§ 19.120.010 — Purpose

19.120.010 - Purpose.

A. General. The mixed-use zones are established with the following intents and purposes: 1. To encourage a mixture of compatible and synergistic land uses, such as residential with compatible nonresidential uses including office, retail, personal services, public spaces and other community amenities. These uses are allowed as either: a. Singular, stand-alone uses that contribute to a mixture of uses within the zone; or b. Combined uses in one project as a mixed-use development. 2. To strengthen the interaction between residential, commercial and employment uses in order to reduce dependency on automobiles, improve air quality, decrease urban sprawl, facilitate use of transit and encourage conservation of land resources. 3. To provide opportunities for transit-oriented development. 4. To revitalize deteriorating commercial areas by integrating residential uses and public institutions into the commercial fabric to create an active street life and enhance the vitality of businesses. 5. To provide alternatives to new development of small shopping centers. 6. To foster pedestrian-oriented activity nodes by providing a mix of uses in compact, walkable areas. 7. To increase the area available for residential development and provide alternative types of housing. 8. To provide appropriate locations for a broad range of live/work activities to occur. 9. To encourage medium- and high-density residential development to occur in close proximity to employment and services. 10. To allow for a greater variety of land uses and structures, including adaptive reuse of existing structures and flexibility in site planning. B. Zones established. Three mixed-use zones are established to provide development opportunities for integrated, complementary residential and commercial development on the same parcel or a contiguous group of parcels. Singular, stand-alone uses are permitted when they foster an overall mixture of uses in the zone. A wide range of uses is permitted, and it is the intent of these zones to foster a mixture of product types. Development solely as commercial or residential districts is strongly discouraged. Design and development standards for all three zones are directed toward encouraging pedestrian activity and ensuring that mixed commercial and residential uses are designed to be compatible both within the development and with other surrounding areas. 1. Mixed Use—Neighborhood (MU-N). The MU-N Zone provides opportunities for primarily neighborhood-serving commercial uses with limited, low-intensity residential uses in a mixed-use environment. It is intended to preserve the existing housing stock and residential character of neighborhoods, while allowing for development of new housing opportunities and encouraging pedestrian-oriented retail and service uses. The focus of the development and design standards is on ensuring that new and infill development are distributed and designed in a manner sensitive in scale and design to the street environment and adjacent single-family residential areas. 2. Mixed Use—Village (MU-V). The MU-V Zone provides for medium to high-density residential development with retail, office and service uses primarily at the street level to facilitate a pedestrian environment. It is intended to encourage new housing opportunities, such as live/work units and residential over retail, that are nearby to commercial services. Plazas, courtyards, outdoor dining, transit stops and other public gathering spaces and community amenities, such as art in public spaces, are strongly encouraged. The focus of the development and design standards is on landscaping and buffering techniques to provide transitions from developed commercial areas to lower density residential neighborhoods. 3. Mixed Use—Urban (MU-U). The MU-U Zone provides opportunities for primarily high-density residential development with commercial, office, institutional, and business uses emphasizing retail, entertainment and student-oriented activities. Such development is intended to facilitate the grouping of innovative housing options with employment uses, entertainment activities, and public gathering spaces, transit stations and other community amenities, such as art in public spaces. The focus of the development and design standards is on ensuring that large-scale mixed-use projects are functionally integrated through the relationships between location and types of uses and structures, the efficient use of land, optimal site planning and design elements.

(Ord. 7331 §6, 2016; Ord. 6966 §1, 2007)