City Council Meeting

Thomas PetersonA series, it sounds like. Yes, sir. That would be very helpful. Let me just note, I've gotten contacted by a number of residents the last week or two about safety issues related to electric scooters, both kids and parents, helmet issues, et cetera. And actually, the way these have come into me is people who slam the brakes on to avoid upset by it and it's been a repetitive thing. So I'd love to see us, you know, get that on the radar. And then the discussion and update on potential amendments to the zoning ordinance related to adopted small area plans. When also are we talking about the procedure for reviewing and updating the small area plans?

Brooke HardenstaffI think we've got that on here. Let me see. No, we don't. I think that's been consumed by other things. The intention was, as you recall, there was a work session during the summer to come back to the City Council with a discussion on more detail on scope. We talked about general parameters of things that potentially would be addressed as part of the review of the small area plans. and there were a number of potential studies and other work products associated with proceeding with that review and the way the discussion was left I believe was that that that we would be back for another work session either this fall or this winter and from it not appearing on the future list it It looks like we're moving into the winter time frame.

As council is aware, staff that handles that is working on a number of these text amendments that have been driven by the General Assembly, as well as trying to wrap up the zoning text amendment related to the small area plans that's been underway for a couple of years now. And so that work product has pushed out a little bit. is to come back with a work session before proceeding further with that effort.

Thomas PetersonGood to know. I guess the concept here is a sequential one, which is it might make sense to be talking about review and update before we're talking about amending, so that we are dealing with something that's been updated as we go through that process. I mean we talked earlier about how some of what's involved in the zoning amendments is custodial if you will but some of it is not it would have the effect a material effect of locking in or enabling even accelerating things in the small area plans that are due for review and update I think we've noted that it's been five or six years the cycle for requirements for comprehensive land-use planning are typically five years so we're you know at and beyond

Brooke HardenstaffWe are. So separate issues, zoning text amendments related to either the housekeeping or state mandates are in one bucket, but as Council is aware, there's a text amendment that has been going through the public participation process and staff review for the last couple of years, and that would be to create a new zoning district that would implement the small I think what we've shared as staff, the plans may be amended in the future, the plans may change in the future, and that those zoning regulations can change along with it. But what's being proposed is create a framework by which those plans, however they may be recalibrated in the future, have an appropriate vehicle to be implemented. Because what we've learned since the adoption of the small area plans is that the tools that the city has from a regulatory standpoint don't align well with implementation of those plans and better standards are needed.

And so those, again, those may adjust over time. And in a perfect world, this work on a zoning ordinance update would have been done four years ago when those plans were adopted, when some of those plans were adopted five years ago. But given staff capacity and available funding, the plans were done first and now we're getting to the zoning because there's only so much capacity to take on the work. So I agree with you it would have been useful to have that in place years ago but it is very very much needed and it is consistent with the adopted comprehensive plan and the small area plans

Thomas PetersonOkay, the I think part of the issue here is what it constitutes a plan because we have metrics in our small area plans. And to the extent that the zoning amendments are intended to implement the metrics, that would be the very reason to be doing an update to the small area plans and their metrics so that whatever we do in terms of zoning would be consistent with that kind of update, that kind of analysis that we need. Again, that's the purpose of doing, you know, periodic review and analysis. They ought to be synced, I think, is the notion here. hope that we would have a way to sync them through spending some time talking about what that review and update process is and could be and what impact it would have on the discussions

Brooke HardenstaffThis is probably a whole discussion in and in and of itself, but the update process of the small area plans is is probably 12 to 24 months process and so if the council's desire is to to defer consideration of those zoning text amendments that that that's a significant I think we you know we would certainly staff would recommend having some more discussion on that you know as stated this is the the city is is not at its strongest position in negotiating development applications that are coming in. Those development applications will continue to come in. And so, again, staff's position is to move forward with getting the zoning text amendment completed. Hopefully, council will approve that. And then if that needs to be amended based on the plans, amend it based on the plans,

would put a better tool in the books that will address what is likely going to come before the council. This isn't a proactive rezoning. This isn't anything that changes development rights for an existing property. There's no remapping that is going on. It's putting a new district. It would be putting a new district on the books that the council would have complete control over approving or not approving as applications come in. But again, the framework that it would provide in terms of creating better standards for the types of public improvements, for the types of community benefits that are envisioned in those small area plans, this framework would provide a better tool for that. And if there are factors, height, density, setbacks, something else that is recalibrated based on a future small area plan,

Thomas PetersonOkay. Well, all helpful. I just note that as we've noted, the small area plans and they involve different components are based on analysis that now is five, six years old. And just based on that alone, it's time to have a discussion about the implications of age, if nothing else, on that. And it's a little bit surprising that that is nowhere on this futures list through the end of the year, given the discussions we've had and now given the other things that are on it. So I would advocate, you know, I didn't mean to turn this into a work session this evening. I would advocate that we actually find a way to have that discussion to connect these dots or understand how they're connected a little bit more clearly because these issues seem