This Ordinance implements the City of Paola Comprehensive Plan of 1983. Division 22.100 and Division 22.200 set forth specific goals and policies implemented by this Ordinance.
While it is the intent of the City that these regulations be in conformity with adopted comprehensive plans, it is further the intent of the City that these regulations shall not be challenged merely on the basis of an alleged nonconformity with such adopted plans. The following Sections provide a goal statement and a policy discussion.
Goals: To protect the long-term future growth potential of the City’s Community Growth Area.
To exercise zoning, subdivision, and land development controls over the Community Growth Area.
To provide for a rational and cost-effective program of utility extension to service the Community Growth Area.
Paola and Miami County have begun a period of suburban growth, as the Kansas City metropolitan area development has spread from Johnson County to Miami County. The County cannot provide the needed services to sustain growth. To the extent the goals and objectives of any Miami County Comprehensive Plan encourage growth in established, and establishing urban areas, these regulations support those goals. Like any city, Paola needs to have a growth area into which it can expand over an extended period of time. Working with Miami County, a Community Growth Area providing for approximately fifty (50) years growth has been established. The basic land use planning for residential, commercial, and employment for this long-term growth has been performed. The City’s capital programming is providing a logical extension of utility services into these areas. This Land Development Ordinance provides zoning, subdivision, and land development controls over Paola’s community growth area. Therefore, the City can coordinate land development in a fashion that encourages development in areas with adequate services. It is the desire of the City that the County establish a viable long-term strategy for improving County roads to serve regional needs. Water districts are better able to plan for service extensions because of the community growth areas.
A key to managing growth is extending services to newly developing areas in a cost effective and timely manner. Planned expansion of services ahead of need reduces the total cost of the services. The availability of adequate services ensures Paola expands where service is available rather than reacting and attempting to extend services to scattered random development. In addition, the approach ensures the City’s capital facilities costs are held to a reasonable level.
The City recognizes that strict control of the pace of development can have consequences for property owners who may desire to develop or sell before the City can cost-effectively provide services. The City has addressed this legitimate concern by providing development alternatives for landowners. These alternatives allow for interim development consistent with the Plans but does not endanger the public health, safety, or the City’s long-term growth objectives.
Goals: To protect and enhance Paola’s unique community character.
To provide residents with the assurances that the character of their neighborhoods will be protected.
To plan for the individual land uses using community character types.
Both Paola and Miami County are planning to use a community character system to establish the community’s land use pattern. The City plans to provide a variety of community character types, ensuring a wide range of life-style choices. Urban character in and around the city square and County court house will be expanded to promote the special historical character of the City’s center. Retail commercial, business parks, industrial areas, and some higher density residential are planned to have a thoroughfare access character -- each within individual zoning districts. The City is not content with the quality of many existing thoroughfare access areas, and these are to be upgraded. New thoroughfare access development will be designed to higher standards. Large areas of the City will have a suburban character. Small neighborhood service areas are needed to provide services in suburban areas and will have a suburban character by virtue of suburban commercial zoning. Lastly, areas of estate character will be provided where lower intensity development can be permitted while still ensuring adequate service delivery. These different community character types provide a full range of living environments within Paola.
Community character addresses the manner in which land uses are placed on the ground and how the use impacts its neighbors, the environment, or governmental services. Each community character type permits a range of land uses that are consistent and can be built on adjoining properties without destroying or altering the neighborhood’s character. A series of intensity and design standards ensure that whatever use is built, the character is protected.
Three types of protection are provided. The first depends on design and intensity performance standards for each community character-based district. The district standards ensure a uniform community character regardless of the use. A second set of standards addresses the interface of different community character districts and provides for buffering and protection of the character of uses in the less intense district. A third set of standards recognizes that some uses have problems associated with them and provides additional protection standards that mitigate or otherwise avoid these problems.
Goals: To protect the quality of surface water in Paola’s water supply reservoirs.
To reduce the potential for flooding and erosion.
To protect wildlife habitats.
Paola obtains its drinking water from surface water in Lake Miola. Additional water comes from Hillsdale Lake, but that lake is entirely outside the City’s jurisdiction. Protecting the watersheds of Lake Miola to reduce siltation, nutrients, and other pollutants from reaching the lake or reducing the loading rates is a high priority for the City. Failure to do so results in increased costs of providing water and health risks. Maintaining stream and lake buffers, preserving forested areas, afforestation, and protecting steep slopes and drainageways are the essential strategies to protect the quality of the City’s water supply.
Paola is surrounded on three sides by large floodplains. Flooding represents a major threat to life and property. The City’s development pattern could result in significant increases in total run-off. Resource protection standards and mitigation measures will minimize the adverse impacts of new development. Many of the same techniques used to protect water quality in lakes and rivers will reduce the amount of run-off associated with new development and reduce siltation that can impair the capacity of the floodplains or floodways to move water. Many of the lands that need protection are excellent wildlife habitats. The presence of diverse wildlife is a sign that the resources are being protected in a manner that permits natural cycles to function efficiently. Further, the presence of wildlife within the City enhances the City’s overall character and attractiveness.
It is an objective of these regulations to protect resources and to serve as a means of assisting the County in resource protection. Land that is particularly sensitive is protected in two ways. First, specific natural resource protection standards limit development’s impact on the resource. Secondly, intensive uses that require leveling of the entire site are not proposed for resource sensitive areas. This Land Development Ordinance contains standards for the amount of a resource that can be disturbed. These performance standards implement the protection of specific resources and provide an easily understood measure of the level of protection.
Goals: To make Paola the commercial-retail center of Miami County.
To encourage redevelopment and investment in the downtown area and extend it.
To provide regional employment centers at the intersection of US 169 with Route 68, Baptiste Drive, and 327th Street.
The City has several economic development goals that apply to different areas within the City. Zoning is intended to implement these goals by providing specific development standards and reserving land for future development. The City has the only sub-regional shopping in the County; that is expected to expand. Paola’s zoning should prohibit small-scale strip commercial development along Baptiste Drive from co-opting more desirable large scale development and ensure that the development pattern supports subregional retail opportunities.
Regional and subregional commercial retail centers have often led to the destruction of historic commercial centers in communities around the nation -- some has occurred in Paola. The revitalization and growth of the City square area will require its growth and expansion with a well-defined urban character. The City and County will have to play an active role in making this goal happen.
The interchanges at Route 68, Baptiste Drive, and 327th Street with US 169 are designated as regional employment centers. These areas are best used as business parks, having minimum acreages of at least one hundred (100) acres. Care must be taken not to permit premature development of a character that will discourage future growth. Some existing development in these areas is of very low quality. Recognizing that not all business and industrial development can be of high quality, the business park zoning requires an outer ring of development with higher standards to present a strong image to prospective businesses. The interior of the park provides for a wider range of development.
In addition to implementing the policies of the City Plan as established in Division 22.100, this Ordinance promotes the health, safety, and general welfare of the City’s present and future inhabitants and businesses by:
A. Land Use Patterns and Community Character.
1. Establishing rational land use and growth patterns and encouraging the most appropriate use of individual pieces of land.
2. Dividing the City into districts of distinct community character according to the use of land and buildings, the intensity of such use (including bulk and height), and the surrounding open space, to promote health and safety.
3. Providing suitable transitions between different community character areas to minimize the amount of incompatible land use and adverse impacts on property value.
4. Regulating and restricting the location and use of buildings, structures, and land for trade, industry, residences, and other uses.
5. Providing protection from noise, glare, odor, or vibration through buffers and other regulations.
6. Securing adequate natural light, clean air, privacy, convenient and safe access to property, and a safe environment.
7. Limiting the bulk, scale, and density of new and existing structures to preserve the desired character of Paola and its various neighborhoods for residents and promote and encourage the community’s growth and economic health.
8. Encouraging high-quality, attractive, and marketable development for the present and future population and businesses.
B. Natural and Cultural Resources.
1. Protecting watershed and surface water resources for safe and secure drinking water upon which the City’s population depends.
2. Controlling the density, open space, land use, and vegetative cover to prevent surface water contamination.
3. Protecting life and property by avoiding or lessening the hazards of flooding, stormwater accumulation, runoff, or destabilization of soils by district or performance standards.
4. Avoiding or lessening soil erosion hazards.
5. Preserving and protecting areas with limited development potential due to topography, hydrology, soils, or other natural conditions as habitats for wildlife.
6. Respecting the area’s history by preserving archaeological, historical, and architectural resources.
C. Public Infrastructure.
1. Creating an environment safe from fire, flood, and other dangers.
2. Ensuring adequate and safe roads and facilities by limiting land use intensity to the capacity of the roads or facilities and controlling access.
3. Protecting and enhancing a pattern of streets, arterial streets, and highways that produces a unified, safe, and efficient system for movement.
4. Reducing the danger and congestion of traffic on roads and highways by both limiting the number of friction points, such as intersections and driveways, and minimizing other hazards.
5. Protecting residential streets from degradation by nonresidential traffic.
6. Establishing and regulating setback lines along streets and highways, property lines, and drainage facilities to ensure adequate and safe facilities.
7. Promoting economy in governmental expenditures.
8. Promoting and encouraging basic public services which meet the needs of Paola’s citizens and providing for public safety and services that ensure the health of residents and businesses.
D. Growth Management.
1. Providing for the zoning of the long-term fifty (50) year Community Growth Area to protect the City’s long-term growth and economic prospects.
2. Encouraging cost effective provision of utilities by regulating or phasing development to prevent premature development that creates land use, health, or economic problems for the City.
3. Encouraging development patterns that permit interim land uses that do not preclude the desirable ultimate development in the period when utilities are not available.
E. Justifiable Expectations.
1. Protecting and enhancing the value of land and buildings.
2. Seeking to balance the regulations’ impact by permitting clustering and a greater variety of uses to offset restrictions.
3. Protecting landowners from adverse impacts of adjoining developments.
4. Protecting and respecting the justifiable reliance of existing residents and businesses on the continuation of existing, established, and planned land use patterns.
5. Abating nuisances by regulating proximate uses’ compatibility using quantifiable performance standards.
6. Maintaining a desirable lifestyle for residents.
F. Administration.
1. Defining the powers and duties of administrative officers and bodies necessary to administer this Ordinance.
2. Prescribing penalties for violating this Ordinance’s provisions.
Each purpose listed above serves to balance the interests of the general public of Paola with those of individual property owners.
This Ordinance is intended to protect the interests of both present and future neighbors and the general public from adverse impacts of land uses. Each standard is developed as a regulatory response to an identifiable negative impact or potential. At the same time, the Ordinance is intended to respect landowners’ right to a beneficial use of their property. Regulations were designed to use greater flexibility and more development options to protect public rights while minimizing impact on property owners to the greatest extent consistent with good planning principles. A sound interpretation of any standard cannot be ensured without a careful analysis of the end to which the regulation is directed. Administrators and other persons shall interpret this Ordinance based on an understanding of the purposes intended. The intent of the standards and supporting definitions is to protect both individual property owners and the general public from adverse impacts which might otherwise be the result of a proposed land use. To this end, those called upon to interpret this Ordinance shall proceed as follows:
A. Public Purpose. Before any decision is made, the purposes for which the regulation or standard was initially imposed by the legislative body must be explicitly identified. This should include the purposes stated in this Ordinance and its relevant Article, Division, or Section, and an examination of the Comprehensive Plan.
B. Impact. Two questions must be asked to determine the actual impact of various proposed interpretations:
1. Does the interpretation reduce protection to the public or site’s occupants?
2. Does the interpretation provide greater freedom to the landowner to use the property?
C. Decision Criteria. The decision should permit flexibility in design provided it shall not lower the protection afforded to the public. An interpretation which permits increased design freedom is to be encouraged. An interpretation which provides for any of the following is prohibited, to the extent such is permitted under the law:
1. Permits a use prohibited in the district or one similar to a prohibited use.
2. An intensity increase in the use beyond the degree specified in this Ordinance.
3. A decrease in a standard that reduces the protection afforded neighbors, the amount of open space, the environment, or the general public.
4. A decrease in a standard that endangers users of a property or others.
D. Balancing Rights. This Ordinance has been carefully designed to avoid regulations that either sacrifice legitimate public goals, including protecting adjoining property owners, or require undue limitations on property owners ability to use their land in manners consistent with the City of Paola Comprehensive Plan’s goals. Great care has been taken to balance competing groups’ rights and achieve maximum protection with flexibility and a range of use options.
If any Division, Section, paragraph, clause, provision, or portion of this Ordinance is adjudged unconstitutional or invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, the remainder of this Ordinance shall not be affected.
This Ordinance No. 2698 repeals Ordinance No. 2678 and all amendments thereto.