(A)

Recreational Area Required for All Residential Development Subject to Subsection (B), fees in lieu of dedication, all residential development shall provide (through dedication or reservation; see Section 17.3, Ownership and Maintenance of Recreational Areas and Required Open Space) recreational areas in the form of mini-parks in an amount equal to three hundred fifty (350) square feet per lot.

(B)

Fees-In-Lieu-of Dedication The City Council recognizes that mini-parks must be of a certain minimum size to be usable and will not serve the intended purposes unless properly maintained. As used herein, the term development refers to the entire project developed on a single tract or contiguous multiple tracts under common ownership, regardless of whether the development is constructed in phases or stages. Residential developments of less than twenty-five (25) dwelling units shall be required to pay a fee in the form of a fee in lieu of dedication of land. The fee amount shall be adequate to acquire an amount of land equivalent to the amount that would have been required to meet the adopted standard. The fee amount shall be reviewed annually and revised as needed to cover the actual cost of land acquisition.

(C)

Purpose The purpose of the mini-park is to provide adequate active recreational facilities to serve the residents of the immediately surrounding neighborhood within the development. The following are illustrative of the types of facilities that shall be deemed to serve active recreational needs, and therefore, to count toward satisfaction of the mini-park requirements of this article: tennis courts, racquetball courts, swimming pools, sauna and exercise rooms, meeting or activity rooms within clubhouses, basketball courts, swings, slides, and play apparatus.

(D)

Facilities to Meet Need of Residents Each development shall satisfy its mini-park requirement by installing the types of recreational facilities that are most likely to be suited to and used by the age bracket of persons likely to reside in that development.

(E)

Minimum Area The total acreage of mini-parks may be divided into mini-parks of not less than two thousand (2,000) square feet.

(F)

Buffering Mini-parks shall be attractively landscaped and shall be provided with sufficient natural or man-made screening or buffer areas to minimize any negative impacts upon adjacent residences.

(G)

Location and Access Each mini-park shall be centrally located and easily accessible so that it can be conveniently and safely reached and used by those persons in the surrounding neighborhood it is designed to serve.

(H)

Land to Serve the Purposes of this Article Each mini-park shall be constructed on land that is relatively flat, dry, and capable of serving the purposes intended by this article. All mini-park development plans shall satisfy the adopted minimum standards established by the City Recreation and Parks Department.

(I)

Minimum Standards for Mini-Park Improvements All improvements proposed for each mini-park shall satisfy the adopted minimum standards established by the City Recreation and Parks Department.

(A)

Open Space Requirement Except as provided in Subsection (D), exemptions, every residential development shall be developed so that at least five (5) percent of the total area of the development remains permanently as usable open space.

(B)

Open Space Requirement All development shall maintain a portion of the development site as open space according to the following minimum percentages:

(1)

Single- and Two-Family Residential. Twenty-five (25) percent.

(2)

Multi-Family Residential. Thirty-five (35) percent.

(3)

Non-Residential. Thirty (30) percent.

(4)

Planned Unit Development. Thirty (30) percent.

(C)

Types of Open Space The following may be included in the retained open space required in Subsection (B):

(1)

Mini-Parks and usable open space required for residential developments;

(2)

Retained native vegetation;

(3)

Fifty (50) percent of areas paved with permeable materials shall be considered open space and may account for up to ten (10) percent of the required open spaces;

(4)

The pervious portion of yards;

(5)

Fifty (50) percent of the area above the control water elevation within stormwater retention ponds when they are unfenced, curvilinear rather than rectangular in shape, accessible to the neighborhood, and landscaped sufficiently to be enjoyable passive open space areas;

(6)

Required buffer yards; and

(7)

Required upland buffers adjacent to wetlands or other environmentally sensitive areas;

(8)

Qualifying water areas may account for up to ten (10) percent of the open space requirements.

(D)

Exemptions Subdivided residential developments of less than twenty-five (25) dwelling units and residential developments within the Downtown Mixed Use District are exempt from the requirement of five (5) percent useable open space unless the City agrees that it will accept an offer of dedication of such open space, and in that case the offer of dedication shall be made.

(E)

Prohibited Open space shall not include areas covered by buildings, sidewalks, pools, decks or patios, parking areas, drives, or other paved areas.

(F)

Lakefront Lakefront developments shall provide common lake access available to at least the residents of the development.

(A)

Ownership of Open Space to Stay with Developer Unless otherwise required by City Council, recreation facilities and usable open space required to be provided by the developer in accordance with this article shall not be dedicated to the public, but shall remain under the ownership and control of the developer (or his successor) or a homeowners' association or similar organization that satisfies the criteria established in Section 18.4, Homeowners' Associations.

(B)

Maintenance of Open Space The person or entity identified as having the right of ownership and control over such recreational facilities and open space shall be responsible for the continuing upkeep and proper maintenance of the same.

Homeowners' associations or similar legal entities that are responsible for the maintenance and control of common areas, including recreational facilities and open space, shall be established in such a manner that:

(1)

Provisions for the establishment of the association or similar entity are made before any lot in the development is sold or any building occupied;

(2)

The association or similar legal entity has clear legal authority to maintain and exercise control over such common areas and facilities; and

(3)

The association or similar legal entity has the power to compel contributions from residents of the development to cover their proportionate shares of the costs associated with the maintenance and upkeep of such common areas and facilities.