Planning Report
DCA17-0008 / Medical Uses
Planning & Zoning Commission
August 9, 2017
REQUEST:
Title
Hold a public hearing and consider a proposed revision to the Denton Development Code to amend Subchapters 5 and 23 pertaining to medical land use categories and definitions. (DCA17-0008, Medical Uses, Hayley Zagurski).
Body
BACKGROUND:
Staff is proposing amendments to the Denton Development Code (DDC) Section 35.5 Zoning Districts and Limitations and Section 35.23 Definitions to create new and clarify existing definitions for a variety of medical service uses. These amendments will ensure better compatibility when medical service uses are constructed in commercial and mixed use zoning districts. The proposed amendments define a wider variety of medical services and correlate these definitions to one of three broad land use categories: medical offices, medical clinics, and hospital services. Each of the new definitions included in Section 35.23 would align and defer to an industry standard definition contained in State regulations. The proposed amendments are recommended prior to the overall development code update due to an increased prevalence of free-standing emergency and urgent care facilities that have resulted from the evolving medical care industry. Such uses are currently not clearly defined in the code.
In recent years, development applications for free-standing emergency rooms and urgent care facilities, some of which operate 24-hours a day, have increased. For example, in the past year alone at least four applications related to new urgent care facilities were received. These and other specialized medical facilities are unique in the types of services they offer, and these services do not always fit within the confines of the medical uses currently defined in the DDC.
Currently the DDC defines the following three uses that can be applied to medical services:
* Professional Services and Offices - Offices used for the conduct of business-related a...
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