An Alternative Future for the North East Mission Industrial Zone

An Alternative Future for the NEMIZ
Mission Coalition for Economic Justice & Jobs
C. The Majority of the NEMIZ
Should Have Mixed-Use
Designations
The majority of the none IPZ areas of the NEMIZ
are currently mixed-use in nature and new zoning
should reflect and support these patterns of use
that are valued by the community.
Most of the PDR businesses in the NEMIZ that
the City wishes to encourage and/or protect are
compatible with other uses, including residential
and commercial uses, however, they may not be
able to pay the same rents as many of these other
uses. They can be encouraged by targeting them in
mixed-use buildings where a developer or property
owner can cross subsidize the PDR use with other
higher paying uses on the upper floors. This makes
sense because the most rent sensitive PDR uses
need ground floor space and loading/truck access.
The areas where ground floor PDR is encouraged
should be on streets with adequate truck access
and width to allow for loading and unloading, see
attached Accessibility Map. This would also allow
multi-story buildings in the NEMIZ that need to
be revitalized to be economically viable as PDR
rents will not support remodeling these buildings.
The initial MCEJJ Consensus Zoning District
Map indicates three types of mixed-use zones (see
MCEJJ Consensus Zoning District Map on page
V.10). A matrix on page V.11 fruther explains
restricted and allowable uses in each of the MCEJJ
zoning designations.
PDR/Commercial Zone
There are two of these zones located along the
northern edge of the NEMIZ. They reflect the
general underlying pattern of existing development
which is a combination of larger retail and
office commercial uses and PDR. The zoning
would also allow pre-existing residential uses and
consideration could be given to some additional
residential or live/work use particularly in upper
floors of buildings.
Residential/Mixed-Use Zone
Much of the western edge of the NEMIZ, a small
V.8 Policy & Planning Recommendations
area to the south, and the ‘tail’ of the current
NEMIZ have this zoning designation. Again, it
would reflect the general existing land use patterns
which include a large extent of residential and
live/work uses with a mix of some smaller retail
and office uses. A variety of PDR and commercial
uses would be allowed, but the PDR uses would
need to be within the ‘medium’ and ‘light’ categories
or be able to document that they would not
have negative impacts on surrounding residential
uses.
NEMIZ Mixed-Use Zone
The majority of the NEMIZ to the south of 16th
Street would be in this zoning category. Ground
floor ‘medium’ and ‘light’ PDR uses would be
encouraged with flexibility to recognize the incompatibility
of existing larger floor plate buildings
with the majority of today’s PDR businesses which
require smaller spaces. A variety of ground floor
uses would be allowed with preference given to
commercial or cultural uses in the ‘Commercial
Overlay’ and ‘Cultural/Commercial Overlay’ districts.
Existing ‘Core’ PDR uses would be ‘grandfathered’
into the zone and encouraged to continue
their operations in the NEMIZ while mitigating
potential negative impacts. New ‘Core’ PDR
uses could be allowed if they satisfy environmental
and other performance standards.
Conforming properties in the proposed NEMIZ Mixed-use
Zone