BCC restricts narrow lots

Clay County commissioners voted to restrict the number of small lots within future planned urban developments during their Nov. 9 meeting.

The county’s planning commission approved the measure designed to reduce street parking in planned urban developments. The measure amends the county’s land development code to limit 50-foot-wide or less lot sizes to 20% of a planned urban development’s total lots.

Senior Planner Dodie Selig said the proposed change would apply to all PUDs and matches the current narrow lot limitation in the Lake Asbury PUD. The Branan Field PUD now allows up to 75% of lots within any development to be 50 feet wide or less.

She added that narrow lots leave some residents with nowhere to park some of their vehicles within their properties.

“The narrow lots led to parking in streets or parking in the driveway but over the sidewalk,” Selig told planning commission members. “That was causing a lot of difficulties for the residents and for people driving through the neighborhoods.”

Fire Chief Lorin Mock told commissioners that excessive street parking in some Oakleaf Plantation neighborhoods with narrow streets could become a public safety issue, hindering fire trucks from getting through neighborhoods. County Commissioner Wayne Bolla represents Oakleaf.

“Certainly in Mr. Bolla’s district,” Mock told commissioners, “there are some examples of developments where the streets are exceedingly narrow and parking is challenging at best and we can’t get apparatus through.”

Mock added that the county could either limit small lot sizes, require developers to provide supplemental parking or require wider streets to solve the problem.