Lowe's one step closer for city of Alachua
By Rachael Anne Ryals
Herald Staff Writer

ALACHUA -- Sometimes a city's rules don't make a lot of sense in practice, such as requiring 171 bicycle spaces for a proposed Lowe's in the city of Alachua, city officials said Monday night.

The City Commission granted Lowe's 11 variances -- deviations -- in the rules pertaining to off-street parking and loading, fencing, signage and large retail design.

One variance requesting to eliminate a sidewalk behind the store was denied by the Commission with the condition that the city manager can study the need for the sidewalk and perhaps not require it at the next stage when the site plans are approved.

The request concerning the number of bicycle parking spaces comes from a city rule that requires one space per every 1,000 square feet of building area.

The proposed home improvement store will be a 139,400-square-foot building sitting on 23 acres of land behind the Food Lion on U.S. 441.

There are still several steps before the Lowe's could begin construction, including obtaining a special exception permit and a site plan from the city.

Additional environmental and traffic permits are also required through various state agencies.

The variances approved by the Commission are:

* To reduce the number of required parking spaces from 561 to 460

* To reduce the number of bicycle parking spaces from 171 to 21 and to locate those spaces more than 50 feet from an entrance to the building

* To reduce the required number of off-street truck unloading spaces from four to three

* To eliminate the requirements for primary drive aisles in its entirety to provide walkways, crosswalks, canopy trees, parking and pavement grading elsewhere through the property

* To eliminate the required landscape island aisles on each of the three pedestrian walkways within the parking lot to provide for 8-foot sidewalks

* To increase the effective height of a fence or wall from six feet to a maximum of 30 feet and to increase the effective height of a fence or wall from 10 feet to 13 feet

* To allow a black-vinyl-coated, chain-link fence, posts and railing to face the public right-of-way for the garden center

* To allow an increase in building signage copy area from 350 square feet to 481 square feet

* To allow an off-site monument sign because the business can not be seen from U.S. 441

* To reduce the 35-percent glazing (windows or glass) requirement to 10 percent for the front facade and to eliminate the 20-percent glazing requirement on the garden center and the rear of the building

* To allow 94 percent of the parking spaces in the front of the store

* The Commission also required two conditions: One, that that canopy trees equivalent to those that would have lined the primary drive aisles be planted elsewhere on the site and, two, that median islands within the parking lot shall be wider than the minimum required in order to off-set the elimination of continuous landscaped parking lots.