The regulations set forth in this article or set forth elsewhere in this chapter when referred to in this article are the "MX-U" Mixed Use Planned Community District Regulations.

(Ord. of 2-24-09(5))

This district is intended to provide opportunities for the development of planned mixed use communities offering an integrated and compatible mix of residential, commercial and employment uses and open spaces, together with certain governmental, educational, religious, recreational and support uses. Innovative building types and creative subdivision design solutions are encouraged to promote neighborhood cohesiveness, walkability, connected transportation systems, community green spaces and protection of environmental resources. Communities shall be developed and redeveloped in accordance with a master development plan adopted at the time of rezoning or a subsequent approved amendment thereof. In order to carry out the intent of this article, planned communities developed under these district regulations and the approved master development plan shall achieve the following design objectives:

(1)

A mix of uses is provided so that residents can live, work, shop, and carry out many of life's other activities within the neighborhood.

(2)

Uses are well-integrated rather than widely separated and buffered. Compatibility between different uses is achieved through effective site planning and orientation of site and building access and entry, compatible architectural design, and landscaping and screening of parking lots, utilities, mechanical/electrical/telecommunications equipment and service/refuse functions.

(3)

Development is clustered to preserve valuable environmental resources and provide usable recreational open space.

(4)

The open space system is as carefully designed as the development area so as to offer usable parks, connected green spaces, and village greens and civic spaces visible from roadways and spatially defined by abutting building facades and/or landscape elements.

(5)

Vehicular, pedestrian and bicycle transportation is facilitated through a connected system of roads, sidewalks and/or trails so as to provide many choices with regard to mode and route. The proximity and integration of uses allows residents to walk, ride a bicycle, or take transit for many trips between home, work, shopping, and school.

(6)

The overall intensity of development is designed to be high enough to support transit service.

(7)

Traffic calming techniques may be used to reduce vehicle speed and increase pedestrian and bicycle safety.

(8)

Principal buildings address the street, presenting front facades on the publicly visible side of the building.

(9)

The visual impact of vehicular off-street parking and garages on public streetscape views is minimized through innovative site planning and building design, including parking areas located to the rear of buildings, use of architectural design elements such as massing, form, materials, and fenestration to make garages visually compatible with inhabited buildings, and parking areas screened with landscape elements.

(Ord. of 2-24-09(5); Ord. of 3-13-12(23))

[The following uses are permitted by right:]

(1)

Single-family detached dwellings.

(2)

Duplex dwellings.

(3)

Townhouse dwellings (three (3) to eight (8) dwelling units).

(4)

Multiple-family dwellings.

(5)

Dwelling units may be occupied by a single family or not more than two (2) unrelated individuals.

(6)

Home occupations.

(7)

Retail stores, convenience shops, personal service establishments, restaurants (excluding those with drive-through facilities unless permitted by special use permit), food, and drug stores.

(8)

Governmental, business and professional offices and financial institutions.

(9)

General service or repair shops, providing that all storage and activities are conducted within a building. Examples: cleaning and laundry establishments, tailoring shops, print and copy shops, appliance repairs, upholstery and furniture repairs.

(10)

Theaters, museums and galleries and other places of assembly for the purpose of entertainment or education.

(11)

Religious, educational, charitable and benevolent institutional uses which do not provide housing facilities.

(12)

Community buildings.

(13)

Public and private schools.

(14)

Child day care centers.

(15)

Adult day care centers.

(16)

Parks.

(17)

Common open space.

(18)

Public uses.

(19)

Accessory buildings and uses customarily incidental to any of the above-listed uses.

(20)

Parking lots and parking garages.

(21)

Small cell facilities. Wireless telecommunications facilities are further regulated by Article CC.

(22)

Homestays, as further regulated by Article DD.

(Ord. of 2-24-09(5); Ord. of 3-13-12(24); Ord. of 4-24-12(8); Ord. of 5-22-18(10); Ord. of 9-8-20(2))

[The following uses are permitted by special use permit only:]

(1)

Private clubs and golf courses.

(2)

Home for the aged in which not more than (3) persons not of the immediate family are provided with food, shelter and care for compensation.

(3)

Major family day home.

(4)

Short-term rentals, as further regulated by article DD.

(5)

Drive-through facility.

(6)

Reducing required parking areas to permit fewer than the required number of vehicle parking spaces for any use, provided that an amount of open space equal to the amount of space that would have been used for the required number of vehicle parking spaces is left available for parking in the event that, at the discretion of the city council, it is needed at some time in the future. Open space used for this purpose shall be so noted in the deed and shall not be used to meet any conflicting requirements of the zoning ordinance.

(7)

Public uses which deviate from the requirements of title 10, chapter 3.

(8)

Concealed wireless telecommunications facilities, industrial microcells, distributed antenna systems, and macrocells. Telecommunications towers are not permitted, except towers primarily erected for the use of the Harrisonburg-Rocking-ham Emergency Communications Center up to two hundred (200) feet in height. Wireless telecommunications facilities are further regulated by article CC.

(9)

Recovery residence of more than eight (8) adults and any number of minor dependents of those residents.

(Ord. of 2-24-09(5); Ord. of 3-13-12(25); Ord. of 1-8-13(12); Ord. of 9-23-14(9); Ord. of 7-28-15(19); Ord. of 8-22-17(12); Ord. of 3-26-19(1); Ord. of 2-13-24)

[The following area, density and dimensional regulations apply:]

(1)

Minimum district size: Three (3) contiguous acres, which may include properties located directly across public or private street or alley rights-of-way from one another, unless adjacent to an established MX-U District.

Note: Properties that are not three (3) contiguous acres shall meet all regulations of the MX-U District.

(2)

Maximum density: On average twenty (20) dwelling units per acre.

(3)

Minimum common open space or park: Fifteen (15) percent of the total original tract must be maintained in common open space or parkland. Each individual parcel on the original plan need not meet this requirement. Any tract that may be added to the original tract subsequent to the original zoning approval must have fifteen (15) percent of that particular tract in common open space or park.

(4)

Maximum building height, lot area, lot width, lot depth and yards for all uses: Requirements as set by the approved master development plan.

(5)

Unless otherwise specified within the master development plan, the provisions of Article T, and the regulations in article CC for wireless telecommunications facilities, shall apply to the MX-U zoning district.

(a)

Unless modified or superseded by other ordinances which directly apply to the general health, safety and welfare of the public, all accessory storage of products to be processed or being processed, and supplies and waste materials resulting from such work, shall be completely enclosed within structures of permanent and durable construction.

(b)

Private refuse collection facilities shall be provided at a designated point and shall meet the requirements in section 10-3-110(h).

(6)

Building floorplates: Building floorplates shall not exceed twenty thousand (20,000) square feet, except as approved in the master development plan and subject to the standards in section 10-3-58.6(g).

(Ord. of 2-24-09(5); Ord. of 3-13-12(26); Ord. of 1-8-13(13); Ord. of 1-14-14(10); Ord. of 7-28-15(20); Ord. of 7-23-24)

(a)

Attached or detached private radio and television antennas, including dish antennas, shall not exceed the maximum height otherwise permitted in this district and shall not be permitted in front yards.

Exception: Private amateur radio antennas intended for public service and emergency use may exceed the height otherwise established so long as the height is justified for proper radio communications.

(b)

Off-street parking shall be proposed and shown for all buildings and uses.

(1)

Off-street parking shall not be located between the street and the front building facade, and preferably sited to the rear of buildings. Off-street parking shall be screened to have minimal impact on the streetscape.

(2)

Bicycle racks shall be included at appropriate locations and provided at a minimum of one (1) bicycle rack accommodating a minimum of four bicycles for every one hundred (100) off-street parking spaces.

(3)

Bus shelters shall be provided at designated transit stop locations as specified by the transportation department.

(c)

There shall be adequate area within the site to accommodate buildings, roads and parking areas with minimal impact on steep slopes and floodplains.

(d)

Mix of uses: The MX-U planned community shall provide a mix of uses meeting the following minimums and maximums:

(e)

At least two (2) types of residential housing types (single-family detached of varying lot sizes/configurations, single-family attached, multiple-family) shall be provided and no one (1) housing or lot size/configuration type may exceed a total of seventy (70) percent of all the residential units in the community.

(f)

Mixed use buildings comprised of retail, office and/or multiple-family dwellings are permitted. The land devoted to such mixed use buildings and the streets, parking and landscape areas serving such buildings, shall be counted toward the maximum area permitted for either retail-service and/or employment-office uses. The multiple-family dwelling units within mixed use buildings shall be included in the total number of dwelling units in the development and therefore in the calculation of the density for the development.

(g)

Buildings having a floor plate larger than twenty thousand (20,000) square feet, but no more than sixty thousand (60,000) square feet, may be approved as part of a master development plan for a MX-U planned community if the applicant demonstrates that the proposed building's design is compatible with adjacent development (contiguous or across the street). Compatibility may be achieved through architectural design, site planning, landscaping and/or other measures that ensure that views from adjacent residential development and public streets are not dominated by the building, mechanical/electrical and utility equipment, service/refuse functions or associated parking lots or garages.

(h)

Applicants for the MX-U zoning district shall submit at rezoning a master development plan, showing and describing in map and text form:

(1)

General layout of roads, housing areas, open space, parks, pedestrian and bicycle trails.

(2)

General location and number of community building, school, day care, church and public use sites proposed.

(3)

Description of housing types/lot configurations to be used with lot areas, minimum widths and depths, minimum yards defined.

(4)

Description of all other uses proposed for the MX-U development.

(5)

Indication on the master development plan of the general location of housing types/lot configurations and other uses proposed.

(6)

Environmentally sensitive areas: slopes exceeding fifteen (15) percent, streams and 100-year floodplains.

(7)

Proposed active recreation areas and recreation facilities.

(8)

Proposed general landscape plan (landscape areas, plant materials and general specifications).

(9)

Description of how design principles of the district are to be met and other details, if any, to implement the principles.

(i)

Ownership and maintenance of common open space and other common facilities.

(1)

Unless all real property within the district is owned by a single entity, the following general requirements apply:

a.

Organization: A property owners' association shall be established to provide for the ownership, care and maintenance of all common open space areas and other common facilities and improvements.

b.

Ownership: All common open space, facilities and improvements shall be dedicated to the property owners' association. No land within privately owned lots shall be considered common open space.

c.

Covenants: All property owners' associations shall be created by covenants and restrictions recorded among the land records of the City of Harrisonburg. All such covenants shall include provisions for the maintenance of common open space, facilities and improvements.

(2)

Maintenance requirements:

a.

Responsibility: The property owners' association shall be responsible for the maintenance of all common open space, facilities and improvements in a reasonable condition.

b.

Condition: All open space areas shall be landscaped as shown on the adopted master development plan and shall be kept in a clean, attractive and safe condition. All open space areas shall be kept open to and available for use by the residents of the planned community.

(j)

The approved master development plan shall govern development on the site and shall be used as a basis for subdivision and site plan approval and zoning code enforcement.

(k)

The master development plan may be amended after the initial rezoning to MX-U. Such amendment is considered an amendment to this ordinance and shall be processed according the regulations under Article U.

(l)

The master development plan may be amended solely for a parcel(s) upon application by that parcel's owner, through a zoning map amendment process, subject to determination by the city council that the proposed use and development plan meets all of the requirements of the original master development plan to an equivalent degree in terms of meeting the purposes of the district and protecting the public health, safety, and welfare.

(m)

For the purposes of provisions subsections 10-3-58.6(h) and (i) the ground dimension of any feature (length, width or area) shown on the master development plan, may vary up to five (5) percent of the scaled dimension provided that a written explanation of the variation, as well as a revised drawing of the master development plan reflecting and designating the refinement is submitted to the zoning administrator by the owner or applicant. Once the zoning administrator determines in writing that the variation conforms to this requirement, the variation becomes part of the approved master development plan. The zoning administrator must make a determination within twenty-one (21) calendar days of receiving the explanation from the applicant or owner.

(Ord. of 2-24-09(5); Ord. of 3-13-12(27); Ord. of 5-8-12(2))