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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTransitional Housing Memo City of Columbia Heights Memo To: Mayor Peterson, City Council Members From: Jeff Sargent, City Planner Date: Re: Transitional Housing, Correctional Residential Care Facilities On March 8, 2006, the City was approached by a group called ATTIC. ATTIC specializes in placing ex-convicts into halfway homes in residential areas, as part of the transition for these individuals into society. ATTIC worked in conjunction with the Minnesota Department of Corrections to locate a transitional housing unit at 1008 Gould Avenue. It was discovered that the proposed housing unit would be located adjacent to an existing residential facility used to house people with drug and alcohol dependencies. The Council felt that locating these types of uses next to each other would not be appropriate in a predominately single-family neighborhood, and imposed a moratorium regarding transitional housing on March 13, 2006 for a one-year period. At this time, Staff has had ample time to study the existing Zoning Code and proposes an amendment to the Zoning Code relating to this issue. The current zoning code directly addresses the halfway home type of housing, referring to this type of housing as a “Correctional Residential Care Facility”. The Code, however, only addresses this type of housing in Section 9.107, which is the Specific Development Standards section of the Code. There is no other reference of this type of housing anywhere else throughout the code and it is also not defined in the definitions section. Staff proposes some slight modifications to the Correctional Residential Care Facility Section, by defining the term and permitting this type of use in the R-3 and R-4 Residential Districts through the Conditional Use Permit process. Essentially, these types of facilities shall only be located in the R-3 and R-4 Districts and cannot be located within ¼ mile, or 1,320 feet from another similar facility. There are other stipulations regarding this type of housing unit that are outlined in the attached draft ordinance. 1