Friends of Hyde Park Requests Planning Commission Change Baker Center Rezoning

Planning Commission,

Friends of Hyde Park requests that the rezoning for the property located at 3908 Avenue B as CS-HD-NCCD-NP be denied. Instead, we request the zoning of the property be approved as CS-HD-NP with the same requested entitlements or that this rezoning case be delayed until after the adoption of CodeNEXT. The only difference would be the removal of the NCCD designation.

When CodeNEXT is adopted, in a matter of a few months, no new properties will be allowed to be zoned NCCD and NCCDs will no longer be an available zoning tool. CodeNEXT will also start the process of phasing out all existing properties currently zoned NCCD. CodeNEXT Draft 3 in section “23-4D-8080 Former Title 25 (F25) Zone” states the intent is to “rezone properties” in order to “gradually eliminate” … “Neighborhood Conservation Combining District (NCCDs).”

There are examples of other properties in Hyde Park that do not have NCCD zoning, so that designation is not required. 310 W 43rd St is currently zoned SF-3-HD in the interior of the Hyde Park neighborhood and is proposed to be rezoned to R2C-HD in the latest draft map of CodeNEXT. 408 W 45th St is currently zoned General Office (GO) and is proposed to be rezoned MU2B-A – Mixed-Use 2B under CodeNEXT.

We should not be zoning any more properties into NCCD zoning with the adoption of CodeNEXT coming within a few months, especially a property that’s currently unzoned. If the NCCD designation is left off of the zoning, then this property will be rezoned into a more flexible zoning category automatically upon the adoption of CodeNEXT. However, if this property is zoned into an NCCD now, then it may take years, if not decades, for it to come into compliance with CodeNEXT and be allowed to provide the flexibility of uses and housing that can provide the most benefits to our neighborhood.

Please consider zoning this property without the NCCD designation.

Board of Directors of Friends of Hyde Park

Pete Gilcrease
Teresa Griffin
Thomas Ates
Matt Desloge
Tom Clear
Adam Luikart
Robert Prentiss