The Mount Vernon Council of Citizens' Associations
Comprehensive Plan APR Nominations

LRSP-2009-13:  Urban Design

WHEREAS, THE Long-range and Strategic Planning Committee of the MVCCA has spent the past several months reviewing the current Comprehensive Plan as applicable to the Mount Vernon Magisterial District and adjoining areas and has recommended a change nomination to that Plan for the Area Plan Review 2009-2010, such nomination containing the following features:

Urban Design
Nomination Overview

Nomination: Urban design criteria changes page 79 Comprehensive plan

Location:  Relates to all of Mount Vernon District – Scale and
Sitings of buildings

Vision Overview:  The use of green building designs such as those established by the US Green Building Councils’ LEED certification program provides for enhancements and improved building design, materials and techniques.  It is important that the value of these criteria is not disrupted by county policy requiring buildings to be sited at the street/roads in all cases. There are oversights or land use related inequities in the adopted Comprehensive Plan that affect the area of concern.  The current plan text regarding where buildings are sited and their scale has been an obstacle to implementing the County Policy to encourage the LEED certification of buildings by dictating building orientation.

Development Conditions:  
· The change to current comprehensive plan text to include the following under lined wording:

• Unless required for Green Building Certification, commercial buildings should be orientated toward the road with a parking lot to the side or rear.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Co-Chairs of the MVCCA are hereby directed to prepare and submit a Comprehensive Plan change nomination which incorporates the foregoing features.