Title
Requesting that the Planning Commission conduct a zoning study on student housing in the area surrounding the University of St. Thomas, and put into effect a moratorium on new student housing in the described area.
Body
WHEREAS, as provided under Minn. Stat. ยง 462.357, Subd. 1, the City's residential-use zoning classifications are established upon legislative determinations that zoning use classifications promote "public health, welfare, safety, morals and general welfare," are well planned, are expected to be somewhat permanent, and are in conformance with the City's Comprehensive Plan; and
WHEREAS, the Council of the City of Saint Paul notes that the Land Use Chapter of the City's Comprehensive Plan calls for maintaining the stability of the City's established residential neighborhoods by encouraging new, higher density, residential development along the City's transit and commercial corridors; and
WHEREAS, the Council further notes that the Land Use Chapter states that stabilizing the City's established neighborhoods is achieved through the use of existing as well as new zoning standards which are intended to maintain the prevailing character of these neighborhoods variously described in the Comprehensive Plan as "residential areas of predominately single-family housing" or as being "characterized almost entirely by single-family homes and duplexes" (Land Use Strategy 1: Target Growth in Unique Neighborhoods) and;
WHEREAS, the City's zoning ordinance, duly adopted pursuant to the City's delegated police powers, contains various land-use district classifications including several classifications for residential-use districts; and
WHEREAS, within the zoning ordinance's various residential use classifications, it states that the intent of one-family residential zoning districts is "to provide for an environment of predominantly low-density, one family dwellings" while the intent of the two-family district is "to provide for an environment of pred...
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