto-Related Commercial Centers description (see below).   The Planning Commission voted unanimously on January 28, 2013 to remove “truck stops” from the Auto-Related Commercial Centers description.

Auto-Related Commercial Centers

A unique type of commercial development is an Auto-Related Commercial Center.  These centers include a wide variety of uses such as auto sales and repair, truck stops, restaurants, hotels, and other similar uses.  However, these uses are not limited to Auto-Related Commercial Centers. A common feature of all these uses is that they typically have a small amount of commercial square footage under roof, but require a large amount of acreage.

Because these centers have a limited variety of uses and a relatively small amount of commercial square footage, Auto-Related Commercial Centers do not fit within the definition of a Community or Regional Commercial Center.  These types of centers are very intensive and therefore need to be directed to areas that have an ability to handle the intensive nature of an Auto-Related Commercial Center.

Auto-Related Commercial Centers shall be located at the intersection of two state or federally designated highways.  To ensure that the Auto-Related Commercial Centers develop in a planned manner that provides a positive benefit to the community, Auto-Related Commercial Centers shall have a lot length-to-depth ratio of 3:2 and must be a minimum of 20 acres in size.

All the potential locations of an Auto-Related Commercial Center are in areas that serve as “gateways” into the city.  Since they are in “gateway” areas, any proposal for an Auto-Related Commercial Center shall be closely scrutinized for architectural appearance, landscaping, signage, etc.

Recommendation

Receive this memo and direct staff as appropriate.